Coppinger

What's the story with Coppinger?

You remember Coppinger Row right? Opened mid-recession in 2009; became a central player in Dublin dining for the next 12 years; was engulfed in a social media meltdown after Beyoncé and Jay Z were papped having dinner there; closed abruptly at the end of 2021 after their pesky landlord decided to put their lease on the open market.

Name-checked everywhere from Vogue to Goop, Coppinger Row had a fanatically nostalgic fanbase, who despaired at the news it was pulling down the shutters for the last time, but lo and behold, those clever Bereen brothers managed to get the lease back into their hands after two and a half years of refusing to give up the fight - what an entirely exhausting palaver.

The result is Coppinger Row 2.0. They've dropped the 'Row' to become 'Coppinger', completely reinvented and redesigned the restaurant space, and unveiled a far sexier menu from Executive Chef Daniel Hannigan and team - the days of black pudding salads and open meatball sandwiches have been parked.

Where should we sit?

There are quite a few different areas so this is somewhere you might want to specify a seating preference when you book. There's bar seating (ideal for solo dining or if you like to watch things from up high), outdoor seating, two circular tables perfect for group catch ups, and a long line of tables for two/four/six along the left wall in the front room looking out onto Coppinger Row.

There's also two sections towards the back of the restaurant which feel a bit more private and removed from the buzz of the main floor. The section at the very back has private dining written all over it.

What should we order?

Good luck making choices here because everything sounds better than the thing before it. Order a couple of snacks while you read it from top to bottom 18 times. On being handed the menus we were told to order what and how we want - refreshing in a world where we're increasingly told to order three courses or get out.

You might be wondering what tarama is. Stop wondering and ask them to bring it. The silky cod's roe based dip (€6.50) comes with a puddle of sweet fennel jam (why is this not more of a thing) and a generous sprinkling of furikake over the top. It's one of the nicest things we've eaten this year - sweet, salty, savoury joy in each scoop.

The kitchen also sent up some muhamarra with marinated red pepper and candied walnut (€6.50) which we hadn't ordered. It's smoky and piquant with contrasting textures and you'll need an order of foccaia (€4) to mop both of them up.

If you stop in for one plate at the bar, make it the tuna crudo with peach, oregano and fennel (€19). It could so easily be a case of the Coco Chanels - just take one thing off. It's not. It's an incredible flavour combo, with sweetness, spice and herbal notes offsetting the fatty fish - we've never tasted anything like it.

Those garlic and chilli gambas a la plancha are back, and still as monstrous as ever. They come in small (€16) or large (€30), and four of them as a starter swimming in that spoonable garlic, chilli and lemon butter sauce with half a slice of sourdough felt like good value.

A round flatbead, piled with sticky, savoury lamb belly, comes with a Belvedere pineapple mint chimichurri (€16) - clearly dreamt up by someone with a flair for flavour. Every bite brings savoury, sweet, sharp, fruity, creamy - consider this an order to order it.

Octopus rice, evidently cooked in squid ink, came with nicely cooked BBQ octopus and dollops of sunny saffron aioli (€17) - an enjoyable dish which the under-seasoned rice and under-flavoured aioli somewhat took away from.

Long, fluffy, crisp pan-fried gnocchi (€26) comes tossed with peas, meaty maitake mushrooms and Hegarty's cheddar, and it's a killer vegetarian dish, easily enough to make you pass on meat or fish, but a little too oily for our delicate taste buds - we couldn't quite finish it which doesn't happen too regularly. A lighter hand with the fats is all that's needed.

Crisp Ballymakenny spuds (€6.50) are hash browns for the 2024 diner, sitting in a pool of Parmesan custard with more of the good stuff on top. This is another dish you'd regret skipping if you saw it pass by on the way to another table, but try to share or you'll struggle to entertain dessert.

The dessert menu is more on the simple side with ice-creams, sorbets and a couple of plates proper - a panna cotta; and a strawberry and elderflower cruller with ice-cream (the menu said strawberry but we think we got vanilla - €12). The well made pastry is partly soaked in syrup by the time it arrives, spilling over with summer strawberries, and the lime zest keeps everything from feeling too sweet.

What about drinks?

The wine list isn't going to get oenophiles' pulses racing, but it's a good one for covering all the bases, and having bottles to satisfy all tastes. There are three sparkling wines for sub €60 (fizz fans will be delighted), and having whites and reds between €35 and €40 will make a lot of squeezed diners very happy. We really liked the Valle des Aigles Cazot Orange, which stood up well to those big flavours.

There's a decent by the glass selection too with bubbles, white, orange, rosé, reds and fortified, and mark ups are not as painful as some of the other restaurants around town. It's clear they want people to see Coppinger as a regular dinner spot, rather than a once a year treat, and we get the feeling they've worked hard to keep prices on the more accessible side.

How was the service?

For the second week in a row it felt like we'd been busted on arrival. Service was very friendly, and twice extras arrived from the kitchen that we "just need to try". Despite this, there were long lulls in service at times, and we spent an hour more there than necessary waiting for various courses to arrive. A lot of the staff are back from the original Coppinger Row, and all seem very upbeat and happy to be home, but things could do with a bit of tightening up - whether that's on the floor or in the kitchen we couldn't tell. It's early days though.

What's the verdict on Coppinger?

The lads behind Coppinger must have thought the world was falling down around them when that lease got pulled from under their feet, but from our vantage point it's the best thing that could have happened to them. We've heard the Bereen Brothers say that Coppinger Row was never really about the food - well Coppinger is, and this update, 15 years after the original opened its doors, couldn't feel any more of the moment.