Doheny & Nesbitt — Restaurant in Dublin

No question: five stars.

I asked the hotel concierge if he had any local recommendations. He asked, “What kind of food?” I said, “Irish,” and he could barely get Doheny & Nesbit out fast enough. We walked through St. Stephen’s Green, peeked at a few spots on Dawson Street (even thought about grabbing burritos), but we decided to keep heading toward Doheny & Nesbit. That was definitely the right move.

First off, fun fact: this isn’t just one pub, or two, or three. It’s six bars all stitched together like some kind of glorious Victorian maze. Seriously, I half expected to turn a corner and find they’d secretly added a seventh while we were eating. The walls are lined with history, old photos, and plenty of charm, if you’re into that kind of thing, it’s worth wandering around.

We had a great server team: Sean and Brenda. Solid, friendly, kept the pace rolling. As for the food? Total win. The cottage pie was packed with flavor, and the gravy had just the right touch of sweetness to balance the savory. I ordered the chicken burger (basically a fried chicken sandwich), and adding both the jalapeño salsa and red pepper mayo made it seriously good. The onion rings were crisp, the goujons (yep, chicken fingers) were spot on, and everyone in our family of six agreed we’d happily come back.

Funniest moment of the night? I asked Sean if they had ranch, and he laughed, saying you’d have to find a pub that does American fare for that. I asked what they usually put on salads, and he just smiled and said, “Salad dressing.” Cracked all of us up.

They may not specialize in American salad dressings, but when it comes to the music they were playing? Oh yeah, they definitely nailed the...

Both Excellent Food & Service We visited Doheny & Nesbitt on 26 May. It was one of several recommendations from the staff at Buswells Hotel. We had, hands-down, the best shepherds pie and bangers & mash we've ever tasted. The sauce that accompanied the sides and the sides themselves were similarly fantastic. The quality of the ingredients and the expertise with which they were prepared really showed. That, plus our drinks, including the mandatory Guinness pints, as well as servings of Jameson, Redbreast, and Bushmills, were served by the very kind, helpful, and efficient Debbie V. Her sparking personality enhanced our meal. What a wonderful evening in a great Irish pub & restaurant. Fast-forward 2 weeks and we were back in Dublin for a couple of nights. This time we decided to give another nearby recommended establishment a try. After finding that not all recommendations lead to the best places, we decided to head back to D & N. Wow. Really, wow. This time we decided to try another Irish staple, FNC, and also ordered the Cajun Chicken Burger, recommended by yet another star of the show, Eve. Whoever does the hiring at D & N deserves a raise. Once again, both the food and the service were stellar. We even got to see Debbie again. Eve was very helpful with suggesting her own favorites off the menu, as well as being incredibly attentive and just a real pleasure as a server. Doheny & Nesbitt: you've got it down perfectly! As the Irish say,...

Brilliant. Go go go We were travelling with two people in their 80’s and an adult with Downs and it was perfect. Arrived late on a Friday, walk-ins only so we were not confident of getting in. We were jaded after a day travelling and sight seeing and were looking for warm Irish hospitality and sustenance: boy did we find it! We luckily arrived as a v small table was available so we took it. We would have struggled but the couple next to us left and we grabbed theirs too which was perfect. The Guinness was flowing, there was an excellent choice of good white wine and more whiskey than you could dream of. The food arrived in a timely way and was surprisingly good considering the volume of people in the building. We had the chowder, cheese board, Caesar salad and steak sandwich. They were all enjoyable. Chowder and cheese board were good value and really good. Salad and steak sandwich were fine but perfectly good for the money. No complaints here. The vibe was fabulous. Young, local people rubbing shoulders with tourists. Plenty of Americans (young and old) and our odd bunch. We had a wonderful...