The Pullman Restaurant at Glenlo Abbey

We booked it because dinner in a historic train carriage sounded interesting. We remember it because the meal was extraordinary.

🟢 RECOMMENDED

One of our favorite experiences in Ireland and easily our favorite meal of the trip. The setting makes it memorable, but the food and service are what make it worth recommending.

Some of our favorite travel experiences begin with a recommendation.

While staying at a B&B near Galway during our two-week Ireland road trip, our hosts suggested The Pullman Restaurant at Glenlo Abbey. They told us it was a great dining experience.

That was enough to get our attention.

Then Gina looked it up.

Dinner inside historic railway carriages?

That pretty much cemented it.

We made a reservation.

What we expected was a memorable setting and a nice dinner.

What we got was our favorite meal of the entire trip.

The Setting Is More Than a Gimmick

The Pullman Restaurant is part of Glenlo Abbey Hotel & Estate, a large upscale property outside Galway with beautiful grounds and a golf course.

And sitting on those grounds are the restaurant's historic railway carriages.

This isn't a modern restaurant decorated with railway memorabilia to create a theme. You're actually dining inside old train carriages.

That makes an impression before the first plate ever reaches the table.

From our seats, we could look outside across the grounds and watch golfers making their way around the course. Inside, the carriage created an intimate dining room completely different from the pubs, restaurants and B&B dining rooms we'd experienced elsewhere in Ireland.

It certainly helped make the evening memorable.

But a great setting can only carry a restaurant so far.

The food still has to deliver.

And it did.

From the First Bite...

The meal wasn't simply appetizer, entrée and dessert.

It was an experience that unfolded over the evening.

There were amuse-bouches and beautifully presented starters. Our main courses arrived looking every bit as carefully considered as what had preceded them. Dessert followed. Then came the little finishing touches.

Even the presentation was memorable.

One course arrived on small wooden rounds. Petit fours appeared in a little wooden chest. Plates were carefully composed without becoming so precious that dinner stopped feeling like dinner.

And somewhere in all of that came cocktails and coffee.

Four years later, we can't give you a forensic reconstruction of every ingredient on every plate.

Frankly, that's not how we remember meals.

We remember whether we enjoyed them.

This one we remember.

...To the Last Sip

Looking back through our photographs brings the evening right back.

The blue-and-gold plates. The presentation. The little bites between courses. The desserts. The wooden chest. The coffee.

But what made Pullman stand out wasn't one spectacular entrée or one clever presentation.

Everything worked together.

Location.

Atmosphere.

Service.

Food.

That's essentially what I wrote in my Google review shortly after the trip:

Location, atmosphere, service & food: 10 STARS!

I also called it our favorite meal of the two-week holiday.

Years later, I wouldn't change that assessment.

Expensive? Yes. Worth It? For Us, Absolutely.

The Pullman wasn't where we went looking for an inexpensive dinner.

This was one of the meals where we deliberately spent more because the experience appeared to offer something different.

There's an important distinction there.

We've spent considerable money on travel experiences that were perfectly nice but ultimately felt interchangeable. A luxury hotel room can be beautiful, but if we've stayed in a dozen rooms much like it, the price alone doesn't make it memorable.

Pullman was different.

We weren't simply paying for dinner.

The historic railway carriage, Glenlo Abbey setting, attentive service, presentation and quality of the meal all contributed to the evening.

The upgrade wasn't luxury for luxury's sake. It was the experience.

That's the kind of splurge we appreciate.

The Curated Upgrades Take

One of the ideas behind Curated Upgrades is that the best travel experiences aren't necessarily the most expensive ones.

They're the ones where the extra money actually gives you something you'll value.

The Pullman did.

Interestingly, we didn't discover it through a list of Galway's “10 Best Restaurants.” We weren't chasing a famous name we'd read about months before the trip.

Our B&B hosts told us about it.

That's another reason we leave room in our trips for local recommendations. You can map first and book second without scheduling every meal and every hour before leaving home.

Sometimes somebody who knows the area points you toward something you never would have found on your own.

We listened.

We're glad we did.

Would We Go Back?

Without hesitation.

Not because it's a train carriage.

We've done that now.

We'd return because underneath the unusual setting was an excellent restaurant.

The carriage got our attention.

The dinner won us over.

And after two weeks of memorable meals throughout Ireland, that's the one that finished at the top of our list.