Chameleon

Dublin, Ireland

3.7

Open now

21 reviews

Free Wi-Fi

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Telephone:
+353 1 671 0362
Website:
www.chameleonrestaurant.com
Address:
1 Lower Fownes Street Temple Bar, Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Dublin 2
Temple Bar
Nearby public transportation stops & stations:
410 ftAston Quay, Bedford Row
520 ft#315 Bachelors Walk, Liffey Street
540 ftBachelor's Walk, Liffey Street
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Bussiness info

Takes Reservations
Yes
Delivery
No
Take-out
Yes
Accepted Cards
Credit, Debit
Good For
Dinner
Bike Parking
No
Wheelchair Accessible
No
Good for Kids
No
Good for Groups
Yes
Attire
Casual
Ambience
Intimate
Noise Level
Average
Alcohol
Beer & Wine Only
Outdoor Seating
No
Wi-Fi
Free
Has TV
No
Dogs Allowed
No
Waiter Service
Yes

Today

Today 5:00 pm – 11:00 pm
Open now
Local time (Dublin) 7:46 PM Thursday, June 12, 2025

Business hours

Monday –
Tuesday 5:00 pm – 11:00 pm
Wednesday 5:00 pm – 11:00 pm
Thursday 5:00 pm – 11:00 pm
Friday 5:00 pm – 11:00 pm
Saturday 5:00 pm – 11:00 pm
Sunday 5:00 pm – 10:00 pm

Description

Specialties

Chameleon restaurant in Temple bar specialises in marrying the best Irish free range produce with the spices of South East Asia.

If you just want a tasty bite in the ground floor Spice Bar or a Rijst-​tafel (tasting menu) in the Bali room upstairs this lovely food is complimented by a selection of 40 different wines and Craft beers from small breweries in Ireland.

Carol and Kevin are passionate about their food and you can feel this when you enter the door. They have been cooking this style of cuisine for over 16 years now in Dublin winning many awards along the way.

Atmosphere, good service and a warm welcome is what it’s about at the Chameleon whether it’s relaxing on the cushions of an Opium table or sitting in the window of the ground floor Spice Bar watching the world go by.

The Chameleon is the perfect local eatery and most of all a place you love to return to.

History

Established in 1994.

Chameleon in Temple Bar is an intimate, ambient restaurant that specialises in Indonesian rice-​table. Rice table (or rijst-​tafel) is when the diner is served an array of sumptuous different dishes, at the same time, from confit of pork belly with star anise to free range chicken satay to our delicious desserts, all made in-​house! Its almost like Indonesian tapas!

Since opening in 1994, its owners, husband and wife team, Carol & Kevin have made a point in using as much locally sourced Irish produce as possible, including only using free range Irish chicken and locally caught, seasonal Irish fish.

Chameleon is ideal for a romantic get together or indeed, for your birthday party or Christmas party, as they can cater for groups of up to 40 in our private dining rooms.

Winning may awards over the years in 2013 the Chameleon was voted Best World Cuisine in Ireland by the highly acclaimed Restaurants Association of Ireland.

Meet the Business Owner

carol W.

Business Owner

Carol has more than 20 years experience in the Restaurant industry.

Over the years she has gained much experience and established herself as a well respected restaurateaur, winning many accolades and awards along the way.

Carol is a member of the Irish Guild of Sommeliers

A director on the board of Temple Bar Company

A participant in Going for Growth

A Member of the Restaurants Association of Ireland.

Carol is passionate about food and the industry she is married to Chef/​Propietor of the Chameleon Kevin O’Toole.

Carol and Kevin have two children and love to introduce them to new tastes and spices always using the best free range and local produce.

