I looked forward to trying this cafe/bistro, but I was really disappointed. I left regretting that…read moreI went there. We were absolutely ripped off and misled here. I'm not sure which is worse but neither is acceptable and we certainly won't return. First the food. I ordered the scampi from the lunch menu. This came with salad & chips. It is priced high end at £14. I thought for 14 quid I'd be served quality scampi in a light or even tempura batter, after all it's a bistro. Scampi includes various culinary preparations of certain cold water crustaceans, commonly the Norway lobster, also known as langoustine or Dublin Bay prawns. I mean we were within a 5 minute walk of the sea here, we are surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and just half an hour from the harbours of Kilkeel & Annalong. Proper scampi by the ton is right on our doorstep with very few food miles involved. No. This dish contained 7 pre frozen warm water Pacific king prawns in a heavy, greasy batter. These prawns aren't scampi by any stretch of the imagination. Any chef worth his salt will know this. I could go to a local supermarket and buy a bag of frozen Whitby scampi for £2. I'd certainly get a dozen or so and 39% of the Whitby product is scampi. These warm water prawns do not come close to the sweet taste of scampi either. They are usually intensively farmed in Thailand. The sort of warm water prawn you usually get 10 or more of from a Chinese takeaway, with rice or chips, for around £6 and the Chinese price includes curry, salt & chilli or sweet and sour sauce. I tore off most of the excessive greasy batter. No thanks folks this is grim greasy-spoon fare. The chips were alright but I couldn't rate them as very good either. I ate most of the chips because I was hungry. The fact is that £8 would be a realistic price for this meal. The fact is that had I known I would be served warm water prawns I'd have taken soup. Had I eaten the quantity of greasy batter I'd certainly have been bloated. The tartare sauce isn't home made either unless you define out of a jar as such. I don't. Any chef worth his salt likely wouldn't either. My wife had a chicken club type sandwich with salad & chips at £9. Again easily overpriced by £2. She said there was a good portion of chicken; and she left half of her chips. It's this that raises this review to 2 star albeit reluctantly. Second the service. Terrible. We were there over an hour and 10 minutes. It was a full 30 minutes from we placed our order to the time the food was put before us. Let's put this into context here it was fish & chips and a sandwich with chips folks. We ordered two coffees. We said that the coffees could be held until we were well through our meal. The waitress forgot my coffee order. She asked twice more and when we did tell her we were ready for our coffees she went off and didn't return with coffee rather we sat and watched her as she instead began taking credit card payments from customers who wanted to leave. We wanted to leave at this point too. Anyway she eventually returned from the bar area which was littered with dirty dishes (we sat with our dirty dishes for over 10 minutes) to take our coffee order for at least the third time. We had enough and just wanted to leave. We regretted going there. I wanted to tell the waitress exactly how awful the food and service was but the place was full of customers so I decided to be kind and stay silent, cancel the coffee order, hand over £23 and get out the door soonest. We got our coffees and ice cream in Maud's at the other end of town. I noticed they serve the tiny bottles of Coca Cola. About 200ml so the customer is being ripped off here too. Their free wifi kept crashing too. A SABENA visit - such a bloody experience, never again.

We we're in a group of 8 and were quickly seated. I had the Sirloin Pot Roast, it was worth 5 stars…read morealone. All 8 of our guests really liked their dishes. Friendly service. We'll be back!

During the couple of days I spent in Carlingford I noticed Liberty Cafe directly opposite our…read moreaccommodation and loved how it looked. It's a quirky cafe with flower painted walls and wooden tables outside, so you can sit with a coffee and watch the happenings on Thosel Street. I visited early on Sunday morning, 13/08/2017, and it was wonderful as the cafe and street were nearly empty - most of bustling Carlingford seemed to still be in bed. Within an hour everywhere was bustling again, so it was lovely to enjoy the initial peace and quiet. Two friends and I took a table outside in the cool morning sun and ordered three veggie breakfasts and coffees. My veggie omelette, filled with tomatoes, spinach, mushrooms and cheese, and served with toast, was pretty good. The others ordered brown and soda breads with poached eggs. Everyone enjoyed their food. Service was a little slow and there was a slight mix up in our orders - I was initially served brown bread not the white toast I'd asked for and my friend the opposite - but we swapped our bread so all was fine. All in all, an enjoyable experience and next time I'm in Carlingford I will return to try some of the delicious looking cakes they sell.

Located down a gorgeous pedestrian street strung with fairy lights along lanterned street posts,…read morethe ambiance of Liberty Cafe fits in beautifully with this street. I informed the staff about my dietary requirements straight away and they told me the options available to me. I got the carrot and coconut soup for lunch and it was absolutely gorgeous, vegan and gluten free. One of my dining partners had the quiche with smoked salmon, courgette and cream cheese, and the other had a cappuccino and a scone, both of which said their food was absolutely delicious. The staff are really sweet and overall extremely accommodating and I would absolutely recommend coming here, and will certainly be returning next time I'm in Carlingford.

