Monks Ballyvaughan

WOW! What an absolute TREAT this place was. We arrived on Valentines Day evening, to discover that i had made a mistake and booked the wrong day. Brian went above and beyond to secure us a room for the evening - the last remaining one. We finalized everything with Grace this morning who was an angel as well. It was STUNNING. Well decorated, roomy, or as the wife says "country cottage chic" We then ventured down to the bar/restaurant for dinner with no reservation and once again the staff went above and beyond to squeeze us in on clearly a super busy evening. The food was delicious (i had prawn curry it was 11/10 good) followed by the apple crumble and ice cream for dessert. I read one review claiming the food and staff wasn't great.... they clearly shouldn't leave their house as all their reviews are the same!! We were treated to a pint of Guinness and a few hours of an Irish folk band playing music as we sat through dinner. I would absolutely recommend this place to anyone and everyone that is travelling anywhere in this region. The only disappointment for me was the place was booked out the next few nights and we couldn't stay longer. Few side notes: Free street parking right out the front for people who drive, and the bigger rooms have washer/dryer to catch on on laundry if you are travelling.

I only stopped here for dinner on my way back from The Cliffs of Moher but let me tell you, there wasn't a THING they brought out that wasn't absolutely FANTASTIC. I'm generally not a fish person but this fish pie could raise the dead to slap your mama it was SO GOOD. It's classy, quiet, affordable with great service! What a find!

This is a great place for seafood with friendly and very accommodating staff. The seafood is fantastic. The desserts are scrumptious. The view across Galway Bay is marvelous. And it's right there between the Burren and the sea.

What a place! We stayed in December for 3 nights as part of a few weeks travelling around Ireland. This was by far our favourite stay of the trip, and one of best places we've been in many years of recent travel. Wonderfully warm hospitality, Susan was fantastic, she made us and our little dog Geoffrey feel very welcome & we loved meeting Alfie. Spotlessly clean throughout and a real high end feel. We stayed as part of a package with dinner, bed & breakfast included. Every meal we had was incredible, we still talk about the bread! We're already looking forward to returning next year.

Our second visit....just gets better. Superb food. Excellent welcoming service. Strong gly recommended.. ended.

Disappointed. Service very good but seafood chowder gloopy and lacked any fish or shellfish. Main course seafood pie. More of the same. Texture and crust on top excellent however two small pieces of pollock constituted the entirety of the seafood contribution. Disappointing to say the least.

For any occasion this Hotel is perfect. We received a lovely warm welcome. The staff are excellent, so friendly. The rooms are fabulous, beautiful sea view. There was a party of 8 people and everybody loved there food. Seafood was so fresh and a great selection with daily specials. They also have steak and a beautiful beef and Guinness stew. |Can't rate this hotel highly enough . Thanks to all the staff for a fantastic stay.

Monks restaurant is incredible! We were recommended it by our airbnb host and it was possibly the best restaurant we visited on the entire trip. Authentic, great prices, and amazing food. Absolutely worth the visit.

Went to Monks with a tour group. I'm allergic to seafood, so can't comment on the main food except to say the folks on the trip loved what they got! I uploaded photos of some of their dishes. For my part, I had a steak, which was delicious -- with a side of potatoes that were cooked perfectly. So even if you're not a seafood person, you'll be able to find something at Monks.

Well located restaurant with. I e views depending on your seating. Casual vibe with very amicable service. Food- EXCELLENT. Order the mussels and clams! We had to order the mussels a second time...they were THAT good. The brown bread for dipping in the delicious broths of the clams and the mussels was phenomenal. The most moist brown bread of our trip! The fish and chips was made with Hake and was PHENOMENAL! So moist and flaky!!! The grilled oysters....were good but I would not order again...order more mussels!!!

Stopped in to Monks as we wound our way through the Burren.Friendly staff great location.These folks have been doing this a long time and it shows! Food was excellent and fairly priced. Seafood plate was fantastic. Lovely location also ticks all the boxes!

