The Cellar Bar

Great bar which is part of the Merrion hotel; accessible from its own entrance to the side of the hotel it’s a great spot for an intimate drink or a catch up with friends.
As you’d expect, service here is great… Whether you’re in for food or just a drink, you will get a warm welcome. My only negative here would be when sitting at the bar, staff aren’t as warmly instead they don’t hide they are busy quickly rushing from order to order plus can be a little rough, like banging glasses which I feel they could just be a little considerate to those unwinding at the bar.
The place is as the name suggestions a cellar like venue, stone walls, snugs and low ceilings make this place very intriguing… Not pretentious, this place caters well for everyone.

What a great bar! This is, in my opinion, one of the best spots in Dublin to have a pint. Preferably a Guinness but that’s really up to you.
The name of the place pretty much explains the concept — it’s a cellar renovated tastefully to accommodate a pub and a restaurant. If you go in on a Sunday afternoon, you might even find some nice live music. This week it was three lovely ladies singing songs from the ‘40s to some jazz music.
I haven’t tried the food here yet, but I love the look and feel of this place and I’m really hoping to return soon!

I went to the Celler Bar for Brunch recently… not expecting all that much to be honest as I hadnt heard much of it! With a mid-​day booking I was suitably starving! The cellar is exactly what you’d imagine, only better… nooks and crannies with plenty of seating areas and a swish bar to sit at.
The menu is amazing — sooo much to chose from whether you want to have a healthy enough brunch or a bold burger and chips kinda day!
We went mainly bold with a bit of healthy thrown in! Believe me when I tell you those Heuvos Rancheros were AMAZING! So we had the Super Salad — Baby spinach, pomegranate, feta cheese, quinoa, feves, toasted seeds and cider vinegar dressing, the Heuvos Rancheros — Corn tortillas, refried beans, 2 fried eggs, with avocado, red onion, coriander, tomato and sour cream and the Merrion Beef Burger with Dubliner cheese and tomato, served with skinny fries.
And there was nothing healthy about dessert, fab little choux buns filled with ice cream! :-)
I loved the Brunch here and would definitely recommend if you fancy a bite somewhere just out the busy-​ness of town.

My second time here, why don’t go come more often?
We popped in after a meal in Patrick Guilbaud.
I really like this spot. The staff are professionals. Service is excellent and I love the nuts they bring to the table.
It’s a hidden bar, but since it’s in the heart of the government area. You just know, many a deal were stroke down here!

I think this place only has a few reviews because it is one of Dublin’s best kept little secrets. Had my friend not recommended this place I never would have found it. Boy was I glad she did.
We sat at the corner of the bar. The place looks like an old-​school wine cellar. The ambience is fantastic. I’m sure the wine is kept naturally cool because this place is actually one story below ground.
I am not a «foodie» so I won’t go into specific detail about my meal, but I ordered steak and fresh vegetables and it was made exactly order and tasted fantastic. My friend had oysters and the waiter-​recommended fish and chips and she really enjoyed everything as well. They serve complementary fresh bread with that fantastic grass-​fed Irish butter. Yum!
Being in Dublin, I wasn’t drinking wine so I opted for the usual pint of Guinness. Obviously there is a fantastic wine selection so order as you please. There are great little tables to the right of the bar next to a very cozy fireplace. This place has one of the nicest public bathrooms I have ever seen.
Take the time to find this underground little gem. I think you will be glad you did.

I think the dinner I had here was the best I had in Dublin.
Found this place by accident. Walking back to my hotel while taking pictures of all different color of doors, I started talking to staff at this hotel The Merrion. Hotel staff was so nice to show me around the hotel and he recommended to check out their Cellar Bar. I went down to just check out and take pictures originally. Since I fell in love with the décor, I decided to have a glass of wine.
They served a glass with some olives and crackers, I really enjoyed nice conversation with several of their staffs, I decided to eat dinner here as well.
I started my dinner with three piece of oysters. One from Ireland, France and Netherlands. I like the one from Ireland but my favorite was the one from France.
As the server recommended fish and chips, that’s what I had for my dinner. I like the way they served my food, it’s pub food but they still found a way to serve food in very elegant way.
Very nice ambiance, I felt like I was at someone’s house wine cellar, very friendly staff, great food… Before I knew, the bottle of wine they opened earlier was empty.
Great way to enjoy great Irish food while being away from too loud too crowded typical bars.

