“Hakkahan has been a firm favourite since arriving on Stoneybatter’s main drag almost a year ago… I’ve moved Lee’s Charming Noodles into the emotional berth that used to be occupied by This Charming Man.” – Conor Stevens

“The general vibe is one of fair fucks, Dublin ya ride, spicebag memefied basicness… The price point is achievable for most and the welcome is warm – only right and proper on this most democratic of dining streets.” – Conor Stevens

“Right now this is Luna in name only, a cover version that only serves to remind you of how great the original was.” – Conor Stevens

“There’s no alchemy at work here, just top-drawer ingredients treated with the respect that allows them to shine. The only magic trick is the way that each course disappears.” – Conor Stevens

“I think that Orwell Road has the potential to be the Bereens’ best yet. The name might say neighbourhood, but down the road this one is bound to be a destination.” – Conor Stevens

“Bring a group and shout words across the table, pound a few cocktails and enjoy yourself. You’ll be a long time dead.” – Conor Stevens

“This place right now feels like an investment opportunity with food upstairs, rather than a restaurant that takes pleasure in feeding people well. Dawson Street is the perfect place for it.” – Conor Stevens 

“There has always been more bread to be made selling feeds of pints in this city than plates of food. I’m just glad that the place continues to soldier on and that it has survived this long Covid war of attrition.” – Conor Stevens

“Kudos to chef Killian Walsh and his crew. Hen’s Teeth really is that rarest of things, an interesting, ambitious and affordable restaurant in the world’s seventh best city’s fifteenth coolest neighbourhood. What an age we live in.” – Conor Stevens 

“The food makes few concessions to infantilsed western palates and that’s a good thing.” – Conor Stevens checks out Full Moon, in the space occupied for many years by The Larder on a stretch of what is known mid-week as Parliament Street.

“I’ll forego the foreplay and just get stuck in. We are here to talk about food trucks.” Conor Stevens with some takes about three (relative) newcomers on the outdoor scene that are referred to as ‘food trucks’, although one is a trailer and another a shipping container…

“This is a serious restaurant with a talented brigade, it deserves to develop its own clientele and not merely cater to the dirty weekenders and mini-breakers. Canteen is very much a destination in its own right.” – Conor Stevens

“This quite simply is why we go to restaurants, to have the front and back of house delight us with what they can do, whether we sit inside or out.” – Conor Stevens

“I got to thinking about Baste and how far the venture has come over the course of the plague…” – Conor Stevens

“Although I must admit to a little meal-kit fatigue (not quite Strumpet City hardship), I very much hope that this one carries on and finds a place of its own, it’s a neat concept.” – Conor Stevens

“As I prepare to file this copy there are grim mutterings of a level five lockdown, so takeout and delivery might be the only lifelines for food businesses to cling to.” – Conor Stevens

Supporting the restaurant industry while avoiding dining rooms like the plague: Conor Stevens considers the nature and value of the picnic.

“This is hospitality in real time… Kudos to the first-year hospitality students of TU Dublin Cathal Brugha St.” – Conor Stevens