Still a five star place all the way. We escaped lockdown again today and it all seems to have been…read morein vain. Nine weeks now and ongoing. It is deeply frustrating to find that the very people who tell everyone else to stay indoors and away from loved ones don't believe it. If they believed it they would stick to it but these are people who see themselves above the law and earn ridiculous sums of money to distort the truth. These are twisters who wouldn't recognise honesty if they walked over it barefoot, yet they pervade politics here and across the pond. Anyway I digress. Mauds Pooh bear (honeycomb) is a wonderful ice cream product. It's so strange to walk in here and find that it is all taped off and limited to only a few customers at a time. Even more odd was when we asked for chocolate flakes we got them inside a paper bag so that we could add them ourselves.

Eight of us rolled up for coffee and cakes including two kids. We had just come from Easter egg…read morerolling and a mountain walk, so we already had eaten enough sugar to last us a week but the cafe's coffee waft was irresistible. Remarkably we were able to sit outside the cafe as the mid afternoon temperature had hit a balmy 17c, phew. We settled into the outside bench style seating. The coffees were really ace quality and the service quick and friendly. It's a very small cafe in a very small seaside town close to the Irish border and it's just a two minute walk down the street to the seafront and the mostly pebble beach with great views of the Cooley and Mourne mountains. The cafe was busy although I'd imagine it's the holiday periods and Sunday tourist trade that allows it to survive. I did look at the small harbour to see if the ferry boat was crossing from Warrenpoint in Northern Ireland but I couldn't see it. I think it's called the red star line run by a private family for most of my lifetime - a unique experience if you ever get the chance but it's possible that the relatively new Carlingford ferry has stolen much of its trade.

Came here after hearing great great things from family in the area. We had the shakshuka and…read morecoffee. It was just amazing. And then we had desserts which was just out of this world. Stranfield we will be back

Vegetarian café with great food and ambiance (4.5/5 Green Stars)…read more We stopped here en route to Carlingford on a friend's recommendation and all three of us were very happy we did. The place is lovely - the café is filled with light and plants and the surroundings are beautiful. Mum is a picky eater but she relished the mushroom quiche and finished the entire piece even though it was huge! (Seriously - about three times the size of portions elsewhere.) My brother loved his herbed rice bowl and I liked the organic porridge with fruit and the pistachio plum cake. The only kink was that several items arrived much later than the food - the coffees, bread, and honey for my porridge (I had already finished my porridge by then). The store is filled with great stuff - fresh fruit and veg, and a good selection of some of the most ethical products. Weirdly, the Strandfield website contains no info other than an address, so you have to rely on reviews to get info in advance. The lunch menu is mostly comprised of sourdough pizza, salads (including a quinoa bowl and herbed rice bowl), and sandwiches - see menu photo. There are also lots of bakery items, including freshly baked scones, cakes and wheaten bread (which was really good - I bought one to take home). I'm giving Strandfield café 4.5 out of 5 Green Stars for social and environmental impact, for these reasons: · I didn't actually notice at the time but the menu is 100% vegetarian! · Strandfield uses free range eggs from their own farm. · My porridge was made with organic oats · Flowers and plants in the café come from Stranfield's own nursery · The grocer sources local and organic fruits and vegetables along free range eggs, and organic health foods · The store stocks a really good selection of ethical goods - I could do most of my shopping here if I lived here. · Strandfield would benefit from providing more info (on the website or menu) on ingredient sourcing.

First time visit. Very happy we went there. Great quaint restaurant in Carlingford. Excellent…read moreambience and food. Staff were very friendly. Go there if you are in the area.

The atmosphere is relaxed...don't come here if you're in a rush. So many desserts to choose from…read more It was a difficult decision as they all looked mouth watering, however we chose the lemon pie and cake. Perfection!!!! I also loved the egg and onion sandwich. The chicken sandwich was just ok. What a wonderful little spot!

What a sad reflection of what once was a fantastic cafe…read more Once it was a well laid out cafe/restaurant with outstanding views of the park and a fantastic menu and caring staff. I visited it today after an absence of a few years and found wall setting around the windows, hence your back is to the park views and the food was substandard. Tired looking display of coleslaw and salads which looked liked it had been there for days and wraps and hard bread rolls. I ordered chips and sausages as it seemed to be the only thing eatable from the menu. It arrived cold, looked like Tesco's preheated sausages and a bowl of skinny chips. Poor quality overpriced food and the general layout of the cafe terrible. Gone are the high-quality food, beautiful views and friendly staff/ I will never be back.

