mae

Black garlic at the pass

Black garlic folds into beurre blanc for cod at the pass, and chef Gráinne O’Keefe works inside that tight first-floor rhythm at mae in Ballsbridge, Dublin. The room sits above the French Paradox wine shop at 53 Shelbourne Road, a family-run business passed down generations, which makes the cellar feel less like an accessory than a working neighbour. She opened mae in August 2021 as a modern Irish restaurant with a tasting menu format, and the name keeps a family presence close to the bench: Mae was her late grandmother, a cook she names first among her influences. O’Keefe came to it from Clanbrassil House and from Bujo Burgers in Sandymount, two very different disciplines to carry into one small room. The kitchen’s stated ground is Irish produce, handled with enough restraint to keep the producer visible: Glenmar Shellfish, Goatsbridge Trout Farm, Durrus, Milleens, Cashel Blue and Gubbeen Smokehouse all sit in that circle of makers.

A tasting menu shaped by acidity

The menu moves in a fixed progression: snacks, starter, a main course, dessert, with Irish cheese available as its own turn. That structure gives the kitchen control over pace and temperature, which matters when a smoked bacon croquette, hot smoked trout with red cabbage, caramelised leek and feta tartlet, or smoked Hegarty’s cheddar agnolotti has only a small window to land properly. Brown butter basted hake can arrive with cauliflower, grilled corn and fishcake; John Stone beef can come with braised shin bourguignon and girolle mushrooms. Earlier plates have carried crab crumpet with horseradish, brisket croquette with Cáis na Tire, dry-aged Higgins beef with chimichurri, and chicken liver tartlet sharpened by apple balsamic. The discipline is texture and acidity before display. A dish like cod with black garlic beurre blanc depends on the sauce not swallowing the fish. The tarte tatin, served with Calvados and crème fraîche, has become the dessert people return to by name.

Above the wine shop

The room is narrow, warm and close to the counter, with the kind of intimacy that makes a tasting menu feel bench-side rather than staged. Warm lighting, relaxed design and conversational noise keep the mood personable, while the hidden first-floor setting gives the place its own pressure: guests arrive out of the street and into a room already tuned to service. Wine pairing is not treated as ornament. The French Paradox connection below gives mae direct proximity to French selections built over decades, and the food leans into that structure with brightness, fat, salt and smoke. Even the knife selection has a hand-to-hand quality, with artisanal steak knives placing another maker at the table, part of a wider intent to put Irish ceramicists, embroiderers, glassblowers and knife makers into the meal.

The thing that stays on the table

Mae has been included in the Michelin Guide since 2022, and the restaurant keeps returning to the same set of craft questions: which farmer, which fish, which cheese, which cut, which wine. In the room, the argument is made course by course, then closed with apple tarte tatin and Calvados crème fraîche.