For history & culture, The Winding Stair is hit or miss.
Snug, bookish and unmistakably Dublin, with hearty modern-Irish plates and a river view at dusk. It feels like a local secret even though everyone knows it.
Sits above the former Winding Stair bookshop at 40 Ormond Quay Lower, overlooking the Ha'penny Bridge; named after the W.B. Yeats poem and revived as a restaurant in 2006 by Elaine Murphy. · winding-stair.com
Champions seasonal Irish produce and traditional dishes (e.g. Dublin Coddle, smoked haddock in milk) from island-based artisan producers. · discoverireland.ie