Best Brunch In Dublin: The Definitive Guide

If you've staggered out of your Dublin accommodation to be greeted with a cheery 'top of the morning to you' from a passerby, then it's more likely to be closer to midday than it is breakfast time. You won't have any problem finding some good food to eat for brunch, though, as anyone in the Irish hospitality trade is well aware of just how debilitating to the senses of the uninitiated Dublin nightlife can be and cater for just that.

Brunch is, and needs to be, a permanent feature on the menus of many restaurants and pubs in Dublin. The one thing you won't find on most brunch menus in the capital city of Ireland is traditional Irish food apart from maybe sausage gravy, but then again not many people can handle a plate of Irish stew for breakfast so maybe that's a good thing. What you will get is lots of restaurants competing for a Michelin star for their brunches and dishes that are more Instagram-worthy than tasty or are an effective hangover cure.  

Don't follow the social media trends and pay through the nose for half a slice of avocado toast, but get some real experience instead about what a proper brunch in this cosmopolitan city is all about. Don't forget to pick up your umbrella before you leave your hotel as it will probably be raining as it invariably is and good food doesn't taste the same when you're dripping wet. If it's not raining, make the most of it and dance an Irish jig down Temple Bar.

If you're considering going for brunch because you're traveling later in the day, having a late breakfast to sustain your energy levels is a good idea. What's not a good idea is dragging your bags into your chosen restaurant or pub with you. 

You can solve that problem easily enough by dropping your stuff at a Bounce luggage storage facility in Dublin. You'll find Bounce luggage lockers in Dublin are economical, conveniently located, and secure,so you won't have to worry about your belongings one iota while tucking into a plate of boxty, those substantial, but totally delicious Irish potato pancakes.  

Where To Get The Best Brunch In Dublin

Urbanity

Urbanity is the restaurant in Dublin you should head for if you feel the need to treat your body a little bit better than you have been doing. Located on Coke Lane in the city's Smithfield district, which is where some of the best museums in Dublin are, in a glass-fronted premises with a contemporary rustic interior, Urbanity is bright enough inside to make you drag your shades out of your pocket before you pick up the menu.

Urbanity specializes in roasting and brewing the best coffee they can, so that's a great way to start your brunch while trying to decide on your food intake. Regular breakfasts at Urbanity, if you can call them that, are served until midday, but they also offer an all-day breakfast which is as varied as a mango, banana and coconut smoothie bowl is to Korean-style short rib croquettes with pak choy, poached eggs and wasabi hollandaise. Menus change on a monthly basis at Urbanity so dish availability varies.

Wuff

Wuff is another popular brunch spot in the Smithfield district of Dublin and the restaurant to go to if you're craving a plate of well-made eggs benedict or french toast with your coffee. Wuff is not a big restaurant by any means, but they prepare great food. It has a cosy atmosphere on a cold day and is intimate enough that you can check out the neighboring table’s food without being obvious about it.

Wuff opens from Wednesday through to Sunday from early morning until four in the afternoon and brunch is served from noon until they close. Sunday brunch is one of their busiest times, but table reservations are not permitted during weekend services so it's a case of chancing your luck or shivering outside until someone else's one-and-a-half-hour table time limit is up.

The specialties at Wuff are eggs Florentine, eggs Benedict in several styles, eggs Royale, and those mightily substantial full Irish breakfasts with toast, sausage, bacon, potato cake, and black pudding. If you manage to get through an entire one of those, your hangover will become a distant memory and you'll probably have a full stomach for a week.

Beanhive

The name Beanhive might mislead you into thinking this is one of Dublin's vegetarian brunch restaurants, but it's not, or at least not entirely, as they do have vegan food on the menu. Beanhive is on the city's Dawson Street and a five-minute walk from Grafton Street which is one of the best places in Dublin to go shopping.

Beanhive is more of a cafeteria than it is a restaurant and one that closely adheres to the rule that all menus should be written on chalkboards behind the counter, which is fine so long as there's not a queue waiting to order and you can see that far.

