Galway Grub!

squeakyduck

I know it's late but....

I'm heading to Galway with my boyfriend tomorrow. I'm wondering where are the nicest restaurants you can go to in the city centre?

I don't mind what type, just want to find something nice where we can pop into and have a nice yummy bite to eat!

Cheers lads!

Madame Razz

Artisan on Quay st(over Neachtains pub) is fantastic for lunch or dinner; you would need to book for tomorrow night tho!!

squeakyduck

Are there alot of places that would need a reservation for tomorrow night?!

Gingganggooley

The Skeff in Eyre Square or McSwiggans in Woodquay.

Gingganggooley

squeakyduck wrote: »

Are there alot of places that would need a reservation for tomorrow night?!

Yes, if you're going to go for one in the top bracket. My two suggestions are usually good for a pop-in.

tribesman78

Oscars and Abalone around dominick street are very good but you diffenetly need to book.

inisboffin

Cava's on Dominic St. Spanish food, tapas, great wine, yum!

squeakyduck

Wow guys thanks for all the suggestions! Ye are very quick and chatty! Yer brilliant!

Redhairedguy

+1 for McSwiggans

moonflower

Cava is lovely, it's nice and relaxed and good 'chatting' food.

I wouldn't reccommend McSwiggans, I think their food is very boring and there's a bit of a weird atmosphere in there.

If you're looking for somewhere informal try Mustard in the Bridge Mills. They do lovely salads, fancy burgers and pizza and have a decent selection of beers.

Mrs OBumble

moonflower wrote: »

I wouldn't reccommend McSwiggans, I think their food is very boring

I recommend it for those Irish people who are what I'd call "timid eaters" - I've literally worked with folks who've found one McSwiggans dish that the like (without any "funny stuff" in it), and refuse to ever order anything else.

Otherwise +1 for Cava.

jkforde

Nimmo's beside the museum for lunch, yum. Their chorizo bap with rocket salad is tasty if a tad overpriced! +1 for Cava, esp. their yum staff!

Truff Puff

McSwiggans is good if you are not adventurous with your food. My favourite rest in Galway is Kashmir Indian Cuisine, Kilderry House, Lower Fairhill Road, Galway.

TotallyEpic

Bella Roma on Prospect Hill.

Amazing food and service, and fairly priced.

muppetkiller

Asian Tea House on Mary St. , Gemelles on Quay Street mmmmmm hungry now

Acoshla

Mustard or Cava, relaxed atmospheres, lovely food, and you wouldn't need reservations for Mustard, not sure about Cava.

Seaneh

Bar8. There is a reason it was named best restaurant in Connacht this year.

TheCosmicFrog

TotallyEpic wrote: »

Bella Roma on Prospect Hill.

Amazing food and service, and fairly priced.

They also do two-for-one takeaway pizzas. And they're awesome 12" pizzas as well. Got two of them between three people once. We were all stuffed and we were only €4 out of pocket each

Also I've mentioned this on a restaurant thread before, but The Front Door is one of nicest restaurants in town, and very rarely mentioned. I think they do the nicest pizzas in town, and the rest of their menu is great as well. The steak sandwich is another favorite of mine.

squeakyduck

Hey guys! Had a great weekend! Rugby, snuggling, drinking and eating what more could I want apart from that!

After all yer help I never wrote them down before heading for the bus :rolleyes: but we found a great place Martines! NOM NOM NOM!

Had a lovely meal in Martines good value too....two starters and mains with a dessert between us for just over 50! YAY!

Madame Razz

Martines can be hit and miss. You obviously caught it on a good night tho which was great:p

Glad you enjoyed it:D

magentas

Seaneh wrote: »

Bar8. There is a reason it was named best restaurant in Connacht this year.

was there over the weekend, really good food but the menu is incredibly pretentious

inisboffin

magentas wrote: »

was there over the weekend, really good food but the menu is incredibly pretentious

How do you mean? Is it in the way it is described in the menu (a 'shaving of rustic carrot' kind of thing?) It's been a while since I've eaten there, have just popped in for coffee/drinks more often recently.

magentas

inisboffin wrote: »

How do you mean? Is it in the way it is described in the menu (a 'shaving of rustic carrot' kind of thing?) It's been a while since I've eaten there, have just popped in for coffee/drinks more often recently.

the way it's described and I know I'm going to sound so ignorant here but I didn't know what half the things on the menu were!

I was there fri night and their menu online looks somewhat common compared to what was on offer to us!
wish I could give you examples from that menu but I honestly can't remember what was on it!

Now I love my food and like to think I'm reasonably knowledgeable when it comes to knowing what's what, I've tried food from pretty much all over the world but the food on bar8s menu is a bit, well, yuppyish!:o

gandroid

Recommending a restaurant is obviously a subjective thing but I think some of the comments about McSwiggan's are unfair. True, their menu could hardly be described as "haute cuisine" but they don't pretend to be what they are not. They do what they do very well and I don't think their food is in any way boring.

They don't purport to be any specific type of restaurant but you have a range of dishes to suit most palates and it is usually well cooked and well presented and also delivers in terms of taste. I have never had a bad meal in there and their service is normally top class or of a certain minimum standard. It is hard to find a restaurant that is consistently good but I always think their kitchen must insist on a very high standard as their produce is always of the highest order and fresh (you don't see old salad here!).

