There have been rumblings for some months now in Ballynahinch, Co Down. Ballynahinch has all of the strong charms of a rural Ulster market city and is understood to hundreds of us who negotiate its windy streets as we hurry to or again from a day within the Mournes or on the seashores in Murlough and Newcastle. However till the rumours of a brand new restaurant opening began, it was by no means a city we might affiliate with consuming out.
I requested round, heard some unsubstantiated reviews concerning the house owners of three different eating places within the county displaying curiosity in a former butcher’s store; an area solicitor confirmed this however the thriller has nonetheless not been resolved. Throughout my fruitless researches I found one thing else. The just lately refurbished Primrose Bar within the coronary heart of the city.
A return go to with reinforcements – there have been 5 of us – proved the refurb wasn’t simply beauty.
The Primrose Bar has been within the city for so long as I can keep in mind driving previous it. I had a pint in it as soon as again within the early Nineties however it wasn’t memorable.
The newest go to was. The bar continues to be there and there is a telly and guys consuming pints. However throughout are cosy huge cubicles and nation-livin’ stripped wooden and upholstered furnishings. It is very Ulster, heat and welcoming. After which there’s Pamela Gillespie, the smiling supervisor greeting individuals and fussing gently over them on the door.
It is a correct pub with a correct pub menu, none of your incomprehensible gastropubbery right here. There’s even deep-fried brie, there, daring as brass on the menu, in case you have been in any doubt. However don’t be physique-swerved by this, the garlic mushrooms, the crispy hen goujons or the progressive tacky garlic wheaten bread, as a result of the meals in right here is sweet. You want solely look slightly nearer to seek out the recent smoked mackerel fillets with poached egg on prime, the pale smoked haddock with bacon and cheese mash with leek and cream sauce or the rib-eye from Vincent Doran’s butchers in close by Lisburn (yours for £20 and comes together with your selection of aspect and a sauce).
We pile into the sales space, which might maintain at the least two extra. The sunshine from the Essential Road dealing with window is vibrant and everybody’s joyful. There’s a sense of event. But I remind myself, it is simply the Primrose in Ballynahinch, about 20 minutes from the place we stay.
However it could possibly be anyplace in Eire: it has that hospitable heat and luxury, a direct sense of familiarity and the arrogance of a spot which is aware of its beers are chilled, its pipes are clear and the kitchen may be relied upon to not burn the soup.
Starters of breads, soup, mackerel and people deep-fried brie wedges (the teenager had by no means tried them so we insisted it was a ceremony of passage that would not be delayed) have been promptly delivered and demolished. The one factor to recollect once you go into the nation to eat is to not eat for 2 days beforehand. In the event you do you will by no means have a large enough urge for food to see it by means of to the top.
That is to not say that the volumes overwhelmed the standard. The mackerel fillets have been advantageous and salty, their briny tang softened by the nice and cozy, free-flowing egg yolk. Beneath all of it lay a big salad with mustard seed dressing: not the perfect companion however lush and crunchy all the identical.
The breads, an assortment of wheatens, focaccias and different bobs might have fed a household. All have been respectable and freshly made. The spicy parsnip soup did the job, too, and got here with two breezeblocks of wheaten.
Pamela was quickly again with beef and crispy hen burgers, monkfish, McCartney’s chilli sausage and that rib-eye. Once more, the volumes have been daunting however we sensed the problem had been thrown down on the ft of the townies and we needed to get by means of it. Which we did: by no means underestimate the advisor’s capability, not that of her mom, nor certainly these of her daughters.
The highlights included a wonderfully carried out rib-eye that had a broad floor space and was minimize skinny. Nice flavours and textures got here by means of because of loads of resting time. Accompanying the steak have been three onion rings, which usually do not do a lot for me. These, nevertheless, have been value a return journey: mild, crispy, not a touch of oil and loads of fats onion inside.
The monkfish may need completed with a couple of minutes much less within the warmth however that is the wonderful thing about this fish, it is very forgiving and does not surrender its flavours simply.
The Primrose is a really nice shock and makes for an ideal finish-of-day journey to the seaside or the mountains. Till that different place opens, it is the one present on the town.
The invoice
Brie wedges £7.00
Soup £four.00
Goats cheese salad £7.00
Mackerel £eight.00
Breads £5.00
McCartneys sausage £10.00
Basic burger £10.00
Hen burger £10.00
Monkfish £15.00
Ribeye £20.00
Glass shiraz £5.eighty five
Glass sauv blanc £5.50
Glowing water £2.15
Cheeesecake £four.seventy five
Cassata £four.seventy five
Americano £2.30
Espresso £1.70
Complete £123.00