ounded in 2018 by brothers and owners Keelan and Aaron Higgs, Variety Jones is a Michelin-starred restaurant located on a quiet stretch of Thomas Street in The Liberties. Awarded its first star in 2019, the restaurant has quickly become one of Dublin's top dining destinations.
Head chef Keelan Higgs, formerly of Locks Brasserie and Chapter One, brings a focused and confident approach to seasonal cooking. His ingredient-driven, shared tasting menu blends global influences with the best of Irish produce.
The Chef’s Choice 6-course set menu is priced at €100 per person and changes regularly to highlight the freshest ingredients, with many dishes featuring bold, smoky flavours from open-fire cooking.
The space is unpretentious: an intimate dining room with exposed brick and contemporary urban art creates a relaxed, welcoming atmosphere. The open kitchen allows guests to watch the chefs at work without it feeling overly formal.
Service is both professional and personable. The team is attentive, knowledgeable, and clearly passionate, providing thoughtful touches like portable hooks for handbags. Sommelier Kathleen curates a wine list of natural and organic wines from small producers to perfectly complement the food.
The head chef personally presented the opening “Snacks” course, a quartet of small bites. The selection featured an oyster with Vietnamese dressing and cucumber, grilled courgette with ricotta and tomato jam, crispy cod skin with gribiche sauce, and duck larb in baby gem lettuce.
Each dish offers a distinct and well-rounded flavour profile, showcasing a thoughtful blend of sweet, salty, savoury and sour notes.
The standout second course is a chilled duck liver parfait with cherries, almonds, and waffles that strikes a smart balance between richness and acidity. The smooth, savoury parfait is complemented by the cherries’ tart sweetness, the crunch of toasted almonds, and the light crispness of the waffle.
The menu then shifts to warmer territory with the curried crab with courgette salad, hot & sour sauce, and wild rice.
It’s a dish that’s both delicate and assertive, with a skillful balance of heat, acidity and sweetness.
Following the earlier courses, a dish of Spaghetti Alfredo with warm sourdough offers a moment of deliberate simplicity.
This understated course is a deeply familiar and creamy comfort that serves as a delicious palate reset, inviting you to slow down before the crescendo of the mains.
For the main course, there was a choice of either BBQ lamb or BBQ monkfish, but the chef decided which dish each person received, so there was no personal choice.
The chef’s choice for us was a celebration of lamb, expertly prepared to be both precise and rustic.
The perfectly seasoned barbecued lamb is smoky and tender, served with grilled greens, aubergine, and a vibrant salsa verde.
For contrast, a lamb neck taco with hot sauce offers a rich, melt-in-your-mouth filling in a crisp shell with the perfect amount of heat.
Dessert at Variety Jones is anything but an afterthought.
The rhubarb baked Alaska with roasted strawberries, salted rhubarb, and fruit salad offers the perfect balance of freshness, acidity, and sweetness to end the meal on a high note.
The presentation is visually stunning, and the flavours are carefully composed, creating a whimsical yet well-balanced finale that echoes the creativity of the previous courses.
Booking a table at Variety Jones requires some planning, as the small restaurant only seats a limited number of guests. Reservations open on the first of every month for the following two months (for example, November and December bookings become available on October 1st at noon). Dinner is served Wednesday to Saturday with two sittings: 5PM-5.30PM and 8PM-8.30PM.
Once you secure a spot, you’re in for a memorable culinary journey that showcases the best Irish ingredients cooked with skill, creativity and heart. This isn’t just a meal – it’s an experience that invites diners to explore bold flavours, seasonal ingredients, and expert cooking in a setting that feels both special and down-to-earth.
Whether you’re a local food lover or visiting Dublin, this is a destination worth discovering.
For more information, visit https://www.varietyjones.ie/.