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The Morning Bakery takeaway review: Top-notch focaccia sandwiches big enough to share

Duo behind Loose Canon wine bar have created a bakery serving six types of focaccia and tasty pastries

Food at The Morning Bakery
Food at The Morning Bakery
The Morning Bakery
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Address: 49-50 Pleasants Street, Dublin 8
Telephone: N/A
Cuisine: Modern International
Website: https://themorning.ie/Opens in new window
Cost: €€

What’s on offer?

Brian Ó Caoimh and Kevin Powell, the duo behind Loose Canon and the legendary cheese toastie, first made their name with Meet Me in the Morning, a hugely popular brunch spot on Pleasants Street. Reopening post-pandemic, they decided to specialise in baking, changing their kitchen set-up dramatically, with equipment for laminating pastry and making focaccia dough. For a while Table Wine, a wine bar with small plates, occupied the dining space. It is now a cafe, serving excellent coffee and baked goods.

Typically there are six different focaccia options made from a dough that is fermented over two days with fresh yeast, two sandwich options, a morning bun and an array of pastries. With a new Rofco oven installed in December 2024 is going to be the “year of the savoury” and they’re working on a baguette. There is a separate hatch for takeaway, and prices are the same for sit-in or takeaway.

What did we order?

A jambon, chicken sandwich, veggie sandwich and Danish pastry.

How was the service?

As there was a table available, we opted to eat in rather than order from the hatch. Service was efficient.

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Was the food nice?

The jambon is a posh take on the deli favourite, with beautifully laminated pastry dusted with cheese and filled with potato, mozzarella and mortadella. The focaccia in the sandwiches shows evidence of a long ferment with a beautifully developed crumb, aerated with plenty of large holes. It has a good chewiness and flavour, with a dusting of salt crystals on top.

The sandwiches are very generously sized; it you weren’t too hungry you could share one. The vegetable sandwich was notably good, with the sweetness and richness of roast peppers, aubergines, carrots, courgettes, garlicky hummus and good-quality leaves.

The chicken in the other sandwich was free-range and succulent, with chilli mayo, cucumber pickles and mixed leaves.

The Danish pastry was a delicious mix of berries and custard on laminated pastry.

The Morning Bakery
The Morning Bakery

What about the packaging?

All packaging is compostable, and if you don’t have a reusable cup, coffee cups are from Decent, a Dublin-run company.

What did it cost?

€27.70 for lunch for two people: jambon, €4.50; veggie sandwich, €9.20; chicken sandwich, €9.50; and Danish pastry, €4.50.

Where does it deliver?

Pick-up only, open daily: Mon-Fri 8am-4pm; Sat 8.30am-4pm and Sun 9am-4pm.

Would I order it again?

Most definitely and I’m looking forward to seeing what’s going to be added to the menu.

Corinna Hardgrave

Corinna Hardgrave

Corinna Hardgrave, a contributor to The Irish Times, writes a weekly restaurant column