This breakfast, lunch and tea spot sits at the top of Avoca, a picturesque department store lauded for its fresh approach to Dublin shopping. Try fluffy pancakes with bacon in the summer and a bowl of steaming porridge in the winter. Cakes in the afternoon are a must. Expect to run into visiting Irish-Americans and attractive mothers lunching.

Up a very treacherous staircase indeed is The Winding Stair, a restaurant that overlooks the River Liffey and serves dishes with an emphasis on Irish produce and meat. Originally a second-hand bookshop, The Winding Stair still keeps a smaller version of the store on the lower level, where you can read a book with a bottle of wine. High ceilings, exposed beams and grainy wooden tables make it a good place for a casual date or a quirky business meeting. Try the seasonal greens, short ribs and bread pudding.

Exposed brick and stone walls glow as subtle light filters through the windows and illuminates the collection of modern and contemporary art in this subterranean restaurant. The food here is sophisticated and elegant, a confident step forward from the many old-fashioned Dublin restaurants serving jumbo shrimp cocktails and caesar salads that appeal to Irish Americans visiting the homeland. Expect dishes of cured Clare Island organic salmon, fresh peas and yuzu jelly as well as roast asparagus over a playful tapioca risotto, broad beans and sheep’s cheese.

With five restaurants spread around Dublin, FX Buckley has been an established company in Dublin since the 1930s. They’ve organically expanded from butcher shop to steakhouses and serve top-notch meat in several cuts with indulgent sides. They aim to give each customer the right piece of meat, depending on their preferences for fat and flavour. Try the T-bone, which has both with creamy cauliflower on the side.

Head to this gastro-pub for hearty dishes of Irish-influenced cuisine in a smart atmosphere. Chef Stephen McAllister focuses on simplicity and whips up classics like scotch eggs and chicken supreme. Make sure to try the heavenly cheesecake served in a jam jar.

Inspired by Italian restaurants of 1950s America, this low-lit, subterranean restaurant has nailed the sophisticated kitsch of the era to a tee. Set the world to rights over some osso bucco or lamb ragu with a hearty glass of Chianti, and be sure to leave room for something off the gloriously old-school dessert trolley.

This independently run café and restaurant serves all-day breakfast, excellent salads and delicious pastries and cakes in a cosy, cheerful atmosphere. They credit all the local companies they work with – from the fishmonger to the interior designers, and make virtually everything in-house. Try the Moroccan special followed by a chocolate brownie. The pulled-pork sandwich won best sandwich in Mckennas’ guide (an Irish Zagat).

Put simply, this is a really good burger joint. The patties are generous, and the bun soft enough to absorb simple toppings of tomato, lettuce and ketchup. Bunsen Burger sticks to basics with a menu small enough to fit onto a business card. Try the hand-cut fries. Gluten-free and paleo options available.

Two sisters who trained as pastry chefs in Manhattan returned to Ireland and established a bakery and pastry shop that delivers desserts sure to evoke nostalgia for your grandmother’s cooking. The rhubarb tart, apple crumble and victoria sponge are delicious.

Run by husband and wife team John and Sandy Wyer, Forest Avenue is the long-time leader in Dublin’s diversified dining scene. Named after the street where Sandy grew up in her native Queens, New York, the informal surroundings make for a suitably chill dining experience. Self-proclaimed as ‘a neighbourhood dining room,’ Forest Avenue, located on Sussex Street, serves modern food using excellent seasonal ingredients. The menu changes frequently and features a 5 course tasting for €58; a small considered wine list is also available.

It’s hard to imagine that brunch could ever be unpretentious, but Meet Me In The Morning really rallies. Simple and serene, Meet Me in the Morning – a tribute to Bob Dylan’s song of the same name – is a place for socialising. There is currently no Wifi for customers and laptop free. A small menu puts on emphasises on produce and taste. Local sourcing plays an important role with honey direct from the owner’s father’s hives in Roscommon, organic milk from Coolanowle Farm in Laois. If you can limit yourself to one dish, make it Nut Eile – roasted hazelnuts blitzed and mixed with raw cacao slathered onto toasted slices of Le Levain sourdough and sprinkled with sea salt.

Don’t let the dubious looking takeaway door fool you, Hang Dai Chinese is a far cry from curry chips and 3-in-1’s. Devised by the London-born Chinese chef Andrew Wong, the menu serves up roast duck and dumplings, and the Hang Dai Sour is hard to bear. It’s trippy interior is an unorthodox blend of subway carriage and rubix cube, with neon signage thrown in for millenial measure. With lashing of disco music from last service until the wee hours, this is a great place to transition from dinner, to drinks, to dancing.

Dublin’s drink offering takes all the press when considering the city’s gourmet experiences, but beyond the black stuff, seafood straight from the Irish Sea should be top of your tasting list. Once you’ve circumnavigated the city’s literary map, crossing paths with the statue of Molly Malone a few times, head to Fish Shop for a taste of the fictional fishmonger’s lyrically memorialised cockles and mussels. Below an unobtrusive sign, this Smithfield pit stop plates up top-notch Sligo cockles, Killary Fjord mussels and fish and chips.

Equipped with a Dahl-esque name, our favourite thing about this subterranean joint is its playful take on childhood desserts. The creations cooked up on the pastry chef’s table have a Willy Wonka whimsicality: fudgy chocolate cakes capped with a circle of buttery caramel, ultra-refined walnut whips, and perfect half-moon caramel and custard tarts.