Bistra
The darling of Elgin Street hits its stride in season three.
Beyond the lovely food, special wine and poised service, this is a restaurant run by people who adore restaurants. You feel the love in every broad stroke and tiny gesture. It emanates from the wonky whitewashed brick walls that frame the 30-seat dining room, housed in a charming two-storey terrace.
It flows through the white linen, draping just-so at the corners of each table. Golden rosti are crunchy ballast for confit albacore tuna jazzed up with black olives and a Provencal tickle of marjoram. Ricotta is rolled with blanched spinach to make dumplings, which are poached, nuzzled with burnt butter and woken up with pecorino and sage.
Just-set snapper fillet lays on potatoes, a perfect marble sculpture on a pedestal. After the canny appointment of chef John Paul Twomey earlier this year, Bistra has grown into a precise study of what makes restaurants wonderful, enacted in every service with rigour and spirit.
Must-order: Ricotta dumplings.
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Last visited: June 2026
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