Restaurant in Dublin, Ireland
Natural wine, serious cooking, book soon.

Note on Fenian Street is one of Dublin's most convincing arguments for the bistro-and-wine-bar format: Michelin Plate cooking at €€€ prices, a natural and organic wine list guided by a genuinely engaged team, and a light, considered room that works as well for solo counter dining as it does for a relaxed dinner with friends. Book a weekday evening for the best experience.
At the €€€ price point, Note on Fenian Street delivers some of the most convincing value in Dublin's modern dining scene. You're getting Michelin Plate cooking, a thoughtful natural wine list, and a room that genuinely works — counter seating included , in a neighbourhood close enough to Merrion Square to make it a logical anchor for an evening. If you're in Dublin and care about what's in your glass as much as what's on the plate, Note belongs on your shortlist. If you're chasing maximum formality or a longer tasting format, Glovers Alley or Chapter One by Mickael Viljanen will serve you better. But for a bistro-and-wine-bar format that punches well above its category, Note is the call.
Note arrived in Dublin in 2022 and quickly found its footing. The premise , a wine bar crossed with a bistro, built around natural and organic bottles and cooking that leans on Irish produce without announcing it , was clear from the start, and the execution has been consistent enough to earn a Michelin Plate in 2025. That recognition matters here because it tells you the kitchen is being watched and taken seriously, not just by locals who've caught on, but by the guide.
The room at 26 Fenian Street is described by those who know it as light-filled and lean , a clean, unfussy space where the design works with the cooking rather than competing with it. The counter is the detail worth noting: it runs through the room in a way that makes solo dining feel like a feature rather than an afterthought. The energy reads as bustling without tipping into noise, which puts Note in a different register from some of the louder wine bars in the city centre. If you're planning a conversation-heavy evening, earlier sittings will serve you better than later ones, when the room tends to fill and the ambient energy rises.
The cooking is described consistently as modern and unfussy. Dishes like pork chops and date and toffee pudding sit alongside more technically driven plates , cucumber with taramasalata and nori, wild sea bass with grapefruit, turbot with vin jaune sauce , which suggests a kitchen that knows how to read the room and doesn't feel the need to perform. The Observer called it "both bold and satisfying," which is a useful shorthand: this is food with a point of view, not food trying to impress through complexity alone. Irish influences surface in the sourcing and in the flavour instincts of the kitchen, but Note doesn't position itself as an Irish restaurant in any programmatic way. The identity comes through in how the food is cooked, not in how it's labelled.
Wine list is the other half of the argument for booking here. Natural and organic is the orientation, and the team are reported to be genuinely engaged when it comes to recommendations , not in a performative way, but in the way that matters when you're unsure what to order alongside a particular dish. For anyone building an evening around the glass as much as the plate, that kind of floor knowledge is worth as much as the list itself. If you're exploring Ireland's broader food and wine scene, the same instinct for produce-led cooking and considered pours runs through places like Aniar in Galway, Liath in Blackrock, and dede in Baltimore , each worth knowing if Note lands well for you.
On the tasting menu question: Note describes itself as a bistro and wine bar rather than a destination tasting-menu restaurant, which means the experience is closer to a well-executed à la carte progression than a fixed narrative arc. That's a distinction worth making before you book. The dishes are precise and well-considered, but you're choosing your own path through the menu rather than being guided through a single composed story. If structured tasting formats are what you want, Variety Jones or allta in Dublin, or further afield Bastion in Kinsale or Campagne in Kilkenny, offer formats closer to that model. What Note gives you instead is freedom, quality, and a floor team that makes the whole thing feel genuinely considered.
Timing matters here. A weekday evening, particularly earlier in service, gives you the room at its leading: staff are unhurried, the noise sits at a comfortable register, and the counter seats are easier to come by. Friday and Saturday evenings bring a fuller room and more energy, which suits some diners but can compromise the conversational quality of the experience. Google reviews sit at 4.2 across 373 ratings , solid for a Michelin-recognised room in this price tier, and consistent with a venue that performs reliably rather than spectacularly on any given night.
For food and wine travellers building an itinerary around Dublin's current dining scene, Note sits comfortably in the middle ground between the more casual end of the natural wine bar world and the formal end of the Michelin bracket. It's the kind of place that rewards going twice: once to find your bearings, once to make deliberate choices. Check out our full Dublin restaurants guide for a fuller picture of the city's options, or pair Note with stops from our Dublin bars guide and our Dublin hotels guide for a complete evening.
