Two Stars And A New Home At The Merrion

In 1996 Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud reached that level^[1][2].

It had taken fifteen years. A recession opening in 1981. A first star in 1988. Then the second, after years of steady work by Guillaume Lebrun's kitchen and Stéphane Robin's dining room^[1][2].

A New Address

A year later the restaurant moved. In 1997 it settled into the Merrion Hotel, on Upper Merrion Street^[1][2]. It has stayed there ever since.

The move gave the two-star kitchen a setting to match its cooking, inside one of the city's best-known hotels.

Holding On

Winning two stars is hard. Keeping them for decades is rarer still. The restaurant has held its second star every year since 1996^[1]. In 2011 the Limerick Post described it as Ireland's only two-star Michelin restaurant and the most awarded in the country^[2].

In 2014 Guilbaud told The Caterer that the team still aimed for a third star^[4]. It showed that, even after so long at the top, the ambition had not faded.

Still There In 2026

Many restaurants have come and gone since 1996. Patrick Guilbaud is still in the guide. In February 2026 it was one of five Irish restaurants with two stars, beside Chapter One, Dede, Liath and Terre^[3].

Every year the guide is published, chefs across Ireland wait to see who rises and who falls. Guilbaud's name has been on the two-star line for three decades.

Guests notice that steadiness. It is a formal house, yet a relaxed one too: the Limerick Post noted in 2011 that it has a child-friendly policy, and that some young reviewers rated the food above McDonald's^[2].

Behind the stars sits a simple idea. The same people, doing the same job well, night after night. Lebrun in the kitchen, Robin in the dining room and Guilbaud as the host who set the tone from the start^[1][2].

For three decades, the second star has been the restaurant's calling card. It is the reason food lovers from all over the world still book a table on Upper Merrion Street^[1][3].