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21 reviews of Chameleon

No registration required
Place rating: 1
Rome, Italy
Really awful experience
My wife and I wanted to celebrate a special occasion. Booked in advance for 7pm. Arrived and told our table wasn’t ready. There were people at our table with quite full glasses of wine who hadn’t paid their bill. After waiting by the door for some time in small surroundings, it obviously became a little uncomfortable. After about 10mins we told the person at the door that we would rather come back then wait by the door. We were told that she could not help us and our waitress would be with us in a minute. After talking another order the waitress, eventually, told us that it would be another few minutes. We told her that we would come back. Half an hour later, we received an extremely rude phone call asking us «where we were» and that now the table was ready. The person on the phone was extremely rude.
It really was a terrible experience and I would implore people not to chose this awful place.
Place rating: 4
Salisbury, United Kingdom
I asked up front about the Unilocal offer and, to be fair, they were very apologetic and said they had asked Unilocal several times to delete the offer. Despite this, we had a great meal of ‘Asian Tapas’ dishes. The food was delicious and we really couldn’t fault it. The beer is on the expensive side even for Temple Bar but the service was friendly and we’d definitely come again.
We had 4 dishes plus a 2up order of steamed buns with brisket. Despite our best intentions not to have dessert, the choices were gorgeous-​sounding so we just went for it. We had a lime tart and a panacea with caramelised fig and honey — both were sooo good. All this plus one half-​pint of Howling Gale and a glass of Gruner Veltliner came to about € 40
Place rating: 5
Boston, MA
Food was fantastic! Tapas style Asian food. Great ambience, too. I had the Java set meal. My friend got some tapas dishes which were also excellent.
Place rating: 1
Dublin, Republic of Ireland
Don’t offer a Unilocal check-​in deal if you are not prepared to honour it! Was just told «Oh, we’re not doing that anymore…» ???
Food was good. The ambience might have been nice at a different table. We were upstairs but right in the middle, completely cramped, noisy, and crowded.
Place rating: 3
Dublin, Republic of Ireland
So i thought this place had a great ambience and i loved the presentation of the food and the way the resturant was laid out but the problem for me was you get like six bowls of food to share and some of them were very tasty but some werent really. It felt like a mixed bag to me.
Place rating: 5
Dublin, Republic of Ireland
There is a great ambiance about Chameleon. Great service. And fantastic food. It is like an Indonesian tapas restaurant with lots of choice and a wide menu. I would advise anyone trying this restaurant to get different tasting menus if you are going with others and share as it allows much more variety and adds to the experience.
The food is reasonably priced and a tasting menu for two with a bottle of wine and two desserts will only cost around € 100. The restaurant boast many awards and along with the amazing dishes the staff couldn’t have been friendlier and as first time trying Indonesian food were very helpful!
Place rating: 1
Dublin, Republic of Ireland
First of all I have to say that the place looks amazing and the food looks okay.
Having said that the food tastes just dreadful.
In short:
— The Rice was undercooked
— The Rendang needed at least another hour of simmering. And let’s not start about the lack of spices. What was served was basically half stewed beef with an oily excuse of something that probably meant to be satay sauce.
— Sambal, They have different versions, including a homemade one. Even the spiciest version they have is more sweet than spicy.
— Bami was cold
— The satey was okay.
— The pangsit goreng was just bland
If you want Indonesian food, go visit Indonesia or the Netherlands and walk into a local toko.
If you only want a good atmosphere with friendly staff and food that pretends to be Indonesian sure go visit the Chameleon.
During payment the waitress kept asking me why I was laughing. I am afraid to say that I did not have the heart to tell her that it was either me laughing or crying
Place rating: 5
Dusseldorf, Germany
