Special Notice

Covid 19 Update: We are delighted to announce our re-opening on Tuesday 21st July, in time to celebrate our 40 year anniversary. Our entire staff is now undergoing safety training to apply ALL HSE and HSA protocols. Reservations can now be made at 016680025 or info@thelobsterpot.ie. #besafe


Gary Crean

Our Story

Established in 1980, The Lobster Pot Restaurant celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. It remains surely one of Dublin's best kept dining secrets, offering an old-world charm in intimate surroundings. An open fireplace with polished brass and warming hues, set the tone in our friendly, silver service restaurant. Feel the warmth of our greeting and allow us to make your dining experience memorable.

Our preparations depend on the very freshest of ingredients and our menu is updated on a regular basis. We are passionate about sourcing local ingredients that are sustainable, organic, and seasonal. We buy from a variety of purveyors that include smaller fish mongers, cheese makers, and area farmers.

When you browse through our menus you will see all the classics balanced by contemporary trends. We specialize in the wonderful variety of fresh seafood caught off Irish shores. We specialize in seafood but also offer the best cuts of Irish beef, poultry and other meat dishes. While pondering our menu choices you will be presented with our fresh seafood and meat trays to help answer any of your questions. Watch then as many of our signature dishes are prepared before you.

We have assembled an impressive wine list and offer a full licensed bar. Whether it’s the horseshow or convention at the RDS, an international at the new Aviva stadium, or a show at the nearby Grand Canal Theatre, come visit us, we are a short stroll away. ... and thank you allowing us to live out our passion.


Gary Crean

Gallery

  • Welcome to the Lobster Pot. Step in...

  • The Dining room

  • The Dining room

  • Watch while we flambee your peppered steak.

  • Be our guest tonight

  • Sit down and make yourself comfortable

  • Choose from an extensive wine list

  • Our ever changing fresh fish selection

  • Our ever changing fresh fish selection

  • The Dining room

  • The Dining room

  • Enjoy a cocktail from our full bar

Thomas and Gary Crean

The Team

The Lobster Pot was founded by Thomas Crean in 1980 and is now run by his son Gary.

Our creative, passionate and hardworking team has spent time working in some of the best restaurants locally and across Europe. Our goal is to provide the highest level of service, excellent food and an experience that leaves you wanting to return.

   

Press

Georgina Campbell's Ireland

The Seafood Interview supported by BIM

"...Fresh Dublin Bay prawn cocktail with Marie Rose sauce, coquilles St. Jacques and goujons of sole were on the menu thirty-three years ago when Tommy Crean opened the first floor restaurant in a red brick terrace beside the Dodder in Ballsbridge and they've been firm favourites ever since. One of Dublin's oldest family owned restaurants, The Lobster Pot is run today by son Gary, who has retained the well-loved dishes of the menu as well as the elegance of old-style silver service. There's no doubting the house specialty as a tray laden with the seafood selection of the day is presented at the table for diners to choose, allowing for indulgences like sole with a few prawns or scallops on the side. A flexible and skilled kitchen means that the fresh seafood can be prepared to the customer's fancy, perhaps with hollandaise or Mornay sauce, or simply turned in butter .... .... seafood lovers can be assured that there'll always be a place for pan-seared ray wings with brown butter and capers, lobster Thermidor and classic prawn cocktail with cognac scented Marie Rose sauce....."

The Irish Independent

Kevin Myers

"... I'd sworn that I would never enter the Aviva stadium, but on Sunday I was induced to by a friend who had a spare ticket, and the promise of lunch in The Lobster Pot beforehand. It was an interesting journey through time. The lunch was quite superb, a reminder of the Old Ireland that caused people once upon a time absolutely to love a trip here...."

The New York Times

36 Hours in Dublin

... For Old World-style seafood, head to the Lobster Pot, which displays its daily catch on a fish tray that is expertly explained by the staff. If they have it, order the crab claws, delicately seared with garlic butter , as well as the Dublin Bay prawns, which are pan-fried in garlic butter and sweetly melt in your mouth. Save room for crêpes suzette, a flambéed crepe filled with caramelized sugar juice and liqueur. ....worth the splurge.

Dublin In Your Pocket

Warm and inviting with a romantic elegance and enduring passion for fresh, local produce - this Ballsbridge restaurant is a real city stand-out. Opened in 1980 - with the original key members of staff still here - The Lobster Pot offers a bountiful menu of classic meat and seafood dishes, among them Lobster Thermidor, Steak Tartar and Salmon Mornay. The fresh fish is exquisitely prepared, the game in season and the meat beautifully tender. And with a manager who's also the sommelier, wine buffs will be particularly enamoured of the selection. Just around the corner from many of leafy D4’s hotels and embassies, this Dublin gem is well worth the trip..

