The newest eatery in town, Downpatrick’s diner, Dakota Bob’s, served us some outstanding food!
A new dining experience can be found in Downpatrick, and it goes by the name of Dakota Bob’s. The restaurant opened in July of last year and is a modern, authentic, American-style diner that has proved itself a worthy place to eat in a town with an already extensive range of fantastic restaurants to choose from.
Their chefs cook up an excellent range of classic American dishes—from succulent ribs and wings, to delicious burgers. You’ve got to make Dakota Bob’s your next place to visit when in Downpatrick.
We had a meal here before going to a movie in the neighbouring cinema complex, and it was absolutely fantastic. Check out the whole of our Dakota Bob’s review below.
Starters
The number one highlight of our visit to Dakota Bob’s, and number one in this review, has got to be the menu at the diner. For our starters, we decided we would share a plate of their Mexican tortilla nachos served with smoked jalapenos and tomato salsa.
We shared a starter simply because we both fancied nachos and didn’t want to fill ourselves up before our mains—not because they didn’t have enough choices. Their menu also included chicken wings, toasted garlic bread melt, crispy sweet chilli chicken, and baby back BBQ ribs, plus more.
We happened to be in a nacho mood, and boy did Dakota Bob’s deliver. Their nachos were top class, perfectly crunchy and well-seasoned; the lime sour cream the dish came with was delicious, but the melted cheese completely won us over.
Main course
For our main course, we went for the Santa Maria beef burger and the beer-battered fish and chips.
The burger comes char-grilled and utterly packed with toppings: garlic mushrooms, crispy bacon, melted cheese, a slice of tomato, and shoestring onions. It also comes with a tub of creamy peppercorn sauce. I went for French fries as the side.
This burger was phenomenal. It almost knocked The Cuan’s burger from the top spot of best burgers we’ve ever eaten, but The Cuan still holds number one for the time being (check out that review here.)
The toppings it came with where mouth-wateringly tasty, in particular, the shoestring onions were a delight. We’ve never tasted any as delicious as Dakota Bobs’. They also served so much it was hard getting the bun to stay on top of the burger! So major props there.
Great French fries, too. They were a little heavily salted, but that could’ve been down to my being too liberal with the saltshaker. Other than that—delicious.
The fish and chips was another top dish. This Downpatrick diner knocks it out of the park with their chips. They were thickly cut and like little pillows of deliciousness. The peppered seasoning was another highlight.
The fish was pretty big (we didn’t finish it all, and we’re glad we only ordered one starter!) but it was cooked to perfection. The batter was lovely and crispy and all that good stuff. We were very impressed.
Dessert
Checking to make sure we actually had time to squeeze in dessert, we asked our waiter for a menu.
In the end, we ordered the banoffee pie and the white chocolate ice cream sundae. Dessert was the only part of our meal that we weren’t overly impressed with, but we still enjoyed, nonetheless.
The ice cream didn’t taste all that much like white chocolate, and the banoffee pie was just okay. But it was served with a lot of fresh cream, which always gets a plus in our book.
Drinks
The first time we visited here (this review is of our second time) Dakota Bob’s weren’t licensed to serve alcohol, but no such troubles this time around.
We went for the strawberry daiquiri and a couple bottles of Corona. The daiquiri was beautiful but absolutely freezing. It gave us the worst brain freeze we’ve had in a long time—drink it slowly and don’t make the same mistake.
The daiquiri comes in strawberry, mango, and pineapple—we were curious about the others. Still, we didn’t want to be half-bombed going to see 1917. (Great movie, by the way, and that’s not just the cocktails talking.)
They also serve a popcorn espresso martini, which we weren’t brave enough to try. If any of you have, we’d love to know what you thought.
Service
We can’t complain about their service at all. Our waitress was very efficient and helpful in pointing out where the toilets were located and recommended what she thought was good on the menu.
Price
Our bill for the evening came to a decent £55, which wasn’t bad considering we had three courses and a couple of cocktails. Still, it’s probably not somewhere we’d go every week.
Overall, it was a delicious meal, and this Downpatrick diner is one we’d be happy to return to. We hope you heed our Dakota Bob’s review and pay this restaurant a well-deserved visit.
Address: 5 Owenbeg Ave, Downpatrick BT30 6DN
