The Winding Stair - Creative Comfort Food with a View

After a walk exploring Smithfield on my last, lazy day in Dublin for a while, I was enthusiastically looking forward to having a meal at the Winding Stair. Because I was immersed in the Dublin Theater Festival every night, lunch was the natural option. I easily found the restaurant just a couple of blocks off of the Luas Redline (restaurant is just across from Temple Bar, north of the river). Its narrow doorway is plainly marked from the sidewalk, sitting just beside its own small bookstore. I climbed the winding staircase and pushed open the door at the top of the stair emerging into a bright room of hardwood, windows, and chalkboard menus.

The dining room is simple, with almost a Shaker style coziness – a recurring style for modern Irish restaurants, I’m finding. Being on the early side allowed me a ringside table by the window to watch the sun and clouds battle it out over the river. Winding Stair had just opened for lunch and only one other person was situated at a table. Its wall of windows overlooks the River Liffey. One chalkboard described Winding Stair’s daily specials, while the other listed its wines by the glass – the best wine list I’ve seen in Dublin to date. I opted for a delicious Soave Classico from Italy.

The menu is creative comfort food and has a prix fixe option of 2 or 3 courses, including a glass of wine. The full menu is available as well. I started off with a hot tea, my first caffeine of the day, to take the chill off. For my starter of the 2-course prix fixe, I couldn’t resist the Bán – a Wicklow cheese – fritter accompanied by a side salad, which was light and flavorful.

For the second course I continued the vegetarian theme with the cauliflower crumble. The gratin itself was very tasty – but the crumble topping of oatmeal and seeds while clever was a bit dry and would have benefited from a little fat and seasoning, like its crumble namesake. Accompanying the crumble were potato cheese croquettes, which were crunchy on the outside, soft and cheesy on the inside. However, the beet/apple puree, while very fall-ish, was overly sweet for the dish overall dish. The watercress salad was the perfect touch for the needed contrasting lightness and color.

Service was impeccable: friendly, knowledgeable, attentive but not clingy. I hated to leave the comfortable perch of my window view, but lunch was over, the sky had cleared, and it was now safe to go back outside to enjoy my last day in Dublin.