The Lobster Pot review: This Ballsbridge classic still flames on – but you'll pay to watch it burn

Irish Times

22-05-2025

If you're going to charge €69.50 for a plate of lobster, prawns, and scallops, you'd better set something on fire. Not metaphorically. Actually on fire. Table-side. With
brandy
. And ideally a bit of Grand Marnier.
Which, to be fair to
The Lobster Pot
, they do. Twice. The prawn bisque is finished with a good glug of Cognac and flambéed with the sort of conviction you want from a place that's been open since 1980 and still sees no reason to do much differently. Later, the Crêpes Suzette arrive with an arsenal of bottles and a flame fit to light a cigar across the room. It's old-school, over the top and impossible to resist.
The problem is what happens in between.
We start strong. The prawn bisque (€11.50) arrives steaming and is finished theatrically with a ladle of flaming Cognac at the table. It tastes of shells – toasted, strained, and simmered until the flavour clings to the spoon. There's depth and richness. You can taste the brandy, not just the idea of it.
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There's a deliberate simplicity to the Dublin Bay prawn salad (€22.50). It's all about the quality of the produce, but the quantity is more surprising: 16 hand-shelled prawns – you can tell by the clean tails and intact texture. A light Marie Rose sauce is spooned over the crustaceans which are arranged over rocket, fine slices of avocado, tomato and a whisper of chervil. It's a dish that's quietly assured, even if nobody's setting it on fire.
Gary Crean, owner of The Lobster Pot restaurant in Ballsbridge. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw
It goes well with a crisp, lemony Muscadet 'Domaine de la Noë', Sèvre et Maine Sur Lie, 2023 (€38.50), from a tightly curated, Bordeaux-heavy list with classic Burgundy names and safe global padding. There's barely a bottle under €40.
Then the illusion cracks.
The chef's special (€69.50) – half a lobster, scallops and garlic prawns – is introduced earlier with a promising platter of the evening's catch. What arrives is half a modest lobster, three scallops with the roe left on, and four prawns from the distant tropics – oddly not Dublin Bay prawns, given their abundance in the starter.
The Lobster Pot opened in Ballsbridge in 1980. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw
The Lobster Pot: Dover Sole. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw
The lobster tail is styled to look plumper than it is, padded out with a scallop topped with an enormous sac of coral roe, concealing the paltry amount of lobster meat tucked back into the shell. There's no clarity of flavour, no finesse – just seafood sweating it out on a plate, most of it soft, some of it chewy. It's a cynical plate at a high price.
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The Black Dover sole, grilled on the bone (€48.95), is golden, doused in butter, and quietly magnificent. The spine lifts clean, the flesh flakes perfectly. It's a good piece of fish, cooked with care, served without fuss, and actually worth the money. Compared to the special, it feels like it came from another kitchen entirely. A side of creamed spinach (€5.95) holds its own.
And then, the finale.
Crêpes Suzette (€29.95 for two) rolls up on a well-worn trolley, with a waiter who clearly relishes the show. The sauce builds: butter, sugar, a squeeze of orange juice – reducing to a rich, sticky syrup. The booze hits the pan – Cointreau, Grand Marnier, Hennessy – and the whole thing ignites in a blaze of glory, the kind of flambé spectacle you thought died out with steak Diane and cigar ashtrays.
The crêpes are a touch thick, more like pancakes, but they hold the sauce like champions. The syrup is deep, sharp, and unapologetically alcoholic. It's theatrical, excessive, absurd – and completely brilliant.
The Lobster Pot still smoulders with the charm of another era. Gary Crean has run it since 1991, taking over from his father Thomas, who opened it in 1980. While the rest of Dublin's dining scene has remodelled, rebranded or given up entirely, this one has held its line – an unchanged island in a sea of small plate restaurants and natural wine bars.
But even the most beloved institutions can burn through their own goodwill if they push their prices too far beyond what the plate can carry. The chef's special isn't special. It's a flashy misdirection – like someone trying to slap credibility on to an empty shell.
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With Shanahan's now shuttered, The Lobster Pot is one of the last of its kind: white tablecloths, French sauces and silver service. There's comfort in its refusal to change. It should feel like the grand old blaze of Dublin hospitality – but you can't taste nostalgia. Not even under a ladle of brandy.
Dinner for two with a bottle of wine and 13 per cent inclusive service charge was €227.40.
The Verdict:
7/10 Good food, but the chef's special burns trust at €69.50 a plate.
Food provenance:
Mourne Seafoods, Glenmar Seafood, Wrights, Glinvalley Free range chicken, and beef from Sysco.
Vegetarian options:
No main course option. Starters of grilled grapefruit, melon, corn on the cob, vegetable soup and French onion soup.
Wheelchair access:
No accessible room or toilet.
Music:
Background piano music.