Also worth knowing: the brand identity at Note extends to hand-embroidered shirts and T-shirts sold from the restaurant, which tells you something about the level of intentionality behind the whole project. This is a venue with a considered point of view , and that coherence shows in the experience. If you want international reference points for this style of precise, unfussy modern cooking in a convivial format, Frantzén in Stockholm sits at the leading of that register, and FZN by Björn Frantzén in Dubai shows how the format travels. Note is operating at a different scale and price point, but the commitment to coherence is recognisable.
Explore more of Ireland's ambitious kitchens through Terre in Castlemartyr, or browse our Dublin experiences guide and our Dublin wineries guide to build a fuller trip around the city. For a different view from the same neighbourhood, D'Olier Street is worth keeping in mind as a comparison.
Quick reference: Note, 26 Fenian St, Dublin D02 FX09 | €€€ | Michelin Plate 2025 | Google 4.2 (373 reviews) | Booking: easy, no long lead time required | Leading timing: weekday evening, early sitting.
| Venue | Cuisine | Price | Awards | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Note | Modern Cuisine | €€€ | Note was a welcome establishment to the natural wine scene in Dublin in 2022. An unassuming exterior leads you into a bustling wine bar, simply decorated with an engaging wine list, starting with Buge...; There’s a subtle retro touch to this enjoyable wine bar turned bistro. The cooking is modern yet unfussy and unpretentious, so don’t be surprised to find the likes of pork chops or date and toffee pudding on the menu. Bold, distinct flavours abound in dishes where the kitchen’s Irish influences often shine through. A charming team run the restaurant with a relaxed efficiency, and are always happy to recommend wines from their largely natural and organic selection.; Michelin Plate (2025); Essa Fakhry’s Note is the Platonic ideal of Dublin restaurants, a place where concept, design and execution align perfectly, with form and function in fine balance. They describe themselves as “a new typology of bistro and wine bar” and their intent is clearly spelt out in every direction, right down to the smart shirts and T-shirts with hand-embroidered logos, which they make and sell from their bureau. It’s the most gorgeous, light-filled room, just a short stroll from Merrion Square, with that counter that you can see yourself sitting at, a clean, lean room with that essential restaurantness. And the cooking, described by The Observer as “both bold and satisfying”, is precise and beautifully rendered: cucumber with taramasalata and nori, wild sea bass with grapefruit, turbot with vin jaune sauce. Everything is just so, and Note always manages to strike the right note, whatever the occasion. | Easy | — |
| Patrick Guilbaud | Irish - French, Modern French | €€€€ | Michelin 2 Star | Unknown | — |
| Bastible | Modern Irish, Modern Cuisine | €€€€ | Michelin 1 Star | Unknown | — |
| Host | Nordic , Modern Cuisine | €€ | Unknown | — | |
| mae | Southern, Modern Cuisine | €€€ | Unknown | — | |
| Matsukawa | Kaiseki, Japanese | €€€€ | Unknown | — |
Comparing your options in Dublin for this tier.
Relaxed but considered. The room is described as clean and light-filled with a deliberately unfussy feel, and the team runs it with a laid-back efficiency. Think neat casual rather than formal — you won't feel out of place in a good shirt or a simple dress, but a suit would be overdressed for the bistro format.
Book at least two to three weeks ahead, especially for weekend sittings. Note holds a Michelin Plate and has been name-checked by The Observer and the McKenna guides, which means demand consistently outruns walk-in availability. The counter seats are worth requesting if you're dining solo or as a pair.
Yes — the counter is the right seat for solo diners and is a genuine feature of the room rather than an afterthought. The wine-bar format, with staff who are actively engaged in recommending from the natural and organic list, makes a solo visit feel social rather than awkward.
It works well for low-key celebrations where the emphasis is on food and wine rather than ceremony. The cooking has received Michelin recognition and Observer praise, so the quality is there — but the bistro format means it reads more as a confident dinner than a grand-occasion restaurant. If you need private dining or a more formal atmosphere, Patrick Guilbaud is the alternative.
Note's menu leans toward bistro-style à la carte rather than a structured tasting format, with dishes like pork chops and date toffee pudding sitting alongside more precise plates such as turbot with vin jaune. If you want an extended multi-course format, Note may not be the right fit — Bastible or mae offer more tasting-menu-focused experiences in Dublin.
At €€€, Note delivers solid value for a Michelin Plate-recognised restaurant with a serious natural wine list. The cooking is precise without being precious, the team is genuinely engaged, and the room earns its reputation. For the price bracket, it competes well against Bastible and Host — and outperforms most Dublin wine bars on food quality.
Bastible on Camden Street covers similar modern-Irish territory with a stronger tasting-menu focus. Host is a comparable €€€ option with a wine-forward approach. Mae offers a more intimate small-plates format. If budget is a factor, Note sits in a more accessible bracket than Patrick Guilbaud, which carries two Michelin stars and a significantly higher price point.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.