Samphire - Donabate

I made a reservation through OpenTable, but I received a call informing me that the restaurant was fully booked. However, I was offered a spot at the bar. I had to order from the bar menu instead of the restaurant menu. The service was excellent, and the food was decent—some dishes were quite good.

The website photos of the food at Samphire restaurant are quite misleading. The menu is very simple and limited, and the descriptions of the dishes are not accurate.

The restaurant's decor was lacking as well, though the waitress was friendly. Unfortunately, the food was just average. Overall, I do not recommend this place and I definitely won’t be returning.

After excellent reviews of friends and in the times of the years we decided to stay in the waterside hotel and book a meal in the award winning samphire restaurant. on the way to the restaurant we read the excellent framed reviews that decorate the walls and we could not wait for our meal. we were welcomed by very friendly and helpful staff. it is after this point that our disappointment is really insulted. we were shown to a table in the middle of a cold room and not in the window table we had booked. I was very disappointed to hand over an early bird menu that resembled a bar food menu, so I asked to see the a la carte offer. this menu was not much better and had none of the fantastic local seafood we had expected, but we decided to make the best of it. then I asked the friendly waitress on the weeping menu, but they politely informed me that there was none. She asked if we wanted red or white and when I said red, she informed us about the two decisions that were only available. then we studied the menu more closely and soon we came to the realization that we did not want to experience the award winning meal that we had foreseen for many weeks. we have double checked the waiting staff when it was the same restaurant that was shown in the framed reviews on the walls and they said it was. at this point we have canceled our table and withdrawn into the bar that is a little crushed. I think they should remove the Samphire name from the restaurant, as the experience is not so advertised.

Great food great service and a special gift for all the Mam's on Mothers Day. Thank you Samphire!! We'll be back.