Balfes

I went here for lunch before Christmas and really enjoyed the experience.
We were a big group and they didn’t seem to be ready to take us when we arrived and so there was a delay in ordering and food arriving but after this hiccup everything ran smoothly.
I got the smoked salmon to start mainly because it came with Guinness bread and I love Guinness bread but was disappointed when it arrived. It was an ok brown bread but think they ran out of Guinness bread. The salmon itself was very good. For main course I chose the roast cod with chorizo clam and tomato cassoulet and this was the star of the show. Beautiful fish cooked delicately and the cassoulet was full of flavour. For dessert I went for the chocolate mousse which was very rich but balanced well with a smooth raspberry sorbet. A great end to a lovely meal.
The staff were all very friendly and I would like to go back again.

I absolutely love the Westbury, the warm and cosy atmosphere always appeals for a nice glass of wine after some shopping on Grafton Street. More recently I’ve starting dropping into Balfe’s, the Bistro style restaurant on the ground floor… I’ve been quite a few times now and can vouch for their cocktails too… they do a mean Margarita!
This time we decided to have a quick bite to eat and see if the food was as good as the drinks! We started of with a glass of wine at the bar… before moving into the restaurant area at the back. The décor is pretty cool, cream walls, black chairs and sofas and marble tables. We got a nice table looking right out onto Clarendon Street … perfect for a bit of people watching :-) We were pretty early so it wasnt too busy but having been numerous times now I can promise you this place is very popular and booking of tables is advised!
We ordered from the All Day Dining menu which has quite a lot of options, from light bites and salads to more substantial steaks and burgers. Feeling pretty healthy, I went for the Pilaf with greens, bulgar wheat, toasted cashews & herbs, € 16. Portion size was decent and it was super tasty and surprisingly filling.
My lovely Mother is a creature of habit, and she gets the chicken dish every time! So unsurprisingly she chose the Grilled lemon & rosemary chicken with braised baby fennel, € 20 and a side of chunky fries at € 4.50.
I did of course help her out with the chips which were delicious and she was more than pleased with her flavoursome chicken. We decided to skip desserts as the mains had filled us up! So instead we sat over another glass of wine and just enjoyed the atmosphere as the place filled up.
Balfe’s is the perfect spot for either a few drinks or a full meal if you are looking for somewhere central in the city. They offer top quality food and drinks with friendly service and a buzzing atmosphere — spot on!

Great location but the reputation for gruff and indifferent wait staff is true and annoying. We sat in the outdoor café area. We had panhandlers continually hitting us during the meal. Blafes? Skip it.

A little bit more expensive than other places but great if you’re looking for a quiet place to have a drink on a Saturday night. Town was busy after the rugby but we got a table around 8pm. Lovely outdoor area that I will try when it gets a bit warmer. Music was low that you could talk (a rarity these days) and Curtis Mayfield was in tune with the atmosphere. The bill was € 19 for a pint, glass of prosecco and Sprite, but we got a decent portion of nuts with it.

I really like Balfes, better than the restaurant/​Bar that was there before they reinvented the whole thing.
The service is very professional and flexible, I really like going to places that have no problem serving someone coffee or tea with dessert while everyone else are having a drink!
They have a good selection of drinks including really decent coffee! The new food menu is pretty good too, and the extension on the outdoor seating is warm and lovely blankets are always supplied.

I think this would be more of a 2.5 rating for me but I’m feeling generous this morning and rounding up. Balfes just didn’t do it for me. From the moment I walked in and gave the hostess the name of the person who made the reservation I was met with a look of utter confusion and almost annoyance. We were seated quickly enough and browsed the menus. Everything sounded delicious but upon eating it, it wasn’t very stand-​out. I had the blueberry pancakes and the onion rings. The onion rings started out nice but towards the end got very oily and I couldn’t finish them.
Service was ok but there was a miscommunication between someone in our group and the waitress about whether a dish was vegetarian or not. My dining partner was assured it was vegetarian and it came out with bacon. It was easily corrected and a new dish brought out quickly, but if the server had known all the dishes it probably wouldn’t have happened.
This review sounds a bit mean, but that wasn’t my intention. It just wasn’t my cup of tea. It’s gorgeous inside and the food was decent but I don’t think I’d be back.

