Dan and I ate lunch at Ard Bia at Nimmo’s in Galway, Ireland a few years ago when we visited Ireland with our mothers. At that time, we had no reservation and showed up on a whim for lunch. We were probably lucky that they had a table, and all 4 of us loved Ard Bia at Nimmo’s and still talk about it to date! What was so great about it? I have a difficult time explaining, but Ard Bia was cosy, friendly, and kind of felt like we were in someone’s home.

Since its been so long, I cannot recall exactly what everyone ate, but I do remember the most delicious crab toast that I loved! Crab toast is crab salad (similar to tuna salad) on a piece of bread, and its particularly popular in Galway (I had it again this trip on my Galway Food Tour at Kai Restaurant!). 

From the pictures, it looks like everyone else enjoyed soup, sandwiches and one person, a piece of fish! Whatever we had, we all seriously still talk about our lunch here!

Flash forward 4 years – since we all loved Ard Bia at Nimmo’s so, so much, Dan and I returned for Thanksgiving dinner last year!. When we were seated, we were surprised to learn that the entire restaurant had been redone from our prior visit. I guess that’s not surprising given its popularity but what was surprising, is that the re-do was due to rats (although NOT Ard Bia’s fault). I was a little sad that the newly redone restaurant was not quite as cosy as before, I guess all things change. In any case, we were given the most lovely table overlooking the River Corrib. Very romantic.

The dinner menu, like the lunch menu, is a bit limited but offers solid choices. The restaurant tries to use local ingredients and the menu changes somewhat frequently.

This time around our meal started with complimentary bread and some very tasty butter that was orange in color – it almost reminded me of pimento cheese! Very tasty. We also ordered a bottle of wine from Medoc (where we visited a few years ago!).

We split an appetizer to start – a lobster borek with “bisque aioli and pickled veg.” In short, it was a puff pastry filled with absolutely delicious lobster, a bisque sauce, and pickled vegetables. It was much tastier than the below picture portrays! It was also a good size for splitting – Dan and I each got a sizeable piece.

For dinner, I ordered the hand rolled taglitaelle with organic pumpkin, organic mushroom, and tarragon butter. The dish was loaded with lots of Fall vegeetables, including mushrooms, zucchini and pumpkin. Very Thanksgivingy.

Dan  went with a steak, which he found a bit disappointing. Irish beef is usually really good but I guess this was just a mediocre cut. No picture due to its mediocrity. We ended our Thanksgiving dinner with Chocolate Ganache, Marscapone ice cream, and a buckwheat crumble. The maracapone ice cream was so, so good! The chocolate ganache was, not surprisingly, super dense.

After visiting for both lunch and dinner, I would probably recommend Ard Bia for lunch. or brunch It was more casual and more comfortable. And for good measure, here is a picture of our post-dinner stroll through Galway!

STEAL OUR TRIP

Ard Bia at Nimmo’s: Reservations are easy to make via email and I highly recommend one, especially for groups or dinner on the weekend.

ON A BUDGET

Go to Ard Bia at Nimmo’s for breakfast, brunch, or dinner. The menus look amazing and its a lot cheaper than dinner.