This Downpatrick gem knocks it out of the park with their delicious food, amazing beer, and mega atmosphere. Here is our review of Denvir’s Bar and Restaurant.
Downpatrick is a small town roughly 33km (20mi) south of Belfast steeped in fascinating history.
Its cathedral is said to be the burial site of St. Patrick, St. Brigit, and St. Columbia, and thousands of people flock to this place in pilgrimage on the 17 March (St. Paddy’s day) every year to pay their respects.
But we didn’t come here for a history lesson. Oh no. We came for something even more remarkable: some exceptionally damn good food found at the Downpatrick gem that is Denvir’s Bar and Restaurant.
This is the story of our pilgrimage.
Mains – some great food
We walked into Denvir’s somewhere around 7 pm on a Friday and we were greeted with the sound of, well, a busy bar on a Friday night. Music and people talking loudly. We looked at each other, thinking the same thing.
Oh no. We’ve come at the wrong time, and we’ll probably have to wait for ages before someone even comes to take our order.
We expected the place to be packed to bursting as we were led into the restaurant by our waiter. Amazingly, the place was almost empty save for two other couples. The noise was coming from the bar section, adjacent to the restaurant.
We ordered the pan-roasted chicken supreme and the chargrilled extra mature 10oz sirloin steak (ordered medium-well). Our fears about having to wait for ages to be served were unfounded as the food arrived in great time and was cooked to perfection.
The pan-roasted chicken supreme (aptly named) was, for lack of a better word, supreme. The succulent meat slid from the bone tenderly and paired exquisitely with Denvir’s leek and mushroom Bushmills whiskey cream.
We could’ve gone for another plate of it right after (though our full stomachs disagreed with us).
For the side, I ordered the baby boiled potatoes, and though most of them were deliciously soft and fluffy, there were a couple that felt a little hard on the outside. But we shouldn’t complain too much – we still ate them all!
We’ve ordered the chargrilled sirloin twice from Denvir’s, and the first time it wasn’t anything particularly great, but this time, oh boy.
We don’t know if Denvir’s have changed where they get their steaks from, but this time the sirloin was phenomenal and completely melt-in-your-mouth.
The pepper sauce gave it a fantastic kick, and the hand-cut chips were some of the best we had ever tried. We ordered a second portion to share.
Dessert – sweet delights
It took us about ten minutes to recover from our mains, but when we eventually did, we decided to ask for the dessert menu and order something to share.
We ended up ordering two different things because we couldn’t choose.
I got the house speciality warm double chocolate brownie, and my partner ordered the lemon posset.
We’ve always been wary of ordering anything chocolate for dessert as usually, it ends up being too chocolatey and becomes hard to eat after a few bites.
But this brownie was hands down the best we have ever tried from any restaurant in Ireland.
The extra little fudge pieces it comes with are sprinkled on top of the brownie, and even those by themselves were mouth-wateringly good.
We were less impressed with the lemon posset, but again, it wasn’t exactly bad either.
It was just okay; we probably would go for something different next time. It tasted a little dry to us.
Drinks – the perfect accompaniment
We had been drinking Guinness and Corona throughout our meal, but for dessert, we decided to order a couple of cocktails: both of us went for the strawberry daiquiris.
Again, they were pretty good, not exceptional, but still pretty good. Maybe a little on the small side.
Denvir’s bar and restaurant’s pour of Guinness was beautiful, though; you could taste the full creamy coffee goodness of the drink in their pints. It’s like a meal in a glass here.
Drinks (the sequel) – heading to the bar
The rowdy nature of the pub section of Denvir’s had grabbed our attention.
After we finished our meal, we moved in there to have a few more drinks and enjoy the music that was playing.
We can’t remember leaving.
Overall atmosphere – the perfect night
The atmosphere of both Devir’s bar and restaurant were exactly what we were looking for.
The restaurant was very chilled back and relaxed, and we were able to enjoy our food and hear each other talking.
The pub was brilliant in this Downpatrick gem. From what we remember…
Service – one of a kind service
The waiter who came to take our order and bring us our food was very stressed as he was working both in the restaurant and in the pub. However, he still managed to knock it out of the park with his service.
We wish we could remember his name to give him a shout out.
Price – a reasonable price
Not including the money spent in the bar (we don’t even want to think about that), our total cost for food, including cocktails, at Denvir’s bar and restaurant came to just over £62.
Reasonable enough, we felt, but not the cheapest either.
However, this Downpatrick gem is more than worth a visit for its incredible main courses and pub area.
Address: English St, Downpatrick BT30 6AB
