The Old Inn Crawfordsburn

We loved our 2 night stay at Old Inn last week. From the moment we arrived, the staff were all so lovely, friendly and attentive. Given the staff found out myself and new wife were celebrating our mini-moon/honeymoon here (and had seen our note) after our wedding, we got a lovely complimentary upgrade to the cottage and it was amazing. The spa facilities here are some of the best we've experienced with a hot tub, warm jacuzzi-like pool, water bed, sauna, steam room and a room to lie up in. Its also not overcrowded like some other spa hotels and you will be able to make use of all facilities. The decorations and surroundings are also really picturesque in the tree top spa and it's a really tranquil place to spend some time at - like a little paradise. We loved that you could order drinks from the hot tub and facilities and they'd be brought straight down to you- the cocktails were delicious and consistently very high quality and some of the best we've ever had. We loved the food at the Old Inn as well. The breakfast food and evening food - burger, fish and pie all come highly recommended but the star of the show was the arancini starter - delicious. Overall, we can't wait to come back here and thanks so much to Old inn for the personal touches left in our room, always topping up our mini fridge and for making our stay extra special.

Just back from a one night stay at the Old Inn. What an experience! Having never been to a spa before, we were really unsure of ourselves & a bit nervous. We were checked in by lovely staff who walked us to our gorgeous room, showing us where everything was. The room was incredible. Huge four poster bed, all mod cons available. The spa was just amazing. So relaxing & we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We didn't want to leave! This would have been a 5 star review if it hadn't been for two things. 1. The wasps at the spa! Very very annoying but not the fault of the hotel & they are trying their best to control them! 2. We had dinner in the restaurant. We were seated by a lady who brought us down a jar of water. Later when we received the bill we were shocked to see we had been billed for the water we didn't ask for, or drink! After some debate, and anxiety over what to do, we raised it with a different waiter, who took it off the bill, no questions asked. Whilst we appreciated the way it was handled (by Leo - thank you so much!) I couldn't help be disappointed that we were put in that position. It was quite embarrassing for us. We won't let it ruin our experience though - we had a wonderful time & I would return in a heartbeat if I could. Thank you

My wife and I have been frequenting The Old Inn since 1985 (we had our wedding reception held here back in ‘85) up until it was taken over by the Galgorm group. We stopped going as the À la carte menu seemed to be too high brow and stupidly expensive with weird dishes that makes you wonder…who eats this stuff ? However, we decided to go for a meal to celebrate our 40th anniversary but went for the Old Inn Favourites in the bar as that menu suited our tastes better. Staff were attentive, a beer & a glass of wine set down in front of us, order was taken in a timely fashion and our starters came quickly and were very nice. That’s the high point. The main course (we both had the chicken & leek pie) looked enormous, but looks were deceiving and my wife’s had twice the chicken that mine had (which still wasn’t what you’d call plentiful). It’s a good job it was served in a shallow ramikin as the filling was a sloppy goop. It did taste ok, but it just didn’t have any real body to it. I had also ordered a side of onion rings which I should have sent back as they were greasy and overcooked with the batter looking quite burnt. The side of vegetables my wife had were nice. We didn’t have desert as that menu was disappointing and then to pay £106.48 for two drinks, two starters, two mains and two sides was a tad shocking for what can be best described as average pub grub. So our fears haven’t gone unfounded and the takeover has, for us, been a disappointment. But then, we have been to a wedding in The Galgorm outside Ballymena and it was decidedly average too, so maybe we should have known better. I understand that everyone’s tastes are different, but we used to love The Old Inn when it was owned by Mr Rice whereas now it seems it’s just too pompous and definitely not value for money.