It is worth arriving early for your meal so you can explore the lovely grounds of the house before you sit down to lunch or dinner. The food is classic and perfectly prepared and complements the surroundings perfectly. Most of the food is locally sourced and some even comes from the Ballymaloe estate. A meal here is not cheap but it is worth every cent if you are looking for a nice treat.

We recently treated ourselves to dinner at Ballymaloe House and it lived up to all our expectations. We arrived shortly before the dining room opened and after a short walk around the immediate gardens we went for a pre-dinner drink in the bar/drawing room. I was immediately impressed with the staff. All were friendly, polite and professional. We were given ample opportunity to peruse the menu and eventually gave our order from the comfort of the couch. After being escourted to our table the first course arrived swiftly. We had the consomme with julienne veg and the mint and lettuce soup. Both were spectacular. Clean and light soups with amazing fresh flavours. Second course were mussles and smoked bacon with grubeen salad. The best mussles I've had in a very long time. For mains we had the goose and the lamb. Both meats were perfectly cooked. Moist, flavourfull and in the case of the lamb perfectly pink for my liking. The seasonal veg, tasted of fresh summer veg, superb!! We took a well appreciated short break before the cheese trolley arrived and then completey overindulged in a number of the various smoked, goats and sheeps cheeses offered. Another short break was then required before the desert trolley arrived. On the recommendation of one of the staff I tried the carabeen (seaweed) pudding. A new and very enjoyable experience. We also tried the Meringue, the ice cream, mixed berry compote and the winner on the night the warm chocolate desert, think of the best hot chocolate fondant and multipy by 100%, devine!! Just when you think you can't fit in another bite along come the coffee and home made petit fours. The 5 course meal, it's actually 6 with tea/coffee, will set you back 70euro per head, but it's worth every single well earned penny!! Overall a thoroughly enjoyable visit, I couldn't praise it enough. A visit to Ballymaloe House should definately be on the "Must 100" list.

This was my first visit to Ballymaloe House and the setting really is lovely. However, I was really disappointed with the food and lack of choice. I always like the buffet idea but if you don't like carvery lunch, then there was very little to choose from. For salad selection, there was ONE bowl of mixed leaves, that was it! Fish goujons and fish pie were the only alternatives to the carvery meats. I suppose I was expecting so much from a place with such a reputation and it wasn't what I thought it would be. I will say the Fish Soup was beautiful.The desserts were gorgeous too. The other thing that bothered me was the cost. It was 40 per head for adults and 20 for kids. I really thought that was exorbitant for kids as for example, one of the children with us only ate 5 bread rolls and another ate two small pieces of pizza! They only grazed, I thought that 20 euro was a rip-off to be honest. All in all, the surroundings were lovely but I wasn't eating them! So the food was disappointing for the money and for this reason, I don't think I'd return.