Restaurant Review: Dalkey's On the Grapevine puts Bono and crew in the shade

The interior of On the Grapevine, Dalkey, Co Dublin. Pic: Michael Chester

• On The Grapevine, 26 Castle Street, Dalkey, Co. Dublin A96 W5A0
• OnTheGrapevine.ie
• Tel: [phone]
• How-To: Tuesday - Saturday 12-11pm, Sunday - 12-9pm, Monday - Closed
• The Tab: Starters, Mains, Desserts and lots of Wine for four adults cost €296.45 (incl. 10% service) — less than €75 per person.

Mention Dalkey in company and someone will tell you that they saw Bono swilling pints in Finnegan’s pub, that Enya lives there in a haunted castle, and that they saw Matt Damon with a bag of cans on his way to the beach during covid.

Some of this is actually true — Dalkey is Dublin’s version of Beverly Hills even if the restaurant options are more modest. 

On The Grapevine Wine Shop & Restaurant is the must-visit place, I’d heard, so I brought The Engineer, an Austrian friend, and wine writer Jean Smullen who went to school in Dalkey back when it had a pig factory and a working-class population.

Prawns pil pil at On the Grapevine. Pic: Michael Chester

Prawns pil pil (€13) with chilli butter were plump and juicy with some spiky sliced red chillis and a fragrant flavourful sauce — my advice is to order two as your guests will steal most of them. 

Duck croquettes at On the Grapevine, Dalkey

Confit duck croquettes (€14) with a pineapple salsa were meaty and sweet with a crisp crumb exterior — the salsa offsetting the richness of the duck nicely. 

Chickpea falafel (€9) with tomato fondue, salsa verde and hazelnuts were nutty and textured and also worked well. 

Potted crab at On the Grapevine, Dalkey

Potted crab (€18) was generous with its crabmeat and some pomegranate seeds and roasted hazelnuts added character.

After the success of the starters, we were eager for our mains. Mains were actually solid enough, but I have some notes for the chef. 

Wagyu burger at On the Grapevine, Dalkey

Wagyu burger had good-quality crumbly meat, a bonus onion ring, and a good bun, and good flavours overall. However, it was enormous and needed to be eaten with a knife and fork so rather failed as a ‘burger’ — bigger is not always better.

Two seafood linguine (€22 each) were generous with their seafood (mussels, prawns, clams) and had good buttery-garlic flavours but could have done with a kick of chilli or something to lift the flavours.

I also felt the pasta was a tad overcooked, but my guests were less troubled on this front.

I ordered the monkfish ‘scampi’ (€26) which were delightful tender nuggets of breaded monkfish with a good wasabi aioli and salad, but I was disappointed with the chips which were the same skin-on, rather flavourless ones I criticised in my last review of Dash Burger. 

When I commented on my disappointment I was told they were due to be replaced very soon; this is good news — when I am emperor I shall be banishing these chips from the country, but I realise this may take some time to organise.

The wine shop at On the Grapevine, Dalkey, Co Dublin. Pic: Michael Chester

On The Grapevine is an impressive wine shop as well as a restaurant so as you might expect there is an excellent and fairly priced wine list with good options by the glass and bottle. 

I ordered the luxurious, weighty and complex Louro do Bolo Godello Valdeorras from Rafael Palacios, one of Spain’s great winemakers. This wine retails at €30 so a price tag of €48 was a bargain I felt, it costs up to €63 in other restaurants.

Other wines we tried by the glass included a Waltner Grüner Veltliner (€8), Poliziano Rosso di Montepulciano (€9.50), Becker German Pinot Noir (€10), and Lustau Manzanilla (€6.50) — all excellent and all at very fair prices. 

There doesn’t seem to be an option to pick a bottle from the heaving well-stocked shelves of the shop, but I suspect if you offered €20 corkage they might let you open a bottle of top-notch Cru Classé Bordeaux — ask nicely!

We shared three good-value desserts — a nicely luscious orange-chocolate mousse (€7.50), a tangy refreshing bitter-sweet lemon meringue pie (€7.50), and a large indulgent maple syrup crème brûlée (€7) which had a gorgeous tang of sweet toffee from the caramelised burnt sugar top, and good creamy vanilla intensity in the custard underneath. 

A glass of Rutherglen Chambers Muscat (€7.50) worked particularly well with the crème brûlée.

On The Grapevine was well worth the trip to Dalkey and we very much enjoyed our meal despite a few caveats on the main courses. 

Who needs Bono with prawns and Godello tasting that good?

The exterior of On the Grapevine, Dalkey, Co Dublin. Pic: Michael Chester

The Verdict:

• Food: 7.5/10
• Wine: 9/10
• Service: 9/10
• Ambience: 8/10
• Value: 8/10
• In a Sentence: A charming restaurant/wine shop with tasty, enjoyable food - you might even spot Bono.