Sparks Bistro — Restaurant in Dublin

Sparks is certainly a great place to eat in Smithfield.

We were waiting at least 10 minutes to take our order, which wasn't the best first impression. The environment itself is pleasant and the staff throughout were sufficiently attentive.

The scallops and mussels were very tasty, and portions were just right. There was a nice caramelisation on the scallops and they were sufficiently cooked so as not to be rubbery. The salmon dish, too, is very well presented and really hits the mark. On the surf and turf dish, I'd recommend that the chef reconfigures how the plate of food is presented. At present, it presents as a disconnected plate as if the ingredients were placed there randomly from a buffet. Also, better to have the asparagus not as baby asparagus, but as the thicker asparagus - and definitely seasoned (and preferably roasted). The fillet mignon was asked to be medium, but came medium-rare to (in parts) rare. It also wasn't as tender as a fillet mignon is supposed to be. Currently, the baby asparagus is soggy, bland, unseasoned, and there without purpose - almost as if there simply to complete the look for presentation alone.

When we asked for the bill, we were given the wrong bill. Again, attention-to-detail matters! That's a small thing, but when you factor that in with how long it took our orders to be taken, you begin to see a theme develop.

That said, I'd certainly recommend Sparks Bistro as a great place in Smithfield for tasty food at very reasonable prices. I hope to visit...

The reason i am giving 1 star because of the bad experience of customer service we received from the server. No doubt food was good but when service and the tone of the server was very very rude.

So me my mrs and my son (age -3) went for our evening meal. we were greeted well by lady (owner/Manager). after we sit down other server came to us because my son was little upset and was crying. because we didn’t let him on the floor to play woth his car toys, Server said it to me that keep it quite as they dont like the noise. which i was shocked to hear. me and my partner said sorry and we tried to play with our son but cors he wanted to play with his toys on the floor. So server came back again and asked me sit at the back and asked if i want to see the sitting area. i agreed to see before saying yes. Then server took me to the back which was very dirty area and tables. i refused to sit there coz it wasn’t up to the standard to eat food or even for us to sit there. i was very upset as we didn’t know that the place isnt child friendly!! we couldn’t enjoy our meal after that. so we just finished our food and left. it was very very bad experience for a family! NEVER...

I am saddened to have to write this review. I took my friends to this venue for lunch on their last day in Dublin. One of these friends has an intellectual disability and was made fun of by one of the service staff. This staff member refused to take this friends order until he could properly pronounce the dishes name. We tried to assist this friend but were told not to interfere as "the menu is not in Chinese". This resulted in this friend becoming visibly upset and withdrawn following the interaction. The rest of us were simply shocked. At first we put this behaviour down to a bad joke made in bad taste. However, in trying to keep the mood light we toasted to our last day in Dublin together and I understand this was mimicked by the same staff member. The rudeness and arrogance shown really put a dampener on my friends stay and quite frankly I am now embarrassed to have recommended this venue. I work and live in the local area and I will not be coming back, nor will my colleagues. I hope that this review will resonate with the responsible staff member and it encourages self reflection /...