The Hillside

Great atmosphere complemented by friendly staff and great food. The pub quiz is great fun; come and challenge "The Hilltoppers", "Stephen Hawking's School of Dance" and Haven't a clue" amongst others @ 19:30 on Mondays

The food was delectable! People were super kind, too. Highly recommend!!!

Great wee spot in Hillsborough. Food was good, service efficient and managed to get a table on a Sunday late afternoon without booking. Dining area at the back is open and more contemporary with a more rustic and cosy bar area at the front with an open fire. Nice and quiet, no trouble hearing conversation, although I would like to experience the live music some time, which I believe is on Wednesday nights. Kids menu was especially good with a decent selection and good portion size. Prices overall were as I would expect, not cheap, but not overly expensive. Will go again. Update March 2025: yep, still great. Was in for Sunday lunch, whole family enjoyed our meal. One gluten free / coeliac member of the group was well catered-for and certainly no after effects, so no cross contamination of food here!

The pub do a quiz on a Monday night. My young son really wanted to experience one and so we went along. It was the best night, food included and a raffle at the end. Thankfully our son won and he said it was the best night …. Highly recommend!!

Fantastic atmosphere, beautiful food and great staff. Added bonus that dogs are allowed in the restaurant part of the bar. We had a family member become medically unwell and the staff were unbelievably kind and helpful in assisting us. They went above and beyond and they are a credit to your restaurant! We will definitely be back! Thank you.

Amazing food! One of the best meals we have had out for a long time. Beautiful fresh fish, lightly battered with minted peas and fresh chips and the burger with onion jam also delicious 😋. Will definitely be back soon!

Stopped in for lunch while my bike was getting serviced. Staff were lovely, place was nice and food was great. Can't ask for more than that.

Great, flavoursome food. Excellent sole with risotto from the specials board. Burgers were amazing. Steak sandwich excellent. Kids meals great. Many items on the menu are available as a gluten-free option on request. Great atmosphere. Very friendly, accommodating, and helpful staff. Excellent choice of beers. A proper pub!

Excellent food, lovely building, friendly staff.

My friend and I had a beautiful meal at The Hillside this evening. The service was second to none with a very pleasant and attentive lad attending to our every need. I couldn’t fault the food as it was delicious and the service outstanding. Thank you and we will look forward to our next visit. 😊

Thank you to Alex for the warm welcome .. Lovely pub great food . Dogs super welcome .. See u guys again

6 of us went out to eat for lunch and we had a great time. The food was absolutely excellent. The top dishes were the spinach and pine nut lasagna, the chicken and roast ham pasta and the sausages with champ. The food all came out quickly and beautifully served. The portions were massive (perhaps a little too big) but that’s not really something worth complaining about. The service was good but we they could have been a little more attentive at the start as I had to go over to a waiter to get their attention but once we had order the service was excellent. The restaurant itself looked lovely and well put together and had a good atmosphere. Overall a wonderful meal and we most likely will return.

Great Pub Quiz..! The local teams are far too well prepared, but made us visitors very welcome, and we come a creditable 'not-last'! A great atmosphere with friendly staff, in this cozy pub.

This very popular gastropub was much more busy than we expected when we dropped in on spec but, while the restaurant area was fully booked, we were lucky enough to get a table near the bar in the main pub. Service was efficient and friendly, and the food was excellent and came in good-sized potions - the bread board starter was delicious as were both the scampi and chicken burger we had as mains!

Came today for Sunday lunch with the family had an amazing time food was 5 star and the staff were awesome really nice vibe to the place will definitely be coming back and would highly recommend to all thanks for an amazing experience 🙌

The food here was fantastic! Plenty of options for drinks. Lovely atmosphere and feel to the place. Open fire, feels busy and warm. Nice outdoor area too. All in all a great place to visit for food, drink and just a nice time.

It's always had it's own olde world atmosphere. Very welcoming after a chilly walk in Hillsborough. The food is good and range of drinks extremely varied. Just a lovely wee old pub.

Sundays are our best days for visiting. We take the dog with us, sit in the pub close to a fire place. Service is relaxed and friendly, food is always delicious and there is lots to choose from, always happy to visit!

This is a classic Irish establishment. We enjoyed afternoon tea with sandwiches and wonderful scones. This was a nice finish after visiting Hillsborough Castle which is a few blocks up the road.

we had a family gathering here in the function room upstairs , fire was lit, Christmas lights were on, very snug, had the buffet with teas and coffee, first class service, food was excellent, everyone enjoyed it, perfect for a gathering, will def come back

Wow. The Hillside is a place I will never forget. For starters the food was incredible. My husband and I enjoyed the pan fried goat cheese, the king prawns with curry, and the silver hill duck breast. Alongside some classic adult beverages of course😌 Everything was above and beyond delicious. We are on our honeymoon traveling all around the UK and couldn’t be more thrilled to have picked an area like this to stay the night. This little pub is walking distance and was the PERFECT choice. We are currently still sitting here and are enjoying live music from over a dozen local artists, each taking a turn with a song on their heart and it is a joy to witness….I’ve never been so blessed to be so immersed by rich culture and community, wish we could stay here forever. If you’re in the area, it’s a MUST stop and go to place

I went for the steak, which was a little pricey for the size of the steak, but it was cooked to my own personal liking (medium / rare). The onion rings were absolutely delicious, and the vine tomatoes were juicy and sweet. Friendly staff whom we recognised from a sister company, and had a bit of banter with him whilst paying the bill. Nice food and nice staff.

