PG FRESH — Restaurant in Northern Ireland

I have eaten at Ellies on a number of occasions and found it hit and miss but post covid I figured I would try it again and was pleasantly surprised.

I had a table booked for a low key family meal. We arrived and were quickly seated at the large back windows as I had requested which offer a spectacular view across Dungannon and beyond. The sunny day made this view even more impressive and offered many talking points.

We were seated and a drinks order taken straight away while menus were distributed. The menu is a single, unlaminated printed sheet, a remanent of covid times which I hope will disappear soon as the single page is less than pleasant to order from. The one gripe I continue to have with Ellies is the slow service for the initial ordering of starters and mains. The service the rest of the time seems to be fine but this initial delay to order is a consistent issue.

Starters of brie, soup, salted chilli chicken and garlic mushrooms. I first want to say that the portions for starters are very generous. The brie were large wedges, there was plenty of chicken and mushrooms too. A delight when you consider that usually starter sizes can be rather mean. The brie was golden and gooey. The soup was a subtle, creamy curried cauliflower which was a delightful change of pace from the bog standard soups. For mains we had steaks, chicken stacks, burgers an baked salmon. All of which was fabulous. Portions were generous and served very well. The steak was cooked to perfection with a lovely sear. The champ was creamy and the baked salmon was a riot of colour.

For dessert we indulged in cheesecakes, lemon meringue pie and brownies. The cheesecake was super rich and sweet. The brownies very sweet but still nice. The lemon meingue let the side down a little because, while it looked like a work of art it was cold. Lemon meringue should be served hot, and not just the meringue blow torched to mildly warm and browned. From base to tip it should be hot. The vanilla ice cream tasted vaguely smokey also and was not something we would go for again.

Other than speeding up the initial ordering and tinkering with the desserts to serve hot where appropriate and change the vanilla ice cream brand, I was very impressed with this trip to Ellies and will certainly be back. For the generous portions and good quality the meal was also quite...

Today I was very disapointed with service, from the moment we come in we didnt feel welcome, waitress was not attended at all, at that time was just five tables with the customers about 10 people in all restaurant, we order tea and coffe but get it just after 15min. (with no sugar on table and milk was missing ) by that time some of the customers just walk out because nobody come to take orders and other have to take menu bu them self...our order come wrong, ingrediants missing and we get over charge with mixed prices...in the end money get sorted...its a really lovely place to get some food (compliment to the chef)and cup of coffe...but waitress on todays shift need learn some attention to the customers, orders and love to the work...very disapointing not...

Hosted my daughter's birthday family dinner here as my daughter and her boyfriend love the food here from the starters on offer, the delicious mains and the sumptuous desserts to die for. My daughter is a vegetarian and finds Ellie's caters for a wide range of veggie suitable dishes. The manager Jarlath was fantastic in organising the whole event for us, he had two large tables set up beautifully for our party and had bought helium balloons specially, there was in the region of 24 of us and everyone really enjoyed our meals , the service was A☆ and Jarlath and 2 lovely waitresses tended swiftly and efficiently to our every need. We were all very impressed and are glad to report that Ellie's is now the place to eat out in Dungannon and we can't wait...