Stoneybatter has no shortage of cafes and restaurants, but Vada is one of those rare openings that settles into the street as if it has always been there. It feels like Sarah Boland made the restaurant she wanted for herself and then let everybody else in.
It’s a compact, lively room with polished concrete floors, a white-tiled counter, and dark green banquettes flanked by wooden panelling running the length of two walls. Overhead, pale orbs of light throw a soft, honeyed glow, catching on the bunches of dried herbs suspended from the ceiling, with cafe curtains filtering the evening light.
Wine bottles are shelved high above the bar, and coffee cups stacked beside the machine tell you that the space works just as well for breakfast and brunch. That’s how Vada began when Boland first opened it last year, before expanding to dinner service on Fridays and Saturdays this summer. It’s a clever balance: a neighbourhood place that feels both relaxed and quietly stylish.
Boland is Ballymaloe-trained, and in Hannah O’Donnell – a former sous chef at Kai – she has a head chef who shares her principles. They are both intent on running a sustainable kitchen where nothing is wasted. Stocks are drawn from every trim – pork, beef, fish – while vegetable scraps are turned into vinegars and oils, cheese rinds into béchamel. Fermentation plays a central role: apple cores that might be binned end up in kefir or kombucha, and the short Clare blueberry season has been stretched into a fermented hot sauce on this evening’s menu, paired with turbot crudo. Nothing is wasted, and it comes through in the depth of the cooking.
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The menu runs from small bites to small and large plates, with two desserts to round it off. Most of the interest sits in the small plates section (€10-€17) with turbot crudo, yukhoe-style beef tartare, karaage chicken, stracciatella with broad beans, and smoked trout pâté. The wine list is short and could use some edgier producers, but it covers the basics. A pét-nat sparkling wine is a more playful choice than the usual house Champagne and Guerinda “Tres Partes” (€36) is an easy-drinking Garnacha, which takes us through dinner.
From the small-plates section, the stracciatella with broad beans and hazelnuts (€10.50) is a bowl that looks green to the core – a warm broth scattered with herbs, fresh and almost grassy. The stracciatella stretches and melts into it, rich and quite delicious against the clean bite of the beans. Then the surprise: hazelnuts, caramelised to a brittle sweetness, snapping through the softness. It’s layered and bright, vegetable-driven and generous.
Karaage chicken (€12) is a plate of crisp, craggy chunks of chicken stacked over raita, the yoghurt adding a faint sweetness. Thin slices of pickled cucumber bring a sharp, fresh contrast to the butter masala sauce, rich with tomato and a lick of heat. It’s another generous plate, and we’ve clearly over-ordered with two large plates to follow.
Similarly to the earlier dishes, the large plates have nuance and individuality. Nduja brings heat and depth to the halibut with zucchini pilaf (€34), seeping into the pilaf, giving the rice and courgettes a smoky richness.
Andarl Farm pork fillet (€30) comes sliced and pink, set over a mash of grits. Charred corn gives smoke and crunch, peach breaks in with sweetness, and the richness is checked by the bitter, green edge of mole verde.
Plum tarte tatin (€9) is as inviting as it looks, the pastry dark with caramel, the plums collapsed into it until they’re sticky and sweet. The base soaks up fruit and syrup without losing too much crunch, and a scoop of vanilla ice cream slumps over the top, melting into the heat.
Vada has the feel of a neighbourhood restaurant that has been there for years. Tables fill steadily across the evening, and there’s no rush to turn them – people arrive, settle in and stay. Three birthdays play out in one service, marked only by candles and cheers; it’s the kind of backdrop that makes even one of life’s most embarrassing songs bearable. Other diners drop in for wine and a few small plates, and they look just as at-home. The unlucky few who rattle up to the door on spec learn that booking is essential. No doubt they will return to a room that just works: the rhythm, the cooking, the welcome. Dublin could use a dozen more like it.
Dinner for two with a bottle of wine was €131.50.
The verdict: A wonderful neighbourhood restaurant.
Food provenance: The Happy Chicken Project, Kish Fish, Higgins Butchers and Abercorn Farm.
Vegetarian options: Stracciatella with broadbeans; and Toonsbridge stuffed eggplant with chana Bolognese.
Wheelchair access: Fully accessible with an accessible toilet.
Music: Jazz.
