Cove Bistro in Coleraine

Very suitable menu for a seaside restaurant which is well frequented throughout the year, and especially at busy holiday periods. Good selection of wines, beers and cocktails. Friendly staff who are eager to please. Relaxed atmosphere. What's not to like...

Delicious food. Every course was good. Service was attentive despite the restaurant being very busy (Good Friday). Atmosphere warm and welcoming. Pricing very reasonable. This was one of the best meals we have had on the north coast in recent years. The location is stunning too.

We were diners on Mother’s Day. Great choices from a set menu. £18.50 for 3 courses which we thought was very reasonable. We were a party of 3 who chose 3 separate starters, mains and desserts - with no complaints, all dishes were good sized portions, piping hot and tasted great! The conservatory, where we were seated, was lovely and warm too. Look forward to returning and have already recommended to others.

Food was absolutely dreadful- inedible! Poor quality, poorly cooked with very poor service. Such a pity as the location is amazing and the venue itself is very pleasant. Far too long to wait for our food, when it arrived it was unrecognisable as what was described on menu. Avoid at all costs!

Nice cozy , decent food , bar with great location , view and parking. Menu is broad with a pub style and taste. Worth a try if you’re looking for a nice stop to dine .

Had a lovely date night out with my husband last Saturday night. We arrived earlier than we'd booked and our table's previous occupants were still in situ. We were offered another lovely table for 2 upstairs, next to the window to enjoy our drinks served by Adrian, the bar manager. He along with all the waiting staff provided superb service. Very friendly and checked in with us regularly throughout the night. I had the fish cobbler main. This was absolutely delicious- compliments to the chef- Bud, this dish alone is enough to have me returning time and time again. I nearly licked the plate. My husband enjoyed the steak meal and had nothing but good to say about this too. He always asks for med/rare and few places get it spot on but, Bud succeeded with bells on. Desserts were to die for as well, we enjoyed the vegan chocolate orange pudding and sorbet. Just the right size and flavour combination- unreal! There was a lovely, cosy and relaxed atmosphere. The decor is gorgeous, completely my vibe and if I could copy and paste it to our home, I would. Following our meal we resided by the open fire and enjoyed a few more drinks to pass the evening. It was great to see and hear the karaoke entertainment. Well done to the member of staff who serenaded us all throughout the night. Had a cracking voice and light hearted personality. Looking forward to booking in again and enjoying more visits to this wonderful spot on the North Coast. Thanks from 2x very happy customers 😀

Fantastic food selection! great ambiance and delicious cocktails. Friendly and helpful staff. Good gluten free options

This was our first time in this restaurant during the summer. I really enjoyed the meal , as the food was very good and the service was excellent. Lovely interior and exterior. Will definitely be back.

We had an afternoon drink most days for our holiday week in the lovely weather in the beer garden, the views of the bay are fantastic. The Cove inside especially the bar at the front is very ornate, the staff are extremely friendly. Don't be put off by tables set for dinner you can just come inside for a drink, we stayed for food one night and the burger was fantastic. It's lovely that Portballintrae now has informal friendly dining in a venue with views as an option rather than the other rather formal unfriendly venues. Extremely surprised by the reviews we read before we were there, good luck in your new business and thanks for week we enjoyed with you the negative comments we read prior to our visit Thanks

Nous avons "atterri" dans ce pub sans l'avoir planifié et ce fût une excellente surprise. L'intérieur est très joli et la nourriture délicieuse. Du bar, des lasagnes et une délicieuse soupe de carottes avec une salade Vegan! Avec un sourire du patron ce serait parfait. A recommander

Called in Saturday afternoon. I ordered chicken caesar salad. Good size portion and very tasty. Husband ordered salt n chilli goujons with chunky chips[the goujons he got were the plain breadcrumb], but he enjoyed them anyway. 2 nice chilled glasses of wine. We both enjoyed our food. Nice relaxed atmosphere. Good value for money. Very friendly staff. Special mention to Sherry who was brilliant. Great wee waitress. We will definitely call agsin

We had a meal here, both choosing the chicken goujons main course. We thought it was underwhelming. We had expected chunky goujons but got long thin overcooked chewy chicken strips thinly coated in breadcrumbs. This was served with small dressed side salad on plate and bowl of chips located on plate. Chips were ok but nothing special. They need to visit the competition to see what good chicken goujons actually are. Would not return.

