The Merrion

The best hotel in the city and one of the finest in the world, The Merrion is 10 years old this year but feels like it's been here forever. It was created from four 18th century Grade 1-Listed townhouses where Ascendancy toffs lorded it over Georgian Dublin and it keeps the sense of a private home with grand but comfortable furnishings, antiques and the magnificent proportions and detailing of a privileged age. No corners have been cut in the restoration. Rococo ceilings and stucco work were brought back to life over six months by a Master Stuccodore (posh plasterer) using techniques at least 200 years old and working freehand with plaster made from lime and crushed marble. The new Irish owners with foresight and deep pockets set the renovation in motion and exceptional staff, many of whom have been on board since day one, make it a delight to stay here. There are elegant drawing rooms on the ground floor looking out over formal landscaped gardens; a handsome cocktail bar; the easy-going Cellar restaurant; a pampering spa, leisure centre and swimming pool; and a superb collection of Irish art including paintings by Jack B. Yeats and Louis le Brocquy. You don't get more luxurious than the bedrooms with their rich fabrics, bags of space, Italian marble bathrooms and walk-in showers, alongside the latest techie kit. Within the hotel is the Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud (see below) holder of the only two Michelin stars in Dublin and a magnet for 21st century grandees. Upper Merrion Street, Dublin 2, (00 353 1) 603 0600; www.merrionhotel.com

 

The Radisson SAS Royal Hotel

The Radisson group is going through a global surge at the moment and the new hotel in Dublin is right on the button with contemporary tastes - and quite different from the luxury country club style Radisson St Helen's to the south of the city. This slick new property, just a short walk from Stephen's Green and Grafton Street, opens officially on 10th April but there have been many weeks of soft opening to make sure everything is just so. And it really works. The 150 rooms and suites are spacious, comfortable and well-planned with free internet access; bathrooms are luxurious with lots of little treats; express laundry service, Grab & Run breakfast and express check-out. The hotel's lobby is smart and chic with imaginative seating to suit your mood. There's a high counter style table for the business laptop moment, conventional armchairs and low tables for coffee, meetings, or just hanging around; and even a couple of squishy beanbags for a bit of public unwinding. There's a great lounge bar and brasserie on the ground floor (see below), the sparkling Waterford Crystal Vintage Room, and a spectacular space on the 7th floor with great views over the city. Exceptionally helpful reception staff can conjur tickets and taxis out of nowhere. Radisson used to be associated with worthy but unexceptional business hotels but this new arrival in Dublin propels the brand firmly into another league. The ultimate accolade has been to name it a Radisson SAS Royal a title given to only a few within the group and memorably embodied in the elegant flagship hotel in Copenhagen. Golden Lane, Dublin 8, (00 353 1) 898 2900 www.royal.dublin.radissonsas.com

 

Sure Bar and Brasserie de Verres en Vers

Radisson has enlisted Robbie Bargh and the Gorgeous Group to give a new dimension to their smart new hotel in Dublin. Gorgeous has devised the Sure Bar, a stylish all-day area for drinks, snacks, casual meetings, afternoon tea and good food. With its light, airy aspect and upmarket furnishings, the Sure Bar is light years away from corny Irish themes bars and anonymous hotel coffee shops. Just off the bar is the wonderfully opulent Vintage Room, shielded by gauzy curtains and centred around a magnificent table made from Waterford Crystal. It displays some of the finest crystal wine glasses and tumblers ever made by the Waterford company and is a very special place to have intimate tastings of rare whiskey, cognac or Champagne. Gorgeous Group has also installed a very snazzy contemporary French brasserie in the new Radisson, Verres en Vers, a clever inversion of "poetry in a glass". It looks set to become a destination eaterie in the city with its large windows looking out onto the street, snug dark wood banquettes and slick service. The menu features traditional French dishes such as moules marinières, onion soup, steak tartare, coq au vin and salade Niçoise alongside Irish specialities like Dublin Bar prawns, oysters, West Coast salmon and roast Clonakility black pudding with glazed apples and mash. Golden Lane, Dublin 8, (00 353 1) 898 2900 www.radissonsas.com

