When brothers Keelan and Aaron Higgs opened Variety Jones it was a breath of fresh air for the Dublin dining scene, and doubtless helped to make The Liberties one of the coolest neighbourhoods in the city. Keelan is the Chef of the pair and is influenced by his father, who did most of the cooking in the Higgs household; in both the food and the service, the fundamental principles of providing hospitality and nourishing the soul are the cornerstones. The chef’s choice menu shows originality and generosity in both flavour and spirit.

If you have any dietary restrictions, this isn’t the place for you – all tables get the same chef’s choice menu, with allowances made only for pescatarians, if there’s prior notice. That said, a meal here is a must for those who love inventive, creative cooking – their duck liver parfait, layered with chicory, orange and endive, arrives at the table with a warm waffle, and their bite-sized snacks, like miniature pork tacos and tuna crackers, are the perfect mouthful. Unless you’re a vegan or vegetarian, obviously.

Unassuming Thomas Street is the last place you'd expect to find a Michelin-starred restaurant, but that's exactly where celebrated chef Keelann Higgs set up shop. Inside, you're greeted by the smell of wood smoke, and the narrow dining room is dominated by an open kitchen where cooking is done over a blazing fire. The menu is short and prix fixe, so you select five to seven dishes.

The Greenhouse on Dublin's Dawson Street secured its second Michelin star. The food at The Greenhouse is inspired by the finest produce available, treated with the utmost respect and cooked with passion. A signature dish that has been on the menu for years is foie gras whipped into airy lightness topped with a Granny Smith apple gel, walnut and cubes of smoked eel.

Bastible, the last place I reviewed in Dublin, has also now dumped its à la carte option in favour of tasting menus (€75). Clearly, in a time of staff shortages, tasting menus are easier for kitchens to manage. They can also be great for diners if you crave a special occasion full of pomp and waiterly frottage.

Hidden in plain sight in the heart of the lively Liberties, Variety Jones is an oasis of cool and calm dedicated to idiosyncratic deliciousness. With chef-proprietor Keelan Higgs in the open kitchen and his brother Aaron front of house, the family theme carries through to the chef’s choice sharing menu. Smart snacks like rabbit with kimchi and wild garlic lead to clever cold and hot starters and a house-made pasta course, followed by deceptively homely mains served family-style (think pork chops with greens, buttermilk and nduja polenta, BBQ jowls and bacon gravy, perhaps).

When brothers Keelan and Aaron Higgs unveiled Variety Jones, they sparked a culinary revolution in Dublin, instantly catapulting The Liberties into the city's hippest neighbourhood. Flaunting a Michelin star since 2020, this joint offers an unforgettable dining experience. Chef-owner Keelan commands the open kitchen, dishing out bites such as rabbit paired with kimchi and wild garlic, followed by homemade pasta, and family-style mains like pork chops with greens, buttermilk, and nduja polenta, or BBQ jowls with bacon gravy.

This charming, cosy restaurant based in Dublin 8 is headed by chef-owner Keelan Higgs, previously making his mark around Dublin at the likes of Locks and Luna. Variety Jones‘ unique touch to the Michelin restaurants in Ireland is a 6 course ‘Chef’s Choice’ sharing menu, where diners attend without seeing the menu, for the ultimate dining adventure. Higgs has created a well-loved and highly sought after restaurant, where unique yet unfussy dishes are served, most of which are cooked over an open fire.

This exciting restaurant by Keelan Higgs, former head chef at Luna and Locks, has earned rave reviews and a newly minted Michelin star, thanks to its creative, hearty and eclectic cuisine, much of it cooked over open flames. The vibe at Variety Jones is informal and intimate, so it's perfect for couples whose focus is firmly on delicious food and incredible wine, with a chef's choice sharing menu on offer. But beware this isn't one for vegetarians!

If you love good food but the word ‘fancy’ puts you off, Variety Jones is the restaurant that will be your best bet. Although its dishes are nothing short of fancy, the interior is more intimate and suitable for both casual and formal occasions. If you’ve never been to a high-end restaurant before, it’s easy to feel intimidated but at Variety Jones you’ll be met with a cosy atmosphere and very attentive staff that are the spirit of the restaurant.

The aforementioned sharing menu changes with the seasons and is all that’s available at Variety Jones, taking the decision-making off your shoulders and allowing you to sit back and relax as you’re served some of the most inspired dishes you’ll find in Dublin’s fair city. An interesting list of natural and low-intervention wines accompanies, with an experienced in-house sommelier on hand to recommend the perfect glass to pair with your meal.

Variety Jones is situated on Thomas Street in Dublin, between the towering Christ Church Cathedral and the Guinness Storehouse, a restaurant so tiny and unassuming that if you blink, you might miss it. However, due to the open fire that crackles merrily in the little open kitchen, you can undoubtedly detect it. All sorts of fresh veggies, seasonal meat and entire fish go along with this, offering smoky, chargrilled dishes full of flavor.

One of the signature dishes on the chef’s choice tasting menu at Michelin-starred Variety Jones, in Dublin 8, is spaghetti Alfredo. “It’s a come-to-Mamma rendition of cacio e pepe, one of the best you’ll eat anywhere,” wrote Catherine Cleary, reviewing the restaurant when it opened. Chef and owner Keelan Higgs learned how to make it from his dad, and kindly shared the recipe with us, if you want to have a go at making it at home.

Those in the know head to Variety Jones for a more intimate experience. This is a chic restaurant with a relaxed atmosphere and an open kitchen where you can watch chef and owner Keelan Higgins cook up a storm. Many of the dishes are cooked over an open fire and its menu avoids the usual classifications with the use of snacks, cold, warm, pasta, family style (dishes big enough to share) and afters (one dessert and one cheese).

