If you are visiting the Mourne Mountains and looking for somewhere good to eat, Newcastle punches well above its weight. Here are the places we send guests to.
Brunel's is comfortable and unfussy, with a touch of vintage charm and some of the best cocktails in town. The kitchen does clever things with local fish — pan-roasted hake with asparagus and cured salmon has been a fixture.
Quinns has the nineteenth-century interior to match its pub-classics menu. A pint of Guinness, decent bar food, and live music most weekends.
For fresh seafood, The Mourne Seafood Bar is the obvious choice. Family-run for over thirty years, serving locally landed fish, steamed mussels and very good fish and chips, with a wine list to match.
Two hundred years old and the sort of pub you wish was your local. The Maghera Inn does warm service, steaks worth ordering and a properly poured pint.
Great Jones sits in the centre of Newcastle with a mix of local and international dishes, craft beer and a good wine list. The seafood chowder with homemade wheaten bread is the order.
Villa Vinci is a relaxed Italian in the middle of town. Straightforward, generous and reliable.
Closer to us, Annalong has a handful of good local options and the harbour is worth the walk regardless. Ask us when you arrive — we keep an eye on what is open and what is worth booking.
Plenty of our groups skip restaurants entirely. The kitchen at The Brambles Retreat is fully equipped, the dining room seats sixteen at one table, and there is a private bar you stock yourselves at supermarket prices rather than bar prices. For a group of sixteen that is a substantial saving across a weekend.
If you would rather not cook, we work with a local catering partner who can do anything from a grazing table to a full sit-down meal in the dining room.
The Brambles Retreat is fifteen minutes from Newcastle, near Annalong. Eight en suite bedrooms sleeping sixteen, hired as a whole property from £700 per night midweek, or £900 at weekends. That works out at £44 or £56 per person with sixteen sharing.
Booking a table for sixteen in Newcastle is worth doing well ahead, particularly at weekends and in summer.
