Browns Bonds Hill — Restaurant in Northern Ireland

It's taken me a while to write this review as it was quite a painful experience but after reflecting on it with my partner and our families we agreed it was necessary.

My partner and I traveled to NI for our wedding weekend with our closest friends and family who were flying in from all over the world. Because of covid the majority of our family members hadn't been able to meet in the past four years and we wanted to have an intimate dinner with our direct families before the wedding festivities kicked off. This being a destination wedding, we were completely reliant on researching restaurants in the area and trusting reviews and guides. This restaurant came highly recommended. It wasn't Michelin-starred but it seemed to offer a menu of a high standard similar to what we would find at a decent London restaurant, where we are based. At the outset we were told that we would have go to dinner at 17:00 and leave by 19:00 as they couldn't accommodate our party at a later time. We accepted this policy, it's fairly standard when restaurants are busy. However, we arrived at 17:00 and the restaurant was empty. Many of our family members were late because they had been flying into Belfast that day, there were torrential storms, and it was a bank holiday weekend so they were held up. Once everyone had arrived we had lost about 30 minutes of our time. Now, if the restaurant had been filling up considerably between 17:00-19:00 I would have understood the rush to get us out the door. However, by the time 19:00 rolled round 3/4 of the restaurant was still empty! Because we had lost so much time in waiting for everyone to arrive we had rushed through dinner and didn't have time for dessert because the server couldn't wait to push us out the door. This was so odd given the fact that there clearly wasn't another large party waiting for our table and even if there had been, the restaurant had so many empty tables we could have easily been accommodated so that we could finish our first ever meal together as a family. The atmosphere was one of disdain and contempt. From the very beginning our server was cold, rude, couldn't be bothered to introduce himself, gave short and blunt answers, and did absolutely nothing to make us feel welcome at this establishment. To this day, none of us have quite figured out if it was because we were foreigners, or because our party hadn't all arrived at exactly 17:00, or a combination of both, perhaps. We were a party of 11 people and every single person felt uncomfortable and unwelcome. It didn't matter what the food tasted like in the end, all that remains is the memory of how we all felt during our dining experience. My partner and I have dined in three Michelin starred restaurants in London and at local pubs and bars all around the UK, where servers and staff would go out of their way to make you feel comfortable, welcome and accommodated no matter whether it be a fine dining or casual dining experience. Needless to say we won't be back and I'm sad that we didn't have the positive experience other reviewers had. Especially since it was such a special occasion. I don't recommend this restaurant for special occasions or...

This was on the happycow app as having a separate vegan menu so I was excited to try for lunch whilst I was in the area. While it was more upmarket than I usually go to, it was nice to treat myself. I had the soup and roll which came with a vegan pesto (which was amazing), unfortunately the soup was a little bit of a let down - carrot and chilli if I recall. I had to wait for my roll to come out before starting my soup. I'm unsure why they didn't come out together, I flagged the waitress as I thought it'd been forgotten.

I was thrilled to see there was a vegan dessert menu and although the aquafaba pavlova wasn't ready, the chef had done a chocolate dish as a special that wasn't on the menu and my eyes lit up - this was beyond exceptional and the flavours went amazingly well together. I was disappointed that I hadn't been told about this special before ordering the pavlova (which fortunately wasn't ready).

What was most disappointing was the fact that all this trouble has been gone to for vegans, with no thought about what we can drink. No soya milk, no oat milk. If I worked there, I'd have ran to the shop to get some. But there is no excuse not to have long life alternative milk in for guests requiring it. That meant I had a black earl grey (which I could barely drink). One young waiter couldn't understand my English accent when I asked for some sugar, which I found bizarre - after the manager came over to ask what I required.

I liked the fact that the water came in glass bottles and although I forgot to ask for "no straw" - one wasn't given as standard. Unfortunately for me, it was poured into a glass with ice to the top - which was too cold for me, so I had to leave it. I drank the rest out of the bottle, but had the top been left with me, I'd have preferred to take it with me.

The toilets were clean and impressive. Thought has clearly gone into wastage as there were hand cloths to dry your hands. What I thought was particularly impressive was the hand cream, body spray and hairspray available for those wishing to freshen up.

If it wasn't for the fact that I couldn't have the hot drink that I'd have liked, I wouldn't hesitate to give this...

Visited with a family member for lunch during the jazz festival. TLDR: highly recommend.

It was easy to find and correct location on Google maps and exterior clean.

The second door to open was extremely squeaky, which I felt slightly spoiled the otherwise mostly nice atmosphere but something easily fixed! The table was spacious but there were some crumbs on one of the seats.

There were few customers in which was somewhat disappointing to see given current hospitality situation but the speed of service was great! We had bread complimentary of the kitchen and the Guinness treacle bread was heavenly, so soft and sweet, almost addictive!

I had looked at the menu online and was keen to try the miso monkfish, however, menus seemed to have just been changed which was disappointing but I enjoyed the potato gnocchi option very much. Sophisticatedly plated with nice flavours and was quite filling. I think most NI businesses aren’t great at having their website reflect their menu though but again, an easy fix for those of us that like to choose ahead of time!

The waitress was also very attentive, however, midway through our time, she was off shift and the new male waiter wasn’t as attentive despite the few customers but was still friendly.

Dessert, always my favourite course, was impeccable. Perfectly piped decoration with wonderful flavours, the treacle ice cream was divine.

My only other slight gripes was, I think, the music being blasted from the kitchen which I felt did not match the perhaps more elevated feeling the decor tries to portray. The ladies toilets seats were ill fitting to the bowl but were otherwise nice and clean.

Overall, we very much enjoyed our experience and certainly will be back!...