Flutes Wine Bar

By way of airport food and places to chill out, I don’t expect much. Actually, I expect barely anything and would normally settle for a crappy burger and a plastic chair while I wait for my flight.
Dublin Airport is a bit new and shiny though, and I thought Flutes looked impressive. It’s a wine bar with a selection of plates available if you’re hungry — bruschetta, meats, cheese board and that kind of thing. It’s right in the middle of the shops but if you have a seat you’ll quickly forget you’re surrounded by people making their way to their flight. I ordered a glass of wine (white zinfandel, so sue me) and the cheeseboard. The wine was delicious, lovely and sweet and just what I needed for a pep.
The cheeseboard arrived not too long after and had a nice trio of cheeses, pickles, bread, chutney and rocket. There will never be enough bread/​biscuits for the amount of cheese and this cheeseboard was no exception — more bread please! Apart from that, I thought everything was very pleasant and tasty, and not bad value for € 14. The wine was probably a bit overpriced at around € 8 but one thing I learnt from my week in Dublin is that all their booze is pricey — or maybe Scotland is just too cheap.
A nice place to stop and chill out while you wait for your gate to open so you can be on your merry way!

If you are in no particular hurry and in need of something approximating «fancy» while you’re stuck in terminal 2 this place is here. The service is pretty awful, even by Irish standards, and the fare pricy (though not remarkably so considering airport pricing generally). On the other hand… Hmm, no actually that pretty much sums it up. Should have checked here first and gone to Wrights of Howth instead.

Flutes puts the ‘hole’ in hole-​in-​the-​wall. They have a fairly decent selection of wines with average prices but the atrocious customer service and ignorant staff more than ruins anything good this place might have going on. My partner and I were served two awfully grey, old and slimy slices of smoked salmon on bread and assured us ‘that’s just the colour of the salmon’.
We soldiered through one slice but complained when we saw everyone else’s looking mostly orange and normal. She actually tried to tell us that salmon was different colors from different places. A ridiculous assertion given I lived in Alaska for 5 years and my girlfriends step father is a fisherman. In the end she took 3 euro off despite us only eating half of our meal and we were forced to buy food from the much nicer place across the way, wrights of howth, which was very tasty indeed.
I’d suggest you do the same and avoid a similarly horrible experience.

Not all airports have wine bars in their terminals, so I was pleasantly surprised when I stumbled upon Flutes Wine Bar.
Besides the various red and white wines that are offered, there are some roses and bubbly wines offered too. After settling on a deep, meaty red wine, I bellied up to a café-​style table to unwind a bit and people watch. What a fantastic way to get ready for a 7+ hour flight home!
There are several finger foods offered as well and can be paired with the wines on the menu.
Traveling can be stressful at times, but what a super way to start the journey home!