The Bushmills Inn Review

Situated in the village of Bushmills near the northern coast of Northern Ireland, The Bushmills Inn is an historic hotel and restaurant, with the building believed to date all the way back to the seventeenth century. Having held an AA rosette for many years (and indeed being the only restaurant within a twenty mile radius to hold an award from any leading restaurant guide), I was looking forward to giving the place a try whilst on a short holiday in Northern Ireland. And so, I duly rocked up for an early dinner with my wife and two children, on a rainy November Thursday.

There's parking available behind the hotel which I didn't actually realise on arrival (the car park is entered via a different road to the front face of the building), but we parked virtually opposite the hotel at the free Dundarave Road car park, which was a very short walk away. On arrival we went through the front door (why wouldn't you) into the bustling bar area; the barman didn't look especially thrilled we'd chosen to come in that way (maybe because we had kids with us) but he did point us in the direction of the restaurant.

The welcome on arrival at the restaurant reception area was perfectly warm, and we were shown to our table in one of the main dining rooms. One thing that's immediately apparent is this is a pretty vast space with a lot of tables, it was quite a walk to the rear dining area where we ate. The restaurant was quiet when we arrived, but did fill up with a few more tables as the evening went on.

On offer at dinner is a comprehensive three course carte menu, and a substantial three course children's menu too which was great to see. The wine list is weighty as well, although we weren't given any kind of drinks list alongside this which would have been useful. In the end I just stuck with my usual Hendrick's and tonics during the meal, whilst my wife and children had apple juice and lemonade.

Dinner began for me with the smoked eel tart, with the dish also containing apple, pancetta, truffle cream cheese and beetroot. I wasn't blown away by this dish to be honest; the tart case looked pre-made and although it sat nice visually on the plate, none of the elements really packed much flavour. My wife had even less luck with a selection of three different kinds of homemade bread (coming in at a whacking £9.25); to serve bread as a full priced starter course, it has to be good bread, but all three types were poor in both flavour and texture. My daughter was perfectly happy with her melon and berries starter from the children's menu however.

Our mains didn't take long to arrive; I opted for the enticingly named pork tasting plate which consisted of three main pork elements. Unfortunately, every element on this dish was overcooked. The worst culprit was the shredded crispy belly which was as dry as a dessert (just horrible to eat), although the maple bacon fillet did at least carry some decent flavour. But overall it was a really disappointing dish.

My wife had slightly better luck with her barbecue breast of duck; the duck was overcooked but quite flavoursome, although some of the elements on the dish (including a really badly executed duck egg hollandaise) were poor. On the plus side, my daughter and son both had the stoned baked pizza with fries from the children's menu and really enjoyed it (my son said it was one of his favourite pizzas ever) although the fries were very heavy on the salt.

Despite some disappointing savoury courses, we pushed on and ordered dessert and I have to say, flavour wise these were all considerably better than what had come before. My dark chocolate and cherry mousse with a white chocolate ganache was tasty, albeit the accompanying matcha tea sponge tasted like it was baked at least a couple of days earlier.

My wife quite enjoyed her take on an apple tart tatin with whiskey ice cream, albeit the top hadn't been caramelised which was a bit odd. My son had the chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream from the children's menu which was fine, whilst my daughter switched to the adult carte menu for dessert and had the vegan chocolate and coconut tart which was perfectly edible also.

And so, after collecting the bill (with no automatically included service charge), a disappointing dinner came to an end. The main positive about our visit was the service; all the staff were very pleasant and we were well looked after. The issue here is the food; I'm sure at some point in the past the cooking here was worthy of the awarded AA rosette, but there were pretty basic errors on nearly every dish we were served and the cooking felt more than a little bit complacent.

As a hotel and bar I'm sure this is a venue that will continue to remain popular, it's clearly been running with great success in that regard for a long time. But for me the standard of food here is nowhere near the level I'd want to see from an award holding fine dining restaurant, so this isn't somewhere I'm likely to return to for a meal any time soon.