Standfirst: A new produce-led restaurant from chef Ross Bryans opened at The Dean on Friday 16 October, with a menu that changes as Irish farms change — and an open fire at the heart of it.
Dublin has a new dining room, and it only opened yesterday.
Banba, tucked to the rear of The Dean at 35 Harcourt Street, opened to the public on Friday 16 October. It is a produce-led restaurant from executive chef Ross Bryans, set across a late Georgian townhouse and a new double-height dining room — and the idea behind it is refreshingly simple. Rather than building the place around one signature dish, the kitchen is building it around whatever Irish growers are picking at their best that week.
Cooking that follows the farms, not a fixed menu
Bryans has spent the past year building relationships with producers including Reilly Mushrooms in Athlone, Iona Fruit Farm in Oldtown, and McCormack Family Farms, Archer Farm and Carrick Farms in Rush. That farm-first approach is the same reason we rate Dublin’s farmers markets so highly. Dishes are tracked week by week as produce comes into season, and only part of the kitchen’s repertoire is on the menu at any one time — so if you go back within a month, expect to find new plates waiting.
Much of the cooking is done over open fire, with fermentation and pickling used across both the kitchen and the bar. Irish produce leads throughout, even when the inspiration for a dish comes from somewhere else entirely. Bryans describes it as being like going to a friend’s house for a dinner party: it will be something different each time.
That is a confident pitch in a city where diners often order the dish they saw on Instagram. Banba is asking you to trust the kitchen instead — and given Bryans’ background, that is not a blind ask. He has held senior roles at Corrigan’s Mayfair and in Michelin-starred kitchens including Restaurant Gordon Ramsay and Pollen Street Social, where he retained its star in his first year as head chef.
The room, and the drinks
The evening starts at a bar styled more like a kitchen island than a conventional restaurant bar, before you move through lounge spaces in the original townhouse — velvets, vintage rugs and work by Irish artists including Cian Handschuh, Oisín Tozer and Sorcha McNamara. There is an open kitchen if you like watching your dinner happen, and a private dining room on the lower ground floor for groups of up to 10.
The wine list keeps the same local thread running, highlighting Irish winemakers working at home and abroad, including Lusca Wine from Lusk and Les Deux Cols. Beverage operations manager Fergus O’Leary leads the drinks programme.
Why this one matters
Harcourt Street does not lack places to eat and drink, but it has lacked a serious, ingredient-first dining room that feels like it belongs to the neighbourhood rather than just the hotel it sits in. Banba is explicitly aiming beyond The Dean’s own guests. If the seasonal promise holds — menus actually changing, Irish farms actually named and used — this could quickly become one of the more interesting bookings in Dublin 2. We’ve already included it in the hottest restaurants in Dublin right now: autumn 2026 — too new to rank, not too new to try.
Good to know: Banba, 35 Harcourt Street, Dublin 2, D02 WC81. Open Wednesday to Saturday from 5pm to late, and Sunday 12pm to 8pm. For a more traditional Sunday table, see our guide to Sunday roasts in Dublin worth booking. Book via banbadublin.com or +353 1 476 7848. Check the menu on the day — it changes with the produce.
Photo: Banba via official website (banbadublin.com) — the open fire at Banba, Harcourt Street
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