Hawksmoor has opened its first restaurant outside the United Kingdom, with a 160-cover site on Dame Lane in Dublin's city centre beginning service this week. The opening marks a landmark moment for a brand that started as a single dining room in Spitalfields in 2006 and has since become one of the most commercially successful and critically respected restaurant groups in Britain.
The Dublin restaurant occupies a double-basement space in a Georgian building a short walk from Dublin Castle, designed by the same studio responsible for Hawksmoor's Manchester and Edinburgh sites. The interior follows the group's characteristic aesthetic — dark panelling, leather banquettes, the sense that the room has been there far longer than it has — while incorporating material references to the host city, including Connemara marble on the bar top and custom glassware produced by a Waterford-based studio.
The food and drink programme
The menu is consistent with Hawksmoor's established format: dry-aged beef from a single-breed Irish supplier, a raw bar anchored by Carlingford oysters and dressed crab, and a cocktail programme built around the group's deep affection for correctly made classics. The Dublin team has worked with Irish farmers to source the majority of the protein locally — a departure from the usual reliance on Welsh Black and Longhorn cattle, and one that the group says reflects a genuine conviction that the quality of Irish grass-fed beef is exceptional.
The wine list has been developed by the group's director of wine, who spent time in Ireland ahead of the opening consulting with Irish sommeliers and building relationships with European importers operating in the market. A modest but well-chosen section of Irish whiskey sits alongside the cocktail menu.
Why Dublin
Hawksmoor co-founders Will Beckett and Huw Gott have spoken previously about Dublin as an obvious first step outside the UK — a city with an established appetite for serious restaurant spending, a cultural proximity to the Hawksmoor brand, and a native food culture increasingly confident in its own identity. The post-Brexit regulatory environment makes the Republic of Ireland a more complex trading partner than it was, but Beckett has said the group has managed the operational requirements without significant difficulty.
"Dublin is a serious food city," Beckett said in a statement. "It deserves a serious restaurant. We've worked harder on this opening than on any other we've done, because we wanted to prove that what we do in London and Manchester and Edinburgh translates — not just transplants."
The restaurant is open seven days a week for lunch and dinner. Reservations are available via the Hawksmoor website and the group's app.