Aqua Restaurant — Restaurant in Fingal

There are marvellous views of the sea from Aqua restaurant in Howth and every now and then, wild harbour seals make an appearance. The sensational views were a huge bonus to the gorgeous seafood meal that we had and definitely appealed to the umami lovers among us. We decided to sample their early bird, daily specials and à la carte menus.

To start, we had the crab claws with side salad and grilled scallops served with caviar and samphire. Every scallop that we had was wonderfully seared and seasoned and the tender samphire with caviar both impart a wonderful texture that went well with the delicious scallops. The crab claws were delectably buttery and with the lovely fresh salad, was a real pleasure to eat.

For our mains, we ordered the seafood medley (monkfish, hake, salmon and scallops with super creamy mashed potato), whole grilled plaice, scampi and chips and the fish and chips. The scampi and the fish and chips were all crispy and tasty. The grilled plaice was succulent, fresh and simply divine. Of course, the star was the seafood medley and all of the seafood were excellently cooked, with the meaty monkfish being my favourite.

A recurring theme as well was how lovely the presentation of each dish was and how attentive every single staff of member were. The last time we had seafood this gratifyingly exquisite was in Gozo and Aqua Restaurant are up there. A brilliant place to eat in Howth and in my humble opinion, definitely one of the best seafood...

My girlfriend and I attended Aqua for our valentines meal. Our booking was at 5:45pm. We were greeted by a very friendly host who welcomed us and took our jackets, and were brought to our table, We were seated and spoken through the menu, offered water & drinks etc. throughout the night the staff were very friendly and very attentive. The downfall was unfortunately the food. My girlfriend ordered the scallops which were absolutely Devine. Beautifully seasoned and cooked, and the sauce & chorizo that went with it were beautiful. I had ordered the calamari, which were unfortunately quite rubbery. The flavour was amazing but unfortunately just quite over cooked. We had both ordered the duck for mains, and were told it comes medium, which we didn’t mind. The presentation of the duck was beautiful. The taste was beautiful, as was the purée & vegetables alongside it. The duck itself unfortunately was cooked quite past a medium, and was more of a medium well. It was very tough to cut and chew, but like the calamari, tasted absolutely beautiful. The potatoes were cooked quite inconsistently and were hard in some places and soft in others.

Overall, the service, drinks and atmosphere were great, and the menu for both food and drinks offer lots of amazing choices. We were just disappointed by having both a starter and both mains...

Absolutely disgusted with our experience in Aqua last night... ruined what was a birthday celebration for my partner... arrived at exactly the time given to us for our meal and were brought straight to our table... literally only sat in the chair and was instantly asked were we ready to order🙄... after a full 3 mins we ordered drinks and our meal and lo and behold our starters came out before our drinks had even arrived🤨... first time that has ever happened... as soon as I finished my starter the plate was whipped up in a flash.. and all off a sudden my partner says to “think that’s our mains coming now” i was disgusted... I called for the bill and the manger who was apologetic and respectful.. the whole meal finished in less than 30 mins is deplorable.. seated at 20.45 and left at 21.13.. starters and mains (including a steak) can’t give a rating on the food as it was like a McDonalds drive thru service... management cut the mains from the bill which was appreciated... hugely disappointed TBH but you live and learn... we live within a 20 min drive and eat out every weekend around the Howth/Malahide/Portmarknock area and have never experienced a meal where my first drink was half full as I...