The Ivy

The food is simply fantastic. It may seem like small portions, but they’re very filling.
A very reasonable € 112 for three courses with two rounds of drinks for two people.
Only drawback was the service was quite slow between courses. The service itself was great, just slow.

Frequenting the locality, I have ate here a few times. That said, my return visits are never because I have a craving, but rather friends, family, and colleagues gifting me vouchers.
Recently I dined here on a Sunday, as there was a special where one could get a three course meal for two and a bottle of wine for 50 Euro, which is not too bad as I had a 50 Euro voucher. The voucher was still in its official envelope and was accompanied by various Dunboyne Castle brochures and so forth, including the advert of the 50 Euro Sunday special.
The location of the Ivy Brasserie is in Dunboyne Castle, which is nice enough and I do prefer it to the Trim Castle Hotel.
Originally I wanted to have my dinner at 4, but on Sundays they are closed at 4 and took my dinner reservation for 6:30. Grand.
The waitress was pleasant. The wine was average, as the selection that comes with the special was understandably limited to a very basic selection of house reds and whites priced around 19 Euro.
I had the caesar salad with bacon starter and she had smoked salmon. They arrived very promptly and I have to say that mine was not bad, but not at all spectacular. While some parts were a bit soggy, it was absolutely chocked full of bacon so that balanced out.
The selections for a main course were nice, though they had a supplemental charge of 4 Euro on their steak, which is awfully tacky I think.
As such, I ordered the spinach ravioli and she had some chicken combination. This also arrived fairly promptly. My meal was absolutely delicious, I have to admit, apart from being covered in parsley upon arrival. Gordon Ramsay would not have been amused. Disturbingly, her chicken was over-​cooked and quite dry.
The desserts were great. She enjoyed her strawberry cheesecake and I did enjoy the tiramisu. One thing to be aware of, when the desserts were ordered the waitress kindly asked if we’d like tea or coffee. While I declined, the miss ordered a cup of coffee. This simple cup was 3.50 Euro and not included with the courses or dessert. That’s a ridiculous price for a plain cup of coffee and have been recently spoiled where that’s included in the course.
When it came time to pay, there was one rather irritating annoyance. The gift voucher, that I had mentioned in detail above, still in its sealed envelope and so forth — had actually no value in it. It took them about 25 minutes to sort out the matter. This was somewhat awkward because I was not comfortable with calling up my relation and saying «You know that birthday voucher you gifted me, do you have a receipt with date of purchase because there’s no money currently on the card.» That’s mortifying.
To be fair, the restaurant was quite apologetic over the matter. It was clear that it was a gift voucher and that some error had occurred during the purchase thereof. They never hinted or insinuated otherwise, it was just an annoying thing to have to wait while they went through their books to find the date the item was purchased so they could cross-​link it. It took them about 25 minutes, but the matter was sorted fine in the end. Certainly does shake one’s confidence when buying gift vouchers though — definitely enclose the sales slip when gifting!

After a brilliant night in the Dunboyne Castle (rejuvenating in the Spa & leisure area, testing wonderful comfy beds & a modern hotel room) we went for breakfast in the hotel owned Ivy Brassier.
Oh we were not disappointed — a buffet style breakfast offering full Irish Breakfast including bacon, sausages, white & black pudding, fried eggs, beans, mushrooms, tomatoes, different kinds of bread, yoghurt, huge selection of juices and cereals and fruit.
The service was friendly and quick — the minute we sat down a waiter came asking if we wanted tea or coffee, cleaned the table and made sure it was properly set.
Tea & coffee appeared within minutes as disappeared empty plates.
Overall a fantastic choice of delicious mouthwatering breakfast in a relaxed atmosphere with super friendly staff.