Assassination Custard
Wood Quay A, Dublin
Restaurant in Dublin, Ireland
The Read
Punk Fine Dining
Dress
Casual
Why go
Assassination Custard is a three-table avant-garde room on Kevin Street Lower in Portobello, where Ken Doherty and Gwen McGrath serve technically serious, deliberately unconventional cooking. AC2025 arrives with the same punky energy as before: paper-bag menus, a cubicle of a room, food that justifies the trip. Book as soon as your Dublin dates are set.
About Assassination Custard
Still Worth the Hunt: Assassination Custard Returns to Portobello
If you went before, go again. Ken Doherty and Gwen McGrath's return to Kevin Street Lower — now running as AC2025 — answers the question most returning diners carry through the door: has anything changed? The short answer is almost nothing, that is precisely the point. The cooking that drew attention the first time is still there, still pulling in the same direction, still punching well above what a three-table room on the south side of Dublin has any right to produce.
The room is a cubicle. Three tables. Menus written on brown paper bags originally designed for small sweets. If you are arriving for the first time expecting the physical grammar of a destination restaurant, recalibrate before you walk in. The visual experience here is deliberately anti-luxe: the staging is part of the argument. What Assassination Custard communicates through its setting is that the food carries the weight, the food does carry the weight.
The description applied to the cooking in critical coverage, “incredible grub, avant-garde theatricality”, is not press-release language. It reflects a specific register: technically serious food delivered without the ceremonial scaffolding that most restaurants of equivalent ambition use to signal their own importance. That contrast is the thing that makes Portobello the right address for this place. The neighbourhood has enough creative density to absorb an anti-establishment dining room without it reading as a stunt, enough foot traffic from food-literate Dubliners to sustain it.
For explorers of the Irish dining scene, Assassination Custard sits in a category of its own among Dublin’s smaller independent rooms. It is not trying to be Chapter One by Mickael Viljanen or Patrick Guilbaud. It is not competing on service polish or cellar depth. It is competing on cooking that is genuinely original, delivered in a format that filters out the audience that needs comfort to feel confident about the bill. If you are in Dublin specifically to eat, this belongs on your itinerary. If you want a reliable, well-upholstered evening with a long wine list, book somewhere else.
The wider Irish restaurant picture is strong right now. Liath in Blackrock, dede in Baltimore, and Bastion in Kinsale are all doing serious work outside the capital. Within Dublin, Bastible and Glovers Alley offer more conventional fine-dining frameworks at comparable ambition levels. Assassination Custard is the outlier in that group: the smallest room, the most idiosyncratic presentation,, for a particular kind of diner, the most memorable meal.
Booking Assassination Custard
Booking is rated easy, but that does not mean walk-in. Three tables means capacity in the single digits, even easy-booking restaurants at this size can fill within a week of a desirable Friday or Saturday slot appearing. Check availability as soon as your Dublin dates are confirmed. No phone number or website is listed in the current venue record, so look for bookings through third-party reservation platforms or direct social media contact. The booking window for a three-table room is always shorter than it looks.
Solo diners and couples are the natural fit for this format. Groups of four should confirm whether the room can accommodate the number before assuming a table is available. This is not a venue that absorbs a large party without pre-arrangement.
Practical Details
| Detail | Assassination Custard | Bastible | Host |
|---|---|---|---|
| Location | Kevin St Lower, Portobello, Dublin 8 | Leonard's Corner, Dublin 8 | South Great George’s St, Dublin 2 |
| Price tier | Not confirmed | €€€€ | €€ |
| Covers | ~3 tables (very small) | Mid-size | Mid-size |
| Booking difficulty | Easy (but plan ahead) | Moderate | Easy |
| Style | Avant-garde, anti-formal | Modern Irish | Nordic-influenced |
How It Compares
See the full comparison section below.
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The take
The Take
The Vibe
Assassination Custard occupies an almost theatrical micro-room on Kevin Street Lower in Portobello. The space literally seats just three tables, and that constraint becomes the point: owner-operated, low-key and highly focused. The kitchen treats the compact dining area as stagecraft — menus appear on brown paper bags and the presentation leans into playful, low-fi theatrics. The neighbourhood’s canal-side, independent energy feeds the aesthetic: this is a deliberately framed supper-club experience where the small scale sharpens attention on each plate and makes every visit feel like a curated, intimate event.
Best For
With only three tables and a supper-club format, Assassination Custard is best for small, intentional occasions where the experience matters. It suits date nights and small-group evenings that prize close attention to the food and the communal feel of a tiny room. Diners who come deliberately — rather than by chance — get the most from the place, as the setting rewards focus and presence. Because the room enforces a concentrated experience, it’s a better fit for those seeking a distinctive, staged meal than for casual walk-ins or large parties.
Ordering Tips
Reserve in advance: the description stresses the restaurant’s literal three-table count and that you can walk past without noticing it. Expect a set, theatre-style approach rather than loose à la carte service — menus arrive written on brown paper bags, which signals a playful, guided meal. Let the kitchen lead and look out for signature items such as panelle, labneh with pickled vegetables, smoked aubergine with pomegranate, bitter leaf salad with guanciale and meringues with coriander and hazelnut. Dress and pacing are informal; come prepared to be steered by the menu and the room’s intimacy.
