Ownies Bistro

I went for a meal here with a friend, they had an early bird special on, I think it was only about £13 for 3 courses from the set menu. For my starter I had broccoli and brie/​Stilton soup with fresh baked bread, I wasn’t sure of I would have liked it but it was absolutely delicious. The flavours were amazing. For my main course I had bbq pulled pork, again it was delicious as was my Eton Mess dessert. We were so full up and for very little money. Gorgeous. Upstairs in the Bistro is so cute too, very quaint. Décor is stunning. We went down into the bar for a few drinks after, it was midweek so it wasn’t very busy but it was very relaxing and cosy with the fire lit. The smoking garden out the back is brilliant too, comfy seats and heaters, it doesn’t feel like you are outside at all.

We waited for AGES for someone to come and get our drinks order, and then again for our food. Service was slow and the server forgot my husbands drinks order, so a different server came back and said, ‘did you not want a drink?’
We asked for the ‘while you wait’ selection of breads, which ironically we had to wait ages for. The breads were warm and delicious and the irish butter topped it off a treat. 4 bread rolls and 2 slices of bread for 4 quid? Not sure I’m convinced it was quite worth that. Husband thought the tempenade was tasty.
Hubby got beef and Guinness pie, it came with some root veggies and a side of garlic dice. Portion was HUGE, pie was excellent, filled with real, proper beef and he was almost beaten by it.
I got the rainbow chicken w/​peppered sauce, it came with root veg (mostly turnip — yuck!) and champ. The champ was delicious, the peppered sauce was edging more towards spicy than I’d like, but it was the chicken breast that was a total disaster, it looked like it had been sliced in half with a butter knife, it was overcooked and tough and it was spicy as hell. The rainbow peppercorns, coupled with the sauce peppercorns = overkill on the peppercorns.
Last time we were there it was so much better, let’s dial it down on the pretentious eh? What’s wrong with some good olé pub grub?

Ownies Bistro is a lovely traditional restaurant which is art of the Joymount Arms hotel. With its exposed beams and open fireplace it really does have that good old Irish charm missing from so many places now that seem to be thrown up overnight. They do specialise in seafood here but also offer lovely traditional dishes such as beef and Guinness pie, Lamb, carbonara and steaks.
I decided to go traditional with the Beef and Guinness pie and champ mash (oh yes!) and it was really great! Just what the doctor ordered. They also boast a fantastic beer garden for those long summer evenings… well…when we get them.