The Vintage Kitchen — Restaurant in Dublin

What do you get when you cross a small town diner with a michelin star restaurant? The Vintage Kitchen!

That may sound like a bit of hyperbole but I assure you it is well warranted. The restaurant is cozy and intimate with eclectic pieces of art representing music artists from the 60s-80s all around the walls. Half of the restaurant is the kitchen itself with just a small amount of tables (maybe enough to seat 20-30 people at once). If you are lucky to count yourself among those 20-30 then you are in for a treat! Why? Because the chef is in full control of this menu and will bring you foods that are not only in season but are quite unique. In fact, this menu is so seasonal and unique that it changes weekly! This is the first restaurant I've been to that changes their menu that often. How can they do it? Because the chef owns the restaurant itself. No management that doesn't understand food. The food that comes out of this kitchen is a labor of love and harmony. The menu is designed with the season and ingredients in mind and it really shows.

Do note this is a tasting menu, if you are not comfortable with those, I definitely recommend you still give the vintage kitchen a try. Maybe you have heard that tasting menus give you small portions? Not so here! Each dish was quite substantial and we were stuffed even before desert!

I'll tell you some of the things my partner and I ordered. However, don't fall in love with these dishes because they might not be around when you go! My partner and I tried out different items as we often do. For our starters we got scallops served with a butternut squash sauce and caviar and a goat cheese with vegetables and fruit. Both dishes were so delicious with the scallops being perfectly cooked and balanced with the sauce and the goat cheese pairing well with the citrusy tones of the fruits and vegetables. For our mains we got irish mussels with a filet of sole and a duck breast dish. The sole was cooked perfectly, moist and flaky with a crispy skin and the mussels tasted deliciously of the sea with a beautiful sauce to go with it. The duck was cooked the way I like, mid rare in the center with crispy skin.

Would we go back? Certainly! If you do happen to go and don't have a reservation (like we did), I recommend trying to go at around 5-5:30 pm on a weekday to squeeze a table in before their 7pm seating as they can fill up with...

This was our first day in Dublin. After reading such good reviews on Google, i booked for a dinner starting at 5:30pm 😊 it was already intriguing for us to eat so early but we thought it would be worth it. So first impression: very small restaurant, packed tables with barely no space even to navigate to the toilets (I’m skinny and did not much like to almost ask all the guests to push themselves against their tables) Toilets aren’t very clean. Extremely noisy space, the overall ambiance looks more like a bar. We felt pretty rushed, I believe because such a small restaurant has to organise several rounds. We could not decide from the beginning which dessert to chose, but really got instruction to say it from the beginning « for the kitchen to organize ». Right, but no, sorry this can’t be asked at 5:30pm before you even start the dinner. The menu price is fair, 65€/p. for a 3-course dinner. We also ordered olives/chips to start as an apéro, but got them in the middle of the starter. So no apéro time allowed. No time to chill in between the courses. The starter was good, a nice tomato sauce based-Cajun kick to the traditional seafood chowder - but, garlic herb butter to go with it? Does not fit together at all. Main course : steak on its green veggies and lentils bed - I haven’t been asked how done should the steak be so it was a bit too cooked for me - the creative association steak/lentils/veggies is promising - to then discover 3 sauces in the same plate. A brown sauce, a creamy foam, and a prominent drizzle of truffle oil. 😢 Sorry for not enjoying the meal, but this was too much of different swimming sauces that should not belong together… in the end the poor steak did not taste like a steak, I would largely prefer to play the purist to give honor to the Irish beef… For the dessert, I opted for the citrus-mango sorbet, my partner for chocolate. Visually all ok, but in terms of taste… crazy sour for me, overloaded heavy chocolate for him… Overall the kitchen offer is lacking of harmony. The wine card could be further developed and /or wine pairing options could be presented. Because we got rushed, we barely finished a bottle of white wine which did not fit with the main course and dessert. Other than that, the staff was very friendly and thank...

I randomly found this location when searching for somewhere sit-down to eat a nicer meal, and walked right in on a Sat afternoon. Given the VERY tight space for tables, I would go with other reviewers suggestion to make a reservation. Realize you will nearly be sitting on top of your fellow diners, and given the way some of them were behaving when I was there? They might have liked that.

A lot of the menu is very..."fancy" for what I could consider my preferences...doesn't mean it's "bad", however check out the menu in advance to make sure it's something you'll enjoy. It's not a place I'd take kids to unless that child lives on bread, butter and air. Since this is more upscale food, you're paying for the quality, presentation, and skill of the staff preparing and serving it - don't whinge about the cost if you eat here.

Navettes were great, as was the 4 minute chocolate and the beef and some of the veg. I realized that dining in Dublin IRL has potatoes presented to you 1 of 2 ways: blander than bland, or seasoned with something that make them inedible. Cajun spices on potatoes = hard nope from me.

Staff was very nice and attentive, and given the small size of the location you're going to watch the kitchen staff hard at work as well. Location very much felt like it was a place for locals and I'd sorta just crashed in, which didn't matter because I was well taken care of for a...