A wine bar where food is more than an afterthought

I love wine. But it doesn’t love me. So we’re on a break. There are no hard feelings. We’ve had our good times. But there have been one too many glasses that tasted like a headache followed inevitably by a dread-sodden morning. Given the choice I’ll always eat rather than drink my calories. So the wine goggles are back in their velvet-lined case as we head to, of all places, a wine bar for dinner.

We’re in Bagots Hutton on Dublin’s Ormond Quay. This is a building that morphed from an art gallery to the Ormond Wine Bar a few years ago and then, until recently, a casual Brazilian restaurant. The last time my friend had dinner here a row spilled into the dining room and a staff member threw a spectacular strop before walking out mid-shift.

Now it's a new offshoot of the South William Street wine bar Bagots Hutton, named after the Dublin drinks importers who would announce the arrival of new season Devonshire cider in the small ads of The Irish Times in 1860. We're getting used again to the idea that food has seasons, but who knew that drinks did too?

Big river skies

The two bars couldn’t be more different. Where the South William Street place is a cosy, couchy basement, this is all big river skies and a great view of the southern Quays. You can sit in the window and look across to Sunlight Chambers, and wonder for the umpteenth time why there are so few restaurants with a view of this lovely stretch of the Liffey.

Instead of textbook grey they’ve gone for a duck-egg blue and gilt finish on the handsome wood panelling and teamed it with yolk-yellow banquettes and nifty grey chairs. The dickying up stops at the handsome old wide plank floor which wears its age like a battered badge of honour. It’s a sort of Marie Antoinette-does-hipster look. There are several different rooms in this monster building; the front one, where we’re sitting with that view of the river, feels most like a wine bar. There’s a smaller room beside it and then the cavernous bar with a stage at the farthest end decked out with purple velvet curtains. Downstairs in the basement there’s the same footprint again and another bar area with banquettes. It’s a big-bellied whale of a place.

Between the canals

Cheap eats have been the food theme in each of the incarnations of this restaurant. Despite its proximity to the Four Courts and Capel Street there’s never been a city-centre feel to the pricing here. We could be in the ’burbs rather than between the canals. On a Tuesday night, when the early bird is an all-night affair, we can get three courses with a glass of wine (or lemonade) for just over €25.  Expectations are set low to middling in this Vera and Victor Value zone. I expect salty, meaty soakage that has been assembled rather than cooked. But then much better things happen.

There’s good grassy olive oil on a breezy tomato salad, all yellow, red and bruise-dark purple cherry tomatoes on a pretty plate. My bruschetta has good bread, toasted biscuity and topped with milky mozzarella and more of those cherry tomatoes, including some just-roasted halves to add some jammier flavour. Carol has the pasta with mussels and n’duja, a perfectly spiced plate with great fat mussels in their shells. The special is pretty special in this price range: rib-eye with purple potatoes and a tasty selection of greens: kale, spring onions, broad beans in a wine jus with slices of juicy, well-cooked beef on top. The potatoes don’t just look good, they taste properly of potato, a simple idea that falls through the cracks too many times in Irish restaurants.

Silky panna cotta

Desserts are good too, a silky panna cotta sprinkled with orange segments and nut brittle. The brittle also appears on the chocolate truffle plate, which features actual truffle, the savoury, mushroomy white kind. I’m guessing they’ve added it to the chocolate mousse as a truffle oil rather than grating in any actual white truffle, but still it’s a weirdly good blend of sweet and umami, a salted caramel for grownups.

I cycled by since and wondered at how empty this place is. Would they struggle to keep the food and service standard good if all 120 seats had bums on them on a Tuesday evening? I don’t know. But what I do know is Bagots Hutton on Ormond Quay is the best of both worlds: a wine bar where the food doesn’t taste like an afterthought.

Dinner for two with one glass of wine, one soft drink, tea and coffee came to €55

Bagots Hutton, 6 Ormond Quay, Dublin 7 (01) 878 8118

Facilities: Unisex

Food Provenance: None

Music: Pop but live music Thursday to Saturday

Wheelchair access: Yes

Vegetarian options: Limited

Verdict: 8/10 A lovely wine bar with a fresh approach to food

Second helping . . .

Annie’s is a pleasant neighbourhood cafe on Grand Canal Street that’s been revamped recently, according to its website. I don’t know whether it was all chintz and tea cups before, but now it’s pared-back concrete and plywood, taking minimalism to a new level. It’s cosier than it sounds, especially on a sunny day when the big window floods the place with warmth. The food is good too. I had a heartwarming bowl of broccoli soup with a broccoli and sweet potato salad and a bracingly strong coffee there recently.

Annie’s, 10 Grand Canal Street Upper, Dublin (01) 667 5321