Octopussy’s Seafood Tapas

My favorite among some excellent options on the pier in Howth. The Prawns Pil Pil is spicy and fresh. Absolutely delicious. I also really enjoy the sherry monkfish and prawns. It’s served in a great cream sauce with sun dried tomatoes– which I usually hate, but works really well in this dish. The only dish I wasn’t crazy about was the chili and chorizo squid. The squid was a little chewy in texture and was lacking the bold flavors of all the other dishes we ate. They have a nice wine list also. It’s a small place and gets packed. They don’t take reservations before 6 pm. We arrived as they opened and it was full within 10 minutes, so get here early if you’re looking to lunch here.

Octopussy is a must during a visit to Howth. All seafood is fresh (today’s catch), and none of the dishes ever disappointed.
My personal favourites are chowder (the best one I’ve tried in Ireland, they add crab claws, cod, smoked haddock, mussels, calamari, mussels, shrimps) and Dublin bay prawns.
The place is tiny, so if you come during peak hours (lunch/​dinner during weekends), you risk not being able to seat. They do take bookings for dinner though.
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We have chosen this restaurant due to the other reviews and we were not disappointed. The food was good and the prices were ok. Service also ok. I would definitely go back and try other dishes.

Definitely the restaurant I would eat in most often in Howth! Lovely staff, great atmosphere and fantastic value for seafood tapas! I also have a big soft spot for the desserts here

Top notch. Super food. Cosy interior and extra seating outside. We were there for lunch on Friday. Pretty busy inside so we sat outside. Fast service. Bread and olives was standard fare but the special of the day was monkfish and totally worth recommending. We also had butter garlic scallops which were delicious. The chowder was tasty and lots of seafood in it. The chorizo squid was spicy and tasty. Overall we had two glasses of red wine, bread appetizer, chowder, chorizo squid, monkfish and scallops for 70 euro.

Although I’m
Not a fan of the name, however I was very pleased with the food. The wine pours were generous (they don’t serve beer, FYI) and their kitchen is in the open for all to see! My husband and I ordered a dozen oysters. Their was 1 type offered and they were good size, extremely salty but last very creamy. If your from the USA it’s a perfect combo of East Coast meets West Coast Oysters. We also ordered the Shellfish platter which was a lot of work but completely worth it! We asked for a side or garlic butter which was to die for and at no extra charge.
We had 3 glasses of wine, they oysters and the seafood platter and spent 55 euro. I think the wine was just as much as the food but honestly fantastic.
It’s right off the pier and very causal.

I thoroughly enjoyed eating at Octopussy. Like many places in the Dublin metro area, it isn’t a good deal. However, it is an incredible experience to eat fresh seafood while staring at the boat that caught it in the morning. Furthermore, there are leopard seals all along the harbor to watch while you eat.
Make sure you plan well — there aren’t really reservations at lunch anyway, and a French couple tried to claim they were there before us (they weren’t). But once we got the food, it was all good. Perfectly fried fish and calamari, delicious hand cut fries. This place is definitely worth a visit.

Best seafood in Howth by far. Very reasonably priced for what you can get. Try as much as you can but I highly recommend the mussels.

Can’t fault this place. Our large group sat outside (in between rain showers !), which was perfect as inside it’s tiny! While one or two received their dishes a bit late, we were all impressed with what we got. The monkfish and cider special was so good, I had to finish the sauce like soup, although it should have been served with some bread. The paella looked great, probably not as large as I expected. I’d recommend!

Wow. Yum. YUM. The food was so good that I’m ignoring the less than stellar service and our closet-​in-​the-​corner seating arrangements in my giving of the place four stars. (We had a large party so they had to place us in a very tiny room by the back of the restaurant… not ideal). We started with the oysters which were so fresh, they tasted like the ocean outside smelled. After that, everything we ordered (which was a quarter of the menu) came at once. The Prawn Pil Pil was delicious in a creamy red chili sauce. We ordered a full lobster-​you just can’t go wrong. The paella was good but not the most flavorful dish in comparison with everything else. The hummus and bread dish was really yummy, especially the pesto, but they really do not give you enough bread with the serving and they charged us an extra 3 euros for more bread! Copious amounts of bread is needed to soak up all the yummy broths going around. The clam chowder was chopped full of various seafood and piping hot. It was all so good but nothing, nothing compared to the piece-​de-​la-​resistance, the BEST DISH WE HAVE ALL ARGUABLY HAD IN OUR LIVES. The Monkfish, Prawns & Mussels dish. So good it deserves a sentence alone just for its title. This dish was divine, heaven in the mouth, sent from a divine universe and MUST TRY. Its essentially monkfish, prawns and mussels cooked in a creamy white wine reduction with parmesan but it is so much more. Rarely will a dish stay with you long after you’ve eaten it and I don’t think any of us will be forgetting it anytime soon. Our only regret was that we did not order more.

