Ultimate Food Guide to: Dublin’s Best Breakfast

Words: Emily Mullen

After much racking of brains, trawling of the internet and broken down email threads we are proud to present The Ultimate Dublin Food Guide, Breakfast edition! A guide that cuts through the mire of food and drink reviews made by every Tom, Dick and Harry, with opposable thumbs and access to 3G.

As many people (including those behind the multi-million Euro ad campaigns about cereals) will tell you, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. But breakfast’s standing is no doubt being challenged at the moment, it’s fighting for its position in the fickle world of the food hierarchy. A world of intermittent fasting and TikTok videos telling users that a matcha oat milk latte paired with lemon water constitutes a breakfast, is muscling in on the once-beloved meal.

But there will always be people who have breakfast, and many who maintain that there’s no better joy than enjoying a nice breakfast out and setting yourself up for the day properly. Grabbing the time to have a proper breakfast out, is extremely rare and for many of us only happens during unavoidable daytime appointments or during holidays. Long leisurely breakfasts, with rounds of tea or coffee, sat in front of the papers sticks out in many of our minds as one of the best ways to start a day off. This experience is truly one of life’s luxuries, having the time and the means to have a nice breakfast are pretty rare in this busy city.

In the interests of full disclosure, this category is a bit of a Frankenstein. It began life as two separate categories, breakfast and full Irish and then was squashed together. It happened after some careful consideration about what the term “breakfast” really holds, and we concluded that the full Irish is basically a breakfast and should be treated as such because you eat it at the same time.

Another reason why we had to mash two categories together was that there weren’t as many answers for these categories as there were for others. This is potentially down to the fact that we spoke to a lot of chefs and chefs by their nature are nocturnal. Waking up late after going to bed at god knows what time, and thus potentially missing breakfast (and by extension daylight) altogether.

The answers have been poured into a bowl, buttered up and sliced into nice little squares. Open wide for morning time because here comes The Ultimate Food Guide to Dublin’s best breakfast:

10. Strand Fare

The One-Stop Breakfast Shop

There’s a lot of flexibility with breakfast, the meal can range from the simplistic buttered toast to shakshuka, which amounts to a three-course meal. It’s no surprise then that a spot out in Sandymount that runs as a grocery shop, butchers and fishmongers, is included in this list. Stand Fare have collected some of the best products Dublin has to offer and put them on sale in one spot, from Bread 41 pastries, Batch Cookies, Greenville Deli’s granola pots, accompanied by their pretty well-known toasties and sandwiches, all washed down with their coffees via Roasted Brown, there’s a lot on offer. The presenter and owner of Lil Portie was a fan of the spot, telling us “with breakfast you are pretty limited to your own geography because you don’t want to travel too far. I go down to the village in Sandymount and I get the same thing usually, a croissant, a sandwich and a coffee and I have that in the park.”

Location:

Sandymount’s 4 Seafort Avenue

Opening times:

Monday-Friday 7.00-19.00

Saturday 8.00-18.00

Sunday 8.00-17.00

For more information visit the Instagram.

9. Fallon & Byrne

Bougie Breakie

Strong is the individual that can walk into a Fallon & Byrne shop and leave empty-handed. The food hall is unlike anywhere else in the city, the nicher and more elaborate the products the better. The team at F&B also do breakfasts, drawing on the quality products that they stock on the shelves. Andy Noonan is a big fan of the spot, he told us “I would often go to Fallon & Byrne if I had an early start for coffee and a bowl of granola.”

Locations;

Dublin 2’s Exchequer Street

Dún Laoghaire’s People’s Park

Opening times:

For more information on opening times visit the website.

8. Roots

The Healthy Breakfast

Most days start out with the best of intentions, so it’s understandable that healthy foods dominate the breakfast scene. Conveniently located by the Salthill/Monkstown Dart Station, the “health food truck” is a great spot for busy commuters alongside swimmers at nearby Seapoint. Food fan and presenter at FM104 Crossy likes what comes out of the truck at Roots, he told us “at the weekend I try to work around a swim early in the morning to kickstart the weekend. There’s a new place opened down by the Monkstown Dart station called ‘ROOTS’ – it’s a van that sells Acai bowls… After a dip in the sea, it’s just what the doctor ordered!”

Location:

Salthill/Monkstown Dart Station

Opening times:

Thursday – Friday 7.00 – 16.00

Saturday – Sunday 9.00 – 16.00

For more information visit the Instagram page.

7. Tiller + Grain

Breakfast With a Side of Cake

Known for their colourful seasonal salads, elaborate cakes and decorative doughnuts, Tiller + Grain also do a mean breakfast. The team make all their make all of bread, cakes and pastries in house by using the best of creamy Irish butter, Irish seasonal fruits and high-quality chocolate. Mister S co-owner Paul McVeigh was a fan of “the bircher” adding that their special sandwiches are always “a knockout”.

Location:

Dublin 2’s 23 Frederick Street

Opening times:

Tuesday-Saturday: 8.00 – 16.00

For more information visit the website.

