John J. Burke and Sons Restaurant - Clonbur, County Galway

After returning from our wet and soggy tour of the Connemara Peninsula, we returned to our bed and breakfast at Ryan’s River Lodge in the village of Cong.  Unfortunately, Laurie was not feeling well on this…our last evening before heading to Dublin and the airport.

Many thanks again to our hosts Martha and David, especially for that assistance rendered due to Laurie’s short but challenging bout of illness.  For more information on Ryan’s River Lodge and their related guided hunting and fishing adventures, you can go to http://www.ryansriverlodge.com/welcome.html.

In any case, when dinner time came along, Laurie was unable to join Bonnie, Bill and me for one more dining adventure.  She was perfectly happy to bundle up in our room and take a nap!

Based on our desire to eat somewhere nearby but outside of Cong, we followed our host’s recommendation and drove to the nearby village of Clonbur in County Galway, about 10 minutes from our bed and breakfast.  John J. Burke and Sons was our dining destination.

While you couldn’t tell from the outside, the inside of Burkes was beyond spacious!  The dining areas were multifaceted…with different looks in different parts of the restaurant.  It was all very warm and comfortable with plenty of objects of interest scattered throughout.

FYI… Clonbur contains the ruins of Petersburgh Estate, seat of the Lynch family.  One member of that family, Thomas Lynch, was a signer of the American Declaration of Independence from South Carolina.  Like a good deal of the surrounding area around Clonbur and Cong, at one time or another, this estate became part of the Guinness family’s properties.  

It was a weekday…it was rainy…and it was the very end of September.  Burkes was very quiet.  Other than one other table and these 2 gentlemen at a small segment of the bar, we had the place to ourselves. 

The building that houses John J. Burkes and Sons is the Ti Bhurca or Mount Gable House.  The premises were built by John A. Joyce, grand-uncle of Charlotte Burke.  It changed hands a couple of times but then it was sold to John J. Burke (aka. ‘Old J.J’) in 1922 while he was home from Chicago Illinois on an extended holiday.  He’d been visiting his daughter when he passed through Clonbur and saw the Mount Gable Hotel up for sale.

This room at the front of the restaurant holds many pieces from the past that reflect the various roles that the building has served.  It appears to have been what is termed a General Store in the USA.  They sold a bit of hardware, groceries, beverages, household necessities…and it also served as the local post office. 

On to the food… Somehow we first consumed 5 pints of local craft beer.  (5.70E/$6.85 US each) Then Bill had a nice bowl of Seafood Chowder to start out his evening meal. (7.50E/$9.00 US)

I’d love to tell you more about the dining options at Burkes but they haven’t posted an on-line menu and I’d just assumed it would be there so I didn’t take a photo or two for blogging purposes…

I do have a cryptic receipt so I’m guessing that this is a Fried Mushrooms appetizer with a bit of salad. (6.95E/8.35 US) In any case, it was well received by Bonnie and Bill!

FYI…Burkes can seat around 140 patrons. From what I could determine, they are packed in season and reservations are needed.  They even have dining on an outside deck overlooking the countryside.  Also in season, this is an important local venue for traditional Irish music on the weekends. 

This was my dinner!  It was our last night in Ireland, (other than the final stay at the Dublin Hilton Airport Hotel), and it was my last chance to order something that I’d rarely find in the USA.  So I ordered the Leg of Lamb Dinner which came with vegetables, potatoes and lots of luscious lamb. (15.95E/$19.15 US) It was very good…as a matter of fact it was the best lamb I’d eaten during our trip!

For their dinners, Bonnie and Bill went for a pair of personal pizzas.  I’m fairly sure that Bonnie’s was the one in the first photo as she prefers ‘more basic’ pizzas and Bill likes his ‘loaded’!  One was called the ‘Amore Pizza’ and the other was the ‘Caprice Pizza’.  These were huge for personal pizzas but at 10.95E/$13.15 US each, the cost was more than reasonable.  They were judged to be very good…  A lot of pizza was left over but rather than letting it go to waste, we took it back to Ryan's River Lodge and gave it to our host's family.   

John J. Burke and Sons Restaurant (Burkes) was a great place for us to close out the local restaurant scene portion of our Irish adventure.  We’d recommend it to anyone traveling in this area of Ireland.  Check out their website at http://burkes-clonbur.com/.  FYI, a quick check of TripAdvisor reveals that Burkes received 97% excellent or very good ratings based on a total of 203 reviews!

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

The last posting from Ireland is coming up next time.  Thanks for stopping by for the latest on our travel adventures!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave