Butcher Grill in Dublin

Good steak. Good wine. Can’t ask for much more.

Fantastic little restaurant. Bistro vibe with excellent food and good wine choices. A must visit if you’re a meat lover

Sensational steak - the best I've had. Service, atmosphere - everything gets full marks

I visited from San Diego and I gotta say it was the best fish and steak I’ve had here so far and the lady that helped us was super great to meet her she’s from France and very helpful and nice thank you so much

We went for a special birthday and the staff and food made it such an amazing evening. The steak was melt in your mouth and the sides were mouth watering (we had onion rings and cheesy cauliflower). Great selection of wines and the bar staff know there stuff when pairing the wine with the food. A great place to go, need to book well in advance, which is always a good sign

Exceptional food: we ordered 2 sirloins, 1 burger and a fish + desserts. Quality was really good, service very efficient and helpful. The place is a bit tight, not much room between a table and another. For the rest it was a great experience.

Excellent! Everything about it was unreal!

There is an episode of Subway Takes (London edition) on YouTube where the guest's take is "steak is the most overrated food of all time." I watched, first in horror as the man argued that steak is simplistic and flavorless, then in confusion as the host didn't push back on that assertion but instead said "well, steak flavor is subtle, you have to find the flavor." "Find the flavor?" I thought to myself, "steak IS flavor. The char! The nutty flavor of the aging! The balance of power between beefiness and fattiness! What's there to find?" This was all from the ignorant comfort of a life growing up in New York and Chicago, two of the premier steak cities in the world. I had no idea what these two were talking about. Then I moved to Europe. And started eating European steak. I'll spare you my continued adventures in disappointment with steak everywhere in Europe, from the "prized" Bistecca alla Fiorentina in Florence to the "unmatched" Gallician blonde steaks at Ibal. I always come away from these famous steakhouses with an overwhelming sense of "meh". For the first time ever with steak, I've had to find the flavor. And I found....I could not. So here we are at the sacrificial lamb of the Butcher's Grill, at my wife's insistence. She's been there before, she says, and can vouch for it. The problem is she's European and perhaps has an ability i do not to find flavor. I always give a place my best shot, so I always opt for the good stuff. In this case, the best reviews are for their cote de boeuf (bone-in ribeye if you're American). Medium rare. We got the sides of the black eyed beans (peas if you're American), and the onion rings. I don't normally review sides unless they're remarkable, but my wife wanted me to tell you she hated the onion rings. And this was her favorite restaurant in Dublin, the traitor! Apparently she couldn't find the flavor. If you're thinking this bodes ominously for the steak, you would be right. A consistent theme of steaks I've had throughout my new life in Europe has been "chewy", and this carries through here as well. It was a bit of a chore to eat, if im honest. It took a long time to chew, and I was getting minimal enjoyment from it. It was fine, it was a perfect medium rare, it had a decent amount of salt but....I couldn't find the flavor. We sat at the bar, and it gave me a bit of insight into what seems to go consistently wrong with steakhouses in this part of the world. I have some theories. For one, wet age seems to be more common than dry age, but IMO dry age is always superior. It concentrates the beefiness and promotes a better char. Two, even the dry age steaks dont taste very dry aged here. I think they only do it for a few weeks when really you need a minimum of 40 days. Three, I've noticed a distinct lack of pepper in almost all steaks I've had here, but pepper really helps kick off the maillard reaction. Four, speaking of maillard reaction, I noticed that the chef did all the cooking on the grill and in one place. To me that implies the grill heat was set too low. To get a good maillard reaction going, you need to be so scorching hot you can't keep it there for longer than a couple of minutes before it burns. If you can cook the entire steak on same the place on the grill, your grill isn't hot enough and you're not going to get the right char. Ideally, you set up two zones on your grill, one at the highest to do the sear, and one at a lower temperature to smoke the meat. Or you finish it low and slow in a salamander broiler, oven, or pan. I could go on, since steaks hold a special place in my heart, but bless you if you're still reading this. Towards the end of the night, my thoughts shifted back to the Subway take and his take finally made complete sense to me. He said "if I'm going to spend that much money for a steak, I shouldn't have to find the flavor. FIND ME!" I'm still waiting to be found.

We visited The Butcher Grill for my partner’s birthday and overall had a really lovely evening. When we arrived, our table wasn’t quite ready and we were asked to wait around 10 minutes. The team did offer us a complimentary drink while we waited, although this would have been outside, and as it was a cold September evening we decided to go to the bar opposite instead. When we came back, the staff were incredibly apologetic and very kindly gave us our Aperol Spritzes on the house, which was a lovely gesture and showed that they genuinely wanted to make sure we had a good experience. The food was absolutely exceptional. We had a starter followed by the Chateaubriand with sides, and the steak was honestly one of the best I have ever had. There was a small misunderstanding with the sides and we received chips instead of broccoli, but the waiter immediately apologised, took responsibility and brought the broccoli over straight away. They left the extra chips with us too, so it really wasn’t an issue at all. The service throughout was excellent. The team were warm, attentive and genuinely lovely, and they really tried to make my partner’s birthday feel special. We also had a birthday cake and limoncello at the end, which was a really nice touch. The only thing that slightly affected the evening was the atmosphere coming from the open kitchen. It is a very small restaurant and we were seated right beside the kitchen, so it was quite difficult not to notice what was happening behind the scenes. For around 10–15 minutes there seemed to be quite a bit of tension during service, and the chef clearly appeared frustrated. At one point he walked out through the restaurant and seemed to storm out of the premises, before returning a little later, with the tension still fairly noticeable, so it definitely felt like there was a bit of kitchen drama going on that night. That said, I want to be fair because none of this affected the quality of the food or the way we were treated. The front-of-house team were fantastic and seemed to do everything they could to make the evening as enjoyable as possible, and the food itself was genuinely outstanding. I would return, especially for the Chateaubriand. Amazing food, genuinely lovely service, and unfortunately just a little more behind-the-scenes drama than you would normally expect to see during dinner.

The food was good and great presentation, although it was more expensive than expected. We didn’t have to wait long, and the staff were nice and friendly. The restaurant is quite small, though, and it can get busy and loud. Our table with stools wasn’t particularly comfortable, and the space felt quite tight.