Restaurant Review: Cellar 22 is a welcome addition to Dublin’s prolific wine bar scene

Does Dublin need another wine bar? Probably not, but personally I say let’s have more and more. 

I’m long over the tasting menu, and the three-course meal can be similarly boring — give me creative small plates and good wine choices every time.

Cellar 22 opened in the basement of 22 St Stephen’s Green in late November, a space that was once a funky little seafood bar called Urchin, an adjunct to the seafood restaurant upstairs in the Cliff Townhouse.

The Cliff Group closed the space in 2021 and it has been vacant ever since so the opening of Cellar 22 is welcome, as is the promise of a new restaurant and rooms opening upstairs in the near future.

The new owners are the folk behind The Bailey and The Fitzwilliam Hotel and with chef Chris Maguire (Locks, Delahunt) and sommelier Victor Nedelea (Sole, Restaurant 41) on board, I was optimistic.

We began with bread, cheese, and meat platters and while portions of meat and cheese were small the flavours made up for it. 

Properly ripe Mossfield Cheddar, Ardsallagh Goat’s Cheese and Boyne Valley Sheep’s Cheese came with homemade crackers, homemade fruity chutney and blackcurrant and apple fermented honey that worked particularly well in cutting through the sheep cheese.

Cellar 22 is making many of its own terrines and salamis for its charcuterie platter, and once again flavour was to the fore — a rich sweet ham hock terrine (if in tiny portions), a flavourful (if rather dry) venison rillette, and an excellent fruity-sweet-salty coppa salami. 

Pig’s head salami had a light smoky flavour and lots of fatty richness that went well with a glass of fino sherry. 

Apple butter added sweet richness to the meats and next time I will be sucking up the cost and ordering the large platter (€28 v €16 for the small version).

Homemade blood pudding (€14) was the special of the day and was meaty and iron-flavoured — thankfully a nicely dressed salad containing apple cut through the richness and blobs of dill and blue cheese mayo also played their part. 

Jerusalem artichoke agnolotti (€16) was the highlight of the small plates, silky pasta, a pleasing soft filling and hazelnuts to add crunch.

Southern-fried maitake mushrooms (€11) worked less well, a perfectly crisp exterior promised much, but sometimes that was all we got, the mushrooms having shrivelled in the batter into dry slivers.

When the mushroom pieces were larger this combination worked better, but I couldn’t help thinking how good the batter would have been encasing good-quality chicken, however boring that might have been to the creative team in the kitchen.

This is a wine bar after all so thankfully the wine list has had proper work put into it.

There is a choice of 40 or so by the glass and the selection is creative with classic wines interspersed with some natural wines. 

I gather the list is not static and will develop along with the restaurant.

We began with a Williams Fino sherry (€10) for herself and a non-fortified El Pinto Palomino (€9) for myself. 

Both worked with the cheese and meat platters although the fino was the clear winner over the palomino whose sour tang of volatile acidity jarred a little with the sweet meat flavours.

Better was a glass of Côtes du Rhône from La Janasse (€12) which was silky and darkly fruited while The Engineer’s Torre Mora Etna Rosso (€11) and pleasing cherry fruits with a tang of mineral, later a glass of Clos du Pontet Bordeaux (€10.50) had pleasing blackcurrant and chocolate-tinged dried red fruits.

Desserts proved to be an unexpected highlight of the meal with ‘Variations of Chocolate’ (€12.50) involving a chocolate ganache encased in more chocolate with caramelised banana, a crisp pecan brittle and topped with ice-cream. 

The affogato was a completely deconstructed chilled dessert with a tonka bean and coffee crumble, coffee granita and vanilla semifreddo. It was a triumph, bitter-sweet, rich, and complex — we fought over it.

Cellar 22 may be yet another wine bar, but this kitchen is pushing itself harder than most, and I am excited to see what will open upstairs in the larger restaurant space. 

Not everything we ate worked perfectly and I would like to see a little more generosity in the servings of charcuterie and cheese, but, crucially, nothing failed outright either. 

I’ll be back, most likely for a late-night affogato and some Graham’s Tawny Port.

The Verdict

• Food: 8
• Wine: 8.5
• Service: 9
• Ambiance: 8
• Value: 8