Truly amazing experience. I’ve always wanted to try an Indonesian Rijsttafel on my visits to Amsterdam. But now we finally tried it in Dublin. And I have to say my expectations were exceeded. The super-​friendly staff gave us good advice and so we ordered two different menus. The food was delicious. The meat was so tender. And all the little dishes were so well flavoured. I can totally recommend this restaurant.
Place rating: 4
Glasgow, United Kingdom
When Sam and I visited Dublin back in November, I was really keen to visit Chameleon having read a lot of positive things about it and loved the look of the menu.
We decided instead of going for the set menus, to just order a few dishes of our own choice between us, which I’m glad we did, although I do wish we could have been sat upstairs where the décor is really lovely. Downstairs is very small and simple, a few tables set up with a bar. We were sat at a nice table near the window and were looked after by really friendly staff who explained the menu to us and how the service worked.
We ordered around six dishes between us including Crispy Squid, Pork Wontons, Satay Ayam, Slow Cooked Pork Belly, Babi Spring Roll and Scallops. I enjoyed every dish including the squid — which is weird because I still don’t really eat seafood… I’m getting there though! We followed all that yummy savoury food with a Chocolate and Baileys Panna Cotta which was smooth, rich and a perfect end to a really great meal. It’s not exactly traditional Irish, but it’s something a bit different and I would recommend it to anyone visiting Ireland.
My favourite dish of the night were the amazing Babi Pork Spring rolls. They were crisp on the outside and packed to the brim with shredded pork and vegetables. The Chicken Satay Ayam was probably one of the best satays I’ve ever had — it wasn’t too clawing and full of peanut butter as some can be, it was really dark and rich.
The restaurant is located in the heart of Temple Bar, so it’s an ideal location, but I would make sure if you do decide to go, you book in advance — they were turning people away the whole time we ate!
Place rating: 4
Dublin, Republic of Ireland
I have no idea why it’s taken me so long to try here… it has a fantastic reputation for great food and celebrated 20 years in business last year — no mean feat in Dublin’s competitive food scene! On one of Temple Bar’s side streets, it’s just out of the way of the madness.
We were seated downstairs where I think they seat all parties of 2… upstairs in a large dining area that was buzzing this particular Friday evening… no January blues around here!
The menu is amazing… basically it’s done tapas style but instead of just choosing your individual dishes you choose a menu. Each menu has 5 – 7 dishes within and most menus have a couple of the basics in common, for example rice or greens so when you both order your menu these sides portions are to share. We decided we’d just order 2 different menus and share the lot — my favourite way to eat!
We chose the Rijst Tafel 4 Java and the Vegetarian Rijst Tafel whcih gave a huge variety of dishes!
The Rijst Tafel Java offered Chicken satay served with peanut sauce, Crab cake, with haddock, Asian herbs, chilli & mango dip, Irish beef Rendang in a spicy coconut milk sauce with cinnamon, confit of Fermanagh black pork belly, Salad with cucumber, mango, Chinese leaves with a peanut and black sesame dressing, Seasonal greens wok fried and Wok fried noodles with beansprouts, ginger, garlic &soy sauce.
And the Vegetarian Rijst Tafel had a Balinese Yellow Curry with long beans, sweetcorn & mangetout, a Potato & chickpea cake of sorts with carrot, banana shallots, celery, Portobello & chestnut mushrooms in crispy tempura with peanut sauce, the same salad as the other menu and same greens and noodles too and some spiced rice… so a feast by anyone’s standard!
There was SO MUCH food here that we couldn’t manage to get through everything. With the veggie menu at € 28 and the other one at € 32 it was an unbelievable amount of food for € 60… in fact it barely fit on the table! The food was great, wine was reasonably priced and the staff were friendly and helpful to us choosing a suitable menu — I would recommend you all to try out Chameleon!
Place rating: 2
Dublin, Republic of Ireland
I was expecting to love this place. Service was good, very friendly and nice waitress. The food is fine, its nice even, but it is not worth the price at all. We opted for early bird menus as we were going to the theatre afterwards. 4 of us, the food was € 100. For what we got it was not even close to being good value. It was not very hot, as I said nice, but nothing special. 25 € per person for food, to some people, may not seem like much for a meal and in fairness it is not so much money. But what you get is not worth 25 € per person.
