A special treat at Gillies Restaurant in the Galgorm Resort & Spa

Birthdays are for celebrating and I never need much of an excuse to enjoy myself!  Mr. Eating Ideas and I packed a bag and headed off to the Galgorm Resort and Spa.  We definitely had a spring in our steps as it’s a long time since we had been in the Galgorm and we were excited to experience the upgraded facilities.

On arrival we checked into our super cute Fishermans Cottage.  to be honest , this was as good as many places I have lived in with a spacious living area, functional kitchen, double bedroom and en-suite bathroom.  After a nice cup of tea  and a thorough explore of the cottage, we set off to the Spa area, the Thermal Village.  This is a unique experience and apparently is the first of its kind in Ireland.  It boasts indoor and outdoor pools, hot tubs, snail shower, water beds, sanarium, Celtic sauna and snow cabin.  It took us ages to work our way round and enjoy every section and I made sure to swim a few lengths of the pool in anticipation of our visit to Gillies!

After a freshen up and a surprise delivery from the hotel of a birthday card and chocolates (nice touch!), we headed into the hotel to enjoy a pre- dinner Shortcross Gin and Thomas Henry tonic water.  Perfectly refreshing after our time in the spa.  Ok I will be honest, I also had a Daffys gin, just to quench the thirst- I’m sure you understand.

When we were shown to our table, I was delighted by the range of choices on the menu.  Sometimes its hard to find something that really appeals but there was so much that was jumping of the page at me, screaming choose me, choose me!! I also loved the decor with a selection of Cow prints, gazing at the diners.

We decided on a sharing starter, the Gillies platter.  This was a selection of salt & chilli chicken, BBQ ribs, leek and mushroom gratin and a mini Caesar salad.  This is my perfect type of food- lots of little samples of different foods- yum!

For my main course, I chose the Indian Coconut Chicken Curry, marinated strips of chicken breast in an Indian style coconut curry sauce with wok fried vegetables, rice and mini poppodoms.  I love all sorts of curries and this didn’t disappoint with plenty of chicken and a delicious spicy sauce.  Mr. Eating Ideas opted for the Char-grilled 10 oz rump which came with onion rings, pepper sauce and garlic fries.  Quite a plateful but he coped manfully and cleared the plate.

By this stage we were full but managed to select a dessert each.  I chose the salted caramel and popcorn cheesecake and he went for the sticky toffee pudding.  There was a bit sharing going on so I can vouch that both were delicious but neither were needed after the generous portion sizes of the starters and mains.  We did manage a night cap before making the short walk back to our delightful little cottage for a great night’s sleep!

I can honestly say that at every stage of our visit, the staff were charming, attentive and happy to help in anyway.  The service in Gillies was fabulous and best of all the food tasted great.  Small wonder that the restaurant was packed full!  I would definitely recommend a visit.