Caribou is not a restaurant. It is not a place where you book a three-course lunch, sit through a solemn parade of amuse-bouches, and sigh wistfully over wine pairings. It is, first and foremost, a bar – but one where the food is taken seriously.
The owners – Hugh O’Farrell, Shane Clifford, and Declan Murphy – have been running bars for years. They started with Caribou in Galway in 2016 (since closed), before adding Impala (Cork), Bonobo (Smithfield), Kodiak (Rathmines), and Jackal (Navan). They worked for the group behind P Macs, so when the lease came up, they took it over and reopened under the Caribou name. It’s still lively, still packed, but now with a strong food offering alongside the drinks.
Inside, it’s a world away from its former life as P Macs, with its dive bar vibe and dark colour palette. Now, it’s all warm woods, bright light from the large windows – perfect for people-watching – and a wraparound bar lined with serious beer taps. Music pumps at full volume, a reminder that this is, primarily, a place to drink. Big communal tables fill the room, a snug or two at the back, and front-row seating outside.
It’s walk-in only, which makes sense, but when you’re here for the weekend roasts – four of us, giving the menu a proper workout – it would be nice to have the certainty of a table. The waitress lets us know there’ll be a short wait before ordering – the kitchen likes to manage the flow – but before we even have time to think of it as an inconvenience, she’s back with a complimentary dish of smoked almonds.
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There are no starters, just “bites” if you fancy something to pick at. Bigger plates include roasts, a double smash burger, karaage chicken burger, IPA-battered fish sandwich, full fish and chips, a Caesar salad, and a squash toastie. The drinks list leans on craft beer, top-notch cocktails and a functional wine selection with the occasional ringer from Grapecircus, one of the country’s top wine importers.
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We start with gildas (€7 for two) – plump Gordal olives, anchovy and guindilla pepper, salty and sharp, the kind of thing that wakes up your palate. A Guinness (€6.90), a Poacher’s soda (€3.50), a no-alcohol Down in My Plums (€10) – tart, fruity, well-made – and a glass of Zweigelt (€9.50), a juicy Austrian natural wine, set us up for what’s to come.
The bacon and cabbage (€22) arrives with three thick Buckfast-glazed slices of meat, the glaze giving it a glossy, sticky sweetness. It has been cooked ahead of time and reheated, which is fair enough for service, but you can tell. It is not the heart-swelling, just-carved stuff you hope for. The cabbage is excellent, silky in parsley sauce, the plate stacked with roasties, miso-glazed carrots and parsnips, and a scoop of celeriac purée beneath the mash. A slightly hipster touch. It is buttery, rich, almost sweet, though it could do with a little acidity to keep it in check.
The roast rump of beef (€22) comes in two cuts – one thick, rare and a little tough; the other sliced from a different joint, more tender and cooked to medium. The Yorkshire pudding is magnificent, the size of a baby’s head – craggy, golden, perfect. Charred tender-stem broccoli adds green to the plate which also includes mash, celeriac purée and roasties. The Guinness gravy is dark, but one-note, with a touch of sweetness rather than savoury depth. A spritz of lemon would sharpen it up. The vegetarian dinner (€22) has properly roasted celeriac, caramelised, soft but structured, with an earthy sweetness.
But the best thing on the menu isn’t a roast – it’s the fish and chips (€20). Crisp golden batter cracking apart to reveal pearly, perfectly cooked cod. The triple-cooked chips could be hotter, but they’re solid, properly crunchy. The crushed peas are fresh and bright, and the home-made chunky tartare sauce is sharp with lemon and capers.
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There is no dessert. Nothing to round things off, which is a bit of a disappointment, but four packets of “Be Mine” Lovehearts arrive with the bill, a small but thoughtful touch.
No one rushes us out. The music stays loud, the tables keep filling. For a bar that serves food, Caribou gets a lot right. The roasts are big, generous, well thought out – if not perfectly executed. The service is sharp, the room lively, the fish and chips first rate. And in a city where good roasts are still too hard to find, that’s reason enough to come back.
Lunch for four with four drinks was €129.50.
The Verdict: Good food in one of Dublin’s hippest bars.
Food provenance: Free-range pork from Hugh Maguire jnr, free-range chicken from McLoughlin’s, fish from Kish Fish and bread from Oak Smoke Bakery.
Vegetarian options: Roast celeriac with Yorkshire pudding and vegetables; and butternut squash toastie.
Wheelchair access: Fully accessible with an accessible toilet.
Music: English Teacher, Lola Young and indie tunes at high volume.
