The Best Restaurants Near Courthouse, by the Record
-
Exposed brick walls and a vaulted ceiling do a lot of the decorating at this relaxed restaurant in Carrickmacross, where the room fills quickly and stays loud in the best way. The kitchen leans into unglamorous cuts, slow-cooked until they earn their place, with accompaniments that feel thought through rather than tacked on. The Michelin Guide awarded it a Bib Gourmand, and the service is the kind that makes you forget you had somewhere else to be.
-
Rank 2. Square
Modern New American
Marble-topped tables and a convivial room set the tone at this modern bistro in Dundalk, the sibling of The Courthouse in Carrickmacross. The menu name-checks Irish producers, then quietly pivots to Korean fried chicken, which tells you most of what you need to know. The format rewards sharing: a few snacks, a few larger plates, good company. It's the kind of place where no one is trying too hard, and the food is better for it.
-
Rank 3. The Olde Post Inn
Traditional Cuisine
-
Greek Corinthian columns and a curved plaster ceiling that belongs in a Georgian country house, because that is exactly where it is. This fine dining room inside Carton House carries a Michelin star, and the kitchen earns it through strong classical technique with the occasional unexpected flavour pairing that somehow lands. The crowd dresses for the occasion, and the occasion is the kind that calls for it.
-
Behind a Georgian façade on a quiet main street, this neighbourhood restaurant runs warmer than its exterior suggests, with an open kitchen giving the room its pulse. The cooking leans into Northern Irish produce, and game season draws particular attention. The menu is long enough to become a genuine problem for the indecisive. The Michelin Guide awarded it a Bib Gourmand.
-
-
Rank 7. Borgo
Italian
A former bank in Phibsborough that now moves money in pasta and wood-fired fish instead, Borgo is a lively Italian osteria with a Michelin Bib Gourmand and a room that earns its noise. The menu runs from sourdough pizzette through homemade pastas to a wood-fired section for meat and fish, all of it straightforward and carefully cooked. Portions are generous, prices are honest, and the polenta cake with seasonal fruit is worth leaving room for.
-
Rank 8. Osteria Lucio
Italian