The Plough Inn

Hillsborough was a nice little town with some pretty buildings, that seemed quite lively on a late Sunday afternoon.

Food

I was hankering for seafood, so chose the Dundrum Bay Mussels, served with a garlic and white wine cream (£6.25). I got quite a bit of mussel, and they taste very different to the New Zealand types you usually get in Oz, and also to the ones we got in France. The mussels were smaller, but had this very fresh taste, without that seafood smell. The sauce, suitably, was light, allowing the flavour of the mussel to shine through. The Deep-Fried Whitebait with Asian Salad and lemon and parsley mayo, which came as part of the 2 course menu (£16.95), were also nice and fresh, with a tangy and pleasant mayo. I kept with the seafood theme for my main of Grilled Langoustines, with avocado and rocket salad (£15.95), which was a bit ordinary really. The langoustines (2) were kinda small and kinda mushy. The salad was nice and fresh though. The Succulent Roast Sirloin of beef with creamy champ, chasseur sauce and Yorkshire Pudding, on the specials menu, didn’t really stand out, but wasn’t bad. The champ was pretty nice, as only bacon and potato can be. Vegetables of Roast potato, creamed cauliflower, carrot, squash, peppers, beans were really plain, I didn’t think they were even dressed, and seemed to be an afterthought and not on par with the meal itself.

I was very satisfied, but Slokky wanted dessert, so we ordered the Trio of Asian Brulee, passionfruit, pear and coconut (£4.95). I think the coconut flavour worked well, other than that, I prefer plain rather than the other flavours.

Rating - 6.5

Atmosphere

The place was huge, and really buzzing for like 5pm on a Sunday night. Does everyone dine early in Northern Ireland? There are a few long rooms linked together, with a central bar (this was still a pub, though a fancy one at that). The décor is Ikea funky.

Rating - 1.5

Service

Compared to the service we received from Deane’s, this was actually quite good. The waiters came several times to make sure we were ok – but the problem was that all the different waiters came to ask us the same thing, so we ended up having to repeat it to a few different people. They were all good and efficient individually, but they probably need to work out which sections they should serve to avoid repeating themselves.

Rating - 2.5

C-factor

I thought Northern Ireland was going to be cheaper than London, but from what I’ve seen, it seems to be actually more expensive.

Rating - 0

Brownie Points - 10.5

Info

3 The Square
Hillsborough
BT26 6AG
Phone +44 (0) 28 9268 2985
Website