Balloo House — Restaurant in Northern Ireland

We went to Balloo House in Newtownards today for a Sunday lunch to celebrate my sister’s birthday, and the whole experience was shockingly poor from start to finish.

It was our first time here and we were all looking forward to it. But it got off to a very bad start when my sister’s main course arrived cold and had to be sent back to be reheated. The roast potatoes were pale and undercooked, and the turkey roulade was also pale and clearly needed more time in the oven, as it barely had any colour on it.

Things only got worse with dessert. My sister specifically asked for her crumble and custard to be served nice and hot, and the waiter even promised it would be his “goal” to make sure it was hot. When it arrived, it was stone cold, and again had to be taken away to be reheated. They had stuck a candle in the middle and sang a half-hearted “Happy Birthday” before the waiters disappeared. Most places make an effort when it's a birthday and you get a nice piece of cake with maybe a "Happy Birthday" written in chocolate on the plate. Instead she got cold crumble with one pathetic candle shoved into it. They had went to absolutely no effort at all, it was all truly shocking from what is meant to be a top restaurant.

To finish off this nightmare of a meal, I’d asked for strawberry ice cream instead of salted caramel with my dessert, because I really don't like salted caramel ice cream, but of course the dessert arrived with salted caramel. At this point we wern't even surprised, It was clear the waiter wasn’t paying attention to anything we’d requested, despite standing writing it all down. He clearly couldn't care less what he was serving, or whether it was correct or not.

We left feeling completely disappointed and frankly appalled at both the quality of the food and the service. This was supposed to be a special family celebration, but it was one of the worst dining experiences we’ve ever had. We will definitely...

We were greeted with a warm friendly welcome by an engaged staff member .Ambiance and seating comfort were good .We travelled over an hour to get to Balloo because the Menu impressed with its breadth and apparent originality .Service was competent, if flat .The real disappointment was the substance and presentation of the dishes . The Tempura vegetable starter was too much thick stemmed Brocolli and leaves ( Leaves ? ) in an over-powering "Soy" ( tomatoey ??) sauce .Heaped on a small plate made it difficult to cut .The brocoli was chewy and flavourless. Did they run out of Tenderstem. The sauce was too salty and too thick . The tempura was average at best . The Crab Rissoto was poor by any metric .Watery and no visible crab and lacking flavour; suspicious of a microwave heat up . The Lamb was described as "pink" which would have been fine but the meat on the plate was rare not pink. The Bengali curry was spicy and flavoursome if the Bread was cold and chewy .The veg was less than fresh and ad hoc . Overall , the chef could have produced dishes to match the promise heralded by the menu but our experience was most under-whelming and we will not return Yet another NI restaurant which can and should do much better...

1st time here in a couple of years and sadly found it disappointing. We shared a starter of slow cooked venison rigatoni. It was alright but nothing to elevate and the meat was a bit dry. I ordered roast sirloin of beef for my main and immediately noticed the decrease in portion size since previous visits. The one slice of beef was slathered in gravy - too much for me. When I cut my meat, it was slightly tough and not as flavoursome as I expected. The Yorkshire pudding was good and the roast veg also. A mash/champ was buttery and garlicky but too wet. My other half had pork fillet with polenta chips and black pudding. He liked the pork which was wrapped in ham but was not so keen on the deep fried polenta chips or the black pudding which had a mushy texture. We finished by sharing a pear and almond tart. It was lovely so a good finish. With two glasses of wine and a sparkling water, the bill for lunch was £60, which we thought made it an...