Enjoy the view of Kilbroney Park and Rostrevor while you have a lovely fully Irish breakfast. The…read morecafe also offers a great selection pastries and coffee.

It was a cool, dry 5c this morning in this Irish border town. It was St Patrick's day eve…read more We were in the town's 'legal quarter' near their courts where people receive the law rather than 'justice'. The two are rarely seen together and when they are often it's unintended. Unlike my Yelp friend Grey, who seems rarely to slow or stop, I arose early reluctantly on this morning, as I normally only do so to go on holiday, but I had agreed to assist someone negotiate a complex matter that once done with the dotted line signed (it was a dotted line) a human life saw a familiar world change utterly completely in a few seconds and I believe very likely for the better. We'll see. As we left the official task which took a whole 25 minutes we enquired about good coffee from our host, who pointed us to 23 Seats just a short walk away from our Roden place venue. We were assured it was wonderful. It was. The wall sign above the door reads 23 eats until you get close enough to see the S wedged into the front wall. They've done well if they have 23 seats. I doubt they could host 23 folks simultaneously. I didn't count them but it sure is a compact and bijou coffee place. It's within Dundalk town centre, with character and a soul; quirky music tastes, environmentally focussed, and vegans cheerfully catered for oh and I smile to confirm its pet friendly too. We only needed good coffee and that's what we got: we opted for one cappuccino and one flat white - €6 for both. We paid up front by card so we could just go when we were done. We had a table near the rear entrance and, as they were receiving a delivery, it wasn't pleasant as a chilly damp breeze came through the door left open. This is one of those places that are now rare to me as I really want to go back to explore their food selections as it's not a typical coffee stop - they think about the environment and they focus on meeting diverse customer needs. So five green stars. I'm not a vegan but if the ingredients are to my taste I couldn't care less about the label. Who wants chemical filled food of food coloured by derivatives from the crude oil and petroleum industry; I'd rather not. The staff too were charming despite the huge pressures small independent businesses and poorer families must faces for at least the next five years. We in the West are in a war economy between Wu flu and a lunatic white supremacist admired maybe emboldened by a (now thankfully) former US president; an autocrat with unfettered power, who has accumulated personal wealth and with his mongrel side-kick seems to think they can control 45 million people against their will with in humane force. I do not wish him well.

I have discovered the chai latte and an amazing pizza : CHEESE LOVER…read more I remember one waiter soooooo cool. An institution in dundalk !!!

Four of us were in the nearby Canal Court hotel for our Sunday lunch when coffee was suggested…read more I thought it sensible to go next door to Grounded as I'd remembered that their coffee is ace and certainly well ahead of this hotel in quality but certainly not price. It has to be many years since I last had a coffee here, as I prefer other places that don't open on Sunday. I also identify its main customer base as the younger generation. I was surprised to find it almost empty on an early Sunday afternoon when my memory was that it was usually full. It's not a big place by any means and currently operates a one way system - one door in and a different door exiting. They are also only serving coffees etc in paper/plastic cups (even Starbucks have locked away the ceramics.) We had three coffees (cappuccino) and an iced drink. The coffees were ace and the service friendly. Our son wasn't impressed by his iced drink - he thought it insipid and watery. The piped music was great, but I must say I found the seating uncomfortable and the furnishings were as jaded as I now feel most days. Next time I want a Sunday afternoon coffee and I'm right next door I'll likely pop in but I'm afraid I do prefer a comfy seat.

Pretty darn good, this is where the young trendy things of Newry go to be seen (and you cant be…read moremissed with the glass windows!) Menu could be more extensive to suit its long opening hours, it really offers nothing in the way of hot food, apart from soup but what you get is good. Eco friendly and its all about fair trade and saving the rain forest in here. Great concept and well run, some of the staff are a bit way out looking but, hey I'm a geriatric so what the hell do I know about facial piercings? Sandwiches, bagels, paninis etc, and all day breakfasts

Wanted to find a nice local spot for brunch while we were in Belfast. This was a 5 min walk from…read moreour AirBnB. It looked like a serious coffee shop, so we decided to give it a try. This was a great choice. I grabbed a cinnamon roll, and ordered a cup of their filtered coffee (they no longer offer Chemex, sadly) and an order of poached eggs on toast with a side of bacon. This was something new for me, and I loved the simplicity of it. The sourdough toast was amazing, and the poached eggs went with it perfectly. High marks for the bacon also! Service was quick, and everything was brought out promptly. This is a nice coffee shop, plenty of seating, and a quiet place to have a conversation or get some work done. I know the people in the UK love their tea, but I would happily be a regular here if I lived in Belfast.

The food, service, and vibes were immaculate! Would definitely recommend this place to anyone for…read morebreakfast.