The Dirty Duck Alehouse — Restaurant in Northern Ireland

Due to taking care of my mother, whose health is failing quickly, my wife and I rarely have the opportunity to get out for a "date." Today, we did. Considering the numerous options for restaurant quality food in North Down, we settled on the Dirty Duck. We called and asked for a window seat at 7:30. We were told that there wasn't a window seat a 7:30 but that there was one at 5:00 pm. We booked for 5:00. When we arrived we were shown to a seat that was about 12 feet from the window. When we enquired about the nature of our reservation, we were told that table reservations are only a request and that some people book a table two weeks in advance (which, if the fact that a reservation is only a request, then it really doesn't matter when you book it as on the night they might put you somewhere else anyway). We were told to sit side by side and look out the window from our table - 12 feet from the window. If you don't have an available window seat, that's fine. But if someone calls you and makes a specific request and you tell them you can facilitate that request at a different time than their requested time, then, if they book with you based on the condition of booking, (a window seat, in this case) then honour the condition of the reservation instead of fobbing them off with some I'll conceived nonsense about requests and time of booking. You either have a window seat available at the time or you don't. It not hard. To be fair, we were served by several young wait staff who were all friendly and knowledgeable. Also, the food was good. However, based on the attitude of the person who seated us and the failure to honour a specific request (for which we changed areangments in our day) we won't be back. Would...

We [my sister & i and my two grandchildren] called in to grab a late lunch on Saturday 30th March as it was handiest to the train station that we used, However, we had a bit of a wait before we got seated in the beer garden, we were given the menu and we preceeded to order as you do 'to my shock horror I was so surprised how many people were there dining with their dogs !!!!!!! This was a bit of putting as obvious dog barking gets a little distracting !!! If that wasn't enough our food took such a long time to arrive after we ordered 25 minutes to be precise ! and even then there was another 10 minutes wait for 1 of our dishes to be on the table !!

I've heard of busy but that was ridiculously unexceptable [Def won't be back !!! To add to the extreme disappointment of our dining experience here ,as we were effectively doing alfresco! the food didn't stay warm enough to fully enjoy ! And price range a bit on the high side for basic food and basic service!!!

To finish this I think management should rethink their dog policy ,no disrespect to the owners but I think they perhaps need this notice (Dogs welcome .......people tolerated!!!!) straight outside their door!! in order to make an informed decision to eat downstairs @the Dirty Duck !! Kind...

My friends and I (9 of us) visited The Dirty Duck for lunch on Wednesday 24th July.We came from Londondery,Castlerock, Ballymena and . We had a very enjoyable time ther. The staff were friendly and helpful although while we were sitting outside we had to go in to get a drink as they were not permitted to carry drink outside! The staff were efficient and came and took us to our table which we had previously booked and we had a lovely view out over Belfast lough. The menu had a good variety of food on it and had some great starters. Unfortunately the starter we wanted...., the platter ....was noit available although we were there early...12.30/1.00pm. Neverth less the food was excellent. We all really enjoyed it. It was of a good quality and tasty. The restaurant was clean and the staff seemed to be on the ball.. One of our party thought the Toilets needed attention. Maybe another toilet required..not sure! Overall we had a great time at The Dirty Duck and would certainly return. The train stops just behind the restaurant which is very handy and the views are just amazing. Thanks to all the staff who looked after us....