If you love seafood, take a quick train to Howth from Dublin and enjoy great fresh seafood at Octopussy.
I originally looking for restaurant serves razor clams. I searched by words and this one came up. A little I knew, they don’t always serve razor clams here. They do only if the fisherman catches them. So if you see razor clams on the menu, go for it as it is so rare to have them.
I ordered a half dozen of oysters as my appetizer. This is a very small restaurant, I get to see everything chef is doing from my table. I watched her as she prepares my oysters and she knows what she is doing. I love oysters and always watch how they prepare whenever I get a chance. Oysters was to my liking and really enjoyed fresh oysters. Five out of six oysters were just right size (small like kumamotos) and tasted very good.
For my lunch, I ordered soup. I never seen so many chunks of seafood in my soup before. They were so generous on amount of seafood chunks they put in my soup, I enjoyed every bite of my food. They served small bread and butter on the side. I was so pleased with the quality of ingredients they used, I very much enjoyed my lunch here.
I highly recommend this restaurant. The chef knows what she is doing.

This restaurant is so nice!
Not large space, but good atmosphere. And staffs are friendly.
Food… I ordered clam chowder, cod fish with mussels, prawn piripiri flavor, and seafood platter. Everything is good! Specially, Cod fish and prawn was delicious!
I’d like to go there again in near the future.

Si vous souhaitez fuir l’espace d’un instant le Temple bar et son «délicieux» Fish&Chips; allez vous aérer du côté du Octopussy’s seafood Tapas!
Après avoir pesté 30 minutes en attendant une table, je dois bien reconnaître qu’on a pas envie de partir une fois à table…
Un conseil: commander un maximum de plats (²⁄₃ plats par pers.).
Les +/​-​:
+ plats, accueil, prix, service.
— attente (même à 15h30), le vin.
ps: une petite préférence pour les st jacques

If a 4 and a half star existed! I’m trying to be frugal with my 5 stars and saving them for meals that are just short of genius. Saying that, I had an extremely enjoyable meal at octopussy. It was a Tuesday night in January so it was pretty quiet so there wasn’t exactly buzzing atmosphere wise but it was great for a girly catch up! Could not fault the service: the staff are extremely competent and there to offer their suggestions which is always good for me because it shows that they really know the menu. I had the scallops and prawns pil pil and my friend had the fish and chips (a generous helping at that!) followed by sticky toffee pudding (my weakness) and apple crumble for dessert. If you’re a fan of tapas, you won’t get better than this and it’s pretty good value for money too, especially if you’re sharing.

This is a 4.5 star restaurant. Great, fresh food at a reasonable price. These are the dishes we tried:
— spicy squid with chorizo /​excellent
— chowder /​average (needed more seasoning)
— garlic butter scallop /​excellent
— mussels in white wine sauce /​good
— fish & chips /​excellent (must try)
— razor clams with pancetta /​excellent (must try)
As you see some dishes were outstanding such as the smoked piece of the fish and chips (best I’ve had in my life) and the razor clams with pancetta and parmesan (unexpectedly incredible combo). Other, such as the chowder and the mussels were good, but nothing special (which explains the .5 star missing).
Check for 2 dishes per person and 1 bottle of Prosecco in 3 = 30 €.
Ultra recommended for a casual lunch on the pier and worth a 20m train ride from Dublin when visiting the city.