A Unilocal elite bruncheon organised by ever so lovely Emily brought me to Balfe’s.
Fashionably late (apologies again), I was the last one to arrive and therefore missed the introductions and first impression of the service. Our main waitress didn’t strike me as ‘suitable’ for what Balfe’s is trying to achieve. Maybe she was new. She didn’t know the specials or soup of the day, on enquiring about the portion size of the scallop dish, she first described the size of the plate then, on me re-​phrasing the question to how many scallops will be served, she replied 5, whereas infact I got only 3. 14Euro for 3 (although perfectly cleaned and cooked) scallops in Dublin (not on some mountain in Switzerland) is pretty steep.
The brunch menu has a good selection to suit everyone’s taste and appetite, the interior is nice, clean-​cut whites and chrome if you are into that sort of thing.
Overall, the food was very tasty but the service wasn’t great therefore I probably wouldn’t return unless it would be in equally good company as this time around and everyone would insist on brunching at Balfe’s.

Well the place itself is very elegant and spacious and comfortable.
I went for one of the more simple foods on the menu in comparison to the rest — blueberry pancakes and rashers … then i just ordered a black coffee. I enjoyed my meal overall the pancakes were tasty but just a note that the blueberries come mixed in with the pancakes… They don’t come piled on top which is what I expected but I still enjoyed that isn’t a flaw as such just letting people know how they come !! So yous aren’t slightly disappointed if you have a certain picture in your mind.
.:-) i agree with the other comments there about the service — there didn’t seem to be a solid system however I didn’t find the staff rude as such — just a bit unsure of what they were doing and for all I know they may have been brand new staff only learning … so if that’s the case I wouldn’t say no to returning as we have all been there — being new to the job and thrown into the deep end. So will give them an open mind just in case.
So yeah the food was enjoyable but I don’t know if it was definitely worth the price. I have a sneaky suspicion your paying for the idea of eating in «the Westbury» as oppose to the quality of the food …

I had high hopes about this place, perfectly packaged, it resembles a swanky New York dining establishment, based on appearances alone, it seemed like the perfect venue for a fancy Saturday afternoon brunch.
I loved the interior, very cool, with lots of monochrome and gleaming chrome and steel surfaces and fixtures. The attention to detail of the branding and presentation was really impressive. And so onto the food — while we waited on our food to arrive I had a hot chocolate, it was served in a lovely glass, but tasted like bog standard supermarket powder mix. Meh. Not a great start.
I ordered the Eggs Benedict and specified that I was a vegetarian — I was assured that this would be fine. When my dish came out I was presented with eggs laid neatly on top of two slices of bacon. I was informed that I should have ordered the Eggs Florentine, which is reasonable but why didn’t the waitress point this out when I ordered? I would have expected of such an upmarket venue that the waiting staff would have a knowledge of the food they were serving, and I was more than a little embarrassed to have to make a fuss in front of my dining partners.
The buttermilk onion rings were very greasy and sickly tasting, over sweetened and over salted, I gulped down a few glasses of water after eating them, that’s for sure! My dining companions found their food satisfactory but weren’t overwhelmed, we found the portions were on the small side. I should say that I thought the condiments presented in the mini heinz jars a little naff.
I’m not entirely convinced I’d return, its a slick package, but its the contents that matter. The staff seem to require more training, and the food hasn’t got the wow factor that the marketing promises.

