I wonder if there are food critics out there who purposefully try the patience of the establishment they’ve been sent to review. You know, acting as obnoxiously as they can so as to test how a place copes under stress. Ordering Moules Marnière “without the mussels” and demanding left-handed cutlery. Because of my insatiable need to be loved by all, I would never do this. And so, on a recent visit to Dublin Wine Rooms in the IFSC, I was aghast when Niall quietly informed me “You’re wrecking that waiter’s head.”
How dare he (Niall, I mean) suggest such a thing! I had merely asked a number of questions in the first five minutes of our evening there. “So…how do those wine dispensers work? How many bottles can we taste? Do you have any paté? Do you make your own pasta?” I quizzed our smiling waiter as Niall rolled his eyes. I was merely being inquisitive. Perhaps this accusation contributed to my patience when faced with some testing service circumstances later in the evening.
The Dublin Wine Rooms opened in 2011 on Custom House Square in the IFSC with an aim of making wine more approachable, interactive and relaxed since 2011. They have 50 wines available at any given time through their enomatic wine tasting system, which allows punters to try wines at their leisure and with affordable options. Depending on what wine you choose, you can fill a tasting glass for about a €1, a half glass for around €4 and a large glass for around €7. You pay for these by topping up a customer wine card, which once opened remains valid for a year. We began our account with €20 and for the two and a half hours we were there we tasted around ten wines between us – including a very special Austrian Grüner Veltliner and a brilliant 2008 Ri Passo Valpolicella – and only had to top up our card once with an extra €10.
At the helm of the kitchen is the talented James Ainscough, formerly of Le Bon Crubeen and 101 Talbot. On our visit, the food was an even mix of tremendous success and sad disappointment. Niall had ordered the sublime brown sugar cured smoked sea trout with avocado purée. I spotted a chalk scrawled sign on the wall offering homemade terrines and patés, which were not on the menu. I enquired after these savoury treats and the waiter suggested I have the antipasti plate. I was disappointed to be served a plate of what I suspected to be a mishmash of parts of other dishes from the menu. There was a (delicious) caponata, a chicken remoulade, some fried wild mushrooms and a few sliced figs. We waited for almost 45 minutes for these starters to arrive. As we were busy schooling ourselves in vino, it didn’t really bother us. I had to request some bread after about half an hour because we were getting a little giggly and squiffy drinking on empty stomachs.
My main course was the goat’s cheese ravioli with a reappearance of the aforementioned caponata. Although it was a tasty sauce of capers, tomatoes and olives, I wasn’t that thrilled to see it again and I felt the goat’s cheese ravioli could have benefited from a milder cheese. As if we were eating in different restaurants, Niall’s rabbit ragu with pappadelle was rich, unctuous and everything you’d want from a plate of autumnal food. I was well jealz.
We skipped dessert and went straight for two very well made macchiatos and requested the bill. We were supping on said macchiatos as the bill appeared. “WTF?!” I spluttered through my coffee. The bill had come to an unbelievable €1,081.60. “How long have we been here?! How much have we drunk?!?” I brought the bill up to a cluster of waiters. “Umm…I think there’s been a little mistake on the bill…” Cue lots of laughter and gentle, polite slagging of the staff member who had made the mistake of topping up our wine card by €1,000 as opposed to Niall’s request of €10.
The staff apologised about eight times throughout the course of the evening – the whole team had been informed of our late starters and the bill mishap – and a few more times as we were leaving for good measure. Alongside the chance to taste lots of different wines, the staff make Dublin Wine Rooms a place I want to go back to. We came across them on a night when the kitchen wasn’t working at its optimum best. I had plenty of those kind of shifts in my time as a waitress but I was, truth be told, a bad example of the occupation and quite terrible at dealing with mishaps. This team, on the other hand, are knowledgeable, welcoming and well able to charm customers into forgiving service slip ups. And I bet they’d deal rather well with tricky customers.
Dublin Wine Rooms
Custom House Square
IFSC
Dublin 1
01-6054912
Twitter
http://www.dublinwinerooms.com/
Photos: Mark Duggan
