Enjoy Keen’s nut butters in the same way you’d enjoy that sugar-laden processed peanut butter from the 80′s and revel in your grown-up-ness.
Made in the World’s Smallest & Happiest Nut Butter Factory in Bangor, Keen makes everything from heart-healthy Almond Butter (ingredient: almonds) to the decadent Pecan Maple Butter which tastes like Pecan Pie in a jar yet is an inspired joining of two superfoods with none of the sugar you’d get in the pie!
Keen Nut Butters have gained cult status throughout Ireland with foodies, chefs, and athletes with one fan declaring he would ‘buy 1,000 jars and bathe in it’ if he could.
Keen is a food producer with a digital DNA – they encourage social activity with their retailers and their customers and there’s nothing they like more than having customers flow into a shop soon after they’ve made a ‘still warm’ twitter call.
Keen Nut Butters: Spreading the Love.
Kieran Meehan and his sisters Brenda and Roisin are the family behind the multi-award-winning Clogher Valley Meats in the Co. Tyrone village of Clogher. Local people know their meat is top-notch but their fame has now spread as far as France. They’ve just picked up two awards at the Commanderie des Fins Goustiers du Duché d’Alençon. That’s a European Sausage Competition. They came away with a Grand Prix d’Honneur for their Pork sausage and another for their Pork and Spring Onion Speciality Sausage.
They use ingredients from local suppliers like pork from Grants, Derry or Spratts, Portadown. All of their beef comes from C&J Meats in Armagh. The lamb is from Linden Foods and the chicken from Rockvale Poultry, Armagh and Dickeys of Cullybackey. You can call into the shop and choose what you want, but there’s also an online click and collect service.
Kieran says he loves dealing with people and creating new products, but most of all, he’s determined to pass on his skills to staff to make sure that craft butchery doesn’t become a thing of the past. Hear, hear.
Open Mon-Sat 8am – 6.30pm
With floor to ceiling windows providing panoramic views of St Anne’s Cathedral and Buoy Park, the Academy Restaurant is situated within the York Street campus of Ulster University. As the training restaurant for students studying the BSc Hons degrees in Culinary Arts Management and International Hospitality Management, the academy is open to the public throughout the autumn and spring semesters.
The licensed restaurant offers a freshly prepared menu, full of culinary creativity. You can expect starters such as roasted butternut squash, chilli and coconut soup or Chicken liver parfait with toasted brioche, baked fig and onion relish. While main course offerings include pork medallions with thyme jus, apple puree and black pudding croquette. A range of desserts are available, with tea, coffee and petits fours to finish.
You’ll enjoy great food and service, while supporting the next generation of gastronauts.
For opening hours and further information, please check out the website.
Set in a stunning Georgian building, Roma’s has been a part of the scenery in Newtownards since the 1960’s. Don’t expect exclusively Italian food, though. Head Chef Alan Craig sources meat, fish and vegetables from local farmers. That’s what we like to hear!
You can meet, eat and drink here. The bar is downstairs and the bistro is upstairs. The bar menu is big on value and even bigger on taste.
Think rare breed pork sausages and mash and scampi from Ardglass. Upstairs why not tuck into a bowl of mussels followed by slow cooked short beef ribs with comber potatoes.
The new gastro burger on a sourdoagh bun is bang on the food trend and anywhere that serves calves liver with black pudding is just fine by us. Even better is the started of devilled whitebait with curry oil.
There are simply too many specials offers and meal deals to mention. You’ll just have to go and see for yourself.
This very charming B&B near the beautiful Rowallane Gardens in Saintfield has been lovingly refurbished with all mod- cons but they’ve kept the character of the 19th century building. Think thick walls, open fires and period decor, with hearty portions of proper breakfast. Chocolates on your pillow too, naturally.
They also open for morning coffee and afternoon tea to the general public. We’re so glad they do that. It would be downright mean not to let people taste such truly scrumpcious fayre.
From salted caramel tarts to buttermilk scones, and of course their staggering array of handmade chocolates, you’ll find yourself going back time and time again. We almost swooned when we tried the Lavender and Mint truffles and their chocolate cake is the stuff of legend. They make afternoon tea here a necessity rather than an occasional treat.
The menus do change with the seasons. Everything is made from scratch with local ingredients Masseys Butchers, Dalzelle’s green grocers, Mourne Free Range Eggs and Farmview Dairy.
Happily, they also take orders for home- made desserts and birthday cakes.
Opening Hours:
Bed and Breakfast- all year. Breakfast times flexible according to guest. Breakfast not served to the general public.
Coffee, tea, scones and pasteries 10.00am to 5.00pm Tuesday to Saturday.
Afternoon tea 12.30am to 4.00pm (Last serving) Tuesday to Saturday.
This is the restaurant attached to the Hilden Brewery. It’s in the beautiful, historic setting at Hilden House im the village of Hilden, near Lisburn. They’ve converted the stables, so you can enjoy a beer that’s produced just yards from where you will eat.
The style is modern Irish, using fresh, seasonal ingredients. Naturally the beers find their way on the menu too, and are paired with the food, too. Beer sommeliers are achingly hip these days. Chef Michael McCavana uses local suppliers like Keenan’s Seafood, Arnott’s, Doran’s butchers and Hannan Meats. His Irish Lamb shank slowly braised in Scullion’s Irish Ale served with champ and roasted root vegetables.
It’s a great spot for any event from barbecues to formal dining and everything else in between. Drop in for a drop sometime soon.
Opening Hours
Tues – Sat 12pm – 2.30pm, 5.30pm – 9pm
Sun 12.30-3pm
Closed Mon
