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12th August 2025
11:54am BST
If you’re the kind of person that loves saying ‘feels like Spain’ then do I have the list for you.
Not everyone gets to bugger off to Barcelona on a Wednesday. Sometimes, your boss says no to the annual leave request or your bank balance says absolutely not to the Ryanair fare, and your soul says if I don’t experience another culture immediately, I might scream. Luckily enough Dublin is full of places to eat your way through the devastation.
Here’s a line-up of Dublin spots that offer just enough escapism to trick your brain into believing you’re abroad, if only for the duration of a dish or a drink.
All tiled intimacy and anchovy glory, Bar Pez does that perfect thing of feeling like a discovery even though everyone knows about it. Pop in for gildas and a glass of Getariako Txakolina that will momentarily erase the 25-minute walk from the office. For a brief, blessed window of time, it’s just you and the Basque coast.
This place is like stepping into your Italian friend’s mam’s local if she was impossibly chic and everything she cooked was somehow blessed by the Pope. Handmade pasta, Calabrian olive oil, and wines that make you believe in the ancient divinity of Bacchus and Dionysus. The ravioli is a requirement for any Dublin Holiday.
Classic in a way that makes you want to iron your napkin. There’s something Parisian about the way La Maison handles steak frites, duck confit, and tart tatin. Sit outside, wear sunglasses, and pretend you’re Anthony Bourdain in that picture. Or go for a charcuterie board and two bottles of wine.
You’re on holidays after all.
A proper institution with a low-key cult following, Monty’s is one of the few places in the city where you can taste Nepal’s nuance without leaving the city. Momo dumplings and spiced lentils give you the illusion of altitude, the wine list would make you feel like an oligarch. Its a heaven just off the cobbles that keep tripping the stag parties.
Rei Momo feels like summer. It’s all colour, samba warmth, and plates that brim with meat, and heart. Go on a sunny day, nab a terrace table, catch the diminishing sun till it sets, order caipirinhas for the table, and let the music and grilled meats do the heavy lifting. Then maybe rally for a boogie.
Does anything make you feel more like you’re on holidays than truly excellent tapas? I doubt it. Salty, sweet, hot, cold, crunchy, lush, this is the Tapas of your dreams. There’s a grown-up sultriness to La Gordita. It lures and beckons the way the sirens in the Odyssey are depicted. The room is captivating and genuinely feels like leaving the city. The sherry list makes you literally feel like you’re in Andalusia, go for a Fino, it will change your life.
All casual glam and exclusive local Italian low-intervention wines Sfuso nails the Milanese aperitivo energy. An after work drink here with an anti pasti board featuring no less than three mini lasagne's is so much fun that’ll have you flirting with the idea of moving to Italy on a whim. Plus the Campari Spritz is next level and only €7.50.