At Beanhive, they believe in serving big and hearty breakfast plates. The fantastic vegan version comes stacked with roasted veg, mixed nuts, and baby leaves. If rocket doesn't rock your late breakfast boat then the scrambled eggs with broccoli and bacon or the Super Irish may do as they're great food too. Beanhive also offers a large selection of sandwiches as well as some tasty cakes and pastries. You

Two Boys Brew

If you weren't sure where to stay in Dublin and ended up in the Phibsborough district because you found a cheap hotel there, as far as getting the best brunch in Dublin goes, you did yourself a favor. Two Boys Brew is an all-day breakfast and brunch cafe on the North Circular Road in Phibsborough.

Two Boys Brew is one of the more modern brunch spots with a minimalist interior décor consisting of bare and polished wood. They open their doors at seven in the morning and serve their brunch menu from eleven until three in the afternoon. Their week-day menu differs slightly from the one they have for Saturday and Sunday brunch, so what you get one day might not be what you get the next.

It's a very varied brunch menu at Two Boys Brew and they have both vegan and non-vegetarian versions of most of their plates which are all clearly marked on the menu. Great dishes here are the tomato and butternut squash baked beans, the chili eggs, or the Benny, which is a potato cake with braised beef cheek and poached egg.

Farmer Browns Rathmines

Farmer Browns Rathmines is a traditional Irish pub and a superb brunch and lunch spot on Lower Rathmines Road in the Rathmines district of Dublin. It's the sort of brunch place that gives you a warm hug on a wintery day when you walk through the door as one of its main dining area features is a large open fireplace.

At Farmer Browns, they have two brunch menus. One for weekdays and the other for weekends. The dishes they serve are an Irish-American fusion with added twists. Here you can get your avocado on toast with a poached egg, but it's done the healthy way on wholemeal bread, any one of half a dozen interestingly put-together burgers, and the proverbial all-day Irish breakfast. 

Farmer Brown's also has vegetarian options on their brunch menu as well as something for those with a sweet tooth who can handle Belgian waffles with maple syrup and bacon or waffles with anything for their late breakfast. 

Thundercut Alley

If you like dining out and eating your brunch in a retro-style atmosphere then Thundercut Alley on Smithfield Square is the place in Dublin to head for. Expect quirky in both the premises, the windows have cartoon murals plastered all over them and the inside is insanely colorful. The unusual atmosphere will make you feel as though you haven't just walked in, but have been there since the night before. If you want a boozy brunch try some of the cocktails here, they're amazing.

What's on the brunch menu at Thundercut Alley are dishes like eggs benedict el gringo with chorizo, huevos rancheros, nachos, and a spicy jerk chicken sandwich topped with grilled pineapple. They also serve special brunch tacos including a chickpea stuffed vegetarian one. Every Saturday and Sunday there's a bottomless brunch so you can eat as much as you want. If that bottomless brunch sounds like your idea of a weekend treat then book your table in advance as it's always busy.

Grove Road Cafe

If you can't think about delicious food before you've had a decent cup of coffee then one of the best brunch spots in Dublin for you is the Grove Road Cafe. This ultra-modern cafeteria on Lower Rathmines Road brews state-of-the-art coffee that you can sip while staring out of the window at the canal.

The Grove Road Cafe opens at the crack of dawn and has a brunch menu they serve from around ten until they close in the late afternoon. The mainstay of their menu is breakfast sandwiches made with sourdough bread, dishes like avocado smash, poached eggs, and piri-piri chicken on ciabatta.

Balfes

If you like to have your brunch in more sophisticated surroundings than those previously mentioned then you need to go to Balfes Bar and Brasserie on Dublin's Balfe Street. The interior décor of Balfes is classy Victorian-style with studded leather sofas and marble-topped tables. It's the sort of place that if you talk too loudly or don't mind your p's and q's, the maitre will saunter over and ask you politely to leave.

At Balfes they make a big thing of their weekend brunch menu which they begin serving at twelve noon on the dot and not a minute before. Balfes is definitely a posh nosh brunch and they have a lengthy menu too with plates including Irish smoked salmon as well as American-style buttermilk pancakes. Lunch blends into the brunch service so if nothing tempts you can always pick a lunch dish like the super healthy BodyByrne breakfast or get stuck into a big bowl of sticky toffee pudding with roasted banana ice cream.

Now you know exactly where to get the best brunch in Dublin and what those places will be offering on their menus. Chances are that if you eat brunch in Dublin every day while you're there, unless you stick to the healthier, less calorific options, you're likely to go home carrying a few extra pounds and those extra pounds won't be in your suitcase, but on your hips.