Red Bean Roastery

A house blend and a pastry counter in Sandyford

Everything at Red Bean Roastery starts from one signature blend: beans sourced across Central and South America, Africa and Asia, then roasted locally. The espresso profile is smooth and well rounded, with balanced body, a rich buttery mouthfeel and a deep, dark finish. The name comes from the red fruit of the coffee plant, the ripe cherry, which is the brand's way of putting the cup back at the start of the chain. Drinks are barista-made rather than pushed out of a machine by a button: latte, cappuccino, americano, flat white, mocha, espresso and macchiato, with breakfast tea, speciality tea and hot chocolate in classic, mint, honeycomb, praline and cookies & cream.

Counter format, day-long food

The format sits between a coffee counter, a grab-and-go cafe and a relaxed neighbourhood coffee shop, and the Sandyford room at Leopardstown Central Park uses all three modes across a day. Red Bean is run by Dalata Hotel Group and has grown to 18 outlets across Dublin alongside stand-alone city coffee shops, so the spaces are built to be flexible and quick without pushing people back out of the door. The pastry counter covers croissant, pain au raisin, pain au chocolat, chocolate brownie, rocky road and a granola bar, with soups, sandwiches and salads prepared fresh daily. Seasonal drinks run through the year: a chocolatey mocha speciality around Valentine's, an Irish twist for St Patrick's, cool summer drinks including blood orange, pink grapefruit, cloudy lemonade, cold brew, iced latte and a salted caramel iced latte, then warming additions in winter.

Order the flat white, then pick a pastry

If milk coffee is your usual, start with a flat white, latte or cappuccino: they sit closest to the house-blend identity and the barista-led positioning. For a shorter cup, espresso or macchiato puts the blend's rounded body and darker finish in front of you, while americano is the longer black route and mocha the sweeter, chocolate one. Hot chocolate is a mini-range in its own right. For food, pair croissant, pain au chocolat or pain au raisin with a milk coffee; chocolate brownie and rocky road suit mocha or hot chocolate; the granola bar is the plainer sweet option, and the daily soups, sandwiches and salads are the practical midday route. In warm weather the outside seating is the reason to stay longer than the queue takes.