Probably my favourite restaurant in Northern Ireland…read more Lovely little place that many people probably miss when they drive on through Dundrum heading for Newcastle. I have been here plenty of times and it never fails to disappoint, the menu is updated regularly and includes fresh sea-food as well as many other local products which are always excellently prepared and the wheaten bread is particularly amazing. ** NB | is not open on a Monday**

When I called for a reservation, I specifically said I was interested in shellfish. The girl said…read moreno problem. We arrived & our waitress said we have a seafood pasta special. I asked what was in it & she said salmon, hake & mussels. I asked if they have any shellfish dishes with crab or scallops or lobster & she said we have a starter of Strangford Lough Moules. I asked what was in that? She said it's mussels with garlic, butter white wine & cream. But no other shellfish dishes. I felt quite let down. I ate my Strangford Lough mussels & they were nice & plentiful & then I had the seafood pasta special. Shortly after starting my main, I heard our waitress telling other tables that the special tonight was half a lobster. WHAT?? I thought I mis-heard until I heard it 2 more times. As our waitress passed by I asked her, do you have another dinner special? She said yes, but we only offer it to customers arriving after 7pm. So I couldn't offer it to you & she walked away! SERIOUSLY? She seemed more intent on doting on her regulars. I think if you want to please your customers, you make helpful suggestions. Like when I made the reservation earlier that day the woman should have said if you can wait until 7 pm we will have lobster. Or our waitress could have said when we were first seated, if you want to go to the bar & wait 20 minutes to be seated we can offer you lobster. Or a waitress with initiative could have excused herself, went to the manager & said I have this couple dying to have some crab, lobster or scallops, but they're a little bit early. Can we offer them the lobster? So now I'm eating something I really didn't want while I watch people sitting all around me eating what I craved. Does this make sense?? Very disappointed. Won't be back! Bad customer service.

This is a review from a few years back. I had one of the best steaks EVER during my quick visit to…read morethe area. Very clean and inviting.

Good food at a fair price with large portions. We were traveling in town for a wedding and stopped…read morehere for a bite. Staff was friendly and the portions were really large. The warm chicken salad and the burger were great. Definitely recommend stopping in.

After much faffing about I finally got round to booking a hotel in Newcaste County Down for my…read morefriends wedding - the only problem was that due to my faffing hotel rooms in the seaside town were few and far between. This led me to The Avoca Hotel. They had one room left and it was 'basic' which is their terminology for a single room with an in room sink and a shared bathroom. Although this sounds a little but grim it was anything but - The Avoca isn't the most aesthetically pleasing hotel in the world, and the exterior could definitely do with a lick of paint, but it does it's job nicely. The reception staff are excellent - friendly and accommodating even when rushed off their feet. The Avoca is a bit of a maze inside so make sure you listen to the receptionist when they are directing you to your room. The rooms are 'basic' but as I was told this when booking I was not shocked - I was actually quite impressed with what was on offer for such a minimal price. Rooms come equipped with a sink, tea and coffee making facilities and mine came with a beautiful sea view that would rival views at the 5 star hotel up the road. The Guest information books says that you must pay for wifi but when I asked at reception they gave me the password without charge. You can opt to have breakfast included in your package, which I would highly recommend. I was served with a full fry up, 4 slices of toast, orange juice and a pot of coffee. Overall I can't say a bad word about the Avoca Hotel - although, as mentioned, the building and facilities could do with a face lift their customer service has stood the test of time and this makes all the difference.

This building is in dire need of renovation. We barely slept that night due to the noise of other…read morepatrons. You can hear every step, every snore, every word. The blinds did not block the street lights. The carpeting turned our socks brown. Also, I'm not entirely convinced the sheets were clean. The "en suite" bath facilities were old, dirty, and in need of caulking. Overall, we highly considered leaving in the middle of the night, but being from the US, we had no idea where we would go. I consider our stay here a waste of £99, and I will urge others to avoid the premises, even though the one employee running the bar, restaurant, and hotel reception was a very nice person.

This is for the restaraunt at the Mckevitts Village Hotel. We had a BLT & a Beef/cheese sandwich…read more The bun was soft but the beef was a bit sweet & just O.K. The BLT was also so so. Did enjoy chatting with a couple tables of other tourists, all quite friendly. Server was attentive.

This is an excellent private sector comedy store venue that should be used for this purpose much…read moremore often. We arrived early to get a good seat for this surreal comedian. The room was large and comfortably warm with lots of tables and chairs. The sound system was great and we got unplanned company - two folks we know came up and asked to join us. They were delightful company. A great crowd turned out for this very very funny man - typical Newry as most folks appeared just 10 minutes before the show start. The bar had a few staff to cope with a happy, thirsty crowd. During interval time I got a bar order for three and then popped down to the ground floor bar for a very tasty cappuccino just for me. All served with a smile. The event itself was organised by the wonderful A Iur Cinn Fleadh. They also organise the boat trips down Newry canal. The last time we saw his show here it was also organised by them in a city that you wouldn't think has a public arts centre and a public town hall. They aren't just under used they aren't used. They are truly wonderful volunteers and great ambassadors for our area. They are almost the last volunteer group we have standing here as our local NMDDC has/is systematically destroying such groups. They are a different type of comedy club who want to spend £18 million on their own new premises with a free car park for themselves but don't ask about a public park. The High Street community group are deliberately starved of funding and the local LGBTQI Pride In Newry were so successful at running events they had to be cast aside despite running much better events for a fraction of the prices incompetent NMDDC shell out. Wake The Giant is a giant annual waste of rates money well into six figures.

