Frae in North Down

First time visit for us but daughter and husband had been here before and thought we would like it, and we did. It’s a small venue so would assume that booking a table would be essential. The restaurant does small plates of food as well as a few larger choices. We went for the small plates and had about 5/6 between the four of us. Great variety of tastes amongst the dishes which included a whole plaice, chicken skewers, green beans (so good we had an extra portion) smashed and fried new potatoes. It’s a little noisy but a good atmosphere, our waitress was friendly and chatty and knowledgeable. They apparently have a steak night once a week which we might do on the next visit to NI.

Excellent food and service from the team. One small criticism would be that the food all seemed a little over citrus, so after a while it all felt a little similar in taste. It was still excellent food, but I think the chef should be careful on what he uses to flavour each dish to ensure each plate has a clearly distinctive flavour.

Super interesting sharing dishes, great service and a reasonable wine list. Love the food and the informality. The oysters are wonderful.

We were here three months ago and had a great meal. This time very average to poor. The same waitress as before was once again excellent. We started with sourdough from Comber followed by Oysters both very good. After that everything went down hill. Last time we had their almost famous and always on the menu Chicken Marbella which consisted of a chopped half a roast chicken in a sauce of prunes and olives. This time the Chicken Marbella was unrecognisable from before arriving as four deeply fried chicken goujons with a token sliced cheap pitted olive on top. Unbelievable. The whole plaice on the bone tasted fresh but was smothered in a brown sauce. A delicate fish needs nothing more than a light butter or olive oil dressing. The roasted potatoes in their skins could have been nice with the fish but they were drenched in a chilli jam. How you can recommend this side with a whole plaice is incredible The leeks tasted like a side dish from a supermarket but the only alternative was market vegetables in a soupy liquid which the waitress was not keen on. I did see a portion arrive at another table and was very glad we give them a miss. Such a disappointment compared to our previous visit I can only assume the Chef has left If you are planning an evening meal in Holywood I would stick to the faultless Indian Ocean, the almost always great Noble or the ultra reliable slightly old school yummy Fontana

Lovely little gem in Holywood. Cosy, delicious, friendly staff and a relaxed atmosphere. We went at about 6pm and left around 8pm for a walk along the seafront, and to watch the sunset - what more could you want!

I've been dying to try Frae, since it had opened! Living in London has halted the experience! I'm quite glad I waited! The food was excellent! Our male server Paddy, was excellent and knew the menu well! Having worked in semi fine dining, the cute intimate experience was reminiscent of old Belfast dinining culture! Something we greatly miss living in London! The only issues we had is the chairs are not fully able accessible, but I seen there is full body chairs upstairs. The perfection in subtle cooking is where Frae complimented the experience, the walnut pickle, the cured trout, pancetta reduced jus (drinkable) with the scallops! Finishing with the beer Carmel sauce on a very classic Irish grandma date cake! This was a touch of pure Irish cuisine! Cultivated with classic French and Italian cooking methods! The Maccabo orange wine, was also very complimentary to the choice of food we decided to share. Thank you to the team, looking forward to experiencing the other menus in the future!

We stumbled across this place my accident and were blown away by it, their knowledge of wines was incredible and the menu items were interesting and delicious!

Such a hidden treasure in Holywood. Brilliance in a quirky menu - both a la carte and set menus. Interesting wine list which goes a little bit more off piste than the usual suspects. All served by friendly motivated staff. The lobster was delightful!

