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.

I rolled in last Friday about 3pm just an hour before closing as I needed two sandwich platters…read more We knew that a few folks were calling Friday night for a catch up so we wanted fresh, well filled tasty sandwiches which is exactly what we got. Each generous platter was £21 so £42. I asked for a mix of cheese, chicken and ham with sauces and salads and proper seasoned. I also asked for a small amount of my favourite sandwich - egg & onion - heavy on the onion and properly seasoned. I'm the only E&O eater and I've been known to add cold water Greenland or Iceland prawns. It was very kind of the charming staff to prepare them given they were close enough to closing. I went for a walk. I bumped into an old friend that I hadn't seen in a few years - we talked rubbish, we complimented each other on still being alive just as boring old pharts do. Our guests indulged in all sorts of good food and the sandwiches we declared a real treat. The apple pies were home - made so they couldn't be bettered and served with clotted Cornish cream. Delicious. Can't wait to do it all again soon.

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!

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.

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.

So at last a partial re opening here on Thursdays thru Saturdays for take - out from this small…read moreindependent and the same super service from folks who care about food. Now you don't have to be a vegan or a vegetarian to love really good fresh food with zing and flavour as well as vitamins. I mean that day fresh. I'm not a vegan nor a vegetarian but I will have vegan and vegetarian days. Or I use vegan and vegetarian food as sides with meat. So here expect none of the crap we are being fed metaphorically and physically, like the nonsense freshly frozen, or high-processed foods stuffed with sugar and cheap fat so capitalism can make even greater profits, or pre-made sandwiches from a factory that's 3/4 days old by the time you buy them with as much nutrition in the packaging. I mean how stupid do advertisers and capitalism think we are. Go here and it's mostly freshly fresh. What's not to like? I got great tasting organic coffee fair trade, shade grown, which is important for habitats and I'd say close to 5 green stars served in a biodegradable cup. Plant based milk is also optional. And if you want more information on Green Stars visit reviews by my wonderful Yelp friend James K. I got a chick pea based salad and a basil pesto one. Just delightful to eat and so darn fresh. This place is worth supporting.