The Winding Stair
Tags: The Winding Stair 
Having just started a new job (gulp!) along with another poor lad, the powers that be decided to bring our new ‘team’ out for dinner. Nice eh? The venue of choice was The Winding Stair on the north quays, just at the Ha’penny Bridge.
Most of you will remember that a few years back the Winding Stair was one of the only buke shops you could buy an LGBT book in Dublin. Then you could sit and read it hidden in the comfortable confines of the shelves upstairs. Good times…
These days The Winding Stair is both bookshop and restaurant. The bookshop on the ground floor is ludicrously lesbionic and fabulously faggy; if arty is your thing, get your art down here. The restaurant is full of ‘brothers and sisters’ and those poor straights who are oblivious to how gay Dublin really is. Watch out, you’re surrounded!!!
There were 10 in my work party and, as I’m a newbie, I had no idea how fussy or otherwise the group would be. Turns out they’re pretty laid back. Not that there was anything to complain about – the service was quick and professional, while also managing to be friendly.
For starter I went for Organic Beetroot, Toasted Walnut and Ryefield Goat’s Cheese Salad. Oh my god! Delicious! The beetroot was the prefect foil for the tanginess of the goat’s cheese, cutting through it beautifully.
For my main course there was literally so much to choose from that, on the advice of one of my colleagues, I closed my eyes and pointed. What I ended up with was Lough Neagh Brown Trout
with broccoli, boiled spuds and pea and butter sauce. The trout was moist and meaty and the accompanying sides were tasty. I had only one problem – I was stuffed to the gills after 3 forkfulls. Needless to say, dessert was out of the question.
Along with dinner we had a Pinot Noir, which was ordered by by boss so I didn’t have the guts to ask more details in case I be forever known as ‘yer wan the wino’. It was gorgeous though so good choice Boss!
It seems that The Winding Stair are going for a posh school dinners type of menu, with bread and butter pudding as a dessert and corned-beef and cabbage as a main. The problem is that this is winter food. It ‘looks after you’ as my mother would say, and is rib-sticking stuff that warms you from the inside. Delicious, but don’t eat there after 8 or you’ll have heartburn all night.
The only gripe that would put me off The Winding Stair is the noise level. In keeping with the school dinners theme, you can feel like you’re in a canteen. It’s all a bit ‘clatter bang’ or, as my partner so tactfully puts it “it’s a bustling city centre restaurant”. Either way it’s not really suitable as a first or second date location.
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I recently paid a visit to The Winding Stair for dinner with my parents. The food was superb and the service was efficient and friendly (but not overly so – sometimes lately I feel like waiting staff are over-compensating for the abruptness and inattentiveness of some of their peers). We booked a table for 6pm on a Tuesday evening and had only got confirmation that the table was available earlier that afternoon. The place was completely booked solid for the entire evening and there were many, many disappointed potential diners who dropped in with the hope of getting a table on the fly. The demand for bookings is not expected to subside since the restaurant has made the Michelin Guide for Ireland 2008. The only criticisms I would have of the place are, as HAL said, the noise can be a bit overbearing if you’re sitting in the main dining area. Thankfully, there a few more tables which are quieter and set near the wine shelves. Also the bentwood chairs can give a gluttonous gourmand quite a square botty as one progresses through the entrée. All in all though, The Winding Stair is definitely worth a visit. The menu is quite select (all courses are summerised onto one A4 page) but that selection is unimpeachable and there is more than one option for vegetarians (and it certainly isn’t a thoughtless pasta or salad) and always a few tempting special daily options. It’s worth checking out and I will certainly be back.