It was my son’s 15th birthday and he wanted to do something different. Rosatos is our normal port of call but he felt that his birthday merited a change of scene. The restaurant there is in a great location and it is even better during the day when you have a great view out over the lough.
Impressive
It mixes looking pretty impressive with being relaxed as well. You definitely feel as if you are out for a night out there but without feeling intimidated by the place. Robbie had a salad to start with and I had a selection of breads with olive, I think it was, and something else.
The different breads are very nice. I had something similar in Kealy’s Restaurant and knew that they put various herbs through the breads. One of those herbs was green and it was filtered through a couple of slices of bread. It tasted good.
Waiter
However, when the waiter came over to take it away, he did his job by asking if everything was fine. “That one’s got green mould on it” I said (I know him from Rosatos). He looked stunned and pulled it closer to his eyes. “It’s chives” He said with evident relief. I’m not sure if people who wait in restaurants enjoy those kind of jokes but he laughed along with me anyway.
My children don’t like when I make a joke with the waiters and usually say something afterwards. I’m not sure if they are embarrassed or ashamed. I would guess a mixture of both. They even accused me of ‘hitting’ on the waitress at our table in Budapest recently after I made a couple of jokes with her.
I always explain to them that it is a father’s duty to embarrass his teenage children.
Salmon
We both had the Donegal salmon. I like salmon anyway but this was especially good. It came with parsnips and some kind of green vegetable. I must say I enjoyed it thoroughly. I had a few pints of lager to wash it down. I was glad we did something different, something special for his birthday.
The desserts seemed inviting but we had already bought some lemon cheesecake and chocolate fudge cake earlier and we decided to go home and eat it.
One piece of advice though if you go to the Redcastle on a Monday or a Tuesday is book your taxi in advance and book the return journey in advance too.
Good Price
When I came to pay for it, it wasn’t too bad as the two-course meal was €26 each. If we’d had 3 course it would have been €33.
I only had sterling and I was expecting to be taken to the cleaners as regards the rate. Sterling is €1.14 to the pound at the moment. However, the rate there was €1.15 – which is about 5 cents better than the bank at the moment. That was a very pleasant surprise.
I always like to put in some critical point in any review otherwise people think I’m being paid for it. there wasn’t anything major. I suppose the price of a pint of Carlsberg was about 60 cents more than it is in Moville – but it is a major hotel.
I thoroughly enjoyed the meal and the night out and would definitely recommend it and go there again. Next time I see the waiter in Rosatos when he is off-duty, perhaps he’ll inform me then what he thought about my ‘joke’ about the green mould.