The Pig’s Ear Dublin — Restaurant in Dublin

My daughter and I came here for dinner last night and the experience was underwhelming. First off, water at the table came in two choices — still and sparkling, no offer of tap. They charged more than expected for the 0.5L bottles (5.95€). For the first course I ordered the “famine” soup which was a big mistake which I should have caught. Famine meant slim pickings of potatoes and barley in an overly salty beef consommé. Yuck. Then the tiny bit of marrow on a large toast buttered on both sides. I really felt like I was living during the Potato Famine. My daughter ordered an oyster and beef tartar which was just an oyster on top of a small spoonful of raw beef. Not amazing. For my main, I had the lobster omelet which was a starter in their menu and without it this review would have been a 1 star instead of a 2. It was great! Lots of lobster and the omelet was flavourful. Wonderful dish that was filling enough for a main. My daughter had the white pork cutlet which was very soft but not flavourful until you put the mustard on it. The potatoes on the side were literally on another plate. Very buttered. Quite nice. But then the meal went downhill. We ordered the cheesecake to share and it came in a jar and paper bag. The thing was upside down and you couldn’t get any raspberry topping with you first few bites and too much with your last few bites. The first few bites had too much crust and the last few not enough. I’m not sure why they would serve it like this but it could be because it was an unbaked cheesecake. Anyways, the bill came and a surprise 12.5% service fee was already tacked on. As I did not read the other reviews on this forum before, I was unpleasantly taken off guard. Our bill was more expensive than any other meal we had in Dublin. Other places we have dined are Featherblade (steak) and Matt the Thresher (seafood) which are hands down a way better bang for your buck than this place. It certainly did not meet the standards of a Michelin recommended restaurant...

I went to Pig’s Ear with my sister with high expectations since it claims to have a Michelin reputation. Unfortunately my sister and I were severely disappointed.

First and foremost, the portions were extremely small. As a chef it is important to plan and understand portion sizes for different courses. The starter was more of a snack and the main course was entree size. We were definitely not full.

Flavour of the dishes Execution of the individual elements were fine, but the dishes overall were unbalanced and the flavours were not cohesive.

We ordered the scallops side dish which was cooked perfectly, and the accompanying broth was nice. A little more seasoning would have made the dish better. The beef cheeks main dish was tender but the flavour overpowered all the remaining elements (most likely because of the portion of the other elements). The venison was okay. The sauce had a rich Umami flavour but there was not enough of it on the plate, meaning the dish overall was a little bland. The honey roasted carrots were the biggest disappointment; it was undercooked, had a weird sour note, and lacked roasted/charry flavour.

Service When the food was served to us, the waiter just abruptly placed random plates of food in front of us without saying a word or explaining the dishes. We were confused of which dishes we ordered since they looked similar. This could have been dangerous if a customer had a specific dietary requirements and was not informed of which dish he/she ordered.

Overall, we felt that quality of the food and the quality of service did not justify the price of the meal. Pig’s ear need to better understand balancing flavours and food portion management in order to improve...

The place has a nice decor and location. I went there with 5 friends for a celebration and I can honestly say to give this place a miss. We had a blond waitress who looked tired, stressed and like she hated her job. I do not know whether it was just not her night but she was extremely short and rude with us.

The pigs ear has a 2 starters or main course at minimum policy which in itself is fine (it hasn't been mentioned before) and when I asked could I have a starter and a dessert along with a wine, the waitress was snappy with me telling me I had to go with two starters and basically suggested if I did not like it I shouldn't have booked. Now bear in mind that I had already bought a glass of wine, so it wasn't like I could up and leave.

She was also extremely annoyed that my friend asked if it would be possible to bring out her main while we were given our starters. My friend was extremely polite and the waitress acted as if she had asked her to chop off her fingers. I really felt like walking out, as the whole atmosphere was really uncomfortable but at this stage I did not want to inconvenience the kitchen staff who had done nothing wrong.

We all ate our food as fast as we could, as it was a really uncomfortable experience, it really felt like the staff did not want to be serving anyone. The one thing I can say is the cheesecake is lovely and the second waiter (that took over from the blond waitress while she was talking to the bar staff) a young lad was lovely.

The food itself was average, its really here nor there to be honest, if your looking for somewhere with similar food, I would instead try the blind pig or Salamanca up the road for stellar food and service for about...