Etto

Ask a bunch of food writers which Dublin restaurant they would choose as their first choice for dinner, and it’s odds-on most of them will say: Etto. Simon and Liz get the critic’s vote – and the critic’s money – like nowhere else in the capital. When you consider that Etto isn’t particularly comfortable, is usually crowded, and is very noisy, that is some testament to the standard of cooking the kitchen fires out over the last four years and, in particular, to the brilliance of their signature dishes, such as mussels with n’duja, hashed potatoes with Lyonnaise onions, and the red wine prunes with vanilla mascarpone. The wine selection is exemplary, and Etto is a model of astute professionalism: everything they do, they do right. That’s how you win over the critics.