The Market Bar Restaurant — Restaurant in Dublin

Unfortunately, was made to feel I could not trust the kitchen when it came to my dietary restrictions - gluten free.

We had a booking for a big group and enquired upon booking whether GF options were available for the group menu and was assured there were. When ordering, I said that I was the GF diner and the waitress said all of the options on the group menu were gluten free….. anyone who understands this dietary restriction knows straight away this wasn’t true from looking at the menu so I said I’m sorry but I’m not sure that’s true for example I know that I cannot eat meatballs. The waitress replied no they are GF but I will let the kitchen know your needs and then let you know what you can eat as part of the group menu, so our party agreed to proceed with this option for the table. The waitress did not return to tell me what the GF foods were that I could safely eat and majority of the food had been served to the rest of the group while I sat. I had to ask a further 3 times for definite confirmations from the kitchen - the waitress herself said 3 times no the meatballs are GF but I will confirm with the kitchen. On the fourth time having this conversation she said oh actually the kitchen said the meatballs are not GF… Side note: the allergens listed on the menu clearly state that the meatballs contain gluten. The peri peri chicken salad which I also had strong suspicions wouldn’t be GF was put in front of me by a different waiter with the assurance it was GF. I didn’t trust it so didn’t start to eat and within 2 minutes the waiter came back saying no no no it’s not GF. At this point, even if the kitchen itself was completely celiac safe, I had lost all trust due to the conflicting information from servers that I would not be ill from eating there so said I’d prefer not to eat and just remain with the other 9 in my group while they finished their meal. The waitress who I had been dealing with from the start insisted on saying multiple times “so you’re just not going to eat”. I explained I could not risk becoming seriously ill from eating food I couldn’t trust and had to say multiple times “I have a medical condition” but was still made feel uncomfortable by her persistence. She was considerate to say I could order outside of the group menu but at that point I did not want to risk anything. If it wasn’t for the lovely company I was in within my group I would have left straight away but stayed having a couple of drinks while the others in the group finished their food. Very disappointing experience.

For people who do suffer with food allergies/intolerances/conditions having trust in the servers & kitchen is paramount. I would have much rathered the waitress upon being first asked about the GF options said you know what I’m not actually sure let me check for you instead of guaranteeing GF food (multiple times) then having to take this back. Not everyone needs to be knowledgeable in every dietary requirement but if you are not then you should not be giving assurances to...

Me and my girlfriend had lunch at Market Bar and our experience was not great. First off, we were asked to sit on a table of 6 with 4 other random strangers, when the whole venue - which for anyone unfamiliar is fairly large and certainly capable of more than 70 other seats - and was mostly empty at the time we visited (around 3pm) which makes very little sense since in that this is happening short of a pandemic. Nowhere on the menu does the "lunch portion" say the portions are smaller than the regular "hot plates" portion, so we assumed the lunch menu would be enough and much to our disappointment, our dishes were all so small we both came away hungry from the restaurant. The meatballs that once used to be a sizeable portion were now only 4 meatballs, the calamari had bits that were just the batter without the actual fish but otherwise were remarkable. The potatoes were oily and had certainly been cooked hours before as they tasted redone -- we left them entirely, and the chicken wings were just an underwhelming portion but decent otherwise. Each lunch menu had also a starter of bread with two dips, but only one serving of bread was given and we had to request the second serving. So overall, from the main menu, 2/4 dishes were decent. When the bill comes (see attached picture) it states the bill including a gratuity comes to 38.25, but if you don't wish to pay gratuity they would need to call manager. So, considering the experience and the food was pretty not recommendable, I didn't feel a tip was in order and asked to pay without leaving a gratuity, though I did not feel like reprimanding the service because apart from being the usual slow and trying to pack us with a group of 4, they didn't do anything note-worthy causing me to bother with a review such as this or not returning to this restaurant. The staff called the manager who promptly came by with the card machine. He unblocked the contention around the tip straight away, by proceeding to take the payment, which was superb, but the awkwardness ensued when, despite the "cumbersomeness" of having a manager mediate a tip-less payment, he showed zero interest in why we did not wish to leave the tip already included on the bill - not even in whether we enjoyed the food or the service, absolutely nothing. This clearly shows their interest does not lie in improving their service, it's only to create a subterfuge to dissuade customers from refraining to pay less than the included gratuity. We were both customers since 2008. This is no longer a restaurant we will be using or recommending...

Beautiful building, good vibes however food and service were only ok. Our server was very lovely and friendly however we waited quite a while before we were able to get her attention to order drinks. During dinner, quite a few empty dishes were stacked on our table, not cleared when they brought more food. As the tables are quite small it made things difficult and we had to strategically stack the empty plates under the new dishes. They cleared my side plate after our first round of food and didn’t bring another side plate for round two. With an automatic 12.5% gratuity I do feel like the service should have been a lot stronger/more organized. Yes, there is a note on the bill that it can be removed but it can be incredibly uncomfortable to have to speak to a duty manager about removing or lowering a tip, especially with other tables right there overhearing the conversation.

Drinks were very good we had a P*rnstar Martini and an Aperol Spritz. The patatas bravas were absolutely delicious definitely go for those, the croquettes had great unique flavour but were essentially liquid inside, the caprese was good, the tuna tartar was delicious and nicely seasoned (though we felt it needed some sort of vessel on the side like a wonton or rice chip), the chorizo al vino and goat cheese dip were also delicious but the bread served with it was surprisingly awful. It was simply pre-frozen (I assume) untoasted sliced sourdough baguette and added nothing to the dishes it was served with. I was expecting, especially for the price of the dishes, either grilled sourdough or higher quality sliced sourdough from one of the many amazing bakeries the city...