Located on the main street of Holywood, Frae is both easy to find and easy to access by all types of transport. The venue itself is compact seating only about 40 people but is bright, light and very modern. It's a fixed menu tasting style experience in which one of everything is brought out in preset waves. Starting with the rosti, soured cream and trout caviar it was perfectly crunchy, with a sour twist and a sweet pop from the caviar this 2 bite treat was well balanced and light. Next there was the cheese and ham Jambon, presented almost like a profiterole it was rich and decadent with the wonderful familiar flavours you'd expect from a classic jambon. The celeriac fritter was incredibly crunchy with a pleasant piquant from the pickled walnut, with the smoked gubben offering up a silky creaminess with subtle smokey undertone. The artichoke and smoked haddock chowder was wonderfully unctuous and velvety, perfectly balanced and deeply flavourful, served with bread that was somehow both the fluffiest and crispiest I've experienced. Round 3 was the braised shin, radicchio salad and the garlic potatoes. The shin was melt in the mouth tender whilst the split pea and carrots were very crisp and perfectly cooked. The shin bone with marrow was an added bonus of richness and punchy flavour. The salad was so fresh the parsley giving a fragrant lift. As for the potatoes, delicious crunchy packages of butterey garlicky goodness, I would truly buy these by the bucket. The dessert was profiteroles, aside from being utterly massive these are deep, and rich the richness is wonderfully offset by the silkiness of the cream. The service was exactly what you'd hope for, friendly and attentive without being overbearing and intrusive, the timings seemed well choreographed as if to not ask you how you're doing whilst you have a mouthful. I enjoyed everything about this experience, and I'd be surprised if Frae doesn't have a star in their future. I 100% hope to visit again soon.

Had a family meal here and everyone had hyped it up so I was expecting something really good. The food was fine. Nicely presented and the lobster was very well cooked. The menu is interesting and has good variety. There wasn’t anything we had which blew me away though. The service was a little bizarre and kinda rude. The waiter seemed annoyed when I asked for an orange juice (which they didn’t have). Also he was loudly throwing cutlery in drawers while my family were trying to speak. It had the vibe of a moody teenager. Overall, this place may have the menu and prices and aesthetic of a high end restaurant but it’s more like a prettied up Starbucks - complete with irritated staff who are annoyed at your existence as they serve you food that you’ll never remember the taste of.

What an amazing experience!!! Let me start by saying my partner and I have been to many of the restaurants around the area some with great reviews and some with Michelin stars. We visited Sunday afternoon and I can tell you we matched it with the quality equal to a 2 Michelin star we frequent in Portugal. Bold flavors and a fantastic wine variety ( we had the Pinot noir Santa Barbara which was a triumph) I couldn’t fault the service. The lovely lady who served us had made an irish coffee for another table next to us (which isn’t on the menu) and I thought that is above and beyond. You need to visit this place as I only feel truly you’ll need to be booking in advance for months very soon. We’ll done the chefs on the snack of the jambon , chicken liver parfait, crispy lamb, chicken Marbella, the hake!!! And the rubard roulade. The whole experience was a complete success mixed with subtle music that gives you great ambience for chat and to feel comfortable. Can’t wait until we are back again very soon! If you haven’t already you must book this and rate this restaurant what it deserves

Having read the review in the Telegraph, we decided to visit, upon arrival our table wasn’t ready so we were seated at a raised bench, with no offer of a drink despite this being billed as a wine bar, we were then shown to our table upstairs and again waited for a drink to be offered, eventually we got a carafe of water but still no wine. We were then told it was a set menu and did any one have any dietary requirements . The menu was given and consisted of a selection of seafood and bread , no options for a non seafood person except for bread and Gilda The wine list was over overpriced to say the least, the main course was a bowl of reasonably tough beef served with a green salad and deep fried sliced potato.that needed seasoning but none on the table. Dessert was included it was a rhubarb roulade or a cheese board was available for £15 pp again totally over priced even for Holywood. Dessert was also forgotten by the staff despite at this point of only us and another table being in the room, after dessert no offer of tea or coffee, we just decided our experience was ended and asked for the bill, The toilets were clean but no hand towels or loo roll in situ. The room we were dining in was cold also with a regular draft of cold air. We got the feeling that the staff really just wanted you in and out no pleasantry’s sadly this will be the first and last visit to FRAE so as the old saying goes don’t believe everything you read in the press, especially restaurant reviews.