Planning details
Location
19A Kevin Street Lower, Portobello, Dublin 8, Ireland · Directions
Recognition and awards
Also consider
Also Consider
- Patrick Guilbaud, Irish - French, Modern French, €€€€
- Bastible, Modern Irish, Modern Cuisine, €€€€
- Host, Nordic, Modern Cuisine, €€
- mae, Southern, Modern Cuisine, €€€
- Matsukawa, Kaiseki, Japanese, €€€€
Restaurant context
At the top of Dublin’s formal tier, Patrick Guilbaud and Matsukawa both operate at €€€€ with the service infrastructure to match. If ceremony and cellar depth matter as much as the cooking, either is a stronger choice than Assassination Custard. Bastible, also €€€€ and also in Dublin 8, is the closest true peer: serious Modern Irish cooking in a room that is still recognisably a restaurant rather than an experiment. For most food-driven diners, Bastible is the easier booking to recommend without caveats.
If price is a factor, Host at €€ delivers Nordic-influenced modern cooking at a fraction of the cost of the upper-tier options and is the clearest value play in the comparison set. mae at €€€ sits between the two tiers and brings a different register entirely with its Southern-influenced approach. Neither is doing what Assassination Custard is doing in terms of format or aesthetic.
The honest comparison: Assassination Custard is the right booking if the dining experience itself, the avant-garde presentation, the anti-formal room, the cooking that operates without institutional support, is what you are specifically after. If you want cooking at a comparable level of ambition inside a more conventional structure, Bastible is the answer. If you want the most technically polished meal Dublin can currently offer, Patrick Guilbaud remains the benchmark. Assassination Custard is not for every diner, but for the right one, it is the most interesting table in the city right now.
Around this place
Discover more on Pearl
Unlock the full Assassination Custard guide in Pearl, including awards, comparisons, FAQs, planning details, and nearby places.
Compare Assassination Custard
| Venue | Price | Booking Difficulty | Awards |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assassination Custard | Easy | 2025 The Sunday Times Ireland's 100 Best Restaurants | |
| Patrick Guilbaud | €€€€ | Unknown | 2026 OAD Classical in Europe Ranked · #23Michelin Guide Great Britain & Ireland 20262026 La Liste Top Restaurants2025 OAD Classical in Europe Ranked · #212025 Michelin 2 Stars2025 La Liste Top Restaurants2024 OAD Classical in Europe Ranked · #232024 Michelin 2 Stars2023 OAD Classical in Europe Ranked · #23 |
| Bastible | €€€€ | Unknown | Michelin Guide Great Britain & Ireland 20262026 OAD Top Restaurants in Europe Recommended2025 OAD Top Restaurants in Europe Ranked · #3972025 Michelin 1 Star2025 The Sunday Times Ireland's 100 Best Restaurants2024 OAD Top Restaurants in Europe Ranked · #3732024 Michelin 1 Star |
| Host | €€ | Unknown | Michelin Guide Great Britain & Ireland 20262025 OAD Casual in Europe Ranked · #6362025 Michelin Plate2024 OAD Casual in Europe Ranked · #6862024 Michelin Plate2023 OAD Casual in Europe Recommended |
| mae | €€€ | Unknown | Michelin Guide Great Britain & Ireland 20262025 Michelin Plate2025 The Sunday Times Ireland's 100 Best Restaurants2024 OAD Casual in North America Ranked · #7692024 Michelin Plate2023 OAD Gourmet Casual Dining in North America Recommended |
| Matsukawa | €€€€ | Unknown | No published awards |
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Key differences to consider before you reserve.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
What should a first-timer know about Assassination Custard?
Three tables, menus written on brown paper bags, cooking that earns serious critical praise — that is the format. Ken Doherty and Gwen McGrath run a room this small intentionally, so the experience is deliberately intimate and a little theatrical. Book ahead regardless of how the difficulty is rated; three tables fill fast and you will not be squeezing in on a whim on Kevin Street Lower.
What are alternatives to Assassination Custard in Dublin?
Bastible on Leonard's Corner is the closest in spirit — independently run, chef-led, serious about the plate without the formality. Host is worth considering if you want more seats and a slightly easier booking. For a full fine-dining occasion with more ceremony, Patrick Guilbaud at the Merrion is the step up, though the price and dress expectations climb sharply with it.
What should I order at Assassination Custard?
Menu details are not published in advance and change regularly — the brown paper bag format signals as much. The approach here is trust the kitchen: Doherty and McGrath's cooking has been praised for its avant-garde character, so arriving with fixed expectations or a must-have dish in mind is the wrong way to approach it.
Can Assassination Custard accommodate groups?
Three tables means the entire room seats a small number of covers. A group of four or five could feasibly take a whole table, but larger parties will not fit without booking out the room, there is no indication that is an option. Keep groups tight — two to four people is the practical range here.
Is Assassination Custard good for a special occasion?
Yes, if your idea of a special occasion leans towards punky, intimate, chef-driven rather than formal and ceremonial. The cooking has drawn genuine critical acclaim and the small-room format makes every table feel considered. For a milestone dinner with more traditional pomp, Patrick Guilbaud is the better fit.
Can I eat at the bar at Assassination Custard?
No bar seating is documented for Assassination Custard. With only three tables in what is described as a cubicle of a room, counter or bar options are unlikely. check the venue's official channels before assuming any walk-in or bar arrangement is possible.
What should I wear to Assassination Custard?
Nothing in the venue record suggests a dress code, the brown-paper-bag menus and anti-establishment character of the room point firmly away from jacket-required formality. Come as you would to a serious neighbourhood restaurant where the food does the work — presentable but not dressed up.
