Café On The Quay in Galway

12/07/2026: Very fresh fish and fair prices. Very friendly staff.

12/07/2026: Horrible Service experience ever! We came in with three kids 2-11 years old. She told us she's having one table left for 1,5 hours which we agreed on. I directly mentioned the wish to order already the kids dish with our soup as a starter and asked if the fish which is served is fresh wild caught quality? She didn't know? We asked if she can ask the kitchen team...while she was "trying" figuring out (which kinda ruined her mood!)...we ended up with the decision to have no starters instead getting all plates together just to speed things up, we repeated that wish and got it confirmed from her side. She couldn't figure out our question but told us they have only farmed fish, which was confusing because the online description says quite the opposite, so we told her we choosed the local because of the online description which tells people that they are offering fresh wild caught fish she was over acting (we have been very friendly and that was just a normal question not more or less...I don't expect that she or the team has the knowledge about everything because she could be new, the chef wasn't doing the fish order by himself or he was just not in the house whatever!) "she's only the waitress that's what's the kitchen told her" because of her "aggression sound" I apologized and tried to explain her "I was just wondering and that was just a question?!" Her sound switched calmer again and she started explaining that actually no one knows if the fish is wild or not! Again that was all fine with us...because with three kids seated and waiting for food you're fine with everything what comes...but sadly nothing came for the kids. We got our soup after 25 min waiting (and the soup was excellent best seafood chowder ever) but we have been still waiting for the kids dish after 10 min (we've been ignored) we decided to share it with the kids, which loved the soup and wanted to have their own on top. Finally she was showing up again we asked her: "the kids dishes are coming right?" Waitress:"Yes" We: "we would order another one of those soups" Waitress: "Fine" After 15min the soup showed (no spoon for the kids, not once a question if everything is alright...ignored again, gave already the kids a used spoon) up but still not the plate which we order to share for the youngest a two year old which was already starting to cry because she was so hungry and frustrated. Asking again the waitress where the food is? She explained that the dishes taking their time in the kitchen and we have to understand that! No apology/sorry...nothing...crazy!!!! So after a bit more than one whole hour our little one got something to eat with an apology from another waitress (and finally some cutlery as well!)...the waitress which served the rest of our food was super lovely...and the food was supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! I prefer to share the good also I was working as a waitress for 20 years by myself and had a team under my fingers with a lot of newbie's ect (first rule if something wents wrong "SORRY"!). So the second waitress and the kitchen deserves full points and I hope the other waitress learns something because our restaurant experience in total was still sadly terrible... to see and hear our little one starving and crying ect, everyone from us was really upset in this restaurant situation and that's not what you want. Mistakes happen to all of us and that's all fine...at least you can say sorry, or offer a lil treat for the kid (whatever!). One last point if you're coming with kids and maybe you have to wait a bit longer...I was so glad that we packed some pencils and coloring books by ourselves because that's something we've been missing here as well. Stars only because I know we had bad luck and the food was so good also the other waitress was friendly to us!