Your not-so-secret neighbourhood café: Bibi’s Café

After some street-art spotting and schizophrenic Irish weather along the way, Mr. FFID and I found ourselves in Bibi’s Café on a Sunday afternoon. Bibi’s is a neighbourhood café located in Dublin 8, just off the South Circular Road.

This is an independent review, I paid for my meal.
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I wish I was giving away a well-kept secret by writing about Bibi’s but judging by how jam-packed it was when we arrived it seems that the secret is out and it’s already a popular brunch spot.

There are two separate rooms in Bibi’s, a large and bright one and then a smaller, slightly cramped room with tables extremely close to each other (where we were sitting).

The place is cute looking with a homely décor and the food is served in beautiful earthenware. The little outside seating area looks like the place where you’d want to spend your morning catching up with a good friend or even sitting by yourself on a sunny day, reading the Sunday papers over a cup of coffee.

The compact menu includes simple fares such as homemade scones, granola, beans on toast, salad plates, poached eggs with bacon or salmon and sandwiches. They also have homemade cakes on display at the counter. We had to wait at the entrance for a few minutes (not too long though) before we got a table, as the place was extremely busy.

Mr. FFID settled on the French toast (€10), which consisted of two eggy buttery, golden brown slices of brioche toasts and a few slices of delicious Gubbeen bacon served on and between them. Simple but good.

I happily ordered the butternut squash eggs (€10). There was a bed of smooth garlic yoghurt at the bottom of my plate with slices of perfectly roasted butternut squash, two poached eggs, chilli butter and coriander sprinkled on top.

The chilli butter was deliciously rich and didn’t lack a punch, the dish was quite spicy which I loved and slices of excellent, toasted sourdough bread and butter were served on the side. I almost licked the plate, almost.

We finished with a slice of peanut butter chocolate brownie (€3.95) between the two of us which was definitely too small (for us) and too good to share.

Bibi’s is a charming little café serving well-cooked uncomplicated brunch dishes. The food came quick enough however the staff were a little forgetful on a few occasions but it wouldn’t stop me from coming back. The portions were sensible (don’t go if you have a massive hangover and want something huge and greasy) and the atmosphere was pleasant. I’ll be back for more.

And now I leave you with some pictures I took before and after going to the café…