Our Latest Great Place To Eat - Coyne's Gastropub
Thursday 24 July 2025
I'm always in search of a really good chowder, one that spells out the essence of summer, of being away from it all. It’s all too easy to find the thin watery ones, or the flour thickened pasty ones, but it’s a lot harder to find the one that exudes the appetising fresh flavours of the sea as it approaches the table, the one that you really want to get your ‘chops’ around, with some really good homemade bread and Irish butter. Couple that with a real authentic warm céad míle fáilte and you’re onto a winner. Well I found it!
Bouncing along the N59 from Galway to Clifden, through the pretty village of Oughterard, we travelled on over the Quiet Man Bridge. Taking a left at Maam Cross down past Screebe Waterfall, around by Lough Aughawoolia, we passed purple heathers, corrugated rusty red roofed old cottages, stone walls, white horses, the waters and the wilds. Stopping in Ros Muc, we visited the fabulous and fascinating new Ionad Cultúrtha an Phiarsaigh where Patrick Pearse’s cottage is based. Crossing Bridge Flannery we arrived to our destination, almost another world, the pretty village of Kilkieran at Oyster Bay and Tigh Chadhain - Coyne’s Gastropub.
With stunning views out over the water, here Michael Coyne and his wife Annemarie, who is a very accomplished chef, and family, are serving the best of homemade produce, food that tastes like real food, from their divine breads baked fresh each morning to the chunky chowder that I mentioned earlier.
Featuring a Chinese slate floor, tongue and grove green painted walls, historical pictures and posters, the menus were in both Irish and English, and indeed it is clear it is a popular spot with the locals, many of whom were speaking as gaeilge, which delighted Americans dining at a neighbouring table.