Breathing life back into a landmark building that formerly housed The Central Hotel and its beloved Library Bar, Dublin’s Hoxton Hotel opened in 2025., For guests looking for a buzzing city base, the 129 dog-friendly bedrooms offer just that. Natural tones inspired by the Irish landscape are offset by bold design features, and nice touches like black-out blinds, free international calls and fully ‘Flexy Time’ check-in/check-out times.
The hotel offers myriad gathering spaces, all of them open to the general public. At The Library Bar, bookings are now advised and you'll find martini and oysters offered alongside pints and toasties. For more casual drinks, the street-level Lobby Bar is a handy spot for a meet up, while the corner-side Dollars morphs from daytime sandwich shop to evening time wine bar. In the hotel’s airy lobby, deep seats beckon and at the heart of the hotel is their signature dining offer, Cantina Valentina, serving breakfast as well as an a la carte menu at lunch and dinner.
Cantina Valentina's a la carte ‘Peruvian-inspired’ menu offers a ‘modern interpretation of the food and drink served across the country’, from mountain and coastal villages to cosmopolitan cities. It was a concept developed by Hoxton F&B director Jules Pearson with chef Adam Rawson and trialled in London’s Hoxton before opening in their Brussels outpost in 2023 and then in Dublin in 2025.
In a bright and cosy dining room dressed in warm neutral tones offset by lots of textured soft furnishings, printed textiles and abundant natural greenery, the menu highlights some of Peru’s favourite sauces, ingredients and dishes, often elevated with a less-typical hero ingredient.
Aji gallina, for example, is a classic Peruvian dish. It typically features chicken served in a creamy textured, mildly spicy sauce that is seasoned with garlic, hot yellow ají amarillo peppers, turmeric and other aromatic spices, then thickened with breadcrumbs and ground nuts, and served with black olives, hard boiled egg and potatoes. Here in Cantina Valentina, the chicken meat is swapped out for juicy bites of perfectly grilled monkfish atop diced potato and egg dressed in that gorgeously layered and moreish sauce, and finished with a black olive powder for mini hits of umami.
This sits in the menu’s ‘plates’ section alongside some very recognisable (and affordable) dishes that will please diners who don’t want to stray far from the familiar: a superfood salad, grilled chicken, and beef stir-fry (the classic lomo saltado) and a Lima cheeseburger with distinctly Peruvian dressings of onion criolla (salsa of thinly sliced red onion in lime juice with chilli), rocoto ketchup (from the fleshy, spicy rocoto pepper) and ají amarillo mustard. A whole sea bream for two with aji miso sauce, rice and a zingy red onion and lime salad is a blow-out option.
There is also plenty of culinary adventure for curious palates: a quinoa risotto with burnt avocado, coriander and lime; crispy duck leg with a saffron dashi butter sauce and arroz chaufa (an excellent saffron rice, also available as a side); and a vegetarian take on carapulcra (a dried Andean potato and peanut stew, served here with chickpea and kale instead of the traditional pork).
Alongside these central offerings are sides like asparagus and sugar snaps dressed with Peru’s huancaina sauce (a mildly spicy, slightly cheesy sauce starring those bright yellow ají amarillo again) and some unmissable corn ribs, nicely blackened on the grill and bursting with flavour.
This nod to Peruvian grilled street food is echoed in the trio of antichucho skewers, at least one of which you should order to start out. Choose from giant tiger prawns wth aji verde (again nicely blackened, and with heads worth sucking for maximum flavour), grilled chicken with aji lemon and the very traditional beef heart with oregano and cumin.
Also not to miss is the ‘raw bar’ section of the menu, featuring five takes on ceviche, Peru’s signature approach to lightly cooking raw fish not with heat but with the acidity of citrus. The classic here features seabass, tiger’s milk (spicy citrus dressing which gets its milky colour from the juices released by the fish), sweet potato, red onion and cancha (corn kernels). Our money is on the tuna ceviche in a
chilled dashi broth with avocado and ají panca rayu.
To drink, there is decent availability of well-priced wine by the glass from a fairly concise but well considered wine list – but the star of the show is the Peruvian cocktails and mocktails, including an excellent pisco sour and a refreshing alcohol-free chicha morada made from an infusion of Andean purple corn with spices and fruit peel.
Also nice to see treats like Emilio Hidalgo PX sherry being recommended with their intensely Peruvian chocolate mousse, which is served with an unusual toasted quinoa ice cream, dulce de leche and cacao.
Service is enthusiastic if not always smooth, but the friendliness suits the comfortable room, which features a lot of choice between private booths for gossipy catch ups, comfortable banquette seating and several high stools overlooking the raw bar if you prefer to be at the centre of the action.
All in all, Cantina Valentina offers a pleasant setting for a comfortable meal with versatile menu that caters to various palates and wallets. Just be aware that the structure of the menu means that you may want to try something from its bites, raw bar and antichucho (skewers) sections as well as some plates and sides, all of which easily adds up unless you’re dining with a gang.