My wife and I had a great lunch here. She had the fish pie and I had the mussels and prawn linguine, with the seafood chowder to start. All were delicious and seemed to have fresh ingredients. The brown bread was good, not great. Service from Angela was excellent, and the hostess friendly and welcoming. Definitely worth the drive.

Food is outstanding.make sure you make a reservation as this is a very busy restaurant.Service was attentive and very welcoming..We love the decor.A must if you are in this area.

Contemporary relaxing ambience. Loved the music they played. Our waiter was charming He helped me choose a gluten-free meal of sea bass fillets over risotto, which was fabulous. He also helped my husband choose just the right fish and chips, another great dish.

We ate dinner at this modern Irish gastropub. My wife had the shrimp curry with turmeric rice. I had the fish pie with mashed potatoes. We shared a bottle of Australian chablis. We thought the wine was very mediocre. However, the food was excellent. Even though the wine was not good, we thought the quality of the food deserves a five-star rating. Service was excellent. At the end of the meal, you pay at the till.

Definitely a great stop for food. They specialize in seafood and boy do they do it well. The chowder was described as phenomenal. I personally had the fish burger which was delicious! Others had the salmon/hake and everything received compliments and there were clean plates all around. The view out the window was gorgeous and so peaceful looking out the oceanside. The staff were very friendly and made a great effort to seat our party of 13! I highly recommend this place to anyone

We found this restaurant as we were driving from Galway to cliff Moher. The food were delicious and the view was spectacular! We definitely return in the future.

Excellent pasta and prawn dish. The prawns were very fresh and tasty. One of the best seafood dishes I have had!

We arrived at this restaurant on a busy Sunday afternoon. Despite this, the staff were friendly and very attentive. Like almost everyone else in the place, we ate fish and chips. The fish was very well fried and not greasy.The chips were also extremely well cooked. A great place.

One of the best meals I've had in Ireland in a long time. As of August 2021 seating is only outside under a large tent, but there's plenty of room. We waited 25-30 minutes to be seated at 3:30 on a Friday afternoon. This place knows what it's doing. Service is professional and efficient, food is served quickly, everything is delicious. We had the mussel, clam, and prawn linguine, prawn open-faced sandwich, fish and chips, and seafood chowder. Everything was excellent, portions were huge, we left full and happy.

Delicious fish and chips, polite staff, great location. If this place disappoints you, your standards are unattainable so stay home and cook your own dinner

Best chowder soup I have had, rich taste, lots of seafood, great salads too. Others had other dishes that all tasted great. Kids soup was delicious. The place gets very crowded during the peak season.

Loved our off season visit! The staff were so lovely and the food was delish. Best fish n chips in all of Ireland. Such a great spot.

Oops, I have forgotten what we had here and the bill has disappeared from my files. So, I can't tell you what we had and need to rely on my scant notes to tell of our experience. I wrote: "Nice place, cosy, noisy, old but wonderful. Service fair, seating good, food remarkably good". We spent $65 here, so we had a decent feed, and I don't know what it was. We were overseas for 5 weeks and ate out for every meal, so I can be forgiven for my lack of memory on this one. However, I awarded it 4 stars in my notebook for the reasons above and with that I offer my complete recommendation. So there!

Yelp keeps reminding me "My Next Review Awaits" with constant reference to this little roadside pub by Galway Bay, even though I visited way back in October. I was one of those tourists on a mid-morning bus tour of the Burren and the Cliffs of Moher, and this was the first extended pit stop. I am speculating Monks has cut a deal with the tour companies because another tour company followed right behind us thus assuring the establishment a constant flow of indiscriminate Americans, Chinese and Germans looking to snack and tinkle during our half-hour break. It's a cozy cottage in a village with the coy name of Ballyvaughan in lovely County Clare. I helped myself to a pint of Guinness and then strolled on the old pier that extends out to the bay. Lovely, mist-shrouded views await with swans swimming nearby (see photos). I didn't have the time or motivation to order their house special, the Seafood Chowder, since we were having lunch an hour later in Doolin near the cliffs. However, the bracing sea air certainly convinced me that it would be worthwhile to try if I were ever to return. Hopefully I will be in a rented car in the early evening when the tour buses are all on their way back to Dublin.