The waitress advised us to go for two early birds and two other set menus but didn’t tell us the other menus were € 10 more expensive each. Which is partially our fault for not being diligent but she could have let us know also.
You would get similar quality, though less range of dishes, in an ethnic take away and it would be fraction the cost. Pity, as it is cosy and nice upstairs.
Place rating: 2
Dublin, Republic of Ireland
I was rather disappointed in my visit to chameleon’s spice bar… I went in with a menu pages voucher that gave me € 50 worth of food for € 30… It doesn’t get you very far if you’re planning on boozing. We got the Nasi Goreng which is a fried rice plate that we really enjoyed. It was so flavourful! But I got their slow cooked beef which I really disliked as half of the protein was just pure grissle. I was spitting out the fat into my napkin. We got a few other dishes which were rather forgettable. For dessert though they redeemed themselves with one of the best macarons I’ve had in dublin and a rich and decadent bitter chocolate tart i savoured.
I was disappointed in the food I received as I wasn’t blown away by the quality or the powerful taste that Indonesian fusidin normally delivers on.
The service was ok but not brill. I wish they took the time to explain the menu more to my table as they had with the other tables as they other tables had all these little dips that we didn’t get. Based on my past experience I won’t be back.
Place rating: 4
Dublin, Republic of Ireland
I had: veggie rijsttaffle, Sauvignon blanc, passion fruit Bellini
Yum! Very friendly staff, tasty, tasty food and very unusual seating.
I’m a big fan of trying numerous different dishes so this place is perfect for me. Each meal consists of between 4 and 8 small dishes ranging from salads to curries to meat. I opted for the veggie one which had a yellow curry, mushroom tempura with satay, fried rice, noodles, veggies and a veggie cake made from chickpeas. I enjoyed all of them. The only problem was that I totally stuffed myself! I brought the mango and cucumber salad home because I couldn’t bare to waste it. A delicious lunch awaits me tomorrow.
If you’re going for a special occasion it’s worth booking ahead to get one of the booths.
Very friendly staff who take the time to explain the different dishes
Place rating: 4
Dublin, Republic of Ireland
Big big fan of this restaurant. In fact it may well be one of my favourites in Dublin.
My favourite aspect of this most favourite restaurant is the general atmosphere. You need to sit upstairs as it’s a world apart from downstairs. You climb up some windy, narrow rickety stairs, up into a small room decorated with candles, sumptuous table coverings, drapes, fairy lights, and heavy carved and embellished wooden furniture. There are options to sit on floor cushions on the low tables, or sit on the normal height ones. Totally down to personal preference — some people find the low tables really uncomfortable, but I personally love the feeling of sitting cross legged squashed in with other people — it gives a real social aspect to the already social way of eating the shared style platters.
The food as many people have mentioned is really, really good. It’s all shared, and there is a LOT of it. My only mention would be (and this is the reason for docking a star), that the menus are quite padded out with the cheaper dishes (salads, noodles, etc), and the more outstanding ones (crab cakes, pork belly to name two) are a lot more far between. It’s not cheap, so it would be nice to see the ratio shifted a bit.
Regardless, this is my only (minor) complaint. Service is outstanding as well — really friendly, efficient and quick, and just a pleasure to be in the presence of the guys who work here.
Oh — try the chocolate banana desert. DE-​LISH.
BONUS: Get a free Bellini with a Unilocal check-​in! BOOM!
Place rating: 4
Dublin, Republic of Ireland
We were in the mood to try something new and after tossing out a few ideas — settled on Chameleon. We arrived in time for our 9pm reservation and after ordering a drink at the bar, were taken to our seats upstairs. Immediately you feel like you have left Dublin with the lamp-​lit room where chairs are replaced with pillows. The menu is comprised of a variety of tasting menus with anywhere from 5 to 8 small dishes. After settling into our pillows I ordered the RIJST-​TAFEL 4 — JAVA and J ordered RIJST-​TAFEL 5 — SUMATRA.
