The Yellow Bird — Restaurant in Northern Ireland

I'm feeling really conflicted about The Yellow Bird. My partner and I stopped by for a breakfast and I wish we've read all the negative reviews first.

The first thing we noticed was the interior with mismatched period decor, a bit quirky, it has a great character and potential. However... The premises are very unclean and unkempt. There are cobwebs and dead bugs everywhere. Tables are not being cleaned and when someone finally came to wipe our table, they did it with a stinky old cloth that should have been thrown away weeks ago. Yet we still gave the place a benefit of doubt.

We've waited for food for quite some time. When it finally arrived, all cutlery was dirty, not washed properly, covered in bits of food. My cup of tea and jug of milk were the same. I didn't want to complain, so I went to get some new cutlery myself and when I looked into the tray, all of it was the same, not a single knife in the tray was fit for use. All around the trays there was dust and dead flies, just like by the window table. So I had to complain about this to the server and her answer was "we have polished cutlery, we'll bring you those". The question is why is there badly washed cutlery and polished cutlery, why isn't all cutlery and cups in a cafe properly cleaned and polished? They also told us the cutlery was dirty because they accidentally ran out of dishwasher salt and rinse aid, but looking at other reviews, problems with dirty cutlery and the premises being overall dirty have been ongoing for many months now!

The food itself was nicely presented, but underwhelming in quality. French toast looked beautiful, but wasn't particularly well made and tasted very eggy. Some bottom pieces even had bits of egg around the edges. A fried egg basically. Veggie breakfast included a weird tasting supermarket pancake that my partner thought had a wee speckle of blue mould starting on the edge. He didn't want to mention anything until we were on our way home because he didn't want confrontation.

Overall, I'm confused. The decor is lovely and this café could do wonders, so why is it so dirty and not being taken care of properly? Needless to say, we won't...

First impressions upon entering was a very foul smell, like stale vinegar which was instantly off putting but decided to continue as we were curious to try. Staff were very lovely and kind but could have been shown more intuition as they left us for almost 20 mins after our meal was finished with dirty plates even though we ordered a two course meal, in the end we only had one of the courses and just left as no one came. Food was not nice, deli quality grissle and not fresh at all which is very disappointing for the price although my partner seemed to enjoy her meal I do not think we will ever be back. Everything was filthy including the tables, glasses, cutlery, plates, walls, floors and even one of the fabric chairs was stained and bogging. I think the place desperately needs a good professional clean, more experienced staff and perhaps a few scented candles? Regretting letting our curiosity get the better of us. Completely overhyped and wouldn’t wast your time...

I came to Limavady to have some carbon bike wheels trued and discovered this amazing place tucked away next to the town public car park!!! The atmosphere / decor is truly awesome, seating for all tastes, comfy to bar stool type and more!!! The menu, as all great menus are, is simple, with some mouth watering choices but I was recommended the chicken box. It arrived beautifully presented real chunky chips/ chicken fillet, perfectly cooked and absolutely delicious from start to finish. What more could you ask for? The proprietors deserve all the success for such a top notch place to relax and eat! Last but not least the Ladies waiting and serving made me feel welcome........ and not forgetting the Chef, well done everybody! I'll be back next month to revisit bike shop, but the breakfast photos makes this secondary on the list...