Our group of 15 or so was staying in Ballyvaughan for about a week, exploring the west coast. We made a reservation via email for one of our party's birthday, and it ended up being the best meal we had on our trip. My wife and I split the massive seafood platter, which acts as a sort of sampler for all that the west coast has to offer: crab; salmon; oysters, etc. Our group couldn't help ourselves from ordering a few rounds of oysters, and a few from our party came back multiple times later in the week for lunch. If you're looking for the freshest seafood and top class service in a cozy setting, this is the place.

The salmon was some of the best I've ever had. All in all the BnB and Ballyvaughan was mine and my boyfriend's favorite stop during our trip. This restaurant is not to be missed!

Great spot for Guinness and Oysters in a charming little town in the Burren. Get the native oysters! They cost a little more, but you can't get them everywhere and they are great!

Monk's was recommended to us earlier in the day and we were so happy we made the stop! We sampled the oysters and shared the fish and chips. All were delicious! The restaurant is clean and bright with beautiful views of the water. Great service! Would definitely recommend if you're in the area

I will say, this restaurant was quite a pleasant surprise! We had planned a long day of sightseeing and driving. We originally went over to the Cliffs of Moher and had plans to drive over to Galway. There is a lot of country and quiet towns to drive through in between these two locations with very small towns and very few restaurants. We did, however, get lucky enough to find Monks Seafood Restaurant & Pub on the way. Personally we were all starving so we were going to go into and eat regardless of ratings and reviews. Thankfully, that wasn't a concern at all. We traveled through the southern half of Ireland, over 10 days and I can honestly say it was one of the best meals we had. We ordered various things, including the seafood pasta (tons of clams and mussels included), in a cream sauce. Seafood chowder and I have a friend that is a big fan of fish and chips. He said it was the best fish and chips he had in his life. Service was great as well! Overall, go here if in the area!

We stopped here for a quick snack. We had 1/2 dozen natural oysters & 1/2 dozen grilled oysters. Both were incredible. The natural were raw, tasty! They don't serve cocktail sauce, but it wasn't needed. The grilled oysters had light breadcrumbs & were seasoned with garlic & herbs. Delicious!! We eat a lot of oysters, many places, & these were some of the best. Tired from our day we enjoyed a cup of coffee, which was very tasty . Excellent, friendly service. We finished with a warm apple crumble with vanilla ice cream. The apple crumble was tart & very tasty. Ice cream was creamy & delicious. A nice combo.

Went here after our hotel concierge at the G Hotel in Galway recommended we give it a try on our way home from the Cliffs of Moher. About an hour before we arrived, my (now) fiance had proposed to me, so we were on cloud 9 the entire time..but unfortunately our server/host didn't really speak to us at ALL so we couldn't share our excitement with anyone. We walked in around 6pm, and the two of us were seated at a large table set for 6. Odd, but fine. Our waiter came to us and didn't introduce himself, just briskly asked if he could get us a drink. We both ordered Guinness. After waiting some time, eventually we got our Guinness, but the glasses were sticky. We ordered the Goat Cheese Bruschetta and two orders of the Fish n Chips. The Goat cheese bruschetta is the only reason why I'm giving this place 3 stars rather than 1 star. This bruschetta is AMAZING. My mouth is watering just typing about it! The fish n chips were extremely undesirable. The fish was MASSIVE, pretty soggy, and mine had a few stray bones in it, so that wasn't pleasant. After a while of sitting with our plates in front of us, we had also noticed a couple across from us who had been waiting for a LONG time to get some attention too..They didn't speak English, but we sort of bonded because we were all searching for our waiter to come to us. I really didn't think it was busy, as there were maybe two other tables on the other side of the restaurant that were there. So I'm not sure why our waiter was being so incredibly inattentive. Finally, we were able to see him in passing and asked for our check. Without even looking at the bill we immediately gave our cash so we could just leave. Kind of unfortunate that our first place as an engaged couple was rather disappointing. Either way, the drive there was quaint and the pier was beautiful.

