Reviews and acclaim

Praise for Cafe Paradiso

The Bridgestone Vegetarian Guide

‘Café Paradiso’s Denis Cotter is the finest vegetarian cook in these islands. Café Paradiso is the magical confection of a truly original cook, a man who not only puts his ideas into delicious practice every day of the week, but whose theories on the subject of vegetarian cooking as evidenced by his outstanding book “The Café Paradiso Cookbook”, have led to what we believe is the finest cookbook every written by any chef anywhere. If you can’t live without the book, you can’t live without the restaurant. Democratic, fun, distinct, there is no other room like it. Potato and watercress gnocchi in a roasted tomato cream is both light and yet gutsy, and when that watercress appears again in a risotto with avocado and a stew of cannelloni beans it serves a wholly different role, this time drawing our the flavours of the avocado. This is what makes Denis Cotter’s work so special, the way in which ingredients are played with like so many themes in a piece of music, juxtaposed, counterpointed, often just plain improvised. Great wines, great sounds, great service, and one of the greatest Irish restaurants of all time.’