Dunne and Crescenzi

The story

Crafted with passion, served with love

A Roman Encounter That Changed Dublin

The story of Dunne & Crescenzi begins in Rome in the early 1990s, when Eileen Dunne met Stefano Crescenzi. They married, moved to Dublin in 1995, and started modestly – a small shop in Sutton selling fine Italian wines, salumi, and cheeses. Customers came for a taste of Italy and kept coming back for more. By 1999, the couple had opened their restaurant on South Frederick Street, and something quietly remarkable began.

Tom Doorley of The Irish Times put it plainly: "Dunne and Crescenzi has changed the way the Irish eat." That line has followed the restaurant ever since, and it holds up. Eileen and Stefano built their reputation on simple Italian food made with the best-quality ingredients, sourced from small Italian producers – a practice that remains unchanged to this day.

A Puro Punto d'Incontro

The restaurant describes itself as a puro punto d'incontro – a meeting place – and that phrase captures something real about the atmosphere. Whether you're stopping in for breakfast off the DART, lingering over antipasti and wine with friends at lunch, or settling in for a relaxed dinner, the rhythm here is unmistakably Italian: socialising and food become, as the restaurant puts it, inextricably interlinked.

Food critics John and Sally McKenna have noted how Dunne & Crescenzi has "educated and uplifted the city through their knowledge of food and wine and the beautiful places they have created." Lucinda O'Sullivan called it "almost a Dublin institution" – a place alive with people enjoying antipasti plates and wine, inside and out beneath the awnings on South Frederick Street.

Recognition Worth Noting

That long-standing commitment to authentic Italian hospitality and careful sourcing has earned Dunne & Crescenzi recognition from Gambero Rosso, Italy's most authoritative guide to Italian food and wine culture. Being acknowledged by Gambero Rosso – a guide rooted in the very culinary tradition this restaurant has always championed – is a fitting endorsement for a place that has spent over two decades bringing a genuine slice of Italy to Dublin.

For anyone seeking honest, unpretentious Italian food and a well-chosen glass of wine in the heart of the city, Dunne & Crescenzi remains exactly what it has always been: a place worth going to.