Below stairs dining with a touch of class

The Merrion hotel's Cellar Restaurant is the place to go for comfort and privacy, writes CATHERINE CLEARY

IT WOULD ALWAYS prompt a smile on a quiet morning in the newsroom of the Sunday Tribune newspaper on Baggot Street. A guest in the Merrion Hotel would throw open their curtains in a bathrobe (or less) and a reporter with a window seat would salute them with a wave of a coffee mug.

The restoration of Merrion buildings began in October 1995, before the madness of hotel tax breaks spread like a virus. The hotel was always a classier act. It became home to Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud and a wonderful collection of Irish art. Then, a year ago, the IMF team lead by Ajai Chopra checked in for three weeks in the bleak depths of icy winter to broker a bailout deal with the Department of Finance across the road. There were no recorded sightings of the Chopper in his fluffy white bathrobe.

And while Guilbaud’s has been the starry upstairs restaurant, there is another lower-profile one below-stairs, the hotel’s own Cellar Restaurant, where guests have their breakfast and anyone can dine. It has long been a slightly secret political venue, for less visible lunches or dinners for members of Leinster House who want to escape the bubble.

We arrive on a quiet Sunday night and find the heavy iron gate at the top of the stairs locked. A friendly receptionist explains the Cellar Bar is closed on Sunday nights so restaurant-goers meander down through the hotel. “We’re almost at the canal,” Liam remarks. When we get there, it’s all a little forlorn and empty, and we reckon most of the other tables are made up of hotel guests. We seem to be the only ones with coats to check in.

It’s very comfortable, with large padded chairs and heavy linens. There is a sense that nothing very dramatic or unexpected will happen here. Low level muzak is bouncing around the softly-lit vaulted ceiling.

We get a small slate with two white rolls and two mini brown bread loaves, which are both delicious. The baker has resisted the now common practice of adding sugar (or honey or molasses) to the brown bread. Adding anything sweet to brown soda bread turns it into bad cake, by which I mean cake that’s simply not sweet enough. So it’s a failure on both counts.

Here, it’s great, unlike the starters, which read better than they taste. I order the corn pancakes, whose menu description sounds delicious. I imagine the Cashel Blue cheese, leek and butternut squash elements will be mixed into the corn pancake batter, then fried and served with the fennel and cherry tomato salsa. Unfortunately, what comes is a corn pancake with small chunks of butternut squash and cheese rolled inside. The other starter, of smoked mackerel pate, is too wet and too salty, but it comes with a delicious house piccalilli, which gives us hope for the next course.

My sea trout fillets are very good, beautifully cooked without swamping the delicate flavour. They come with courgettes and a black olive mash (although I spot a green olive in there too and, oddly, the olives are whole rather than diced). Surrounding it all is a gorgeous red pepper sauce.

Some truffle and Parmesan chips (it might be downstairs, but it’s still posh) are good, but all the truffle flavour seems to be sprinkled on the top layer. Let’s not point out the obvious metaphor. Liam’s portion of roast red leg partridge is very good, served with fondant potatoes, a Jerusalem artichoke puree and broad beans. These are great Irish ingredients expertly cooked and served at good prices.

Many of the dishes come with a wine pairing, which is a nice touch. So we get three glasses of wine: a perky Albarino, a good Sancerre and a Chablis with the partridge.

A shared dessert is one of the highlights of the meal – a gorgeous slice of green gooseberry crumble with coconut in the topping and a lime syrup drizzled over it. It’s a tangy tart that makes a great showcase for this hairy fruit.

The grey dollar is much in evidence in the Cellar Restaurant. As hotel restaurants go, it’s better than most. And the service is excellent. It strikes me as a good venue for a family gathering, especially with diners who might like a more traditional offering. There are plenty of tasty-sounding meat and two-veg options, two steaks, but also a whole roast globe artichoke with blue cheese, pine nuts and spinach.

The place would have benefited from a bigger, noisier crowd of diners on the quiet night we were there. There is a happy medium between having to bellow across the table to your beloved and feeling that conversation has to be sotto voce as the place is so quiet you can hear the credit-card machine beep in the corner.

Although our two starters needed a tweak, the cooking here is good, making it worth a visit when lesser places are packed to the gills with festive diners. Dinner for two with three wines by the glass came to €115.80.

Twitter.com/catherineeats

The Cellar Restaurant

The Merrion Hotel, Upper Merrion Street, Dublin 2, tel: 01-6030600

Facilities: Great.The ladies has a beautiful picture of Leinster House in the days before the ugly plinth (which housed Queen Victoria’s likeness) was built.

Music: Easy and muzaky

Food provenance: Excellent, meat suppliers and cheesemakers get top billing.

Wheelchair access: Yes