So we visited the Cove tonight and off to a good start. I had requested a table away from the toilets and at a window if possible and they obliged. My daughter ordered a starter of garlic ciabatta which was ok and then it all went seriously downhill. I ordered flat iron chicken and baby roasted potatoes. The chicken was tasteless and along came baby boiled potatoes. They then roasted the same potatoes I sent back so by then they were overcooked and mushy. My husband ordered pork schnitzel ant the bacon and cabbage were completely burnt and the mustard mash appeared to be mash with mustard stirred into it. The worst meal of all was my daughters linguini described on the menu with foraged mushrooms and peas and spring onions. What actually arrived was a greasy plate of linguini with a run of the mill mushroom cut through it. No peas or spring onions to be seen and the sauce was so greasy it had separated. Decided not even to chance a dessert. Not once were we asked if our meal was ok. I would class the meal as a disgrace and avoid at all costs if you want edible, enjoyable food. So many other places serving nice food for less money. Definitely will not be back

The 3 reviews on here made the venue look good so we visited it for the first time and was looking forward to a good meal, this unfortunately was not the case. I always like to be be very fair when writing a review whether good or bad. Let's start with a positive, the venue is attractive, sorry can not think of another positive. Service, fairly slow even though it was not very busy. Staff fairly pleasant but really need proper training in customer services. Felt like they were casual staff, at the prices charged would expect service from more experiened staff. There were 3 in our party and we all chose a Sunday Roast Beef Dinner at a cost of £17 per head. What a disappointment this was. Meal consisted of 2 fairly thin pieces of beef which did not look very apertising and certainly was not very tasty, 2 small roast potatoes, a scoop of mashed potatoes, a couple of small roast carrots and parsnips and a strange looking small hard tasteless yorkshire pudding. Yes we did eat it as although very bland we were very hungry plus the fact there was no call back during the meal to ask if everything was ok. When asked at the end of our meal they seemed surprised when I replied that I would not recommend them due to the poor quality of their food. I suggest the owners make a visit to somewhere like the Royal Court Hotel to sample the quality of their meat compared to theirs and see how well trained their staff are. Needless to say we will not be returning to THE COVE.

Super value and service. Visited with friends during a short break in July. This is a hidden gem, and we enjoyed our visit so much that we returned for more the very next evening! Lovely food (particularly recommend the whitebait starters and seafood mains). The venue is full of character and the views are stunning. Couldn't fault it and will return for sure should I be back in that part of the world again.

We ate here on a busy Friday evening with staff catering for a large party in another room however they still managed to be attentive and efficient in serving us throughout the evening. We had pre booked and they negotiated the best seats given the...

Food and staff were outstanding! Particularly recommend the fish and chips, honestly best ever and even more impressive it’s available as a gluten free option! Reasonably priced, brilliant service, and a beautiful venue to enjoy a delicious meal. Special thanks to Aaron who even managed to get us a seat with a view! Will definitely be back, 10/10

Our visit to the cove was not the best! We were brought to our table and given no menus which we had to ask for ourselves. Then when we ordered drinks and food, as wasn’t asked if we wanted drinks when arrived, this is when...

Great to see this venue open again and visited a few weeks ago. We had a very enjoyable main course and service was good though it did look like more people were being booked in than they could cope with as the staff seemed very...

We sat outside, using a picnic bench ( stunning day) When my husband joined me with our drinks, he sat down beside me, the picnic table was not secured to the ground, it leaned forward and our drinks drenched us. This resulted in my husband...

Wine ordered not delivered - asked waitress but it didn’t come - had to ask at bar. No cutlery when food delivered for 5 mins - had to ask at bar. Food below average - chicken overdone, scampi batter fatty. Underwhelming menu.

Had a table booked at 5pm, waitress was friendly and set us up at table and given menus. Then unfortunately we were forgot about! No offer of drinks etc. Another table of 2 arrived, and were asked for their drinks order, and we were still...

It's nice to see this establishment open again having had several transformations through the years. It is now the Cove Bistro and is a great addition to the availability of eating places in Portballintrae. We visited early on a Friday evening and watched the restaurant...