Can I refer to cells in a tabular?

You can modify \@currentlabel to be whatever you want and then use \label-\ref as usual. \@currentlabel is used as the reference component when using \ref. The command \speciallabel{<stuff>}{<label>} in the MWE below modifies \@currentlabel to be <stuff> and sets the label to <label>:

\documentclass{article}
\makeatletter
\newcommand{\speciallabel}[2]{% \speciallabel{<stuff>}{<label>}
  \edef\@currentlabel{#1}\label{#2}%
}
\makeatother
\begin{document}
\begin{table}
  \centering
  \begin{tabular}{lrr}\hline
    This & $99^a$\speciallabel{a}{this} & $1.23$\\
    That & $22$ & $3.45$\\
    The Other & $69^b$\speciallabel{b}{theother} & $9.99$\\
    \hline
  \end{tabular}
\end{table}

I enjoyed `This' (\ref{this}) and `The Other` (\ref{theother}).
\end{document}

There was no request for hyperref accommodation.

---

For an automated counter-style reference, consider the following version of \speciallabel{<label>}:

\documentclass{article}
\newcounter{spcounter}\renewcommand{\thespcounter}{\alph{spcounter}}
\newcommand{\speciallabel}[1]{% \speciallabel{<label>}
  \refstepcounter{spcounter}\textsuperscript{\thespcounter}\label{#1}%
}
\begin{document}
\begin{table}
  \centering
  \begin{tabular}{lrr}\hline
    This & $99\speciallabel{this}$ & $1.23$\\
    That & $22$ & $3.45$\\
    The Other & $69\speciallabel{theother}$ & $9.99$\\
    \hline
  \end{tabular}
\end{table}

I enjoyed `This' (\ref{this}) and `The Other` (\ref{theother}).
\end{document}

Note that this will have the counter increment throughout the document. However, it can also be made to reset at the start of the table (or tabular) environment, if needed.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{array}

\newcounter{mycount}
\renewcommand\themycount{%
\arabic{mycount}%
\ifcase\value{mycount}%
th\or st\or nd\or rd\else th\fi}

\begin{document}

\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{>{\refstepcounter{mycount}\themycount}lc}
\multicolumn{1}{c}{Step}  & Comments \\
 & a \\
\label{here} & b \\
 & c \\
 & d 
\end{tabular}
\caption{}\label{}
\end{table}


blah blah see the \ref{here} row.
\end{document}