Lovely location, very cosy and warm. The drink selection is very good and I highly recommend the Smoked Salmon platter.

We had a wonderful lunch. Food was good and the staff friendly and very accommodating to my wife’s dietary needs. Guinness was excellent. Mid afternoon, things were quiet. Would be a nice place to hang out as the politicians across the street quit work for the day and stopped over for a pint.

Great gathering spot, neat little hidden seating nooks & crannies. Would be great little hang out with a group or on a date. Not too loud and no TVs (refreshing).
Service decent, atmosphere really neat, nice part of Dublin, cool outdoor torch (when it’s lit up).
From other reviews I’ve read, it sounds like the food is good. My experience was that the Burger I ordered was just Bad, with a capital «B» (or possibly I’m just an obnoxious American burger snob???)
I think the former, so 3 stars.
Come for the atmosphere, eat the free bar munchies, have a pint, but be wary of the burgers.

This place is great for a glass of wine! And you get some free nibbles as well while you enjoy your wine! I haven’t ate there yet, so I can’t comment on the food, but it is perfect for that after work glass of wine.

It’d be quite easy to expect the Cellar Bar restaurant to be overpriced, given it’s attached to the five star Merrion Hotel, but you will be pleasantly surprised if you give it a try. I ate there recently, after a long slog following my wife around shopping on a Friday afternoon. From the off I instantly liked the bar — a stylish, well decorated and moody cellar bar (obviously!). I have to say the staff are superb. Especially one girl who was extremely friendly, great for advice on the food and did everything to make sure we had a good time. What started off being somewhere to go for a quick glass of wine and a snack turned into a great long evening meal. The seafood here is great. I had a «seafood tower», which greedily thought I could polish off all by myself but I reckon it would have fed a family of four and their pet dolphin at the same time. My wife had the mussels in a curry sauce which were incredible. Everything was served with a fantastic, crunchy French baguette and the fries were great too. So, check it out for the food, for the decent wine list or even just for a pint of the black stuff — it’s worth it.

I’m quite miffed now that I no longer work in the Merrion-​Fitzwilliam Square zone. Otherwise it’s quite an effort to motivate myself after work to come to this part of town. But it was worth the trip.
I came in for birthday drinks on a Tuesday evening and found the atmosphere to be quite stylish without being pretentious. The service to be formal yet not snobby and the prices to be quite reasonable, particularly when the barman suggested a better quality Irish cider than the generic stuff… you know what I’m talking about… and also the neighbourhood we were in.
I would love to come back here again but please, please, more wasabi peanuts.

I have to say, I love this place. The mussels to share are really excellent, although you don’t get too many of them, but the authentic french baguette, fries and mini breads really make up for it. The wine is always great, although expensive enough, but it’s worth it for the peace and quiet which is often difficult to find in Dublin.

Great subterranean bar/​restaurant that’s down the street from Trinity College and underneath the Merrion Hotel. We stopped in late one night near closing time, but the staff was very welcoming and let us order 2 pints of Guinness and some desert even though the kitchen was ostensibly closed. We were so glad we stopped in as their chocolate mouse was some of the best we’ve ever tasted (especially when complemented with pints of Guinness). Being so late, the place was pretty empty save for a few other couples drinking in the many cavernous side rooms throughout, but it was a wonderfully peaceful end to another day of running around Dublin. A definite «must return to spot» for us.

Great service, lovely pint, and I strongly recommend the smoked salmon. You might even bump into Russell Brand or President Obama.

Very relaxing little bar at the Merrion Hotel. Excellent wine-​by-​the-​glass selection. Good bar snacks. Good live music. Great place for a before or after-​dinner drink.

The Cellar Bar is exactly what you’d imagine… a bar in a cellar. It’s nice though. Bear in mind that it’s still a bar in a hotel, so it’s never going to have the real pub-​y atmosphere. The staff are super attentive and there’s nuts on the bar. Otherwise there’s lots of small little alcoves where you can have a nice quiet drink. Popular for work drinks, Christmas drinks or special occassions.