Les Fréres Jacques

I came here in a group of four from a reccomanfation from a french friend. We went out completely underwhelmed.
While service is up to standards of a high end French restaurant the food did not deliver on our expectations. Every dish we had was of good quality, but both in presentation and in concept really lacked in any form of innovation.
The price is mid-​high but not crazy, so if you are looking for an old style French restaurant this is the place to go. I personally think we are not in the 80s anymore and you should go spend your money in any other of the good restaurants in Dublin.

one of my Fav place to eat in Dublin, simple tasty food
pricing but worth it compare to other
lack of space

Was a guest of a company here for lunch recently. I had not been here for a very long time, and was very pleasantly reacquainted with a classic lunch.
We were a group of seven so were shown up to the tables upstairs, nice comfortable room. The staff knew what they were doing from the off, steering us towards a lovely apero, Floc De Gasconne, good start.
Starter was scallops and lobster tail, very fresh, cooked perfectly, delicious sauce which was neither overpowering of too rich.
Main was the classic grilled black sole on the bone, again perfectly cooked and well trimmed which made filleting a joy.
Desert is not really my bag, but I would advise trying the Kouingn Amann, a delicious bread and butter pudding, very tasty.
I will be back, this was a very good lunch in pleasant surroundings with expert service.

What can I say about Les Freres Jacques other than it’s truly magnificent. From the moment you walk in the door you are greeted by the phenomenal buzz, not to mention the lobster tank fizzling away to your right. To your immediate left is a quaint bar accompanied by an old piano, all a cosy fit I might add.
In all the years I’ve been going to Les Freres Jacques, mainly with my family, it has always been very accommodating to us and is, and has been for many years, the endemic restaurant of my family.
The menu is not only voluminous but exquisite. A colourful platter of fresh fish and shellfish is presented as are a range of both dark and white meats. If meat isn’t quite your thing, their legumes are textured and terrific. The duck confit entrée is ever ubiquitous on the menu, and for good reason, it’s marvellous in whatever way it is served. If you are more suited to a casual lunch rather than a fine dining experience, Les Freres Jacques doesn’t disappoint. The lunch menu is again extensive and extremely reasonable in terms of price.
If you take the quality food out of the equation, you are left with a charming, cosy restaurant in the heart of the city with genuine French servers, sommeliers and restauranteurs alike. Les Freres Jacques leaves you juxtaposed it’s that good.

Sorry, I am french and cannot spare this «coup de pied».
Waiters are considering themselves above the job, food was mediocre. Definitely not worth the expensive bill we had to pay.
Stay away, a pale resemblance to its reputation…

Note: all my recent vacation in Ireland Unilocal reviews will have the same 1^st paragraph preamble, for just the review itself skip to the 2^nd paragraph.
On a whirlwind 2 week vacation to Ireland, the girlfriend & I tried to see & experience absolutely as much of this incredible land as we could. We did not accomplish every last activity we wished we could have on our rather ambitious itinerary. Nonetheless, we did discover a land of numerous stunning & magical wonders. We did see a land of unending natural beauty. We did learn of a land with a monumentally long history of trials, tragedies & triumphs. We did get to meet many kind, humorous, warm & generous people. Our vacation to Ireland was just 2 weeks, but that was time enough to know this is a land easy to love & a land to be sorely missed.
For the last meal of our vacation, the girlfriend & I decided to splurge. We had gone under budget enough that we had an appreciable amount of € left that we didn’t want to exchange back to $. The stage was set, but we still wanted to get a good bargain on our splurge. We came across the Early Bird Specials at Les Freres Jacques & it was exactly what we were after.
Les Freres Jacques is classically decorated with white linens. Service was cordial & somewhat formal. The girlfriend & I both opted for the 2 Course € 18 Early Bird Specials. She got Potato Soup with Vanilla Crème Fraiche & Whole Grilled Black Sole Meuniere. I picked Shrimp Breadcrumbed Calamari with Tomato Coulis & Bloody Mary Sorbet & Poached Clare Island Organic Salmon with Ginger Crumble. The menu stated that the Meuniere is their signature dish & was € 15.50 extra. As an added bonus of frugality to our splurge, since it was a Monday night, full bottles of wine were 50% off.
It was a little while before our food began to be served, but was easily worth the wait. The quality, texture & taste of everything was exceptional. The girlfriend’s Potato Soup was creamy deliciousness. My Calamari was perfectly crispy on the outside & not chewy at all on the inside. My Bloody Mary Sorbet was an adventurous, doubly satisfying concoction that could somehow please both Bloody Mary & ice cream cravings simultaneously. My Salmon was flaky & moist excellence but the girlfriend’s Meuniere one of the best fish dishes of any kind I’ve tried anywhere. A signature dish indeed. Our bottle of wine paired nicely with all of it.
Les Freres Jacques was a fantastic splurge of a last meal in Ireland for us. Even better was doing it early on a Monday night so that such a lavish meal didn’t carry quite so much of a lavish price tag. Brilliant cuisine that didn’t offend miserly sensibilities was just the send off we were hoping for. Thank you Les Freres Jacques for being the fitting end to a wonderfully lovely time in Ireland.

