I booked 3 nights at The Dean for my boyfriends Christmas present. Loved the look of it on the website, our kind of place. It wasn't the cheapest hotel I could find, but loved the look of it and so glad I paid that bit extra. We turn up a few hours before check in, and whilst the room wasn't ready, we were able to unload our bags and head out into Dublin. It's only a 15 minute walk (max) to Grafton St/Temple Bar, so perfect location. When we headed back to the hotel our bags had already been taken up to our room and we were amazed. We were in a Superoom (406) - it was big, light, airy, had Adele's 19 in its vinyl selection and it was just great. The quirky and cool touches really made our stay. The only downside was that the double bed was just 2 single's pushed together, we would have preferred a whole mattress!
As advertised, it was noisy because of Copper Face Jacks, but again, this was as advertised. With earplugs it wasn't a problem, but if we stayed again I'd maybe ask for an odd numbered room on the other side of the building.
We didn't get chance to head up to Sophie's because we had so much planned, but heard great things about it and the menu looked delicious. When it came to check out, again we were able to dump our bags so we could enjoy a few more hours in Dublin before our flight (coincidentally - the Dean is super easy to get to from the airport using the €6 Airlink bus - literally stops round the corner).
Would absolutely recommend to anyone and if I was to return to Dublin I wouldn't hesitate to book again.