Blackrock Cottage — Restaurant in Galway

I went to Blackrock Cottage after a sea swim with a group of 5 friends on holiday to Galway on 12/04/25 given the good reviews and its proximity to the diving tower. Couldn’t have been more disappointing. We walked in and waited by the sign telling us to wait to be seated. There were empty, prepared tables visible in the area around us. The restaurant seemed well staffed as multiple staff members walked by us, none of them addressing us. After 5-10 minutes we tried to signal to staff but were either ignored or told that someone would come to us. A queue had formed behind us at this point. After about 20 minutes still nobody had so much as addressed us properly/welcomed us to the restaurant/said anything to explain the wait. Some of the group simply decided to sit at a nearby empty table by the window because there was no indication we were going to be served by continuing to stand there. A few minutes later a staff member saw this and (again saying nothing) then returned with a large, scowling man wearing a shirt and glasses who stared over at our friends across the room until they looked at him and, without saying anything, raised his hand and wagged his finger at them until they stood up, as if they were school children. It is perhaps the rudest thing I have ever seen a manager do in a restaurant. For reference, we are a group of men about 30 years of age and we were in no way rude or rowdy. I have no doubt the manager wouldn’t have dared to do something as disrespectful to a group of older individuals, but thought it was acceptable to do for us. We were then herded into a cramped hallway with nowhere to stand or sit but just to be in the way of customers trying to pay and staff trying to pass through. After another 5 minutes we simply decided to leave, still waiting for any sort of polite interaction from staff. Awful, awful service, and I don’t expect much. I wouldn’t go to the trouble of writing this review if it hadn’t put a stain on our day, being rudely ignored and/or treated like children by numerous staff members while we stood like simpletons freezing and hungry after our swim. The (presumed) manager was particularly rude, and seems to have let the restaurant’s good reviews go to his head, now acting above decent...

I had the worst experience here than any other restaurant that I have been to. Me and a friend of mine last Sunday requested to sit in the outdoor area. He ordered a coffee from the waitress and I ordered a pint. When she asked which beer I wanted, a manager interrupted in a quite aggressive manner and stated we can't drink alcohol in the outside area , stating "this is a restaurant not bar lads". He then said if we are not having food we can't order any alcohol and then he just walked away without even allowing a moment for us to speak or offering a menu to us. It was almost as if we upset him somehow. I understand it can be busy and stressful in this industry but his demeanor was far from accomodating. We then felt obliged to go back to the waitress and ordered two coffees. We then sat outside like we intended and noticed people were drinking alcohol. My friend didn't understand why we got such a big lecture about not being able to drink alcohol in the outside area and went back to the manager and challenged this. To put it politely the manager lost his cool and told my friend they were allowed to because they ordered food and then he swiftly told us to leave. We waited for our coffees which we ordered and left both in almost shock as to how we had been kicked out of a restaurant. I have worked in the service industry before and to see how this manger interacted with customers seriously shocked me. I would like to highlight that at no point in our 15 minute experience were we offered menus of any kind so the opportunity to even get food was never even presented. Rather strange practice for a "restaurant not a bar". I won't be...

I was quite disappointed with my recent experience here. We decided to eat here as the menu looked great and the location is lovely, however the service itself was a let down. Once we got a seat, we had to wait several minutes to be brought a menu, once the menu did arrive the waiter failed to inform us what the soup of the day is etc. While waiting for our food, we used the bathroom facilities and the disabled toilets were swimming from the amount of water on the floor, this is not something I would expect in a restaurant. The presentation of the dishes was nice, the filling of the tacos was lovely but I found some of the tortilla a bit dry. The water jug brought out to us had coffee stains on it while the knife brought out to me was also not clean (I had brought this to the waitress's attention at the end, I had only noticed this after I consumed my food as I did not use the knife). No one came over to check if everything was OK with our meal, we had to ask for the orange juice that we ordered as it was forgotten as well as my extra side of chips I had ordered with the tacos. I don't like writing negative reviews, this place has huge potential as the cottage itself is cozy and the menu is diverse, however improvements need to be made to the service and...