Restaurant review: Stanley’s, Dublin
The esteemed institution that is Trocadero has been trading here for nigh-on 60 years.
Salamanca Tapas Bar & Restaurant has been here for almost 15, while Lebanese restaurant The Cedar Tree is fast approaching its 30th year.
What these established restaurants think of newcomers is open to conjecture — they have, it’s fair to say, seen other restaurants arrive in a blaze of glory only to fizzle out without much fuss.
Stanley’s is one such newcomer, but its arrival towards the end of last year was unheralded by the mavens who munch.
It is housed in what used to be the same premises as Saint (a restaurant we’d never visited, but had heard was hipster-ish, lacklustre in atmosphere, and channelling something of a down-at-heel look) and — long before that — a vaguely recalled Chinese restaurant of no small reputation.
Clearly, something radical in design, if not cuisine, had to be called for, and so we approached Stanley’s in the hope that, a few months after it opened, early gremlins would be well and truly banished.
First things first: The split-level element works, although the narrow ground floor space seems much more suitable for a casual glass of wine and a quick bite than a two-to-three-hour catch-up over a bottle of whatever takes your fancy and three courses.
The ground-floor design, by the way, is all effected in wonderfully clean lines, parquet flooring, a row of tables, chairs, and, by a wall for happy singletons, a row of utilitarian metal framed stools. And mirrors, lots of mirrors… Nice, but not to linger too long in, we reckon.
The main treat, we suspect, is upstairs, and so it proves when, having made our way up a creaking staircase painted in the kind of bright black gloss paint we last saw sticking to similar sets of stairs in a palace in Transylvania, we enter the first-floor room. In what seems like something of a subtle triumph in design, this small room (we’d estimate it holds a maximum of 35, give or take) is breathtaking.
We would agree that it isn’t for everyone, however, but we love its signature smoothness of crushed velvet-like material, its all-over olive colour scheme, its full mirrors (that come in both burnished and distressed styles), its mellow lighting, its bay window candlelights, and — positioned in a corner, taking up perhaps more room than it should — a gold-painted gramophone. The room, then, is straight out of a catalogue we’ve never seen before, and references a mix of gothic, religious, and sensual themes.
(The designer is Irishwoman Suzie McAdam, who also brought in the clever art work — the likes of David Bowie, Clint Eastwood, Christopher Walken, and Bill Murray depicted as 18th century military officers.)
Overseen by brothers Paddy and Stephen McArdle (the former is diligence personified front-of-house, the latter is an assured chef; between them they have worked in establishments such as Chapter One, Roscoff, One Pico, and Deane’s), the food is as classy as the design.
We order and share starters (including mushrooms on toast, with duxelle, cep cream, sautéed mushroom, focaccia, and parmesan), and mains (including braised shin of beef, with black truffle polenta, glazed carrot, cavolo nero; Irish dry-aged ribeye steak with Stanley’s butter and fries; and smoked cod paprika and saffron broth, with Atlantic mussels and samphire (a salty, coastal vegetable rarely glimpsed). Side orders of fries and steamed green beans add to the deceptively large amounts of food on the plates.
We finish with one dessert that we share sparingly — vanilla panna cotta, with cider and spiced ginger biscuit. A bottle of Nero d’Avola (the price of which, €27, isn’t added to the original bill set in front of us — a major error, albeit not necessarily to the detriment of a dishonest customer) accompanies the meal.
What do we have here, then? A classy restaurant serving really good food amid a wonderfully sepulchral-like atmosphere that perfectly balances vampiric undertones with a fond regard for attention to detail (the ‘free’ bottle of wine aside) and customer requirements. Lovely, really lovely.
Dinner for four, with wine, came to €162, €15 tip.
(Dinner) Tues- Sun, 5pm-10pm. (Sunday brunch) 11.30am-4pm
The verdict
8/10
8/10
9/10
7/10
8/10
Stanley’s, 7 St. Andrew’s Street, Dublin 2, 01-4853273, www.stanleysrestaurant.ie
