Elephant & Castle Temple Bar — Restaurant in Dublin

CAREFUL OF THE CHICKEN WINGS. Today was a very sad day for this once amazing establishment. My partner and I had been looking forward to the chicken wings as most people do. Once we ordered them they came pretty quickly and we started to get tucked in, my partner took his first bite and swallowed it, it wasn’t until the second bite that he noticed blood in the meat. At this point we informed the waiter and he took them away and offered to replace them. I asked if mine had been cooked in the same batch and he asked if I had eaten any, to which I replied that I didn’t want to take the chance which is understandable being undercooked chicken. Reluctantly I did take a bite and my wings were exactly the same, bloody inside and undercooked. The waiter apologised and admitted that they had been undercooked so we choose an alternative dish because at this point the thought of undercooked bloody chicken wings wasn’t very appealing. Once we had eaten we asked for the bill and in an effort to rectify the situation they gave us two complimentary glasses of wine which was deducted from the bill, this fell short of my expectation but we reluctantly paid and left. I would have appreciated an apology from the management but they were nowhere to be seen when we were leaving, I do believe they could have done a little better than two measly glasses of wine. Our food bill wasn’t expensive, €30 to be precise and they didn’t offer to wave the food for such a horrendous experience. I’m not the type of person to complain, but when food safety is compromised then that’s a step too far which I’m not prepared to tolerate, hence my reason for writing this review. I have eaten here many times over the last twenty years, I have even eaten in their sister restaurant in New York and I’ve never encountered anything as disappointing and dangerous from Elephant & Castle before, I sincerely hope this is just a one off and that they’re not merely resting on their laurels because the place is packed...

This is a truly great restaurant located right in the centre of Temple Bar, slightly to the right of the main square area. They are open early morning till about 11.30pm and have a ‘something for everyone menu’. Although it may seem like a Diner from looking at the menu, its really not and the overall quality is very high, although the prices are also on the high end - to be expected given the location though.

The immediate drawback with this place is the potential wait time to get a table, it seems to be permanently packed all day long, even outside the regular tourist season, and when we visited it was not at peak dinner time either. Its also quite small, so when a queue does build up inside, there is nowhere to stand and everyone is bumping into each other.

The food was very good. I had the soup of the day and pan roasted chicken from the lunch/dinner menu. The soup was served with a slice of toasted bread, one suggestion here could be to serve this with the traditional Irish soda bread, which most of the competitors in temple bar seem to be doing, including the place next door. 😉

The chicken is served on a bed of mashed potato, and drizzled in an olive and rosemary herb sauce. The only downside here was the lack of vegetables, some greens would have been nice to fill out the plate and give it some colour. The chicken was flavoursome and was a generous portion.

Overall, the experience was very good. The toilets do need to be upgraded however and in general the place is a bit tight for space.

Service was prompt and friendly and everything seemed to be well managed and ordered. Would recommend for a tourist visiting the area for a ‘relatively’ traditional Irish experience after trekking around the nearby Trinity College,...

Stumbled on by accident and can safely say we do lot regret it at all. When my boyfriend and I came in it was super busy (Sunday around 13 o’clock) but we were lucky enough to get a table. Actually when we came in they sat us at the back near the loo’s and we asked to be moved to the booths near the windows (a spot happened to open up when we were seated) and the waiter was very kind to go and check to see if they had any reservations for there (thank god they didn’t) and actually got us moved from the back to the booths which definitely made the experience 10x as enjoyable. They had a brunch menu on offer which we ordered from (apparently their chicken wings are super popular but unfortunately my boyfriend doesn’t like wings but be sure to check out yourself what the hype is about). Boyfriend ordered the full Irish breakfast and I ordered the steak and eggs. Don’t mean to exaggerate but the food was gorgeous. The steak was made perfectly medium rare, the ripe vine roasted tomatoes were juicy and gorgeous and the eggs (you can choose how you want the egg - I got it fried/sunny side up) and the yolk was very runny and the potatoes were diced and toasted perfectly on the outside and soft on the inside. Boyfriends plate was also delicious - sausage was very good, bacon crispy, potatoes crunchy and soft, the puddings actually very nice as well and eggs were runny as well. We also ordered two cocktails and an orange juice that came with the breakfast. Delicious food and friendly staff - if it’s a slow grey kind of weekend come here and order yourself something off the brunch menu and I promise the day will be a little...