Eating At Rosapenna: The Vardon Room, The Coach House Bar, And The Wednesday Problem

The Vardon Restaurant

The main dining room is named for Harry Vardon, the six time Open champion who, with James Braid, lengthened and bunkered the Old Tom Morris Links in 1906. The kitchen specialises in seafood, with fish arriving daily and shellfish from the headlands nearby, so lobster, scallops and crab are regularly on the menu. Meat comes from a long established local family butcher, and the resort says it will accommodate dietary requirements.

You should also know that Rosapenna asks visiting golfers who want breakfast to book in advance, and we would treat dinner the same way. There is no walk in culture in a dining room with a ninety minute service window, and the tables for a group of four or more go early in summer.

Dinner runs from 7:00pm to 8:30pm, Thursday to Tuesday. That last sitting is early by American standards and there is no late option in the dining room, so book the time when you book the room.

We would book the Vardon Restaurant for every night of your stay except Wednesday, and we would ask for 7:00pm rather than 8:30pm. After a day walking the dunes, you will want to eat early, and the earlier sitting gives you time for a last drink in the bar before bed. The dining room is not a place to rush, and the early table means you do not have to.

Why The Hotel Is The Dining Room

In the south west, a golf trip usually means choosing between several strong restaurants in a town near the course. Rosapenna is different. It sits on Sheephaven Bay near Downings, at the far north of Donegal, and for most visiting golfers the hotel is where you will eat almost every meal. We think that is a strength rather than a weakness, because it removes the evening drive, but it does mean you have to plan around the hotel's hours.

We would plan the food the same way you plan the golf: book early, fix the times, and let the rest of the day flow around them. At a remote resort with one main dining room, that small amount of planning is what makes the evenings easy rather than a scramble for a table.

We have deliberately not listed restaurants outside the resort in this chapter. We only recommend places we have been able to verify from the operator directly, with current hours and a way to book, and we have not yet done that for the villages around Rosapenna. When we have, they will be added here. Until then, we would plan every evening at the hotel and treat anything else as a bonus you find locally.

You should also know that the resort serves visitors who are not staying. The dining page says Rosapenna welcomes visiting guests to the restaurant and can take larger parties with a range of menu options, so if you are staying elsewhere and playing here, you can still book dinner through reception.

The Wednesday Problem

By the published hours, the Vardon Restaurant does not serve dinner on Wednesdays. On that night the answer is the Coach House Bar, which serves bar food seven nights a week from 6:15pm to 8:45pm. If your trip includes a Wednesday, plan it as the bar night and make it the evening you replay the 16th at St Patrick's with your caddie's line in your head.

A note on accuracy: these hours are the resort's own and can change between seasons. Confirm with reception when you book.

We would also use Wednesday as the night you eat with the caddies' stories still fresh. The bar is the more relaxed room, and it is where you will hear what other groups played that day and how the wind treated them on the back nine. For a golf trip, that is not a lesser evening. It is often the best one.

What To Order

Order the shellfish. Rosapenna says the lobster, scallops and crab on its menu are caught off the headlands nearby, and fish arrives in the kitchen daily. On a coast like this, the local shellfish is the reason to eat in the dining room rather than the bar, and we would plan at least one dinner around it. If someone in your group does not eat seafood, the meat comes from a long established local family butcher.

We would also ask about the wine list when you book. Rosapenna publishes breakfast, dinner and wine menus on its dining page, and it is worth reading them before you arrive so you know what to expect. You will make better choices at 7:00pm after a day in the dunes if you already know what is on the list.

We would not order anything complicated after a round. The strength of a seafood kitchen on this coast is how little it has to do to the fish, and in our view the simplest dish on the menu is usually the one that shows the kitchen off best. Ask your server what came in that morning and order that.

The Coach House Bar

The bar counter and backdrop are built from reclaimed pitch pine from the Coach House of the nearby Leitrim Estate, timber shipped from Norway in the 1880s to build the original hotel. It is the relaxed room of the house and the natural place for the last drink of the day.

You will notice that the bar has more history than most hotel bars in Ireland. The original Rosapenna Hotel was built in the 1890s from that Norwegian timber, and the resort has kept the connection in the room where most guests end their evening. We think it is the right place to finish the trip, whatever night you leave.

We like it as the room for the first evening, when you have arrived from a long drive and do not want a formal dinner. Bar food runs from 6:15pm to 8:45pm every night, which also makes it your fallback on any evening when the round runs long and you miss the last sitting in the Vardon Restaurant at 8:30pm.

Breakfast And The Early Tee Time

Breakfast is served daily in the Vardon Restaurant from 7:00am to 10:00am, and visiting golfers who are not staying can eat there too with advance booking. Breakfast is not served in the Golf Pavilion or Links House, so an early start at St Patrick's means eating at the hotel first and then driving the three miles to the course.

The Pavilion, beside the Old Tom Morris and Sandy Hills Links, is the casual stop between rounds on those two courses.

Our advice for a St Patrick's morning is to book breakfast for 7:00am, eat properly, and leave the hotel an hour before your tee time. The three mile drive is short, but you will want time to park, change, meet your caddie and hit a few putts. A walking round on dune ground takes more out of you than a parkland round at home, and it starts with breakfast.

How To Book And Pay

Restaurant bookings for breakfast and dinner go through hotel reception on +353 (0)74 915 5301. Larger groups can be accommodated with set menu options. Payment in the bar, restaurant and lounge is by card or room charge only. Cash is taken only at reception on check out, so there is no need to carry euro for dinner, though you will want it for the caddie.

Our advice is to book every dinner for the trip in one call when you confirm the room. Tell reception how many are in the group, which nights you want the Vardon Restaurant and which night you want the bar, and ask them to note any dietary requirements. On a busy summer week in a 70 room hotel with a short dinner window, the tables go to the guests who asked first.

You will need the reception number, so here it is again: +353 (0)74 915 5301. Keep it in your phone. It is also the line to call if your tee time moves, your group changes size, or you want to switch a dinner night to the bar.

How We Would Plan The Evenings

For a three night stay, here is how we would plan it. Night one: arrive, eat in the Coach House Bar, go to bed early. Night two, after St Patrick's: book the Vardon Restaurant at 7:00pm and order the shellfish. Night three, after Sandy Hills and Old Tom Morris: the Vardon Restaurant again, or the bar if it falls on a Wednesday. Breakfast each morning in the Vardon from 7:00am, an hour before you need to leave for the course.

You can adapt this for a two night stay by dropping night three. If you have four or more nights, add a second bar evening in the middle of the stay and give yourself one night without a booking at all. We would still keep breakfast fixed at 7:00am on every golf morning.

That plan is simple on purpose. At Rosapenna the golf is the event, and dinner is the part of the day that should require no thought. Book it all in one call, pay by card or room charge, and keep your euro for the caddie. That is how we would eat here, and it is how we would tell a friend to do it.