These are the Absolute Best Italian Restaurants in Dublin in 2024

Author: Veruska Anconitano, Award-Winning Food Travel Journalist, Sommelier & Outdoor LoverAuthor information
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About the author
Veruska Anconitano
Veruska is a a food travel journalist with awards to her credit, such as World Best Food Travel Journalist. She holds a certification as a sommelier and she is also an ardent lover of the outdoors. Aside from this, Veruska is a Multilingual SEO and Localization Consultant and co-owns multiple websites that cater to a global audience.
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If you’re looking for the Best Italian Restaurants in Dublin, Ireland, keep reading, because this is a very sentimental article on where to eat the best Italian food in Dublin according to two Italians from the South living in the city for more than a decade. We know that if you search on Google you can find quite a lot of articles about Italian restaurants in Dublin, but how many are written by Italians? Hence, if you don’t trust us, who else can you trust?

Irish people have a long love affair with Italian food, and it’s not surprising that in Dublin, you can find a pretty decent amount of Italian places serving Italian food… well, pretending to serve Italian food.

We all know that Italian food is very well known everywhere. However, we all also know that, unfortunately, even if it has infiltrated a lot of countries, it remains among the most misleading kitchens in the World. The same happens to pizza and that’s why if you’re looking for the best Italian pizza in Dublin you should read our article!

Before moving to the list of the Best Italian Restaurants in Dublin, we have the most incredible advice for you.

How can you decide if a restaurant is truly Italian?

Easy peasy: you can always judge an Italian restaurant by the number of Italians who eat there. If they’re not ordering lasagne and chips, you can almost be sure the place is Italian. This advice may sound simple but it always works, and it works pretty much for every type of food Worldwide.

To be even surer, check the menu: if it does include pasta carbonara with mushrooms or other weird ingredients, garlic bread, and pasta with chicken… run away! Seriously, run as fast as you can!

Trust us; these are two of the leading indicators when it comes to judging an Italian restaurant: we Italians love to eat in an Italian restaurant only if the expectations are kept and even exceeded.

What are the best Italian Restaurants in Dublin at the moment?

Being Dublin quite a big city, or at least an international town, the number of so-called Italian places has quadrupled during the past few years. 

Despite this, choosing the best ones from an Italian perspective, it’s not difficult at all: very few deliver to Italian standards, very few are genuinely Italians, and very few give you a desire to travel to Italy right now!

The restaurants we recommend are the ones where we eat, the ones where we go when we feel nostalgic, the ones that make us smile: you’ll notice that the list is everything but long… for obvious reasons! We know that there are way more Italian restaurants in Dublin but we will never recommend something we don’t believe can deliver a satisfactory experience, the one we Italian have when we are at home in Italy.

We will never recommend places where you don’t get traditional Italian food or Italian food.

Some of the following places also serve pizza but this article is not about pizza (it deserves a different list you can find here!) but about proper food. Don’t get disappointed if you don’t see your favourite pizza place on this list!

We haven’t considered prices in the making of this list: when you eat well, the ingredients are prime, and the service is spot on, prices don’t matter (at least for us).

So, relax and enjoy our list of the best places where to eat Italian in Dublin.

Grano

Grano opened at the end of 2018, and it’s now one of Dublin’s most loved Italian restaurants. It’s authentic, genuine. For us, Italians, it has the same feeling as any traditional restaurant in Italy: the food is 100% Italian, with the majority of the ingredients and the recipes coming from the Calabria region, and so is the wine.

For us, Grano is THE best Italian place in Dublin, the one we recommend with our eyes closed. If you want to taste what Italian food and hospitality are, Roberto and his team will provide you with the best experience ever. Every time we go, we keep smiling and smiling for hours!

Grano restaurant – Unit 5, Norseman Court, Manor St, Stoneybatter. Booking is necessary.

Grano Dublin Arancini
Grano Dublin Ravioli
Grano Dublin Amatriciana
Grano Dublin Cannoli

Amuri

Amuri is the newest opening in Dublin city centre and it’s all focused on Sicilian food. Amuri is the Sicilian word for “love” and what you can eat in this cosy and spot-on Italian restaurant in Dublin is Sicilian food at its best. Pasta alla norma, caponata, trofie with pistachio, octopus salad and the unmissable “cannolo siciliano” are just some of the dishes you can order. The wine list is incredible and includes wines from Sicily and from every possible location in Italy and beyond.

The atmosphere will transport you to Sicily almost immediately and even if you don’t speak Italian, you won’t be disappointed by the welcoming smiles and suggestions.

Amuri restaurant – 4 Chatham St, Dublin Southside, Dublin 2, D02 R223. Booking is necessary.

Trofie pistacchio Italian Restaurants Dublin
Octopus Amuri
Tagliatelle Amuri Dublin
 Italian Restaurants Dublin Caponata
 Italian Restaurants Dublin Cannolo Siciliano
 Italian Restaurants Dublin Limoncello

Amuri restaurant – 4 Chatham St, Dublin Southside, Dublin 2, D02 R223

Dunne & Crescenzi

If you’re looking for good Italian food mostly from Tuscany, a wine selection to die for, and a great location, Dunne, and Crescenzi has everything. Despite not being properly Italian-owned, Dunne & Crescenzi provides you with what you want from Italian food: comfort, savour and happiness. Prices are a bit high, but the quality is always guaranteed, and there are lots of options for people on a gluten-free or low carb diet.

Dunne & Crescenzi – 16 Frederick St S. Booking recommended.

dunne

Can you recommend to us more Italian places in Dublin?

Sorry, we can’t! We can recommend only three places in Dublin if you’re looking for authentic Italian food.

Wait, we have a bonus for you… keep reading!

Bonus – Dolce Sicily

Dolce Sicily started its adventure in Dublin a few years ago as a “pasticceria”, a place where to have just cakes and traditional Italian desserts, with Italian espresso.

Today, it has expanded, and it also includes a restaurant right in the city centre. Here you have the chance to eat something for lunch, dinner, or even have a proper aperitivo.

Their melanzane alla parmigiana are divine. For us, the piece of resistance is the traditional cannolo siciliano.

Dolce Sicily – 20 Anne St S

Dolce Sicily dublin cannoli
This post is the result of personal experience and none of the places mentioned above has paid to appear on this list
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