The Licensed Guest Inn, under the ownership and management of Peter and Caroline McErlean, is approaching 25 years of providing excellent food, drink and accommodation.
We just love its location in the conservation village of Strangford on the shores of Strangford Lough. Naturally, seafood is a speciality. Seafood Chowder is their signature dish (the recipe is available towards the back of this booklet) with Scampi and the Gold Award Winning Smoked Haddock proving exceptionally popular. During the summer season treat yourself to the ultimate fish experience; The Cuan’s Seafood Platter containing on average 12 varieties of fish.
You are guaranteed fresh premium fish from their suppliers East Coast seafood, just four miles along the coast. They get all their beef from Killen’s farm in Crossgar. Try the fillet, sirloin and ribeye steaks or the Roast of the Day. Their mince is the main ingredient in the ever popular Cuan Lasagne.
You can see their menus online, but there’s also a great Specials board at the weekends. As ever, they’re inspired by seasonal ingredients which come from local suppliers where possible. Check out their Events Booklet on their webpage too.
The service is second to none and you can always stay in one of the darling rooms upstairs if you’ve eaten too much. 2016 is their Silver Jubilee in business.
With a choice of places to dine, the Burrendale Hotel, Country Club & Spa is the perfect place to come to relax and enjoy some fantastic, locally-inspired food. The Taste of Ulster award-winning Burrendale Dinner Menu is full of modern, mouth-watering offerings.
The hotel is a member of the Vegan and Vegetarian Society, so expect some marvellous meat-free options like the Super Salad chock- full of stuff from their own garden..
All of their breads are made fresh each morning and are also available to buy on request. The seafood comes from Marty Johnston in Ardglass and Andrew Annetts in Kilkeel.
Signature dishes include; Seafood Chowder, Portavogie Hake; Marty Johnston’s award winning Smoked Salmon & Kilkeel Prawn and in-house smoked Crossgar chicken Caesar Salad with Ray McCullough’s dry cured bacon. Northern Irish dry aged steaks are another favourite.
We love the Classic Afternoon Tea for a treat. Those yummy finger-cut sandwiches, home-baked scones, pastries & petit fours accompanied by an assortment of teas are served while you enjoy the breath taking views of the Mournes.
The Cottage Kitchen is ideal for more relaxed dining and for special occassions, the elegant Vine Restaurant is perfect.
If you are staying over holiday periods, there are plenty of activities to keep the kids entertained; from the Easter Bunny to Halloween fun and Santa’s Grotto. There is also the swimming pool for residents to enjoy throughout the year.
We just love the historic village of Dundrum and we just love the Buck’s Head Inn. This place is just consistently good. The cosy cherry panelled bar with the open fire just hug you the minute you walk in the door. Housed in an 18th century building, the contemporary dining area looks out onto a walled garden. (All the cool places have a walled garden doncha know?)
Naturally you’ll have to try the famous Dundrum mussels Thai style, but don’t overlook the Mourne lamb and the sausages from McCartneys in Moira.
Chef Alison Crothers changes her menus all the time, but last time we had the Finnebrogue venison loin with braised red cabbage and for dessert, her yoghurt and vanilla panna cotta with Kahlua- spiced prunes. Mind you, it took us a while to decide. There are just so many goodies on the menu that you’ll be planning your next visit halfway through eventually choosing the starter! Too, too good.
(Closed Mondays, October-May)
What a fantastic location for a restaurant? It’s quite literally in the water at Bangor Harbour. The clue is in the name. It was the old boat house. These days, the boats bring the catch from mere metres away. Crabs, mussels, lobster, scallops…Don’t you feel hungry?
All of the cheeses are Irish. Most of them come straight from the producers. All of the meat is from fine suppliers like Hannans and Kettyle. Vegetables are straight from the farm. They grow their own herbs, micro herbs and edible flowers. They use Goatsbridge Irish caviar. All of the game is from local hunstmen. Get the picture? These guys are major foodies. Local brews, juices, cider and coffee too.
Most people want to try as much as they can, so the 5 and 7 course taster menus are the most popular. Loving the sound of pan roasted brill with edible sand and myriad other accompanying tastes of the sea. But there’s similar fare on a £20 two course lunch menu. This is very cheffy food and very, very addictive.
Disabled access from the back, but toilets are upstairs.
What better setting could there be than the glorious house and gardens at Mount Stewart? Owned by the National Trust, you will truly enjoy eating and drinking in this magical place. You can eat in the restaurant without having to pay an admission fee to the house itself.
They do souper soups like Oxtail and gluten-free honey roasted carrot and coriander. Celeriac, rocket and wild garlic are from the house gardens. This year, they’re planting rosemary and thyme so watch out for them on the menu soon.
If you want something more, substantial, tuck into vegetable tartlets, homemade burgers, steak sandwiches vegetable pasta crumbles… They all come with hand cut chips, salad or wedges.
Daily specials like chicken hotpots and open salads go down a treat. Look out for the local pork sausages with champ and onion gravy…then walk around those gorgeous gardens!
They opened their doors in September 2013 and gave Executive Chef Alan Hope the task of creating menus that would suit everyone’s palate and budget while maintaining the very finest quality. He really delivered on that.
They insisted he use the finest ingredients Northern Ireland has to offer and the menus really reflect that. From the finest steaks to delectable afternoon teas and of course, the weekend fry up! They have Provenance menus that allow customers to know exactly where the food on their plates has come from. Local suppliers are listed such as Ewing’s seafood, Carnbrooke meats, Thornhill Farm, Broighter Gold rapeseed oil, Abernethy butter, Yellow Door breads to name but a few!
A few of our best selling dishes so far are the Prime Fillet Steak Sandwich served with crispy onions, fried duck egg, pickle, tomato and rocket, fries and homemade dips! Phew!! That’s really popular at lunchtime.
In the evening they have a full grill selection; Ribeye on the bone, Fillet, Sirloin and a mixed grill as well as their scrummy Pale Smoked Haddock and daily fish specials.
Live entertainment is big here. We especially love Sundays at Tate’s. It’s relaxing, welcoming, family-friendly and the chilled out acoustic set in the background means for very happy people.
If you haven’t been yet, what are you waiting for!??
