Restaurant in Dublin, Ireland
Two Michelin stars. Ireland's hardest reservation.
Chapter One by Mickael Viljanen is Dublin's only two-Michelin-star restaurant and La Liste's No. 1 table in Ireland — and the hardest reservation in the country to secure. Viljanen's French-technique cooking, built on premium Irish produce, delivers at the level those credentials suggest. Book this first for any significant occasion in Dublin; plan weeks, if not months, ahead.
Chapter One by Mickael Viljanen holds two Michelin stars and scored 90 points in the 2025 La Liste rankings, where it was cited as the most admired and creative dining room in Ireland. La Liste named it No. 1 in Ireland outright. Tables are described, accurately, as the hardest to book in the country. If you are planning a significant meal in Dublin — a birthday, an anniversary, a business dinner where the room needs to do some work , this is the booking to pursue first, not as a fallback.
The restaurant occupies 18-19 Parnell Square North in Dublin 1, a Georgian address with the kind of bones that frame serious cooking well. The atmosphere is polished without being cold: the room is decorated with eye-catching art, the lighting is calibrated for occasion dining, and the energy stays composed through the evening. This is not a loud room. Conversation carries without effort, which matters considerably if the dinner has a purpose beyond eating. For a city that skews toward casual and convivial, Chapter One reads as a deliberate counterpoint , somewhere the service and the room actively support the meal rather than compete with it.
Mickael Viljanen's cooking is rooted in classic French technique with modern touches that sharpen rather than distract. La Liste's 2026 citation specifically flags Donegal lobster and Limousin sweetbreads as representative of the kitchen's approach: prime luxury ingredients prepared with precision and presented with care. The natural flavours of the produce are the point , nothing is over-constructed. The famous in-room Irish Coffee is singled out in the awards notes as an experience in itself, which is a signal worth taking seriously at this level.
The price range sits at €€€€, which in Dublin's current dining market puts it alongside Patrick Guilbaud and Matsukawa as the ceiling of what the city offers. At that price tier, you are buying two Michelin stars, La Liste's leading Ireland placing, and a service standard that the awards notes describe as superb. The question is not whether it is expensive , it is , but whether the occasion you are booking it for warrants that level. For a milestone dinner or a client meal where quality needs to be unambiguous, the answer is almost always yes.
On the Ireland scale, Chapter One sits in a different category from one-star peers like dede in Baltimore, Liath in Blackrock, Aniar in Galway, Bastion in Kinsale, and Campagne in Kilkenny. Those restaurants are serious and worth booking on their own terms. Chapter One operates at a remove from that group , the second star and the La Liste leading position reflect a consistent execution that few kitchens in Ireland have matched. For European context, it competes in the same conversation as two-star houses like Frantzén in Stockholm.
Viljanen took the helm at Chapter One after his tenure at The Greenhouse in Dublin, where he had already won two Michelin stars. His arrival at Parnell Square represented a meaningful step up in setting and ambition, and the kitchen has maintained its two-star standing through both the 2024 and 2025 Michelin guides. The La Liste score moved from 90 points in 2025 to 89 in 2026 , a marginal shift, not a trend. The restaurant's position at the leading of the Irish dining hierarchy has remained stable.
Within Dublin, the city's other destination dining options include Glovers Alley, allta, Variety Jones, D'Olier Street, and Amy Austin. None currently hold two stars. For visitors to the city building a dining itinerary, Chapter One is the anchor booking around which the rest of the trip should be structured , not an addition to consider after securing other reservations. See our full Dublin restaurants guide for the wider picture, and our Dublin hotels guide, Dublin bars guide, Dublin wineries guide, and Dublin experiences guide for planning around it.
One practical note on late evening: Chapter One is not a late-night venue in the conventional sense. The room is set up for the full dinner experience, and the kitchen runs a tasting format that takes time. That said, the in-room Irish Coffee ritual means the meal concludes on a considered, unhurried note rather than a hard stop. If you want to extend the night further, the surrounding area has options, but Chapter One itself should be treated as the main event , not the opener.