Stopped in for brunch. Staff helpful and got us a table, menus and drinks. We both had a chicken pasta dish, which was well cooked with a very tasty sauce. Bar staff very friendly and interested in clients.

A cosy, rustic setting in the beautiful Hillsborough. I'd give it 5 stars only my starter which was a ceasar salad, I found a little underwhelming. There was no chicken in it (I doubled checked the menu and there isn't any in it) and instead there was a lot of red onion which was a bit much. The sirloin steak was delicious, so tender and juicy when cooked medium. Salted caramel brownie for dessert was soft, sweet and just the right amount of saltiness. I would recommend and go back again.

A lovely traditional pub serving good food but full of barking dogs making it a surreal experience. Don’t know who was worst the dogs or the dog owners who didn’t seem to care as their dogs barked most of the time we were eating. There were at least three or four of them at the front area of the pub. Such a pity as the pub is lovely. I have never experienced this in an Irish pub before. I think the owners need a rethink on policy as they must be losing business.

Almost 5 stars however, the creme brulee was probably the worst I have ever had. Made 4 stars as the seafood chowder was one of the best, so it balanced out. For the price of £9 I did however expect a decent creme brulee which is one of the reasons we chose this place as we were really just craving starters and dessert. Lovely atmosphere except when the patio door was left open and the smoke drifted in, Overall, the starters were great, the atmosphere was fun, I would go back, just not order the creme brulee 😁

We normally love the Hillside and have been going for years but find Mondays a bit disappointing. The staff are distracted and hard to find, the food took ages to get to us even a bowl of Chowder. Our lasagna was ok but presentation wasn't great for the price. Definitely would recommend going towards the weekend when there's more happening and staff on.

Food was excellent. But having to wait for 60 minutes to get the food is poor. Staff did apologise and offer a discount. But this was the kids birthday and a school night. So delays like this meant we had to curtail the rest of our celebrations. 😢

My family and I went for lunch yesterday and we ordered the beef burger (no bacon), the salmon, and the battered haddock and chips. The beef burger was very juicy and delicious, the fries that came with the burger though were cut very small and they were oily too. The salmon fillet was good, the plate had a lot of mashed potatoes and the broccoli was hard and undercooked. Lastly, the haddock was good but not great as well, the batter was soft rather than crispy. Good experience overall but not great. Was expecting better compared to the value we paid. The food took a very long time to be served and we kept hearing loud glass bottles bang from the bar behind our table, I was startled a few times.

The steak was cooked at the right point and made a perfect blend with the bread. I didn’t like the fries as much. They do have vegetarian options. The sauce it was kinda of spicy but good.

Food was fantastic. Well done kitchen! Service average. No check back on food. Lovely beer.

Here for first time in a few years. No vegan options. Service good, friendly and helpful. Able to help me choose a vegan main from the 2 vegetarian main dishes on the menu. To be fair they tried and it was very nice. Hopefully they'll be updating their menu again soon as I would like to go back.

Stopped in for spot of lunch. Cosy front bar area with good selection of beers. Contemporary and spacious dining area at back. Food was OK. Great homeade fries but burger was very salty. Even after removing bacon. Not enjoyable. My partner had the chowder and found it just OK. Service felt lacking in terms of welcome and overall efficiency. Plus long wait on food.

Service was great. However, there was only one choice of veggie meal. It was falafel, which I ordered, but the meal was really dry! If you’re only going to provide one veggie dish, it should be better quality than this. The meat meals looked good though.

Booked table for 7.0pm food arrived on table at 8.40pm an hour and forty minute later , even cooking from fresh doesn’t take that time . Presentation was not appetising , food was passable . A piece of haddock and one potato cut into chucks and fried is not good value at £23.00 .Staff had to be prompted twice to move things along . It was a special family occasion and I didn’t want to make a fuss at the time but would not recommend this venue again.

Staff where very good to us, although quite un-organised and not overly helpful towards each other. My meal was over cooked especially the chips. I was disappointed with the food. A little back ground music would help make the experience more enjoyable/interesting. Most likely won't eat there again unfortunately.

I was told dog friendly, not on furniture or anywhere! Over priced menu, completely over worded menu. Far too expensive. I would not return. I got such a bad vibe about the place, told off by staff when I went to the beer garden with the dogs coming through the dinning room, it wasn't clearly marked to go a different route with dogs. I just felt unwelcome and a pain for them. It is my first time in Ireland how am I supposed to know!

We went to dinner this evening treated to us by our daughter we ordered of the Christmas menu two had the pad tai very disappointing not great at all one had the goats cheese and did say it was very nice. Two of us had the Turkey & Ham awful! Not really edible very bland the broccoli was so undercooked, the roast potato to me was cooked in a deep fat fryer, the turkey tasted ok but there was a big round slab of stuffing in between the turkey & ham it was disgusting far too big ham wasn’t great either One had the beef and said the beef was tasteless & tough. The young waiter came to collect our plates and asked was everything ok as we all left three quarters of the meal we passed on our comments to him and he said he would pass them on no one approached us to find out about our comments on the food very very disappointing and my daughter had to pay for it! We definitely won’t be back.

Hair found in one of our burgers. Had so much high hopes after friend's recommending Hillside. They did give my friend a free dessert and offered us free drinks

Called here for a bite to eat tonight but was very disappointed. Dinner was set at the table, when I asked for drinks I was told I had to go to the bar but after waiting for over 10 mins I headed back to my table empty handed to food that had now gone cold. When leaving the fella at the bar acknowledged that he had seen me standing waiting to be served drinks yet made no effort to come over to the table during the meal when he wasn’t busy at the bar. Having a meal without even a glass of water is unacceptable.. won’t be back.