Dublin's best espresso bars: a three-way comparison

Dublin is not Melbourne, and the difference shows up immediately in a coffee cup. Walk into a café in the Liberties and the barista is more likely to ask whether you want a single origin pour-over than to assume you'll order a flat white. Yet the Irish capital has quietly built a specialty coffee scene that, while smaller than Australia's, punches well above its weight. After half a dozen mornings spent zig-zagging between Grand Canal Dock, Drury Street and the back streets of the Liberties, three espresso bars stand out as essential stops for anyone treating coffee as more than a caffeine delivery system.

The flight from Sydney runs about twenty-four hours, which is roughly the same amount of time it took me to decide which of these three I would return to first. If you are used to the polished, latte-art-driven barista culture of Fitzroy or Surry Hills, Dublin's espresso bars will feel a touch rougher around the edges, but also a bit more honest. The beans are roasted in county Meath or imported directly, the milk comes from farms within a couple of hours of the city, and nobody looks at you sideways for ordering a long black.

The state of Dublin's coffee scene

Specialty coffee in Dublin took root in the late 2000s, a few years behind Melbourne but a few years ahead of much of the rest of Europe. The pioneers were tiny roaster-cum-cafés that treated espresso as a serious ingredient rather than a vehicle for frothed milk. Today the city has a handful of places where the barista will talk you through the producer, the varietal and the roast date before you have even finished choosing a seat.

What is noticeable from an Australian perspective is the relative lack of chains. There is no Dublin equivalent of the high-street café brands that blanket the CBDs of Sydney and Melbourne. Instead the scene is built on independent operators, often roasting on the same premises where they serve. Prices are roughly comparable to what you would pay in Carlton or Newtown once you convert euros to Australian dollars, though a flat white will set you back a little more than it would at your local.

Australians are also accustomed to coffee being a quick, walk-up transaction. In Dublin, especially at the smaller espresso bars, the rhythm is more European: you sit, you order, you read a newspaper, and the bill comes when you ask for it. The phrase "how ya going" might raise a smile from a Dublin barista; "no worries, thanks" is more or less fluent Australian and works anywhere in the city.

3fe: the trailblazer on Grand Canal Street

3fe, which stands for Third Floor Espresso, started in 2008 and has since become the benchmark for specialty coffee in Ireland. The flagship café sits on Grand Canal Street, a short walk from the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre and a ten-minute stroll from Pearse Station. The space is light, industrial and slightly Scandinavian, with a long bar where customers perch on stools and watch the baristas at work.

The espresso is what you would expect from a place that has trained a generation of Irish baristas. It is bright, citric and clean, with a recognisable house style that leans towards washed Ethiopians and Colombians. Pulled as a double, it has the kind of clarity that Australians chase in their best filter coffees. As a flat white, it loses a little of that clarity but gains a sweetness that makes it dangerously easy to drink three in a row.

The downside, if you can call it that, is the queue. On Saturday mornings the line snakes out the door, and during a recent visit I found myself standing next to a couple from Brisbane who had read about 3fe in a guidebook. The wait moves fast, the staff are unfailingly cheerful, and there is a small retail wall where you can buy beans to bring home, which for a coffee tourist is half the point. For more on the gadgets and gear that travel well, my recent discoveries list covers a few options worth packing.

Worth ordering at 3fe

Kaph: a quiet corner on Drury Street

Kaph, on Drury Street in the Creative Quarter, feels like the kind of place that would fit comfortably in a laneway off Flinders Lane. The room is narrow and warmly lit, with reclaimed wood and a single communal table that fills up around lunchtime. Owner Colm Keane and his team are obsessive about origin and process, and the espresso menu changes every few weeks depending on what is freshest in the roastery.

The signature drink here is a cortado, but the espresso is the real draw. Pulled short, it leans into dark chocolate and dried fig, with a syrupy body that works beautifully with the milk they source from a small dairy in Wicklow. It is the kind of coffee that makes you reconsider your usual order. I had mine with a slice of sourdough toast and ended up staying for two more hours, getting through half a book and most of the morning's emails.

Compared with the bigger, busier 3fe, Kaph is a quieter, more reflective experience. Prices are similar, the food menu is a little more substantial, and the seats do not face a queue. For visitors who would rather take their time, or who are nursing a jet-lagged brain after a long-haul from Perth, it is the more restful option.

Two Pups: specialty coffee in the Liberties

Two Pups sits on Francis Street in the Liberties, a part of Dublin that most tourists associate with the Guinness Storehouse and little else. The café is a relatively recent addition to the scene, but it has quickly earned a reputation for serious coffee and a slightly more experimental approach. The name comes from a piece of local folk art; the dog motif appears on every cup.

The espresso here leans towards the modern, fruit-forward end of the spectrum. Expect lots of natural-process coffees, plenty of African origins, and baristas who are happy to talk about anaerobic fermentation for as long as you have time to listen. The space is small and a little rough around the edges, with mismatched chairs and a stereo that plays a steady stream of Irish and British indie music. It feels less polished than 3fe or Kaph, but also more like a neighbourhood café.

If you are coming from Melbourne, the comparison that springs to mind is one of the smaller roaster-cum-cafés in Brunswick or Northcote. The vibe is unfussy, the crowd is mixed, and the coffee is uncompromising. It is the only one of the three that takes itself lightly enough to be genuinely fun on a Tuesday morning, which after a few days of castles and cathedrals is exactly what you need.

Choosing between them

The honest answer is that any of the three would be a worthy stop on a Dublin trip, and a dedicated coffee tourist would probably try to fit in all of them. If you want the canonical experience, the place that put Irish specialty coffee on the map, 3fe is non-negotiable. If you want somewhere to settle in for an hour with a book and a properly made cortado, Kaph is the better fit. And if you are after something a bit looser, a bit more local and a bit less polished, Two Pups is the obvious choice.

A few practical things worth knowing before you go

Reading back through my notes from that week, the coffee that stayed with me longest was the cortado at Kaph, though I have thought about the espresso at 3fe on more occasions since. If you are still planning the rest of the trip, my favourite books from the past year includes a few titles set in Ireland that pair nicely with a long black on a grey Dublin morning.

The right bar, the right time of day, and a bit of patience with the queue at 3fe will reward you with the kind of espresso that makes the twenty-four hours in economy class feel almost worthwhile.