Beeftro is a fast casual business that specialises in – you guessed it – beef. They describe themselves as a steakhouse crossed with a laid-back bistro and have two branches, both in Dublin – one in Dundrum and one just off Grafton St in the city centre. Their menu and website logo is a line drawing of a cow divided into all the cuts of meat available from rump to fillet to rib-eye leaving you in no doubt as to what the brand is all about. It’s simple but effective example of clever branding – in this case, cattle branding!
They pride themselves on the quality of their ‘beef from stockman selected Irish cattle sourced from the Scarlet Heifer Butchers’. This focus on food provenance is one of their selling points and it’s displayed on their menu, their walls and on the website. Tasty arrived there for the early bird on a busy Saturday, aiming to test out in particular their Black Angus Cheeseburger.
The interior at street level is attractive and styled along the lines of a French Bistro but unfortunately, we were sent to the downstairs section which was much more basic.
The early bird menu offers four starters and four mains – we went for a very good French onion soup and some excellent spicy chicken wings. For the mains, there were BBQ chicken and grilled salmon option if beef is not your thing – though in that case why are you in Beeftro? – and a choice of burger or sirloin steak. There are of course other steak cuts available on the a la carte menu.
Three out of the four in our group went for the Cheeseburger because Beeftro has ‘elaborated a secret ground beef recipe for our burgers made with 100% muscle meat’. They were indeed excellent, served with bacon and Irish cheddar on, of course, a brioche bun – as good a burger as we’ve had this side of the Rockies i.e. In Dublin. The fries, sides and French onion soup starter were also very good, but ironically the steak was slightly overdone – common in Irish restaurants, maybe we should have said blue instead of rare – though very good quality. Serving sizes were good enough for us to skip the four dessert options. There’s a decent one-page beer and wine menu to order from and we went for the on-trend American Pale Ale.
All in all, Beeftro has one of the best premium burgers in the country. At 20€ for a two course early bird it’s only a little more expensive than upmarket chains like Gourmet Burger kitchen and Eddie Rockets and for our money, given the quality, it’s better value. It also ticks all the boxes for the trend for sustainability in food sourcing with their Master Stockman visiting all the farms to inspect the animals prior to production. He oversees production and ensures all beef is produced to Beeftro’s specification.
