![\"close-up-on-single-serving-of-rare-cooked-and-sliced-steak-next-to-knife-with-piece-of-roasted-garlic-over-wooden-cutting-board\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784762235_54_.jpeg\")
\n Alamy Stock Photo<\/p>\n
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LAST UPDATE
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\n 14 hrs ago\n <\/p>\n
WHEN YOU THINK of a c\u00f4te de boeuf in Dublin, one place tends to come to mind. Etto. The city\u2019s beloved, perfectly formed little bistro, which looks French but has a distinct Italian accent, opened by Simon Barrett and Liz Matthews on Merrion Row in 2013.<\/p>\n
Though the staff have changed regularly over the years, so too the menu with the seasons, Etto is impressively consistent. The most consistent thing being its enduring sharing steak, which has never left the menu \u2013 the success of which spurred many other restaurants around the city to hitch a c\u00f4te to their own menus.<\/p>\n
Now, it\u2019s far from a 30oz steak I was reared \u2014 I was a Birds Eye chicken dippers kid \u2014 but the c\u00f4te de boeuf is an undeniable thing of beauty for greedy carnivores: a Desperate Dan-sized, bone-in rib-eye, cut thickly to share between two, with sauces \u2019n\u2019 sides, paired with something just as delicious in the glass; Etto\u2019s wonderful wine list is like catnip to oenophiles.<\/p>\n
It used to come with their signature hashed \u2018Lyonnaise\u2019 potatoes, tumbled around caramelised onions and crisped garlic, and a silky, fatty, bold and aromatic Bordelaise sauce. Sometimes it\u2019s with a brown butter b\u00e9arnaise, sometimes garlicky fried potatoes or triple-cooked, beef dripping chips. Often there\u2019s a virtuous green alongside, like a vinaigrette-dressed cos salad or creamed spinach.<\/p>\n
Many may not have clocked Etto\u2019s subtle change over the last year from a bone-in c\u00f4te to a boneless Delmonico. Still a similar rib-eye cut (from Peter Hannan\u2019s salt chambers in Moira), but a switch that may have proved kinder to the kitchen\u2019s margins.\n<\/p>\n
Mouthwatering<\/p>\n
I have a core memory of the first Etto c\u00f4te I ever enjoyed a decade ago, right up at the bar, which I hold firm to be one of the best counter seats in the city. I can still taste the seared, salty crust and tender, medium-rare middle, the rich, sticky jus and onion-y potatoes. As it endures on the menu, I don\u2019t have to resign it to memory. I can drop in as often as I please to recreate it. Even better, Barrett and Matthews\u2019 two other restaurants, Uno Mas and Lena, also serve the dish.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a curious case, the c\u00f4te. It used to represent the ultimate in dining democracy, a price so digestible for what eats like a lavish feast. The sharing steak is the antidote to the small plates epidemic, where it\u2019s easier for restaurants to make more per head. Sure, you\u2019re compromising on splitting a main, yet there\u2019s enough eating in it that you could comfortably skip starters and desserts and head home feeling full but, crucially, not feeling fleeced.<\/p>\n
\n Alamy Stock Photo<\/p>\n
Alamy Stock Photo\n<\/p>\n
But in this cost-of-everything crisis, steak \u2014 whatever ounce or cut \u2014 has skyrocketed. In 2015, Etto\u2019s c\u00f4te set you back \u20ac58. By 2018 it rose to \u20ac65. In the last few years, that price has leapt to \u20ac84 and now sits at \u20ac89, not because Etto is an outlier. In fact, its pricing remains one of the most competitive in the city. The sharing steak isn\u2019t disappearing, but the value it once represented is vanishing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Costly ingredients<\/p>\n
Finding a sub-\u20ac100 sharing c\u00f4te in Dublin is not necessarily easy anymore. Take the modern steakhouses first: Fire on Dawson Street serves a gigantic 35oz with salad, potatoes and sauces for \u20ac115.<\/p>\n
Marco Pierre White\u2019s steakhouse on Dawson Street serves a 32oz for \u20ac135. Asador is \u20ac110 in both its Haddington Road and Lennan\u2019s Yard locations, while Brookwood on Baggot Street serves a 32oz tomahawk for \u20ac130.<\/p>\n
![\"charbroiled-grilled-beef-steak-under-blade-steak-chuck-roast-steak-denver-cut-beef-point-steak-on-wooden-cutting-board\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784762235_56_.jpeg\")
\n Delmonico beef and such ingredients are growing in price for restaurants to serve. Alamy Stock Photo<\/p>\n
Alamy Stock Photo\n<\/p>\n
Then, the price per gram or ounce model. FX Buckley uses ex-dairy beef for their c\u00f4te at \u20ac15 per 100g, so for a fairly standard 24oz (680g) you\u2019re inching over \u20ac100, though it includes a whole sharing board of chips, mash, seasonal veg, mushrooms, onions and several sauces. Hawksmoor follows a similar structure, \u20ac16 per 100g, so for that same 24oz you\u2019re sitting closer to \u20ac110. Bovinity on Capel Street also prices per ounce on the day but typically upwards of \u20ac100 for 28oz and beyond.<\/p>\n
Newer openings are also in the mix. Ashtons in Clonskeagh is \u20ac118 while D\u00edon prices their 28oz John Stone c\u00f4te at \u20ac130 to match the rooftop height.<\/p>\n
Shop around for the best beef<\/p>\n
What will come as no surprise is that some of the best deals sit beyond the city centre. Woodruff in Stepaside prices their 24oz at \u20ac95. Mamo in Howth, run by ex-Etto staffer Jess D\u2019Arcy, serves theirs for \u20ac92. Orwell Road in Rathgar keeps its JJ Young c\u00f4te with bordelaise and sides at \u20ac89, though on Sunday \u2018steak\u2019 night throws in a bottle of wine for \u20ac110 total.<\/p>\n
Eleven, perched above wine Mecca Whelehan\u2019s Wines in Loughlinstown, keeps a 24oz on the menu daily for \u20ac91 but cuts it to \u20ac75 on Wednesday and Thursday evenings. The Butcher Grill in Ranelagh, Eleven\u2019s sibling site within John Farrell\u2019s stable, serves a 24oz c\u00f4te for \u20ac95 but cuts it to \u20ac80 on Mondays and Tuesdays.<\/p>\n
What used to be the great leveller in Dublin dining is quickly becoming its last aristocrat.<\/p>\n
The c\u00f4te used to be a clever, economical choice, now it\u2019s veering into luxury. A table full of small plates doesn\u2019t come close to scratching the itch as satisfyingly as a c\u00f4te cooked to perfection, dragged through b\u00e9arnaise, followed by forkfuls of hashed potatoes. The c\u00f4te has graduated to a rare treat, and I know which bar seat I\u2019m keeping warm for it.<\/p>\n
Patrick Hanlon is an Irish food, travel and culture journalist, and is one half of the award-winning duo GastroGays<\/a>. He is the author of a new food column, The Feeder\u2019s Digest at TheJournal.ie. More on Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n