Four Season's, - Knock

I happened to visiting during the Birthday Celebration. They had a fabulous course dinner for only I enjoyed my meal there, even though I did not stay at the hotel.

I was joined by guests for dinner in the restaurant. They received a friendly welcome in the foyer while I looked after parking. The Manager was on hand to welcome me and we were shown to our table. The only part of the evening...that didn’t impress me was someone telling us the specials before we were settled in our seats. There was a good buzz in the place and a short time later a large group arrived. While that may be a problem in some places it is the norm here and had no effect on the service we got or the waiting time for our meal. The a la cartel menu had a good selection and all of us chose different starters, mains and desserts. We really enjoyed goats cheese Bon bins,seafood parcel and my own choice of mushroom toast. Our main courses were half duckling served with a delicious light red fruit sauce. My other guest ordered the roast of the evening which was beef and looked for it to be well done. Not a great choice I thought as beef is usually served rare in the centre when it’s roast. I was wrong and this person whom I know as a fussy eater polished the lot and was well impressed. I went for something different and enjoyed a very juicy piece of chicken served on a potato cake with a delicious sauce. Veg served was carrot, broccoli and cauliflower and all just right and hot. Several different people served us and they were all friendly and professional. For dessert we had a generous portion of pavlova and a chocolate brownie with raspberry and white chocolate, yum! We rounded off the meal with a nice hot cappuccino and tea. As it was a school night there was no alcohol to comment on But they did listen when I ordered a rock shandy no ice. I find it very hard to get that simple order right in lots of places. Its always the simple things that make a difference. Take a bow Knock House. This was one of the nicest meals that I have enjoyed in a long time. out of

All four of us enjoyed a good meal. Service was good. The atmosphere was that of a typical hotel restaurant. My meal was listed as being served on polenta, which turned out to be risotto, which was ok by me because I like risotto better...anyway. The deserts were very good also.

Service was excellent, food was exceptional. Highly recommended!!! Even though it’s the “off”season the four course meals were pleasantly surprising!

The dining options in Knock seem pretty limited (you don’t go to a shrine for the cuisine, after all). But this was supposed to be one of the best places in town. At any rate, it seems a throwback to an earlier form of insipid...Irish cooking, where everything is boiled and drowned in gravy or white sauce. They sat us in the lobby, because there was no space in the dining room and we had not made a reservation (our mistake). That actually served our purposes well, as we had our toddler grandson with us, and that have us some privacy. The service was friendly enough, though a bit scattered (maybe because we were out in the lobby). The food seemed to take a while to get to us, though not exceedingly so. The food was incredibly uninspired, verging on tasteless. One of us had the duck; the other the plaice. Neither seemed especially fresh. Both were accompanied by a huge mound of mashed potatoes and the same old well boiled vegetables that had followed us across Ireland: carrots, turnips, cauliflower, broccoli. Nothing wrong with them— but very boring. Dessert was a pedestrian chocolate brownie with pedestrian vanilla ice cream. The bill was no bargain, but not exorbitant either. The surroundings seem quite nice, if a bit dated, with wonderful views of the shrine and surrounding countryside. You’re better off eating earlier in the day, at the cafe in the Knock Museum.