Volpe Nera — Restaurant in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown

We had several great dining experiences on our trip to Ireland, but Volpe Nera was my favorite; if you're staying in Dublin, it's slightly out of the way, about a 20-25 minute drive, but so worth it. Note on dress: I'd noticed that at other nice restaurants in the area, people didn't go all-out with their outfits, so I toned it down a little on this night. Mistake! At least when we went on the 17th of August, people were dressed really nice, and I felt a bit embarrassed in pants and a cute sweater. Definitely pull a pretty dress out of your closet for this one.

We absolutely got the best service here of our whole trip, which is saying something, because we had lovely service everywhere. In brief, I was delighted with all the food and drink, so if you get a chance to dine here, don't miss out.

More details on the food: I had trouble deciding what to eat, because everything sounded so good, but I ended up having the oysters and mushroom dumplings for starters, then the duck, then the chocolate opera cake. Oysters had great toppings. The mushroom dumplings were a standout: you get the texture you'd want out of a classic steamed jiaozi or gyoza, but the taste is super unique, and the sauce the dumplings come in is so richly-flavored I ended up drinking it like soup. The duck was also a slam dunk. Spoiler alert, since this wasn't mentioned on the menu I had, but it comes with a little extra duck/foie gras thing on the side. I don't care for foie gras, and I still liked this bit, but if that's something you avoid for ethical or other reasons, you might want to just ask them not to bring that part (it comes on a little separate plate). I had the recommended wine pairing with the duck (might have been a Côtes du Rhone, but my memory is not to be trusted), which I thought was beautifully selected and went along perfectly. The recommended wine pairing with the opera cake, which my father ordered, was also a great match; I opted for the tawny port as a dessert drink, and it was a bit too sweet to go with the cake, but hey, that's on me, and it was...

Simply stunning. Fabulous food, service and lovely small dining room. An open kitchen ads a pint of interest. We were lucky enough to meet Barry Sun as we arrived for our much anticipated meal for 6 of us.

The menu is quite small which I love. Every dish was beautifully presented and cooked to perfection.

Starting with sourdough and brown bread accompanied by the orange and hazelnut butter. Needing a top up on butter wasn't a problem.

We ordered the mushroom dumplings with aged soya, fennel and herb oil. The dumplings looked amazing. We loved this fish. The broth was perfect.

We then shared the aged beef for two. Stunning and quite a size which would be plenty for three people. The beef was accompanied by a large halved shallot and a beautiful beef rib for each person sharing along with crispy potatoes. We ordered sides of salad and the char grilled cabbage.

Desserts were special. We shared the Sorento lemon cream and one of our friends ordered the warm chocolate mousse.

A couple of bottles of delish La Braccesca Montepuciano did the trick.

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the evening and agreed this was something extra special.

Thank you Barry. You and your team made our family catch up...

Update - tried neighbourhood menu and was super impressed. Spectacular lunch today. We have been visiting VN since it opened on our doorstep and have enjoyed good, great and average meals over the years. However today we fell in love again with an arguably Michelin star quality meal. Perfectly balanced tuna starter with a peppery citrus Ponzu dressing and micro herbs was historic. Followed by venison and Halibut - perfect again, with layered and nuanced, curry-flavoured saucing with the fish and punchy dark sauce wit the Sika deer. A masterful lemon cream blackberry and ginger biscuit was superb and zingy. A cheese plate was completed with nutty, crispy wafer thin crackers and quince jelly. The only problem I had with the starter and and desert was that they were over. An Austrian wine pairing for the fish and deep Italian red with the cheese completed the event. 1 Michelin star must...