Sligo Late-Bar/Restaurant advice

junior_apollo

Heya all,

Heading to Sligo for the weekend and looking for some recommendations on decent watering holes in the town?

I prefer the quieter old man pubs myself, but will have the missus with me this weekend, so if anyone could recommend anywhere with a bit of music/late-bar for two people hitting the 30 mark would be great... something lively to keep us awake

Bunching it all together in the one question, but any good restaurant advice greatly appreciated also (any style, not fussy).

Thanks in advance,
JA

PS: The last thread I can see similar to this had info from 2011 so was hoping for some new updates?
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=72090471

red sean

Eala Bhan is a very good restaurant on the riverbank in the centre of town. Fiddlers Creek and Kennedys are 2 pubs beside. Fiddlers have a restaurant as well. Cross the river and you'll find Connolly's pub. Genuine old world with a great pint! Fureys also nearhand does trad music.

junior_apollo

Thanks Sean, great advice, muchly appreciated
Had a look at Eala Bhan online and seems grand... and the pub reviews seem pretty decent too, thanks again
-JA

bennyc

Call into Fureys for a pint , should be music there too over the weekend.

junior_apollo

bennyc wrote: »

Call into Fureys for a pint , should be music there too over the weekend.

Yeah, any of the comments I saw online for Furey's seem pretty decent, so will definitely drop in for one
Just didnt have any names to start with, so ye're help is greatly appreciated,
Thanks,
JA

UrbanSea

McHugh's is a really good late bar and the crowd is mid twenties to mid thirties for the most part.


I'm not the biggest Eala Bhan fan, think the Silver Apple is a cracking restaurant, they do a three course early bird for 20 euro too. Just across from the train station, couldn't recommend it enough.

Mint Sauce

Late bar with music, free in, 30s age group. Cant go wrong with the Garavouge. Just cross the footbridge over the river from Fiddlers Creek and Kennedys.

junior_apollo

So I tried to make a reservation with Eala Bhan for Saturday evening at 7.30pm, I placed the reservation request yesterday (understandably that would be a busy time, but the acute response i received was not expected)...
I received an email today from 'Tra Ban Strandhill' (the sister restaurant i believe) with not so much as an 'Hello', 'sorry' or any kind of explanation other than:

"We can take you at 8.45"

Literally that was the entirety of the email...

Since yesterday, I had been reading the tripadvisor reviews of Eala Bhan and the sister restaurant Tra Ban and to be honest the responses, from what I can only assume are the owner, to the negative reviews are quite arrogant and offensive. I thought, nah they couldnt be that bad surely, but now I am starting to wonder.

I have decided to make alternative eating arrangments and will quite happily give my money to a nicer person than that.

Will definitely pop into Furey's, Garavouge and McHugh's to check them out, thanks for the advice everyone.

-JA

Plazaman

^^^ Yeah, that sounds like the Manager alright, depending on his mood he can either be very helpful or arrogant beyond belief which is a pity because they are two great restaurants with fantastic food but he's driving away customers.

Donaghys@Coach Lane (heading towards the bus station) is another alternative for a meal and it has been getting great reviews of late or The Belfry (downstairs restaurant) has nice food as well.

If you're in Sligo on Friday evening I would suggest a call in to 5th on Teeling (on Teeling Street across from Courthouse). Was in it last weekend for the first time in a while and liked it. Plus there's a band called Anything Goes playing this Friday who are a crowd pleaser.

junior_apollo

As you said it is a pity as the menu and a lot of the food reviews are very good, but now I have a bad taste in my mouth (pardon the pun), so I won't be eating there...

Have decided to go italian and dine at limoncello (the missus loves italian food), and they seemed nice to talk to on the phone when booking. Food and wine menus appears nice and reviews are mostly good too.

Thanks for the recommendations, seems like a lot of options within a relatively small walking distance of eachother.

Thanks again,
-JA

il gatto

junior_apollo wrote: »

As you said it is a pity as the menu and a lot of the food reviews are very good, but now I have a bad taste in my mouth (pardon the pun), so I won't be eating there...

Have decided to go italian and dine at limoncello (the missus loves italian food), and they seemed nice to talk to on the phone when booking. Food and wine menus appears nice and reviews are mostly good too.

Thanks for the recommendations, seems like a lot of options within a relatively small walking distance of eachother.

Thanks again,
-JA

That's the great thing about Sligo. Big enough to not feel like a one horse town yet compact enough the walk everywhere. Tell your friends. Bring money

junior_apollo

Sorry for the delay with updates, only just back in work today.

In the end we went to a fantastic Italian restaurant "Limoncello"...

I cannot express how much we loved the food and service.
We ordered a bottle of Pinot Grigio, and they came back to advise that it was out of stock and they recommended another similar wine... lovely crisp white and we even took a picture of the bottle so we could try and find it ourselves for at home.

We had "Talleri" for the starter, a combination of any four starters (we got the x2 people version, but there was also a x4 person version) in a platter.

We had "Lamb Pecorello", "Michele's King Prawns", "Smoked Salmon Ravioli" and "Chicken Croccantino" as our four choices in the platter... to say that they were all amazing is an understatement... my wife is a big foodie and she (and I) were both delighted with each dish... perfectly cooked, beautifully presented and thoroughly enjoyed...

For mains my wife had the "Fettucini Alla Jack" which she said was a lot like a Carbonara, she loved it, but couldn't finish it as she was partially stuffed from the starters *rolls eyes*.
Myself... I had the "Trio of Irish Pork", which was pork steak, pork sausage and wild boar sausage... the boar was a little 'mincey' but the sauce gave it wonderful flavours...

We didn't have dessert as we were both pretty full at that point... so we had a cocktail each:
My wife ordered (I am struggling to remember the names of them) ... the "Pink Panther" i believe... but it was very alcohol-y... (it contained Sambuca and was overpowered with the taste)... she couldn't drink it and I drank it just out of stubborness.. We wouldn't be ordering it again.

The second cocktail we ordered though, the "Strawberry Shortcake" was delicious... Amaretto, Couintreau, orange and iced-strawberries... we both commented on how it was one of the nicest cocktails we had either had. So much so, that we went out and bought the ingredients this week in the shopping so we could try and make it ourselves when we have friends 'round.

Not sure if any of the detail above is of any use to anyone, but I just wanted to share our food experience... could not possible recommend 'Limoncello' enough... and will definitely be telling friends all about it...

-JA

Kettleson

@ junior Apollo. Good on ya.

If you aint done so already, you might want to put the above review on trip advisor.

junior_apollo

Kettleson wrote: »

@ junior Apollo. Good on ya.

If you aint done so already, you might want to put the above review on trip advisor.

Good call.. waiting on password reminder email (haha I always forget them!)... and will post it then...


Edit:
Posted Review there now, thanks again all,
-JA