6. The Fumbally

The Breakfast Haven

The Fumbally is a pretty perfect place to have breakfast, the setting is a nice bright space with mismatched chairs. This paired with their leisurely opening time of 10AM, makes the Dublin 8 spot a nice place to ease into the day… slowly. Since 2020, it’s also been a place where you can get your messages done since the cafe also has a little shop aspect to it. The food is honest, no-frills with a nicely sized breakfast menu with everything from scrambled eggs, overnight oats to beans on toast. The Fumbally was on chef and Director of Conbini Condiments Holly Dalton’s list, and it also holds a special place in Caitriona Devery’s heart, “I once had breakfast at the Fumbally after being up all night after a Roisin Murphy gig. By breakfast, I mean kombucha, which exploded all over me. The staff were very non-judgemental, which I have always remembered. The beans are the best.”

Location:

The Liberties’ Fumbally Lane

Opening times:

Wednesday-Friday: 10.00-18.00

Saturday: 10.00-15.00

For more information visit the website.

Image courtesy of @brunchbrief

5. The Goat Bar

The Full Irish

Breakfast comes in many forms, few are as sacrosanct as the Full Irish. It’s one of the few exports that Irish people actually enjoy (we are looking at you Irish coffees). That’s why it was extremely important to include them in the breakfast section, to create a harmonious view of the scene in the city. To Crossy, The Goat Bar fills the bill, he told us “It’s a proper fry up with all the trimmings… If I’m ordering a big fry I like 2 of everything. Basically, the plate overflowing with goodness! To me, that’s The Goat!”

Location:

Dublin 14’s 14 Lower Kilmacud Road

Opening times:

Open from 9.00 visit the website for more information.

4. Brother Hubbard

The Wholesome Breakfast

One of the city’s omnipresent places, Brother Hubbard can be found in the North and South of the city (and are even in Arnotts). The team serve up wholesome breakfasts, brunches and lunches that have to be washed down with great big buckets of milky Farmhand Coffee. There’s a good selection of vegan and veggie options available too. A trip to Brother Hubbard is always a relaxing one, the staff, atmosphere, interiors all create a soothing place in which to slowly rouse yourself for the day ahead. Chef Eric Matthews was a fan, as was District Director Craig Connolly who recommends the bacon sandwich for brekkie.

Locations;

Dublin 1’s 153 Capel Street

Dublin 8’s 46 Harrington Street

Arnotts’s Liffey Street Entrance

Opening times:

For a full list of the opening times and more information visit the website.

3. Metro Cafe

The Continental Breakfast

Opened in 1996, the Metro Cafe have been serving coffees and breakfast to the hungry and bedraggled of South William Street since. Basing itself on a French cafe, complete with the red and white striped awnings, the Metro Cafe is a stunning old-style establishment. The team have a big breakfast menu, from pastries, pancakes to veggie options. The Metro Cafe is conveniently located for an early feed up before a big day out in town. The Metro Cafe aren’t just restricted to continental, they do a mean full Irish as attested by Craig Connolly. Andy Noonan told us that despite the fact that he doesn’t eat breakfast anymore, Metro Cafe was his number one option “it has always been a great option. I bring Nick Solares [British food writer] there for breakfast every time he’s over for the Big Grill Festival. He’s mad for a fry and he approves too.”

Location:

Dublin 2’s 43 South William Street

Opening times:

Monday-Friday: 9.00- 20.00

Saturday: 9.00- 21.00

Sunday: 9.00- 20.00

For more information visit the website.

2. Tang

District’s Choice

Tang has a couple of admirers, this is the second Ultimate Dublin Food Guide list that they have featured in. Using seasonal roasted and stewed ingredients to layer on top of their granola and porridge bowls, Tang makes for a good healthy alternative to some of the greasers that have been featured in this list. Paul McVeigh goes for the granola while Craig Connolly opts for the fan favourite of “eggs, chorizo and toast with dukkah and chilli oil” whenever he visits.

Locations;

Dublin 2’s 23C Dawson Street

Dublin 1’s 9a Abbey Street Lower

Opening times;

Breakfast served until 11.15 in Abbey and Dawson

For more information on the opening times visit the website.

1. Two Pups

The Contributors’ Favourite

Anyone who’s visited Two Pups, knows that it has all the key ingredients for a good breakfast, relaxed atmosphere, good food and good coffee. This neighbourhood cafe has them in spades, conveniently located at the bottom of Dublin’s unofficial antique district so you can have a mooch around for some gems after you have your breakfast. The team at Two Pups are constantly working and reworking their menu, adding seasonal specials and revamping the fan favourites. The coffee isn’t half bad either, taking the number 10 spot in our Ultimate Dublin Food Guide to Coffee. Two Pups topped hit the high notes for the likes of Riggz Castillo, Holly Dalton and Craig Connolly.

Location:

The Liberties’s 74 Francis Street

Opening times:

Wednesday- Friday 8.30 – 15.30

Saturday – Sunday 9.30 – 16.00

For more information visit the website.

Honourable mentions: Herb Street, The Commons at MoLI, Mad Yokes, Reference Coffee, Hatch, Meet Me in the Morning, 147 Deli, Declan’s Deli, The Lovin Spoon, Balfe’s, Roberta’s, Boca, The Pepper Pot.

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