Mitchell's Restaurant, Clifden

We loved this restaurant. The atmosphere was relaxed and we were well looked after by staff. We both had mussels to start, fresh, plentiful and succulent accompanied by some tasty breads. For main I had the hake, very tasty and my partner had the steak which he enjoyed. Desserts of ice-cream and meringue, probably the weakest of the courses but sufficient nonetheless. All in all a pleasant dining experience that was good value. Would definitely go back

Walk-in diners are always difficult for restaurants to manage, but you'd expect that a well-recommended restuarant would be able to cater for two walk-ins on a rainy Sunday evening. Mitchells gave us a table and fed us, but we regretted our choice of restaurant. The food is reasonable. We ate the EUR24.95 set 3-course menu. My chowder was more than acceptable and the salmon and crab fishcake served to my wife was also good. She had hake for mains, also acceptable. My chicken cordon bleu, chosen on a whim, was bland and forgettable. The desserts were straightforward. After all, what can go wrong with vanilla ice cream with a touch of butterscotch sauce? The problems that we encountered are entirely under the control of the restaurant. First, the table we were offered was the worst that I have ever experienced in a restaurant. A two-cover table in the middle of two other two-cover tables is never good news. The fact that the gap between each table was very small compounded the difficulty, unless you like listening to the conversations of the couples on either side. We took the table because we got a strong hint that it was the last on offer. As it turned out, this wasn't true and one six-cover table remained unfilled for all the time we were there. The next issue is the service. I could say that the food was thrown at us, but that would be an exaggeration. Service is delivered by a team that delivered a lack of "Irish" welcome in an Irish tourist destination. We felt that the servers must have been on a time and motion exercise designed to get guests through the meal as quickly as possible. Not good. So much so that I left the smallest possible tip that I felt I could. The last point is the way that tables are cleaned after guests leave. It would have been nice to see that more than a casual wipe of a cloth (clean or not) was used to prepare a table for the next set of guests. Not good all round...

Just perfect. Super fresh, super friendly. I havent posted a review in a while...this place is worth a mention. Go there.