 

Number 31

This is the most quirky and interesting B&B you'll ever come across in Dublin and it's irresistible. It occupies two separate buildings that were once a Georgian town house and across the garden, the two coach houses that served its occupants. In the late 50s, early 60s, one of Dublin's most eminent architects, Sam Stephenson, bought the 200-year-old coach houses and transformed them into a daring Modernist house straight out of Los Angeles or a Playboy set. It was built as a party house and there is a large sunken "conversation pit", candles flickering in the open fireplace, kelims on the floor and art magazines everywhere, a mirrored cocktail bar and in the main bedroom, a huge mirrored headboard and mosaic bathroom that Hugh Hefner could call home. Since becoming the B&B, Number 31 has spread 21 rooms across both buildings and created a bright sunny breakfast room with refectory style tables where a delicious full Irish breakfast is served. You enter in a quiet mews with a large mysterious gate in the wall, very Secret Garden. The two buildings (Georgian and modern) are connected by a long thin Japanese-style garden with a fine mimosa tree, camellias and rampant fatsia japonica. Personally I prefer the rooms in the Georgian part with high ceilings, gilt mouldings and extravagant cornices tempered with modern furnishings and art works. Also, the back entrance from the Georgian building leads onto Fitzwilliam Place just off Leeson Street and is extremely handy for the airport bus which costs just 7 euros. 31 Leeson Close, Dublin 2, (00 353 1) 676 5011; www.number31.ie

 

The Winding Stair Restaurant

This quirky little place is such fun and exactly what you hope a Dublin restaurant will be - great food and bags of atmosphere. You reach it via the winding staircase up from street level and you enter a room lined with books, with lots of bare wooden tables, a bar and small seating area, blackboards with chalked menus, large windows facing south over the Liffey and the Ha'penny Bridge, and lots of noisy happy chatter. Though it feels like it's been here forever, it's quite new, replacing in 2006 the old coffee shop which occupied the premises since the Seventies. The menu offers some of Ireland's finest: Fingal Ferguson's smoked bacon and treacle bread, charcuterie from Gubeen, Frank Hederman's smoked fish from Cobh, bratwurst from Kilcullen, cheeses from Schull and of course locally caught seafood and the best Irish beef, pork and lamb. There are organic vegetables, homebaked beans, sticky puddings and massive portions. Al this with accessible wine prices and friendly service, it's your perfect restaurant 40 Lower Ormond Quay, Dublin 1, (00 353 1) 872 7320; www.winding-stair.com. If you go to the Winding Stair during the day, you must pop into the Winding Stair bookshop on the ground floor (00 353 1) 872 6576 with its crammed bookshelves, casual chairs for browsers, a weird gay porn section and Irish literature's greatest hits, both alive and dead. Don't miss Ross O'Carroll-Kelly's screamingly funny books on the mores of rich modern Dublin Southsiders. How to get by on 10,000 Euros a day is a good place to start. It's Ireland's equivalent to the Sloane Ranger Handbook which defined London's elite in the 1980s.

 

Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud

When the Merrion hotel (see above) opened in 1997, high profile chef Patrick Guilbaud was persuaded to move his restaurant from St James's Place (opened 1981) into a site adjacent to the hotel and accessed via the original front door of the 1760s townhouse. It was an excellent decision, especially now that the booming Irish economy has made south Dublin and the area around St Stephen's Green the heartland for Dublin's movers 'n' shakers. Businessmen do deals, government power-brokers hold court, ladies lunch, society schmoozes and gourmets feast in this classy restaurant and bar. Although nominally on a lower ground floor, the high curved barrel ceiling, creamy/greige colour palette, blond wood panelling and large windows leading into the garden terrace, make it a bright airy space, perfect the classy clientele in bespoke tailoring and designer dresses. Immaculate balletic service makes you think of Paris and wonderful cooking, under head chef Guillaume Lebrun, harnesses Irish ingredients to French techniques with a cheeky nod to Oriental flavours. But the energy of modern Ireland shows through in the crisp decor, modern paintings, terrific wine list and startling prices. The à la carte menu has lashing of luxury with foie gras, lobster, game and aged Irish beef and there is a seven-course tasting menus at 180 euros. There's a relatively good value lunch menu (which changes daily) with two courses 38 euros and three courses 50 euros, comparable to top London restaurants like Petrus or The Square. Guilbaud is the restaurant of choice for prosperous Dublin, Gordon Ramsay without the bad manners. 22 Merrion Street Upper, Dublin 2, (00 353 1) 676 4192; www.restaurantpatrickguilbaud.ie

 

Thornton's Restaurant

Kevin Thornton is Dublin's very own Marco Pierre White: immensely gifted, capricious and always spoiling for a fight. He threw a customer out of his restaurant because he had the nerve to ask for chips, and entered into an acrimonious slanging in match in the press with another chef recently awarded a Michelin star. Despite the ructions, there's no denying Thornton's talent or his commitment to great food. He has held at least one Michelin star since 1995 but the second star comes and goes. Michelin can be unpredictable too but Food & Wine magazine acknowledged him as the best chef in Ireland in 2007. The original Thornton's restaurant opened in Portobello in Dublin in 1995 but in 2002 moved to its current site, on the first floor of the handsomely restrained Fitzwilliam hotel on St Stephen's Green. On first entering the room you are met with a large wine wall and a small lounge with some eye-catching pieces of modern furniture and design. To the right of reception is the bright airy dining room seating 80 with large windows facing east while to the left is a dispensing bar and a large lounge where Thornton's canapé menu is served (more later). Thornton's style of cooking is flamboyant but firmly rooted in the classical French tradition (he trained with Paul Bocuse). Provenance and purity are crucial and Thornton feels his food is energising and natural despite the evident skill and technique. This is gourmet heaven and the tasting menus offer the best introduction his food: five courses, 95 euros; eight courses, 125 euros; and 14 courses, 185 euros. The wine list lives up the menu and Champagne lovers will opt for some of the gems like Pommery Cuvée Louise '89, Cristal '99, Krug Rosé and Krug Clos de Mesnil '82. If your budget isn't up to all this extravagance, try the Canapé Bar where small portions of Thornton's signature dishes are available at knockdown prices, from just 3.50 euros each. You can settle into buttoned leather armchairs or Scandinavian-style sofas, listen to some laid-back jazz, and try guinea fowl with Szechwan pepper, mi-cuit of foie gras, Dublin Bar prawns, rabbit and chocolate, or roast scallop with truffle sauce. Mmmnnnn, yummy. 128 St Stephen's Green, Dublin 2, (00 353 1) 478 7008, www.thorntonsrestaurant.com

 

The Celtic Tiger has matured into the Celtic pussy cat - sleek, pampered and stylish - purring not growling. The raucous party night scenario is so over in this town. Grown-up Dublin for smart metropolitan weekenders.

Things to know, see and do

The city is home to loads of smart hotels for a new hip crowd who come for business and pleasure. Three in particular have turned their back on stuffy traditional luxury and gone for eye-catching modern design, lively bars and destination restaurants, and bedrooms packed with hi-tech toys. Check out The Morrison designed by fashion icon John Rocha, which stands on the north side of the river Liffey near the Millennium Bridge. Ormond Quay, Dublin 1, (00 353 1) 887 2400, www.morrisonhotel.ie; On the other side of the Liffey is The Clarence, devastatingly trendy despite being in dodgy Temple Bar as it's owned by Bono and the Edge of the ultimate Irish rock band U2. 6-8 Wellington Quay, Dublin 2, (0 353 1) 407 0800 www.theclarence.ie If your tastes are over-the-top, try The Dylan, a boutique hotel in a posh postcode slightly outside the main part of town. It's luxurious in a flamboyant, theatrical way. Eastmoreland Place, Dublin 2, (00 353 1) 660 3000, www.dylan.ie