Some restaurants fail miserably by trying to be in someway fancy through their choice of menu, descriptions, prices or decor (and there is nothing wrong with this) but they often fail on the delivery of many of the (essential) basics. I know a thing or two about catering from some years back and seeing the attitude of staff in some restaurants I wonder how they ever ended up in a service role....or how they can survive in the current climate.

Anyway, I don't need to talk the place up....it's full nearly anytime I am in there and there is a very good reason for it.:)

Gingganggooley

gandroid wrote: »

Recommending a restaurant is obviously a subjective thing but I think some of the comments about McSwiggan's are unfair. True, their menu could hardly be described as "haute cuisine" but they don't pretend to be what they are not. They do what they do very well and I don't think their food is in any way boring.

They don't purport to be any specific type of restaurant but you have a range of dishes to suit most palates and it is usually well cooked and well presented and also delivers in terms of taste. I have never had a bad meal in there and their service is normally top class or of a certain minimum standard. It is hard to find a restaurant that is consistently good but I always think their kitchen must insist on a very high standard as their produce is always of the highest order and fresh (you don't see old salad here!).

Some restaurants fail miserably by trying to be in someway fancy through their choice of menu, descriptions, prices or decor (and there is nothing wrong with this) but they often fail on the delivery of many of the (essential) basics. I know a thing or two about catering from some years back and seeing the attitude of staff in some restaurants I wonder how they ever ended up in a service role....or how they can survive in the current climate.

Anyway, I don't need to talk the place up....it's full nearly anytime I am in there and there is a very good reason for it.:)

A very accurate appraisal.

Seaneh

magentas wrote: »

the way it's described and I know I'm going to sound so ignorant here but I didn't know what half the things on the menu were!

I was there fri night and their menu online looks somewhat common compared to what was on offer to us!
wish I could give you examples from that menu but I honestly can't remember what was on it!

Now I love my food and like to think I'm reasonably knowledgeable when it comes to knowing what's what, I've tried food from pretty much all over the world but the food on bar8s menu is a bit, well, yuppyish!:o

I find this a very weird comment.

Their menu changes pretty much every day because of their sourcing policy but it generally follows the same rules.

A steak (cut varies)
A veggie dish (seasonal/different every day)
and two fish dish's.

They normally have about 4 or 5 "light bites" advertised on their menu (orderable as either starters or sides) of which one is always their chips with house cause (yummy) and then the menu is finished with 4/5 deserts.
Any time I've eaten there it's been fairly plain english. they don't "fancy" up their menu, sure there has been times where I didn't recognise an ingredient but if in doubt I'd just ask "what exactly is that?" and get a nice helpful reply.

Last time I was there was just over a month ago with a group of friends from out of town. 5 of us (including myself) were either working as chefs or had worked as chefs in the last 2 years. All of us agreed it was fantastic and one o the lads, who has worked in two of the best restaurants in the country and the best known steak house in the country reckoned that it was the best steak he'd had in about 5 years.

Not many places you'd get a steak of that quality for less than €25 these days.

It's easily my favorite restaurant in town. Cannot praise Tom and Jess enough, Galway badly needed a kitchen like this for a long time.

magentas

well if you're a chef you probably understand a lot more ingrediants than me!:o

My issue was the actual menu, not the food. It's pretentious.

As I said before, the food was excellent.

Another thing was that almost everything on menu had pumpkin in it somewhere...halloween just over so they obviously had excess fruit!
and there was no chicken, pork or lamb dishes.

It was packed the night I was there and after spending the guts of €400 on food and drink we were asked to leave our table as they had another booking even though we had nowhere to move to!
we had to stand by toilets until we finished our drinks and left
we had planned to stay there for the night

It wouldn't be for me but it seems to be getting great reviews and I hope it goes well for them

Seaneh

I can understand the frustration at being asked to move but table turning is fairly normal in busy restaurants. Its not acutally a bar anymore afaik, so they don't really expect people to stay. They probably should have said that they have a police of turning tables on weekend/busy nights. How long were you seated for? If I were you I'd send them an email telling them you were dissatisfied with the experience, it might not do anythink but you never know. If nothing else it might make them consider tellling people about table turning on busy nights. You could even end up with a discounted meal or free bottle of wine or something.

magentas

jesus we didn't want any freebies! food was gorgeous and service was great apart from that!
not being smart seanah but the place is called bar 8 so I'd say most people assume it is an actual bar where you can go for few drinks!

it definately has more of a restaurant feel. anybody that was at the actual bar had already eaten and people at the door were waiting to be seated for food.

I understand they may have had other bookings but the reason we went there was so we could get grub after work and enjoy one or ten drinks after in comfort! not easy to move a crowd

If we knew they were just a restaurant we prob would have went somewhere like monroes for pizza and pints...or sallys for pints and peanuts!:D

Seaneh

magentas wrote: »

jesus we didn't want any freebies! food was gorgeous and service was great apart from that!
not being smart seanah but the place is called bar 8 so I'd say most people assume it is an actual bar where you can go for few drinks!

it definately has more of a restaurant feel. anybody that was at the actual bar had already eaten and people at the door were waiting to be seated for food.

I understand they may have had other bookings but the reason we went there was so we could get grub after work and enjoy one or ten drinks after in comfort! not easy to move a crowd

If we knew they were just a restaurant we prob would have went somewhere like monroes for pizza and pints...or sallys for pints and peanuts!:D

Yeah I get what you mean, totally. And I know you're not looking for freebies but I think Irish people in general are very rare to complain about anything and I reckon we should be more vocal. If nothing else I'm sure they would take the constructive criticism onboard?