Press Cafe

This hidden gem in D4 serves lunch and weekend brunch on the premises of the National Print Museum. A bit hidden towards the back of the grounds, this little café is absolutely lovely! On a sunny day you can enjoy your lunch or one of the many sweet treats outside. They serve cloudpicker coffee, a personal favourite of mine and have 5 different kinds of sandwiches plus 3 daily specials (soup, hot dish and salad). The sandwiches are, with 5.50Euro a pop, excellent value and extremely yummy. The chorizo focacchia I had the other day was the best chorizo sandwich ever.
And then there are cakes. And brownies. And cookies. Oh my God, it’s so hard to choose. I eventually picked a brownie to go and actually had it for my dinner as it was the size of a small child. We only live once, right?

This area of Ballsbridge is really spoilt for choice in terms of great coffee, although this place is a little harder to find, it’s worth the hunt.
Excellent coffee, cakes as well as Anzac slices which is basically crack in food form. Highly addictive! Their banana bread French toast is delicious. In fact, just about everything is delicious!
A great spot!

What an interesting little space. It’s a bit hidden behind all the government buildings (there should be more signage in the courtyard) but if you ask a kind stranger they can direct you to the right place. it’s located just at the press museum.
They serve a nice cloudpicker coffee and there’s lots of snacks to choose from. The seating space is lovely in a nice greenhouse looking building. There’s a lovely corner with books and plants for some nice afternoon reading.

Bright and airy, with mismatched furniture and coffee table books carefully abandoned throughout the space or displayed on shelves, this place will definitely make you want to stay there for more than the 10 minutes that it takes to drink a cup of tea in a rush.
But then again, if you’re already here, why would you be in a hurry? This little café is located inside a conservatory, adjacent to the chapel that houses the Print Museum, completely removed from the public streets hustle bustle.
The prices are reasonable and they serve a decent cup of coffee. But the winner for me were the scones, served warm. They’re very good, delicious and soft.
Add nice staff to the mix and you have the perfect combo for a calm enjoyable couple of hours with some reading material. Definitely try this hidden gem of a place if you want to avoid the more trendy coffee shops.

What a great discovery this place is!!! Lovely interior, good for relaxed brunch at the weekends. Food is delicious and cheap, only € 9 for Press signature which was toasted potato farls with avocado, chorizo and poached eggs. Their coconut bread is amazing! Staff was very friendly and welcoming. Looking forward to my next visit there.

The café has a new owner and she introduced brunch on weekends. This was the trigger for me to try it. Luckily I’ve been to the Print Museum and hence the café before as you kind of need to know where you’re heading (once on the grounds of the barracks keep right and follow the road — you’ll then see the chapel with the print museum on your right and the café just behind it.)
They put lovely ideas into their decorations. Like little bottles for the milk, little jars with lid for the sugar, old syrup tins for the cutlery on the desks, colourful tea pots… And as the café is in a conservatory it’s lovely bright and you feel like sitting outside while being sheltered (I love conservatories ;-))
I had a cappuccino — and I’d say the best in a long time. A lot of the time you hardly taste the espresso. Not so here. For my brunch I had egg Benedict with bacon. It was served on a slate board which looked lovely but mad it a bit difficult to take the egg or soda farl off. But I still enjoyed it a lot. Very fresh and tasty. I might try it with the salmon next time though, as the bacon was a bit too salty for me.
We got to try several of their desserts and from the ones I tried I loved the raspberry and white chocolate scone (fluffy and even with butter an jam not too sweet) and the rocky road with yummy dark chocolate the best. Finally I had filtered coffee and again no disappointment whatsoever.
Now that I know where to park on the grounds (any space without a number) I’ll be back for sure as parking on the street even on a Saturday is pretty pricey — free on Sundays though.