Talk of the town with the Dublin's hipsters is Town Bar & Grill, the ultra fashionable restaurant just off St Stephen's Green. 21 Kildare Street, Dublin 2, (00 353 1) 662 4724 www.townbarandgrill.com If you have time after lunch, pop into the super deluxe wine merchant Mitchell & Son on the floor above and to fantasise about how you'll spend next year's bonus. www.mitchellandson.com

The best Thai restaurant in Dublin is Diep le Shaker near Trinity College, opened ten years ago by Matthew Farrell, once an insurance man but his love of food took him into the restaurant world. 55 Pembroke Lane, Dublin 2, (00 353 1) 661 1829. More recently he and wife Julie have opened the more informal sibling Diep Noodle Bar for simpler Thai and Vietnamese food. It can be found in Ranelagh Village, Ranelagh, (0 353 1) 497 6550), and there's a takeaway operation too www.diep.net

Dublin addresses can take a different form from ours, e.g. Lower Abbey Street becomes Abbey Street Lower. Worth knowing as you tussle with the A-Z.

The Gate Theatre is the best place in town to see world-class actors, modern plays and classic revivals. I Cavendish Row, Dublin 1, (00 353 1) 874 4045, www.gate-theatre.ie

You should also catch a lunchtime theatre performance (with a bowl of soup thrown in) at Bewley's Cafe Theatre, on the second floor of the fabulously exotic Bewley's Oriental Cafe. It opened in 1927 and has original stained glass windows by Harry Clarke on the ground floor. 78 Grafton Street, Dublin 2, (00 353 1) 672 7720 www.bewleys.ie

The city is packed with culture but a must-see is Dublin City Art Gallery The Hugh Lane with its astonishing collection of modern and contemporary Irish and international art. It is named after the late 19th century philanthropist and art lover who left his collection to found the gallery which opened in 1908. A recent acquisition is Francis Bacon's studio, moved in its entirety from a South Kensington mews in London. It is a mesmerising pigsty including not only the painter's brushes, easels and unfinished canvasses but a mass of discarded newspapers, books, general rubbish and cases of champagne. Charlemont House, Parnell square North, Dublin 1, (00 353 1) 222 5550 www.hughlane.ie

For a surprising taste of Eastern Europe, and a tribute to the large number of Polish workers in Dublin, pop into Polski Sklep in the pedestrianised Earl Street North, just off O'Connell Street. On the ground floor there is a busy Polish grocery store and above is a simple but endearing restaurant. Enjoy the formica tables, strip lights, a TV screen with Polish soaps, and hearty dishes of cabbage, dumplings and sausage served canteen style. There is no listed phone number but you can't miss it.

Don't miss live, impromptu Irish music at many pubs and bars like the Ha'Penny Inn and The International while Big Band music is making a comeback and Sunday evening performances by Dublin City Jazz Orchestra are always packed. The crowd assembles in a scruffy upstairs room with the instrumentalists at one end, a bar at the other, and lots of sofas in between. It ain't chic but it's fun and there's loads of talent in the line-up and occasional appearances from legendary star names. 4 Dame Street, Dublin, (00 353 1) 679 0291.

There's a cosy pub culture in Dublin especially when sporting events - especially rugby internationals - are screened and it turns into a party. Head for Doheny & Nesbitt a magnet for lawyers and government professionals, 5 Baggot Street Lower, (00 353 1) 676 2945; Kehoe's cramped and noisy, just off St Stephen's Green, 9 South Anne Street, (00 353 1) 677 8312; or Flowing Tide, close to the Abbey theatre in the raffish North Side part of town, (00 353 1) 874 4106.