The Sunday Business Post

..attentive service never goes out of fashion and some of the older touches made an interesting change from stiff formality found elsewhere." "There is plenty on the appetiser menu that I haven't seen in a long time and is worth a revisit. Dressed crab, pickled herring salad, smoked mackerel salad, goujons of sole: all are simply prepared, allowing the quality of the fish to shine through." "We watched as fish was filleted for a customer next to us. The dramatic scene was performed with the speed and expertise of a surgeon" "The expert service combined with the high standards of the starters suggests that a real love affair exists between the owners and the fruit of the sea

Irish Independent Weekender.

Paolo Tullio....."Water Water EveryWhere....When I say you can't get good seafood on the East coast that's a generalisation, it's not strictly true. You can get seafood in Dublin, but it's not the norm. My point is that, for a coastal city of over a million inhabitants, fish restaurants are very few and far between ....The Lobster Pot in Ballsbridge however keeps up the grand old tradition of classic fresh fish dishes."

www.ireland-guide.com.

"On the first floor of a redbrick Ballsbridge terrace, conspicuously located near the Herbert Park Hotel - and just a few minutes walk from all the major Ballsbridge hotels - this long-established restaurant has lost none of its charm or quality over the years.
The whole team - owner Tommy Crean, restaurant manager (and sommelier) John Rigby and head chef Don McGuinness - have been working here together since 1980 and the system is running very sweetly. How good it is to see old favourites like dressed Kilmore Quay crab, home-made chicken liver paté and fresh prawn bisque on the menu, along with fresh prawns mornay and many other old friends, including kidneys turbigo and game in season.
The menu is a treat to read but there’s also a daily fish tray display for specials - dishes are explained and diners are encouraged to choose their own combinations. All this and wonderfully old-fashioned service too, including advice from John Rigby on the best wine to match your meal.

If only there were more places like this - long may it last."

Ballsbridge Dublin

Ballsbridge was the final home of the legendary novelist and playwright Brendan Behan (1923-1964), who wrote The Quare Fellow and Borstal Boy.

A mere stroll from the Restaurant is Dublin's famous Herbert Park. The park is named after Sydney Herbert, father of the Earl of Pembroke, who donated the park to the citizens of Dublin city in 1903. There are some very enjoyable walk-ways through the Park, by the pleasant pond, the extensive lawn areas and the well groomed flower beds.

Football and Rugby fans may be interested in knowing that the Avia Stadium is 5 minutes walk from the Restaurant. With a 80,000 capacity the Aviva generates one of the best atmospheres of any sports stadium

A short stroll from the restaurant door, the Royal Dublin Society (RDS) was founded in 1731 to promote the development of agriculture, arts, science and industry in Ireland. Having moved to a 15 acre site in Ballsbridge in 1879, the grounds have now increased to 40 acres with 10 multi-purpose exhibition halls, the RDS stadium, meeting rooms, bars, restaurants and over 2,000 car parking spaces. Many popular bands and groups use this venue when playing in Ireland.

Hotels in the immediate area include The Herbert Park Hotel, Bewleys Hotel, The Lansdowne Hotel, The Schoolhouse Hotel, The Clayton Burlington Road Hotel and The Shelbourne Hotel.

USA 011-353-1-6680025

EU   00-353-1-6680025

info@thelobsterpot.ie

Early Bird Set Menu: Mon-Fri 6pm - 7:30pm

Dinner: Mon-Sat 6:00pm - 9:45pm

Early opening on request for local events

We are closed Sundays.

Parking is best available along Herbert Park and surrounding neighborhoods

Reservations

Reservations are recommended.

Open for Lunch Mon - Fri for groups of 5 person or more ONLY with advanced booking.

Private Corporate Set or À La Carte Lunch available ONLY with advanced booking. 


00-353-1-6680025
 |  USA  011-353-1-6680025

 

 

Groups / Special Event Dining

Open for Lunch Mon-Fri for groups of 5 person or more with advanced booking.

Open for lunch for all rugby internationals and during the Christmas season.

We are ideally located for pre or post event dining for the following venues.

     

Special Events

The restaurant accomodates 60 comfortably and can be reserved for christmas parties, weddings, confirmations, communions and any corporate or social events.