Kerala Kitchen 5 Baggot Street Upper, County Dublin D04 N2X3

"For Indian food that's beyond your textbook Irish Indian shop, 5 stars. For a foreigner, don't hold out on the 2 stars off please, dine in or takeaway, credit to the chefs! The atmosphere of this place was great. And old house converted into a cozy intimate setting with all its creaks. The seating is a mix of benches and couple separate chairs and tables to seat 15-20 i think. They've got fixed menu with a special of the day. Also your typical drinks menu too. Cutlery and plates are that rustic steel which goes with the theme of the lighting and setting. Food portions were nice and you can either go with 1 bread and some rice or 3 breads for 2 for a decent meal if ordering dishes besides biryani. The food itself was yum! Healthy change to the typical korma, butter chicken, tikka masala copy paste shops out there. We had the black dal and goan chicken with the chicken biryani. Dal was closest to dal makhni, the goan, bursting with flavours and alive in your mouth and the biryani was reminiscent of a south Indian biryani (one off, differs from each region) Now, the cons of Kerala kitchen. I think this place took the name literally. As a keralite, the only thing Kerala was the kitchen staff maybe, the folks at reception and maybe 2-3 dishes. Kerala is a one part of South India. Indian cuisine is quite diverse and keralite food is dying of recognition in Ireland. Expecting some menus and decors or wait staff from kerala was a disappointment. I ran down from seating to chat in Malayalam (language in kerala) with the staff manning the phones to discuss kerala food and options rather than having a convo about it with the waiters and be thrilled with various menu options. What i thought was finally a representation of this cuisine of Indian food, away from the stereotypes was short lived and we settled for the goan dish, Indian dal and Tamil biryani. A quintessential for keralite menu is food like porotta, beef fry, appam, fish moilee, puttu.. something to excite the various wonderful flavours but we had to resort to the usual Indian (with a twist), a couple South Indian dishes with your guaranteed favourite North Indian cuisine. If you're in the mood for brilliant, delicious food and good atmosphere, Kerala kitchen is right up your alley with affordable prices too. If you want to experience the menu and immerse for an experience from God's own country a.k.a Kerala, humbly look elsewhere. Nonetheless, support such places for trying to keep up in this Irish economy. Much love, nanni! P.S. for inspiration on modern keralite food joints outside kerala, have a look at Kerala cafe chain in Vasai, India."

"I could be critical here coz I have my origins in Kerala and my expectation of the dishes were high. Good ambiance, nice staff, and decent dishes, some stuff inspired from Kerala in terms of food, but that’s that. A decent Indian cuisine place."

"Had a flavourful dinner here. Most items were well prepared with the right balance of spices. We requested a slight tweak to one of the ordered item and it was considered by the Chef. Booked a table over phone and they were quite flexible with the timings. The place could be slightly cramped if full. Overall service was good. The only thing that I couldn't digest was naming it Ambur Biryani while it was no way close to reality. As someone who has relished authentic Ambur, Arcot Biriyani since very long found it unacceptable, they could have simply named it Biriyani."

"The place is good,decent price point,friendly staff and lively ambience. If you are missing Indian food in Dublin,this is the place to go. There is less kerala and more North Indian on the menu. Don't go by the name of the place. I've tried channa rice and beg biryani here,both were awesome. Not to forget the masala Chai they serve, so very Indian! It is rather hard to get a table here,weekends all the more difficult. So to avoid disappointment,please pre book a table. The staff is very friendly,they also customize the spice leave and that was such a welcome when I was missing Indian food. Try the place of you are a veg and particular about Indian food once in a while!"

"TLDR; very nice Indian restaurant, great staff and good price point We went there on a Friday evening with friends and we were really pleased both by the place and the meal. The service was great, very polite and caring for the table. Especially as there was a big event next to us and they served our table first. The rice and chicken portions are adequate, just the right size. We would really recommend this restaurant if you are looking for a nice Indian experience in a laid back atmosphere."