The Winding Stair

This is my first restaurant review and I'm sorry it's a bad one. It was a special occasion last Sunday and I jumped at the chance to go to one of my favourite spots in Dublin, The Winding stair. Previously I have been very impressed with this establishment, I've liked the food the ambience and the service. To give it it's due credit the ambience and the service were good, it was the food that let everything down. We had a hot buttered crab starter to share. There was an overabundance of onion in the crab, to the extent that you could taste nothing else. A sizeable piece of shell, so big my neighbours thought I'd broken a tooth, was left in the crab. It put me off a bit but I understand it can happen. Next my main, lamb with minted peas and cheesy gratin. It looked lovely, it was cooked well, unfortunately the lamb tasted of nothing, I mean it there was no taste, the texture didn't help it was chewy and then papery, I was left with potatoes and peas to eat. I felt like I had a junior dinner, trying to eat peas with a fork. The other main was a steak and chips, it was fine except the steak was served w a garlic butter, there was so much of this the chips were sitting in a lake of melted butter, I challenge anyone who thinks this is a good idea. French paradox or not. My sense of occasion made me want to linger a little but we just weren't feeling it. I won't be in a rush back...