Can’t believe I didn’t eat here sooner! We spent Saturday up in Howth showing J’s family around. This place is always packed but I just assumed it was a typical tourist trap and didn’t pay it much attention. For once they didn’t have a long wait so we decided to give it a go.
While we looked through the menu we ordered a bottle of their white wine of the week. I’m not a huge white wine person but this was light and not too sweet. When the waitress returned we placed our orders and set to work on the wine.
A short while later the first couple dishes arrived. The oysters were super fresh and not overly fishy — really nice. The squid was grilled and served with chorizo. I wish it had been spicier but I still really liked it. The seafood chowder was superb. They make it fresh for you in a skillet and there are sizeable pieces of fish, prawns, mussels and squid. The flavour of the broth is fantastic and perfect for the chilly Irish days.
After that the mussels came out along with one of their prawn specials. I’m not typically a mussel person but the sauce they cook it in is phenomenal. The prawns did not blow me away but they were still nice. Next came the two scallop dishes — one was the special and the other was a regular item. The special was king scallops served over a cauliflower purée. The scallops were perfectly cooked and so well seasoned. I loved every bite. The standard scallops were good but couldn’t really compete with the special.
We had a wonderful experience at Octopussy’s from the service to the dishes and the view. It came at a hefty price but we had great variety and loved the food. Will definitely come back.

Tasty food, but the service was at best disorganised and at worst, just plain terrible.
On this Bank Holiday visit everything seemed to go wrong — our drinks order being forgotten about (despite several reminders), a long wait for food, other tables being served before us and being told mid-​meal that we’d have to share our table with another couple (I wouldn’t have minded if that had been explained to us, but mid-​meal just seemed odd).
That being said, the food was good. Would I go back? Yes, but not during the lunch or dinner ‘rush.’

This restaurant is little gem that has the best seafood! It is a small place with limited seating, but it’s super cute and cosy.
The food is simply outstanding. I have never had a bad meal here… my problem is choosing what I want most at this stage!
If your a lover of prawns, the pil pil are the best in Howth, even in all of Dublin, and the chorizo potatoes are to die for! Their paella is also spectacular!
HIGHLY RECOMMEND

Un petit endroit qui né paie pas de mines et qu’il faut un peu chercher mais qui vaut le coup !
Demander sans hésitation le demi-​homard à 15euros et les «garlic potatoes» (une tuerie !).
Ce n’est pas vraiment un restaurant, plutôt un bar à tapas, né vous attendez pas à des plats particulièrement copieux mais amplement suffisant pour le prix et la qualité (on est sur le port, les produits sont donc particulièrement frais).
L’octopussy, c’est un bon moment à partager entre amis autour de bons plats frais et sans chichis.

I love tapas and I love sea food! I went here with 2 friends of mine and we ordered 3 plates each and then had a bit of each other’s. It was delicious! It may have been a while back since I’ve gone here but I aim to change that soon ;)
Friendly service and nice desserts too. Like was said below, limited seating so get in there early.

Yummy Octopussy ;)
Thinking the portions might be a little small because its a seafood tapas place, we ordered five dishes. But I think four would have been more than enough.
Crab claws: delicious, even for me who finds some seafood dishes like this a little too fishy sometimes
Dublin Bay prawn scampi: very good and light
Calamari: really nice, the blue cheese dip was just perfect
Gambas Picantes: excellent, my favourite dish of the whole meal. The leftover chilli oil made for lovely dipping
Potatoes Bravas: lovely fresh sauce that came hot on top of diced potatoes that were piping.
The décor is kitsch, but I think seafood places that embrace the seafaring theme should be encouraged. It added to my experience.
The staff were lovely too. While the food was a tad slow in getting to the table, it was well worth the wait. It was the June Bank Holiday Monday after all and I was grateful we got a table.
We’ll be back.

I’ve eaten in The Oar house a couple of times, but I had heard a lot about the food at Octopussy so today we had lunch there. (Its next door and I think owned by the same people)
Octopussy isn’t cheap, 50 euros for a good size meal with a couple of cokes. It’s pricey for a café type place.
The food however is excellent, really really tasty. Howth is great for sea food generally but this is as good as its gets in my book for Tapas.
The menu is pretty extensive but everything we saw come out looked amazing. For our 5 dishes we had Dublin bay Prawn Scampi, Calamari, Crab Claws, Gambas Picantas (prawns in chilli and garlic) and Patata’s Bravas.
The menu also included Lobster, Oysters and all manner of other dishes. See here: —
I saw one couple have a platter and it looked absolutely amazing so consider that if you do go!
The staff were also very friendly and efficient and the café itself is pretty funky. All the food is in front of you and cooked behind a counter.
The only thing I will say is that it can take a while to get your food when its busy so don’t go in expecting it straight away.
All in all excellent, I want to go back as soon as possible but its a bit far for us unless its a weekend.