On a quiet stretch of the Drumcondra Road, Holi reopens the cooking of India’s royal kitchens — dishes seldom attempted in Ireland, set down with the ease of a neighbourhood table.
Diners’ ChoiceI — The house
Holi began with a stubborn idea: that the food of India’s courts deserves the same care Dublin reserves for its tasting rooms, and that none of it should feel intimidating. Our kitchen works to old technique — spices ground to order, gravies built in stages, meat rested properly — and then sets the result on the table without fuss.
We cook with olive oil and cholesterol-free vegetable oil alone, and the greater part of our menu is naturally gluten free. Not as a claim, simply as how we prefer to cook.
Two minutes from Croke Park and a step from Drumcondra station — equally suited to a long anniversary dinner or a Tuesday that needed rescuing.
III — From the kitchen
Everything here is cooked to order. These four are the ones guests come back for, and the ones we would send out to a table that asked us to choose.
House signature
Chicken drawn slowly through a gravy thickened with almond and cashew, sweetened by dried fruit and lifted with green cardamom. A dish that came down to us from the Mughal courts, and has barely needed changing.
— Cooked to order —
Chef’s choice
Kashmiri chilli for colour rather than heat, whole spice, a thread of saffron, and lamb left on a low flame until the sauce turns dark and clings. Fragrant first, warm afterwards.
— From the valleys of Kashmir —
Without meat
Paneer made fresh, marinated in yoghurt and tandoori spice, charred hard in the oven and folded late into a smoked tomato sauce so it keeps its edge. The vegetarian order we are proudest of.
— Naturally gluten free —
The one everybody orders
Tandoori chicken, tomato cooked down until it sweetens on its own, butter, and a deliberately restrained hand with the cream. Familiar, yes — but made the long way.
— The timeless one —
IV — The tasting menu
Rang means colour — and the feeling colour carries. It is the name we gave our tasting menu because that is the only honest description of what it does: a sequence of courses that moves from bright to deep, cooked from the traditions of India’s palace kitchens.
Several of these dishes have never been served in Ireland. They are best met in order, in the room, over an unhurried evening.
Served at dinner, by arrangement, for the whole table. Please book ahead so the kitchen can prepare.
V — The room
Low light, a room that fills early, and plates that arrive without announcement. Photographed on ordinary nights.
VI — Visit