Dinner

thedarkknight

Thinking of taking the Girlfriend to dinner in the Quay Street wine bar for her bday, Has anyone been there, any reviews?

galvianlord

Yeah think it's a great little place. If i were you would ask to sit in the back room, bit more cosy and atmospheric than the front one; you wont see quay st though but i prefer it to the newer front room. food is always good, specials are nice and you cant beat the seafood. try the breaded mussels. wine is always good and the staff are very friendly, nice little place and one of my faves in galway. if you like chips with your meal it doesnt do them though so...that's the only drawback i can think of! the owner martine is a total ledge and always good craic if she happens to be around.

padraig71

I went there a few months ago with some friends who were visiting Galway. The food was pretty good, although since I don't eat out much I can't compare it with other places in town.

MattKid

I like it there

louisecm

I love love love it there. Really good food.

TristanPeter

Is that the same place as Martine's Quay Street Wine Bar? I suppose it is. I went there about a week ago, on a Saturday night with my girlfriend and my parents. The place was packed. There was only a choice of 2 sittings available when I booked on the Thursday beforehand! & or 9pm.

I found the place to be over-packed. Tables very close together. I know, I know, rent is prob huge and they have to do this. I also felt that we were being rushed through in order to get more sittings. I suppose though, it was the weekend after St. Valentine's so maybe lots of romancing couples held off for the weekend to go for dinner.

I'm not very adventurous with food so I just got a simple steak-burger. It was nice, but nothing special at all. For desert I had apple pie. This was laughable. It looked like something someone had sat on and then microwaved and all for just €5:95, if I remember correctly.

Luckily, the very mediocre food was somewhat salvaged by the, as far as I could tell, all foreign waitresses who were very professional and friendly. The food was expensive for the quality I got. However, the place was buzzing and I suppose the atmosphere was good. Cosy...but packed!

Hope this helps, if it's the same place that is.

Creachadóir

I haven't been there recently but I had a similar experience to Tristan. We were left waiting for ages (30 mins +) for a table despite having a booking. And there were no seats to sit in while we waited, so we were just squashed into a corner. There was no apology offered for this discomfort or wait.

Except for it being a friday or saturday night, where we'd have no chance of a table in most places without a booking, we'd have moved on. The food was o.k. enough, nothing too special. Our table was shaky (which isn't the norm in an expensive enough restaurant) and we were very close to our neighbours also. And we were in that room at the back..personally I'd go for gemelles if you want to stick to quay street.

galvianlord

i guess the waiting can be probelmatic cause the space is so small, but head across the road for a pint for 20 mins and they're usually ready for you by the time you get back. she has a really loyal customer base who come back and come back all the time, so she has to be doing something right...
wonky tables add to the charm if you ask me and as for the food she has many staples on the likes of steakburgers and lasagne, which i usually dont touch but you can never ever fault the specials & seafood. only place to eat on quay st maybe with the exception of ard bia...

speaking of which i ate in nimmos for the first time last week since the change over to ard bia. really friendly waitress and 'darling' herself was there....now i wouldnt usually be a fan of her style of hosting, darling this and that, and i find the wine list in the restaurant difficult/limited, i did enjoy the meal. miles better than a similar one i had i ard bia some months ago, so maybe pop along there too at some point!

there are very few restaurants of note or interest or critical acclaim in galway, it's a city not exactly renowned for its gastronomy (more about the pint and the craic) so it's nice to support the likes of martine and aoibheann cause it raises the bar for others who are pitched at a much lower level.

TristanPeter

Martine's might be doing something right lots of the time...but I wouldn't be in a hurry to get back there. Restaurants have to be very very consistant.

Robbo

TristanPeter wrote: »

Martine's might be doing something right lots of the time...but I wouldn't be in a hurry to get back there. Restaurants have to be very very consistant.

There's a Scottish restaurant on Shop Street that's incredibly consistent.