Bellini's made my wedding. Okay, well my husband gets most of the credit, but the staff at…read moreBellini's did an incredible job. My husband and I were living in London so we only were able to visit a few times before our April 2013 wedding to confirm arrangements. Even though our wedding was very atypical for Ireland -only 60 guests, we brought our own music on a laptop, we made a toastie bar at the back for the late buffet (bringing our own toastie maker), and limited decor- they took care of everything. On the night of, the whole staff did an incredible job of taking care of our guests, some of whom were picky about food and got some alternate options. Eamon (sp?) was there to attend to our every need. He kept refilling our beverages at the head table so we never had to head to the bar. Our specifications for the meal were handled expertly. I am lactose-intolerant and they made sure to accommodate with a milk-free soup as a starter. We ordered 2 bottles of wine per table that were laid out for us. For a great price we had a turkey option (no ham because I don't eat pork), beef, and vegetarian option available for all of the guests. We didn't have to specify exact numbers, either; servers went around with plates and sorted it all very easily for us. We were able to pick our own flavours for cheesecake dessert, too! My husband loves Galaxy Caramel and their chefs were able to whip together a Galaxy Caramel cheesecake that everyone loved. There was a bride's room beside the reception so I could sneak away for a break and leave my purse there. The bartender was great, as well. Overall, everything was handled so wonderfully from the planning, to the tea before the reception while we had our photos taken, to the meal and dancing. Everyone did their best to make our night perfect. They even had a deal on at the time where we got a free brunch the next day with our guests! We had about 20 people for a delicious chicken curry breakfast with, again, great service. They cleaned up after the event and had all of our things organized for us (laptop, vases we had rented from elsewhere for each of the tables, etc). I can't recommend Bellini's any more highly as a wedding reception venue. They made my wedding day relaxing and enjoyable. I had the best day of my life and Bellini's was a big part of that.

Stellar view overlooking the ocean with beautiful waves crashing towards you as you dine. Tonight…read morewe even had great live entertainment by an Irish Band, one playing the tin whistle, one playing the banjo, one playing the guitar, and lastly one member of the band playing the Bodhran ( Irish drum). Now onto the food, we had a set menu as we were part of a group of 41 dining here from a bus tour of Ireland. I had the Hake which was lightly fried and came with a creamy sauce. It was decent. My girlfriend has the Irish beef stew and we had many beef stews on our 8 day tour of Ireland and this was not one of the better ones. My girlfriend and I agreed it tasted like it came out of a Campbell soup can. The mussel appetizer was in a creamy sauce, the mussels were rather tiny and it's my preference not to have them in a buttery, creamy sauce. I would always prefer a garlicky sauce but I believe these were served mostly in a white wine and butter sauce. To each their own If that's the flavor profile you prefer. Now the desserts were interesting. It sounded like the sherry fruit dessert pictured was a mix of gelatin and fruit and some small bits of cake mixed in. It honestly wasn't my fav but it sounded like it was an old recipe that ran in the family of one of the owners. I like that they are daring and put unique items on the dessert menu, again just wasn't my flavor profile. Lastly, my girlfriend got the pavlova, which is a meringue and whipped cream concoction with fruit and I really loved this unique dessert. I wouldn't come back personally but I read somewhere it was voted pub of year in 2018. I will be unloading a plethora of reviews from Ireland in the coming days so please follow me if you would like to read more. As always people SYOY!!!!

Fantastic pub/restaurant with outstanding views of the mountains from Northern Ireland to the…read moreRepublic of Ireland. Food is excellent. A hidden gem that deserves more recognition!!

I can't recommend this place enough!…read more I was with a group of 6 gal pals exploring Northern Ireland, and this recommendation came from our cab driver in Dublin a few days prior. We decided to check it out since it was on our way to Belfast, and we were so glad we did! What an AWESOME spot! The decor is incredible - so many little old school trinkets jammed in every little cranny - it makes it feel like grandmas house, and so charming at that. And the food... everything we ordered (which was a lot!) was incredibly delicious! The bread they served for appetizer was so good we bought a loaf to take with us for breakfast the next day! Highly highly recommend the French Onion Soup - best I've ever had. And the fried fish/shrimp appetizer was delicious and so cute - served on individual forks! The beet and goat cheese app was also superb. I could go on and on about how much I loved this place, from the decor to the food to the service, but instead I'll leave it at this: Visit! If I'm ever back in the area I know that I'll for sure be back. Yum!

This was hands-down the most aesthetically pleasing place we've eaten in all of Ireland. And the…read morefood was good too. We found this place close to the hotel we were staying at and it had great reviews and so we decided to give it a shot we were not disappointed. I bad the steak it was cooked a little more than I would like for a medium rare, and my partner had the salmon and a zero Guinness. The service was fast and Everyone was friendly and we would definitely stop in again. Wheelchair accessibility: there are several disabled parking spots close to the venue and a zero rise entry to get into the building; the doorways are slightly narrow, but they were easily able to accommodate us with a wheelchair at a lovely table. There's also table seating inside and out that would be wheelchair friendly and the bathroom was roomy and accessible.

Great pub great craic good pint music 6 nights a week full of craic 7 nights aweek never a dull…read moremoment

We wandered in to Ma Bakers while in downtown,Carlingford and thoroughly enjoyed a couple cold…read morepints and a lively 5 man group of fellows playing familiar 70"s tunes. Small cozy Irish pub filled with a local crowd. Memorable visit