The Earl of Thomond in

Our family of three spent our last Ireland vacation day at Dromoland Castle and had dinner in the Earl Of Thomond restaurant. What a fantastic dining experience; we were treated like royalty. The food and service were impeccable. The harp music was a lovely accompaniment to dinner. Shout out to Eric whose drink recommendations complemented our meal choices perfectly.

Spent the weekend at Dromoland Castle and enjoyed most of our meals here. Amazing food with top notch staff and extensive wine list. “Best of Ireland” without a doubt! We will be back.

Very nice dinner in a well appointed castle. The harp player was a nice touch.

To start, I must say that Ricardo the Sommelier was the savior of the evening. I appreciate how much he ran around trying to cover for many inadequacies of the evening. On entry, the hostess was lovely but also thought we were other people entirely (which was honestly more amusing than anything else). For the meal we were quickly greeted by Ricardo for drink discussion and he was extremely knowledgeable and thorough and our order was taken by what appeared to be the manager of the restaurant. We ordered the tasting menu with sommelier accompaniment. Our first and second course were quickly brought to us and often the staff were trying to take plates away quickly and presenting them without a break. On the second course we delayed starting to eat it by at least 5-10 minutes wondering where the paired wine was, and eventually continued on as multiple staff looked at our table and no one came out to bring anything. Shortly after we noticed another table getting the same course and quickly receiving the appropriate pairing. At that time, there was still no one acknowledging our table and the second sommelier brought out an entirely unrelated wine (which was not served at any point during the pairing) and quickly left again bringing us nothing. We did note that Ricardo had a side discussion with our servers and took over bringing us appropriate wines and apologizing for the mishap. Our servers continued to bring things too quickly and one kept attempting to take away our plates before we were close to finished with the drink or the course. At the end, our server didn't know to ask us for our tea or coffee preference and tried to leave us without explaining the course or giving any information. Thankfully we had noted the drink pairing on review of the menu initially and called her back to request the appropriate items. In general, it appeared that we were present for the large group of new summer hires. Most of our servers did not appear to understand appropriate serving etiquette. While we initially were trying to be understanding and patient (having noted at prior establishments that summer hiring was in full swing) it did become increasingly frustrating. Had the meal not cost what it did, our expectation standard would not have been remotely the same. As the evening progressed the hostess and manager stepped in to take over helping tables requiring them to sacrifice their own post. Overall, I have never felt quite so rushed and ignored at the same time while eating a meal. Especially when paying more than $250 a person. While the experience was pleasant, I would recommend another location if your desire is for an optimal fine dining experience. If your desire is to eat at the Dromoland castle specifically, I would recommend ordering something other than the tasting menu so the cost to service ratio is more appropriate.

A bit formal but otherwise very nice