Pinecroft — Restaurant in Malahide

I wish I could comment on the food, but unfortunately, my sister and I never even received a menu—or a glass of water. We were invited to a birthday party at your restaurant, and even the birthday guest herself was not informed beforehand that there would be a strict time limit on the table.

Our group’s reservation was for 11:00 AM. Everyone else was there, but my sister and I arrived at 12:45 and were immediately told we only had until 1:00 PM because another reservation was booked after us. This was never communicated to anyone in advance, but we acknowledged our lateness and understood. We did not object to leaving early. However, upon arriving at the table, we noticed people were still enjoying desserts, so we decided maybe we could look at a menu and order food to go, or perhaps grab a coffee. Unfortunately, we were unable to do any of that, as we were neither acknowledged nor asked, even when the waiter saw the drink menu that was sitting on the table in my hand.

At first, I assumed this was simply about turnover, as small businesses often want to maximize the number of customers they seat. Even so, it should be made very clear at the time of booking if tables are restricted to a certain time. What made this experience more concerning was discovering that the staff had already tried to rush the party out less than an hour after they had sat down, well before the food could be reasonably served and enjoyed. Not only that, there was no one waiting for a table at 1:00 PM, and they did NOT have any guests waiting to be seated. CRAZY!

Looking around, I could not help but notice that our table was the only one made up of Middle Eastern women wearing headscarves. While other guests were greeted and served, my sister and I were completely ignored from the moment we walked in. This raises the troubling possibility that our treatment was not just poor service, but discriminatory.

This was extremely disappointing. For a local business, every customer matters. One person’s negative experience can quickly reach many others. We genuinely wanted to support your restaurant and were prepared to order, even just to-go, but we were denied the opportunity entirely. As someone who loves supporting local businesses and LOVES spending money on good food to try some of everything, I probably will never step foot in this place. Thanks for the...

Pinecroft is an experience.

When we first got there we were taken back by the tall trees the surrounded the restaurant and the property in general. It really gives magical cabin in the woods vibe. My wife said it was the two best smells fresh camping air and the smell of breakfast!

There are two paths that go down to the pond and the pottery cabin.

The restaurant is beautiful and when you step inside you are immediately in their gift shop where they sell the pottery they make on the property. If you are into pottery this is the place for you. They also have clothes in the back, bags, and other souvenirs. We got there early so gave our name to the hostess and looked around the shop until a table was ready for us. You must make a reservation! This place is popular and will fill up fast. They do have outside seating in the summer but I’m going to assume that is also by reservation.

Debbie was our server and she was very lovely and knowledgeable telling us about the food, the restaurant and the property.

Our reservation was for 11:30 so I’m assuming we had the lunch menu so if you want to go for breakfast ask the restaurant when making your reservation what time they serve breakfast.

I ordered coffee and my family had tea. I had the roast beef sandwich with fries and gravy, my wife had the grilled cheese sandwich and our son had the sea food crepe. We all started with their soup of the day which was broccoli cheddar.

First thing I need to say is the soup was fantastic. It was delicious and rustic, topped off with graded cheese. It was absolutely delicious and as our other food came out you could tell the souped was made from scratch, they baked their own bread for the sandwiches and cut their own fresh cut fries. All the food was delicious and homey. It wasn’t out of this world by any means but it was all freshly made and that really goes a long way. For dessert we had bumble berry pie and the old fashion chocolate cake and again this had an in house made vibe and flavors that you only get with good homemade food.

Wonderful experience all around.

Total was around $120 for all that food so about $40 each of us.

It would be nice to visit in the fall when the trees just change...

I want to be very clear with this review. I absolutely love going to Pinecroft. The food is wonderful and the service is great. The atmosphere is very pleasant. I just returned from enjoying lunch there and we all thoroughly appreciated the whole inside experience. However, trying to get into the gift shop and restaurant was a nightmare. I had an elderly lady with me who uses a walker. I pulled up to the entrance to the dirt path leading to the door. The covered entrance to this path was a puddle of muddy water. The walkway beside this covered area was ice which had some kind of black stuff sprinkled sparsely on it. The actual parking lot was a sheet of ice. There had been sand spread on it but that didn’t melt the ice and made more mud. The muddy path to the entrance is bumpy with tree roots in it and, again, more mud. By the time I helped my aunt out of the car and my sister helped her manoeuvre around the mud puddles and ice as I parked the car we were all very frustrated. It definitely takes away from the experience to arrive at your table with your good shoes and pant legs covered in mud. By the time we were finished lunch and looking around we waded back through the dirt and bumps, then I left my two passengers at the edge of the parking lot while I got the car. I get to my car only to find the ice rink beside my car had melted so I waded through more muddy water to get in. I picked up my ladies and put the walker into my trunk. My car now has mud in both the drivers side and passengers side in the front and the one side of the back seat. Also, my trunk has mud in it from the walker being put in it. I find this extremely disturbing to have to go through all these messy areas to get into the building. As I said at the beginning, I feel this is by far one of the best restaurants in this area. It just confuses me that the nice people who own it disregard their customers so badly by not paving the parking lots and walkway. For that reason I only gave...