We had a wonderful experience at Monks while visiting Ballyvaughn. They accommodated our group of 11 after we called earlier in the day for a reservation. The table was ready when we arrived and the service was good. The food was delicious, especially the crab/avocado starter. Can't go wrong with anything on Monk's menu. Outside patio has a great view of the water, good drink selection, and atmosphere is good. Would definitely go back if in the area.

I hesitate to use the word "tourist trap" because the food's actually pretty good, but when not one, but TWO coaches in a span of 15 minutes pull up and unload a gaggle of geriatric Americans, that label is pretty much laser-etched into the facade. Reviews on TripAdvisor rave about the seafood chowder, so I got it. And you know what? It's not bad. But it's not great. And it's not worth the 7.50 euros it costs. I'd skip Monks and drive an extra 30 minutes to Doolin, where you can experience the magic that is McGann's - a proper Irish pub!

Came her for dinner. Service was cranky and then inattentive. The mussels were splendid. The chowder was a nondescript mess that was neither liquid nor solid nor chowder. We then tried the cold seafood platter which was a disaster. My wife seemed to think that the shrimp were canned and I spat out a very smelly piece of crab claw. The whole plate was smothered in a thousand-island-esque sauce...this sauce dominated the plate and effectively drowned the seafood (no pun intended). We will not be back.

Seafood chowder to end the debate about seafood chowder. Great people, great atmosphere, great outdoor views on the porch in front. Really solid dinner as well. Sad that I live in the United States and can't go back weekly. Enjoy every minute.

This place was PERFECT! People were wonderful, food was outstanding, location excellent. GO HERE!

GOOD NEWS!!! New management have just taken over Monks and it's reclaiming its former glory as a North Clare culinary institution No more dirty turf fires and thrice-fried onion rings Back are the days of fresh steaming bowls of seafood chowder and rare cuts of seasonal fish The staff are great, the menu is select, the paintings are suitably postmodern, the view is superb Long live the Monks!

Wonderful stop along the way back to Dublin from visiting the Cliffs of Moher. The staff was friendly and food was great our waitress took our group picture in front of their warm fireplace. It was was raining hard so can't comment on the the pier view.

Such a pleasant surprise! We were driving from Galway to the Cliffs of Moher and it started POURING as we drove into Ballyvaughan. We were about to make a left turn toward the cliffs, but saw a sign for Monks requiring a turn to the right. We thought it would be a good time to stop for lunch and let the rain pass. We had crab cakes, fish and chips, clams and seafood chowder. Everything was amazing and the waitress was simply wonderful. She gave us directions for a more scenic drive to the cliffs than the one we were planning to take, and it was breathtaking.

We made it a point to stop here for food during our road trip through the countryside. As a seafood junky from Maryland, I was surprised that this place steamed up some of the best mussels I've ever had! They delivered them to the table in the steamer pot with the lid on! Of course, they had warm bread to dip into the broth. Perfection! Our server, Shauna, was so pleasant, very attentive, and entertaining with her witty sarcasm/sense of humor. I wish this place were closer to my house!

This restaurant is so charming and delightful. The food is top notch. We had the fish and chips, seafood chowder and Cesar salad. So wonderful. Great service. Very fresh seafood and an amazing view of the Bay!!

Recommended by our tour driver... the salmon both baked and smoked were terrific as were the crab claws... my bother in law raved about the fish and chips... my other brother in law had the seafood sampler but I don't remember the name of the dish. ... very glad we stopped here and ate on the patio..

