Nestled away on Catherine Street in Limavady, lurks a surprising little establishment called Granny Annie’s. With exposed brick walls and iron girders outlining the building, even the outside lets you know that this place is something special. Open up the doors and you enter a cavernous restaurant/bar with a mezzanine level and are greeted instantly by super friendly staff decked out in flat caps.
One wall is adorned with framed versions of ‘Granny’s recipes’, whilst another is filled up with an assortment of wall lamps all glowing softly away. This is unlike anywhere else I’ve seen in Northern Ireland and looks more like an American theme restaurant as they’ve really pulled out all the stops.
A trip outside to the beer-garden sees a full size tractor as the centrepiece, alongside a brightly coloured play park for kids, a lovely covered area for summer drinking (we are in NI after all) and a faux outhouse complete with feet hanging out the bottom.
As if this all wasn’t enough, the true surprise is the toilets – corrugated iron separates the cubicles, the sinks are metal buckets plumbed into the walls and as you look up at the rows of handbags hanging from the ceiling, the real surprise hits you, there’s a full living room scene hanging above you.Now onto the important part, the food – they’ve just launched a new lunch menu, which we decided to give a go. There’s a good range of stuff on there from burgers and fries to ham hock sandwiches, and even a few sharing options such as ribs and wings which are great for a lighter lunch.
The food came out quickly and was 
presented beautifully – the ribs came in a little metal bathtub and the fish and chips that I ordered came on newspaper and a metal tray. The fish was tender, the batter was crispy and the skinny fries I got as a side were delicious. The ribs had a sweet, almost appley BBQ sauce and the onion rings were proper slices of onion and not processed mush.
My only gripe about the whole experience was that the carbonara was actually penne pasta and not spaghetti as advertised, but it still tasted good. The food wasn’t mind-blowing, but the word decent definitely comes to mind.
Overall, the food, decor and service were all A+, and I can’t wait to go back and try some other options on the menu. To be perfectly honest, even if the food hadn’t of been great, I still would come back here for the decor and atmosphere which was spot on, the attention to detail is crazy especially in a smaller town like Limavady. More of this sort of thing!
You must be logged in to post a comment.