I have to say I was a little disappointed with this place. I had expected great things but they just never really transpired.
So, let’s start with the good:
— The décor — it’s really really gorgeous in here. Monochrome, chrome, and fabulous accessories abound. (I was particularly taken with the teapot in the picture)
And then the rest:
— There was a less than warm welcome by the host at the beginning, which was unfortunate as set the meal off to the wrong tone
— The main waitress that served us seemed like maybe she was new? One of my guests ordered food without meat, it came with (she’s vegetarian), another asked about one of the dishes — the scallops — and was told the dish came with 5 or 6, in fact it came with only three. She didn’t know the specials, it was all a little bit haphazard.
— We had a different person bring us over our bill, so all in all, we had about four different staff members, but nothing consistent, and there was no goodbye or thank you at the end which again was a real shame.
— The food was good, but not great. To go back to the scallops, they were perfectly cooked, but for € 14, you would surely expect more than three! The rest of the food again was good but not exceptional.
All in all, although the setting was lovely, the service let it down considerably.
There was no rudeness per se, so perhaps it was just an off day — the staff seemed nice, just maybe not fully trained properly yet or not having a good one. I think there’s room here for improvement as the staff get used to the place, so I’d like to say I’d go back and give it another shot at another time.

There is something about office Christmas lunches that makes me wonder whether restaurants don’t pre-​programme themselves to a mediocrity setting when they take bookings.
I know it’s wrong to assume, but it’s the exception more than the rule that they are any good, even places with decent reputations.
But despite being an enjoyable lunch, down to colleagues and joviality, eating here was an underwhelming experience.
There was a lukewarm welcome by a hostess who looked throughout as if she had better places to be. A decent and friendly waiter improved the atmosphere — but the food was a let down.
A very pasty gnocci pasta felt something like edible penance, and the berries in custard were a) frozen, and not quite defrosted with b) swimming in a sea of runny unappetising yellow.
Set menu dishes such as pheasant were off (we were a lunchtime party of 12 or so), and while we didn’t quite feel as if they’d rather not have us there, you couldn’t help feeling they’d be glad when we’d cleared out nonetheless.
In truth, both times I’ve been here I’ve found the atmosphere cold, and it may be décor-​based too with its cool tiles amounting to a slightly clinical feel. But I find it to have a strange mix of ennui and thinking too much of itself I associate with a particular style of city restaurant worldwide, usually not long established, and it’ll be interesting to see if Balfes will still count among the ranks in years to come.

We celebrated a friend’s birthday here in a Saturday night. The place was hopping. The service though despite the craziness was excellent.
They have a Josper grill so we all went for mains cooked in this. My t bone was fantastic — never had this cut before. My salad to start was light and tasty. All my friends loved the food. We drank Ramon Bilbao red and a delicious NZ sauvignon blanc — both excellent.
I think the new look is great. The concept of that you can pop in anytime during the day and have a light bite, a coffee or a drink or a full meal. The general consensus was that it works.
The GM called David came down and chatted to us. He’s a great front of house manager and very personable. We will be back.

Came here with my mom for lunch in Saturday and boy was it jam packed! Recently opened to replace the old Café Novo in Westbury hotel, this new café Balfes has a better menu with good variety. I loved the omelette on their brunch menu, and the soups taste nice too. But when I got my soup it was lukewarm and not hot which I wasn’t too happy about, but I’ll guess it was because it was so busy. They also have sandwiches, salads, pancakes, burgers, fries, a few fish dishes and roast chicken.
The service is really good, and the atmosphere is really lively, so it seems like a great place for an event or special occasion. However, it’s a bit on the pricy side since it’s quite classy, but unaffordable. Most things on the menu were between € 14 – 20.
Over a nice place for a classy lunch/​dinner!

Great location and really nice vibe. Had lunch here with a group of friends. Everyone thought it was very average. I got my meal after all my group had finished their food and the two people in the group who got steak, found it was overdone and dry. There are much better places to go in town for a similar menu.

Don’t let the location put you off, this is a great restaurant.
Décor lies somewhere between NYC and Paris, in other words, awesome.
Food was perfectly cooked and presented and service was pleasant and polite.
Make sure to try their Irish coffee, best I’ve had.