We did a colleague’s birthday dinner here. Food and Service are outstanding.

Given that we arrived at 6.45 on a Sat. evening with no reservation we were pushing it but the Maitre D’ said he could accommodate us so long as the table was free by 8.00 so we happily agreed. The décor is very soothing, live music (pianist) tinkling in the corner added to a lovely ambience. The servers were friendly but not in your face and the food was as anticipated, well presented tasty and fast. 3 courses with a half bottle of wine and a cheeky armanac for himself set us back 110.00. Expensive yes but oh so worth it. We had the following. Where there’s a price in brackets means it was extra on top of the early bird special price.
Seared & smoked duck magret, red cabbage & orange salad
Smoked Irish salmon & crab roulade, baby potatoes & vegetable tartare (Extra € 4.50)
Seared Atlantic turbot, leek confit, potato gnocchi & squid ink beurre blanc
Noisette of lamb berbere, polenta galette, roasted almonds & delicate aromatic spiced jus (Extra € 10)
Crème brulée chocolate tarte with five spice ice cream (Extra € 3)
Classic crêpes flambées with ice cream aumonière (Extra € 4)

This place is awesome! The duck in chocolate sauce is simply divine. The wait staff was super nice and best of all, the on line reservation system makes reservation a breeze.

In the high ranks of my expectations of what I would call «good food».
The place is quite intimate — a bit too squeezed maybe? well, it depends what you are looking for.
Ideal for a romantic dinner for instance.
Food is excellent, from meat to fish, starter to desert.
The wine list provides a good range of red, white and rose.
Altogether, two thumbs up for the food, service is very good, just a minor point is the place/​location — however ideal for a romantic restaurant/​theater night out.

This is the diner that purportedly has pictures of the leading restaurant critics in the country posted behind the bar with instructions not to seat them if they turn up; so comfortable are they with the quality of their offering that it cannot be possibly enhanced by mention in one of the daily (or even weekend) rags.
Funnily enough my picture is not sitting beside those of Paolo Tullio and Tom Doorley so I entered and was seated while remaining un-​accosted.
We were led upstairs to a very comfortable dining area and furnished with menus. The staff were plentiful and attentive and we were quickly shown the fish dishes of the eve — brought as they were on a platter in the centre of which was a very alive and presumably very unhappy lobster — I’m not sure how kind that particular display was to be honest.
The amuse-​bouche was a crab meat affair and tasty, quickly followed by a basked of bread — it disappeared, we were hungry.
Starters were spot-​on, not too big, not too small– I had Duck and enjoyed it but I would say it was not the crispy skinned affair I was expecting!
For mains 3 of the 4 of us had steak — fillet served with seasonal veg; again tasty and beautifully presented but not quite pairing up with expectations.
Dinner in any restaurant from McDonalds to Les Freres Jacques is 50% about the food and service and 50% about the company– and this is something that is often missed by reviewers. For our part we had a ball and left in high spirits, replete and eager for a repeat performance.

The first thing that springs to mind when I hear ‘frere Jacques’ is a nursery rhyme and not necessarily one of the best French restaurants in Dublin. There, I said it! It doesn’t look that fancy from the outside, but once you get inside it looks exactly like you’d expect a French restaurant to look– white linen tablecloths, dimmed lights… including the stern and very French waiters. Les Freres Jacques is definitely the most grown-​up restaurant I’ve ever been to and this was just lunch, because they currently have a lunch offer of 2 courses for 18 Euro. There were so many starters and mains on the menu that I liked it was pretty hard to chose… but I settled on the prawn cocktail starter, which came with a delicious avocado pesto and the lamb with polenta and mint juices. The food was well prepared, the service was excellent, so if you’re looking for a place to take someone on a date or just as a treat, go for les freres Jacques.