The Tides Restaurant — Restaurant in Northern Ireland

The food alone ruined our visit. Im writing his review in a vain attempt to pull the inflated average score down.

After seeing Giants Causeway, we picked The Tides based on its relatively high rating and ocean views. But as the food came out, it quickly became obvious that the ratings are either padded or more reflective of the view and the service. First off, the menu itself is all over the place. Billed as Modern European, according to Google, it ranges from Italian to American to Chinese with nothing particularly irish. Sections are broken down by protein. There is no other rhyme or reason to it. Sides and sauces (like ketchup... yes. Ketchup) are sold separately. They clearly get a lot of tourists and feel they need to offer variety, but the result is they aren't really delivering.

Our 2 year old got the chilli chicken penne, which came out [literally] piping hot even for an adult. Anyone with a toddler knows convincing them to let their food cool down for a solid 10 minutes is a fools errand. Once it did cool, every piece of pasta our daughter stabbed with a fork fell apart (either over cooked or cheap pasta), creating another hurdle resulting in her launching hot penne and a sauce covered fork indiscriminately across the table out of sheer frustration.

We then got the goat cheese and beet starter. Easy enough.. but something just didn't taste right with the goat cheese. A sort of sweetness ive never tasted in goat cheese overpowered... the goat. Look, I'm persian. I eat a LOT of goat cheese at all kinds of price points. Maybe this was a local product I didn't have experience with, but I have a strong feeling that whatever this was didn't come from some farm down the road. Not terrible. Just clearly not good quality cheese.

For dinner, my wife got the asian duck wraps (obvious mistake). The duck was bone dry. Looking at a cross section of the meat revealed it had dried about half way into each piece leaving a sliver of edible duck in the center to dig out. Needless to say we couldn't finish it.

I ordered the Salt and Chilli chicken sandwich, which is a fried chicken sandwich. Before I go further, I want to point out something. You'll notice the word Chilli is used in both mine and my daughters dish. Whatever the "chilli" flavor is in each... its different. So I gather that the Irish use the word Chilli to mean spicy or more like peppery? Which makes no sense. Chilli is an American word meaning a stew typically consisting of ground beef. Chili (one L) is the word they're [probably] looking for, referring to a red pepper. You could argue chilli is how Irish people use it so that's on me, but again... why bother with a menu that offers 5 different cuisines for tourists unaccustomed to your unique turns of phrase? Seems like a recipe for confusion. I digress..

The salt and pepper chicken sandwich was heavy on the salt and heavy on the pepper. Miraculously, the chicken inside was actually juicy. But the pound of pepper thrown in ruined it. The chips I ordered with it were also extremely salty. And half the chips in the order were those flat rejects that fry into shards of glass. Like, how do you mess up chips in ireland. Isn't that their thing?? Oh and the ketchup I paid extra for was mixed with vinegar. Yeah I get it... thats how they eat their chips. But tell me that before you charge me for "plain ketchup."

Again, full disclosure the views are incredible and the wait staff deserve to serve better food (but pro tip... don't make me ask for a refill on...

Have visited this restaurant many times over the past 5-6 years and have never been disappointed. Again last night had a lovely meal HOWEVER- waitress took a drinks order, I asked if they did Madri on draft and was greeted by a “ what” I asked again and got the same response. I would have expected them to say “ sorry I’m not sure but I’ll check” but no so I ordered another drink. Food order taken which arrived in good time but one of the meals was totally incorrect and when this was explained they went away with the 2 meals only to return with the meals and asked what we had ordered. Once explained they proceeded to put my meal down which I rejected and explained I wanted to eat at the same time as my wife (she had ordered a fish dish which I knew had to be cooked fresh and I would probably have finished mine before hers was ready ! ) I was right as it took 17 minutes for the 2 meals to come back to us. Must say the meals were first class. Anyway after our meals we declined having dessert or coffee and were finishing our drinks when the Manager left us the Bill without us asking for it and stated they had applied discount, something I didn’t ask for. This was 10% by the way. I went to the bar to pay and the waitress who tried to leave my meal to eat on my own attended me and apologised to me for the confusion at which point I decided to give them my thoughts on how the situation should have been handled ie that they should have taken both meals away so that we could eat together only to be confronted with an attitude which as a customer I wasn’t expecting ( she tried to state that some people would be ok on eating on their own etc etc etc ). The Manager was also behind the bar taking in all that was said and his attitude was not what a customer would expect. He seemed to back up his staff by saying “ don’t speak to my staff like that” whereas he should have been saying the opposite ie don’t speak to customers like that. I was simply trying to make an observation but both were not interested. The Manager of 15 rears experience was getting more irate, took the bill and said he would delete my wife’s meal which was their loss as I fully prepared to pay the full amount. They have to remember that the customer is the most important person to the business as without the customer there will be no business, they are not an excuse for the business but the reason for the business! Anyway that’s the end of the rant. Would I recommend it for food - certainly 💯% Will i return- who knows but certainly not in the...

Update review: Went to tide again last week and it will probably be the last time.

As always that young guy with the brown hair was lovely and just perfect. However the blonde girl without the uniform who is probably in charge is just downright rude and very unpleasant! She never makes eye contact when talking to my wife and I, does not say thanks when we paid nor did she apologize for the massive issue with the food.

The food I got was a surf and turf. I asked for medium/rare and I got well done(grey from end to end) which is a ruined fillet steak. I nicely said that it was overcooked and I had to show it cut a few times to convince them??? Unreal. I gave the plate back, they took it away and I had to wait another 20 mins for my next surf and turf to be delivered to my table. I could NOT believe when they set Infront of me. They set an empty plate with on fillet steak Infront of me and with none of the sides (broccoli, pepper sauce, garlic prawns or anything). I sat there for 5 mins thinking they must be bringing me out the sides, but NOOOOO they were only going to give me the steak with nothing else. I had to stop that friendly gentleman and tell him the problem. He apologised right away and within a few mins I got everything else that was missing. However at least the steak this time was actually medium/rare.

This was a diabolical night, food and service was just awful and like before that hostess was rude.

Photo of what they presented to me is attached (plate with just a steak)to see the lack of care and audacity of some staff. Very unprofessional....

(Original review) The young guy that served us was friendly and did a decent job. Unfortunately he forgot my kids started and she got her starter 10 mins after us.

Our food was lovely and the steak was cooked a perfect medium/rare.

However the blonde girl mid 20s without uniform (maybe manager) was super unfriendly and did not smile, say thanks or behave...