I had hoped that the dishes would come out in stages but a bit later our waiter came by and dropped the motherload in front of us. Luckily they combined a few of the veggie/​rice type dishes into medium bowls but there was still a lot going on. Now there is probably some preferred method to which dishes you should start with but we mostly picked the most visually appealing and went from there.
My favourites: the chicken satay, pork belly, sesame veggies and wok noodles. J’s favourites: fish in banana leaf, tamarind prawns, and the rice with prawns. Overall there was a lot of variety and both of us thoroughly enjoyed the experience. After wine this is not a cheap meal but definitely worth trying. My only complaint was that I was too full for dessert — the menu was mouthwatering!
Place rating: 4
Southend-on-Sea, United Kingdom
Indonesian food is hard to find outside Holland and obviously Indonesia. It is my favourite and so I was happy to have found this place in Temple Bar in the heart of Dublin. The restaurant is small but they have created a great atmosphere. The wine list is impressive. The food is delicious and the service exemplary.
You can choose from around 6 different Rijsttafel (rice table) menus, based on meat, fish and/​or veggies.
Don’t expect to find the same foods as in a Dutch Toko or restaurant. The flavours are a bit subdued compared to the Dutch Toko’s, probably because they have to cater to a public that is generally not familiar with Indonesian food.
I would certainly go back here.
Place rating: 5
Dublin, Republic of Ireland
Hey! So I reviewed this place previously and had been disappointed but like the old saying goes gotta try again to get past the crafty hen… or something like that.
So went here on a work night out. They accommodation a group of 10 at short notice which was pretty sweet of them tbh. We sat upstairs on the fabulous cushions which made the whole experience awesome!
We were advised to pick a couple of different set menus and just sample everything, which is what we did. The food and atmosphere of the place was just outstanding. There was so much choice and the flavour off the charts.
I recommend anyone to try this restaurant! Awesome for a date, sit upstairs!
Place rating: 5
Dublin, Republic of Ireland
In short, Chameleon is an excellent restaurant.
I’ve never had Indonesian before and I must admit that I was surprised by how delicious everything was. Chameleon specializes in something akin to tapas set menus, you get between 5 – 7 small dishes per person. This may sound somewhat excessive, but the sizes of the dishes are just right. If you’re with friends, it’s best to get different menus and share the dishes.
I would highly recommend Chameleon and will be going back myself.
Place rating: 5
Woluwé-Saint-Lambert, Brussels, Belgium
First time that I tried Indonesian food and it’s Very tasty. Menus are a little bit expensive but they are interesting since you can try 7 – 9 different little dishes and it’s even more interesting if you take different menus to share with others !
If I come to Dublin again I would definitely go back to that place!
Place rating: 5
Dublin, Republic of Ireland
I never before tried Indonesian food so I was curious and nervous when a friend suggested to go there for their early bird.
But we both were very happy with our choice.
As we were on our way to the theatre we were very early and one of the first quests of the night. We got a table upstairs. Luckily a table with chairs — I wouldn’t have been as relaxed having to try and sit on the raised floor at a low table. Even though it added to the atmosphere having them around. The only disadvantage of the table was that is was very small and the waiter had problems to place all our dishes.
I made use of the Unilocal check in offer of a Bellini — it was mixed with lychee and very tasty.
My friend went for the land menu and I for the sea. They came with small bowls of spices. We both tried each others dished and had maybe one dish were we thought it could have been more interesting. bit it didn’t take away from the enjoyment.
Even though we were nicely full we were tempted by their petit fours as a dessert and they were just jummy and ideal — even though obviously not Indonesian.
I’ll definitely we back.
Place rating: 5
Lilienthal, Niedersachsen
In einer Seitenstrasse von Temple Bar — wir hatten Early Bird. Man sitzt im Obergeschoss auf Wunsch auch indonesisch auf Sitzkissen. Das Menue ist speziell für Temple Bar im guten Preis-​/​Leistungsverhältnis. Sehr zuvorkommende und nett anzuschauende Bedienungskräfte.