Booking difficulty is near impossible without significant lead time. The La Liste notes are explicit: these are the hardest tables to book in Ireland. Plan accordingly, and treat any last-minute availability as an anomaly rather than a reliable strategy. Google reviews score 4.8 across 1,118 ratings, which at that volume is a meaningful signal that the experience delivers consistently across a broad range of guests, not just those pre-disposed to this style of dining. For further context on comparable ambition in modern cuisine internationally, see FZN by Björn Frantzén in Dubai and Terre in Castlemartyr.
Address: 18-19 Parnell Square North, Rotunda, Dublin 1. No phone or booking link is confirmed in our data , check directly via the restaurant's own channels. Booking difficulty is rated near impossible; advance planning of several weeks minimum is advisable, and popular dates will go faster. The format is tasting menu; plan the evening accordingly and do not schedule a hard finish time.
| Venue | Awards | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chapter One by Mickael Viljanen | La Liste Top Restaurants (2026): 89pts; Mickael Viljanen’s restaurant is a stylish, elegant spot decorated with eye-catching art, where superb service complements truly top-drawer cooking. Prime luxury ingredients – like Donegal lobster or Limousin sweetbreads – are the bedrock of the menu, prepared using classic French techniques combined with subtle modern touches. The chef’s creativity and personality shine through in perfectly balanced, immaculately executed dishes with sublime natural flavours and beautiful presentation. The 'Irish Coffee' is made in the dining room and is, like everything else, an experience to remember.; La Liste Top Restaurants (2025): 90pts; Chapter One was the first restaurant to be awarded the No 1 placing in this list, and today Mickael Viljanen’s Parnell Square oasis retains its status as the most admired and creative dining room in Ireland. The stellar cooking, with its filigreed cashmere luxury, also means these are the hardest tables to book.; Michelin 2 Stars (2025); Michelin 2 Stars (2024) | €€€€ | — |
| Patrick Guilbaud | Michelin 2 Star | €€€€ | — |
| Bastible | Michelin 1 Star | €€€€ | — |
| Host | €€ | — | |
| mae | €€€ | — | |
| Matsukawa | €€€€ | — |
A quick look at how Chapter One by Mickael Viljanen measures up.
Bar seating is not confirmed in our data for Chapter One. Given its two Michelin stars and status as one of Dublin's hardest tables to secure, the format skews toward formal dining room service rather than casual counter seating. check the venue's official channels at 18-19 Parnell Square North to ask about counter or bar options before assuming availability.
Yes, if you are committed to a multi-course tasting format. La Liste scored Chapter One 90 points in 2025 and cited it as Ireland's most admired and creative dining room, with cooking built around prime ingredients like Donegal lobster and Limousin sweetbreads using classic French technique. At €€€€ pricing, this is not a casual spend — but two Michelin stars and that La Liste standing make it the most credentialled tasting menu in Ireland. If you want a shorter commitment, look at Bastible instead.
It can work for solo diners who are comfortable with a formal, service-led tasting menu environment. La Liste notes the service as superb and the room as stylish, which tends to favour engaged solo dining over awkward self-consciousness. That said, confirm seat availability for one when booking — at two Michelin stars, solo spots can be the first to disappear.
For a special occasion, yes. Two Michelin stars, a 90-point La Liste score, and a citation as Ireland's most admired restaurant in 2025 are the clearest available benchmarks that the cooking justifies €€€€ spend. If you want two-star-level cooking at a lower price point, Patrick Guilbaud is the closest Dublin comparison — but Chapter One is the more creative kitchen by La Liste's own assessment.
Book as far ahead as possible — La Liste called these the hardest tables to book in Ireland in 2025, and two Michelin stars mean demand consistently outpaces supply. Four to six weeks minimum is a reasonable starting point, but peak dates and weekends will require more lead time. Check the restaurant's own channels directly, as no booking link is confirmed in our current data.
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