Brooks Hotel

City Centre Hotel & Restaurant

It is difficult to encapsulate the qualities that are the making of a great hotel. Is it the large luxurious rooms? Is it the exemplary concierge service? Is it the wonderful foyer, the housekeeping, the kitchen, the friendly staff? The truth is that it is all of these qualities and a little something on top. It is just this something extra that makes Brooks Hotel truly special.

Dublin can be an exhausting city and there are few true havens within the city limits. We arrive post hustle and bustle and are immediately struck by the calming, muted colours of the hotel's welcoming Jasmine Bar and the even calmer tones of the welcoming reception staff! Having been briefed on the hotel's facilities, we are ushered to our room to refresh before dinner. The rooms at Brooks range from Classic to Deluxe to Executive and are simple and stylish with contemporary yet classic touches. Bathrooms are funky, streamlined and modern and the overall impression is that the rooms are appointed in a style of timeless elegance.

Dinner was in the hotel's Francesca Restaurant, which is cleverly situated at the rear of the building away from the bustling street and in a little sanctuary all of its own. As with all Good Food Ireland Members, Chef Patrick McLarnon is passionate about his sourcing and the menu reads like a lexicon of Irish artisan producers. We start with a plate of McConnell's fantastic smoked fish, served on some of Pat's own brown soda bread and horseradish cream. With this, a steaming west coast mussel and shrimp gratin and melba toast made for a perfect start to our evening. Next, a succulent breast of free roaming Fermanagh chicken and a seriously good sirloin of Irish Aberdeen Angus, both form Kettyle Food's stable of small farmers. The chicken was rubbed with piquant spices and served with a creamy Parmesan polenta and the steak was cooked blue as requested and paired with classic spinach, onion rings, peppercorn sauce and Gold River Farm potato chips. Such attention to food provenance is rare in a hotel and the quality of the food is all the better for it. Afterwards, Gold River Farm again provided the main ingredient for the delightful rhubarb crumble with spiced ginger ice-cream and an apricot and almond tart was all that one could hope for...the nutty, fruity frangipan melted in the mouth.

A post-postprandial drink brought us back to the Jasmine Bar where we found a stunning array of whiskies of the world (over one hundred and thirty in all!) and further enquiry revealed that Brooks is Ireland's first member of the Great Whiskey Bars of the World and a regular meeting spot for the Whiskey Society of Ireland.

Breakfast the following morning is a breath- taking buffet of home-baked breads, pastries, cakes, home-made bircher muesli, porridge with Irish Mist or a full menu of pancakes, kippers and a traditional fry, all cooked to order! We opt for a traditional Irish breakfast and again, the kitchen have prioritised provenance and quality and there, once again are some excellent producers, Tolka free-range eggs and the delicious Loughnane sausages.

The hotel has some fantastic corporate facilities. There is a stylish screening room, which, together with four other meeting rooms provide state of the art conference facilities. The staff are personable and passionate about hospitality and equally at home catering for intimate, boutique events and those of a larger, corporate nature, from twenty to sixty people. High powered business people rub shoulders with community book clubs and this is how they would like it to stay. They even provide a regular home to a knitting club!

Brooks truly is a city centre gem. It has all the chic style of a trendy boutique hotel but all the personality of a small, family hotel where staff are genuinely happy to help. The rooms are gorgeous, the staff are charming and the food is fantastic...need we say more?!

Click Here to view sample A la Carte Menu from Francesca's Restaurant.

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Contact Details

To Contact a Member Directly, please click on the email or website below

Drury Street
Dublin 2
+353 (0)1 6704000
Email: reservations@brookshotel.ie
Web: www.brookshotel.ie

 

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