Monks was wonderful! The absolute best fish and chips and Beef and Guinness stew we had our entire trip to Ireland, we even came back for more. I would highly recommend. Huge meals and very filling, the staff did a good job - not overall friendly like a lot of places we've been but definitely no issues with them.

Fresh, delicious food, family friendly, bright and cheery decor and very good service. All local seafood, with a kids' menu featuring a couple good non-seafood options. Particularly happy with the freshness of the fish and greens. A nice little find!

Stopped on for a quick bite early afternoon. Had some of the best seafood chowder I've ever had!!! Chucks of fish and veggies, but not over powering. We got a side of chips too that perfectly cold, crispy outside and moist inside. Couple of cold pints to wash it down.

I had high expectations for a great meal and experience but the service was amazingly slow and poor. We waited just shy of an hour between our starters and main meal. Had to ask waiter if we had been forgotten. No explanation or apology offered. People who came in after us were served and left before we got our meals. I asked the waiter for a. Explanations d he just laughed. Go elsewhere.

The BEST seafood chowder ever! 4 in Our party and we all felt the same! Awesome food, service, and atmosphere! If you're out this way - stop here!

Went to see the cliffs of moher in the rain. Stopped in here in the way back to Galway to warm up and it did not disappoint. Chowder was delicious, we ate clam and muscle linguine, fish and chips (was not over breaded) and an open faced crab sandwich on brown bread. Everything was mouth watering! Beautiful inside! The waitstaff was wonderful!

Just had an amazing lunch at Monks! Would highly recommend it! Fish and chips were the best we've ever had...and the seafood pasta was amazing!!!

Excellent food and great service, in a lovely location right on the water. The mussels and clam linguini was so so good. The staff were also incredibly kind and generous to us - we left something behind at the restaurant after we left, and they found it, packaged it up very carefully, and posted it all the way to Dublin for us. They couldn't have been more helpful, will definitely visit this place again next time I'm out West!

Monks Bar was recommended to me by a family member so I decided to give it a shot. The bar is really nice and clean, the staff were very courteous and friendly. However as it was a beautiful sunny day I wanted to have my food outside so I could enjoy the scenery etc.. Not being a very big fish eater I decided to take the safe bet and ordered chicken goujons and chips, followed by a coffee. While I waited I had a glass of coke. I received a VERY SMALL handful of chips and 3 SMALL GOUJONS! (Which were very dry ) There was nothing provided whatsoever apart from salt not even a simple sachet of ketchup. Also no sugar provided for the coffee Considering the price of such a small meal was just under €10 I was not very happy at all! Now maybe the chef was having a bad day but with this kind of service I would not be recommending Monks Bar anytime soon! In saying all that, I believe in 2nd chances and I would try 1 more dining experience in Monks Bar if I was passing through. But my 1st experience was not good! 3 stars only at a push . and that's for cleanliness and friendly staff and the scenery (provided by mother nature )

Monks Restaurant is a place I've known for a long time before actually dining there for its reputation of fresh, tasty seafood at a great location overlooking Galway Bay. The good news is the view hasn't changed. Deciding to treat my family to dinner there, we went in for a pint of Guiness and a chowder. The standard of service was well below par, with staff ignoring our table (situated right in front of the bar!). When we were eventually served, the chowder didn't live up to my expectations, nor did the open crab sandwich with a limp salad on the side. Having said that, the pub does offer some great ocean views, and is a great place to stop and appreciate your surroundings. The service and food could be so much better though.

One of the best meals we had in Ireland. Attentive service, and quality, fresh food. Highly recommend it!

I visited here with family and thought the food was great. The pub is quaint and the view is nice; my only complaint is the location is a little far if you live in Galway. It's a popular place for tourists and I enjoyed it. I would definitely recommend Monks to others but I'm not sure it's a must do if you're in the area.

Best clam chowder I had the whole trip... We stopped here in passing but were very lucky to have!