Chef/owner Keelan Higgs has ensured Variety Jones is perpetually fully booked with his whole fish, venison and duck cooked over charcoal in a corner of the kitchen, but the handmade pasta, like comté ravioli and spaghetti al fredo proved to be an unexpected bonus. He perfected his pasta skills in a two-Michelin starred restaurant in Tuscany, and Dublin's all the richer for it. Read our Variety Jones once over here.

No other restaurant in Dublin right now represents a newness in fine dining like Variety Jones. Appearances are dark, edgy and interesting but with chef-owner Keelan Higgs working away in an open kitchen it has the welcoming, cocooning feeling of a city jazz club. The food is inventive and fresh, lively and expertly put together, with Higgs cooking over an open fire, so no two dishes are ever quite the same.

This cozy, one-Michelin-star restaurant in the cool Liberties neighborhood offers an exceptional culinary experience paired with friendly, unfussy service. First, though, you'll need to actually find the entrance—look for a drawing of a face on the facade of this otherwise nondescript building. The restaurant only offers a six-course Chef’s Choice tasting menu, priced at €90 per person.

Chef Keelan Higgs’ new restaurant on Dublin’s Thomas Street ,Variety Jones is cool, original and fun. The chef’s chef, Keelan is serving thoughtful and exciting food, with many ingredients cooked over an open hearth in the kitchen. With only around eight dishes on offer, plus a single dessert or cheese, the menu is original and unusual with a focus on hearth-grilled family style dishes.

There are a lot of restaurants that cook French food, or Indian, or Thai, but Variety Jones cooks food that’s uniquely Variety Jones. Offering an €85 no choice chefs menu that changes regularly but always focuses on food cooked on the hearth, the plates produced in this small space, by a relatively small team led by Keelan and Aaron Higgs, are nothing short of miraculous.

What: Certainly one of the most modern propositions on the list of Michelin adorned Irish restaurants is Variety Jones. The intimate space here is characterised by an open kitchen and colourful murals of cityscapes splashed across the walls, while head chef and owner Keelan Higgs turns out unpretentious dishes that are often cooked over fire and always full of flavour.

Variety Jones, helmed by Head Chef Keelan Higgs, promises a holistic dining adventure in Dublin’s heart. With a commitment to seasonal ingredients and dishes cooked over an open fire, the restaurant creates an immersive culinary journey. The cuisine at Variety Jones celebrates the beauty of seasonal produce, ensuring each dish is a testament to the best of the season.

Variety Jones takes its name from the alias of Roger Thomas Clark, one of the founders of the Silk Road online market. There’s no sign above the restaurant’s door; just keep an eye out for a tiny black and grey facade on Thomas Street. Inside the 1-star Michelin joint, you’ll find Chef Higgs cooking up highly unique dishes served through a chef’s choice tasting menu.

There's an exclusivity to Variety Jones mainly since it's rock hard to get a booking and the number of people that peek in through the glass front entrance, makes you feel pretty smug too. It's a set menu, which typically has a lot of sharing plates included, so you'll get pretty comfortable sharing your food with your date in these close quarters.

Opened in early 2019, Variety Jones is one of the most recent additions to Dublin 8’s food map. It’s also, with some of the restaurant’s dishes cooked over an open hearth, one of its most excitingly creative. Which is fitting, given its location on Thomas Street is just a stone’s throw from Ireland’s National College of Art and Design.

VARIETY JONES on Thomes Street has been feted as one of the city’s most exciting and fashionable restaurants for some years now. Their award of a Michelin Star has done nothing to calm the hype. Expect relaxed fine dining with family-style meat and fish dishes cooked over live fire and a wine list that favours ‘natural’ producers.

Variety Jones in The Liberties in Dublin 8, offers a chef's choice menu with six courses for €85 per person. They also have a wine-pairing option and serve dishes like duck liver parfait with port, cherries, almonds, and potato waffles, and hearth grilled trout with shrimp and watercress.

This stunning restaurant on Thomas Street has retained its Michelin star this year and we can see why. Here much of the food is cooked on an open fire, giving it a delicious, smokey flavour and the menu is split into different categories: snacks, cold, warm, pasta, mains and afters.

Exciting, beautifully presented food, executed by Keelan Higgs, the head chef and owner who happens to have one of the best beards in town. The wine list, carefully curated by Vanda Ivanči, is all natural but manages to have something to win over everyone, even the sceptics.

Another Michelin-star Dublin restaurant, Variety Jones only offers a chef’s choice sharing menu. It’s more affordable than Chapter One but still a fine dining, multi-course experience. The food has an emphasis on seasonal produce and is cooked over an open fire.

The flavours at the hot D8 spot Variety Jones are already near perfection. "I wouldn't want to sit at the first table by the door on a chilly night - but the food is nigh on perfect already. I can't wait to go back. I might even sit at the bar," Katy McGuinness.

Additionally, one-star restaurants include Bastible, Glover’s Alley, and Variety Jones. This means that the bulk of the Michelin Stars in Ireland have been awarded to restaurants outside of Dublin, which is a great accomplishment!

Variety Jones Michelin Star Restaurant sandwiched between other properties with no sign above the door creates an exciting atmosphere from the get-go. The long, narrow room has a funky, modern style with an inviting ....

Ichigo Ichie in Cork, Lady Helen in Thomastown, Loam in Galway, The Oak Room in Adare, Variety Jones in Dublin and Wild Honey Inn in Lisdoonvarna also kept their place in the guide.

If you’re in the market for something more refined, I suggest sampling the innovative Irish dishes at Variety Jones or the French-inspired menu at Pichet.