Irish Times Magazine - July 2005

Out in Cheekpoint, on the estuary you can eat the best Anglo-Indian curry in Ireland at the lovely Suir Inn: it also does excellent seafood, especially the fish pie.

A Suir Thing - Irish Independent - September 2004

"The food without exception was excellent - in fact, it was so good that we were too full for dessert."    

Eating out Liam Mulcahy reviews McAlpin's Suir Inn, Cheekpoint

Les Routiers Ireland Dining Pub of the Year 2003

Dunstan and Mary McAlpin, with their family, run a professional operation where standards are high and there is a wealth of warmth and friendliness. This has been a pub for almost 300 years, and owned by the McAlpin family since 1971. However, even today it is basically the same building the Bolton family built in the 17th century. This little lime-washed pub can be found at the end of a winding drive down to the coast at Cheekpoint - a pleasant fishing village opposite the confluence of the Suir and Barrow rivers. The ceilings are low and tables are wooden, bar-style. No reservations are taken, so if seats are not available you just wait. And it is worth it. Seafood is a speciality and evening meals are served from 5.30pm. There are crab claws in garlic butter or seafood vol-au-vent to start. Then king scallops in cheese and white wine, a real treat we thought, there's a good seafood platter, as well as meaty dishes of pan-fried beef fillet with black pepper and mushroom sauce, or chicken breasts curried in fresh ground spices.

Sunday Tribune Newspaper December 2002

For that fun, unhurried lunch or dinner with good food, wine and friends, here are the top ten places to go. What you need, of course, is pleasant food, decent wine, a buzzy atmosphere and a sense that you are valued as customers. Gosh, when you put it like that it's quite a tall order. Anyway, after much thought, here are 10 places in which I would dearly like to settle down with a few friends and have a darned good time.

9. The Suir Inn

The Suir Inn may not offer an awful lot of elbow room but the grub is great, and so is the pint and there's a modest wine list that will adequately serve any seasonal outing. For me, the seafood pie and the full monty of a curry are the stars. Service is first rate and prices are keen.

Tom Doorley

Sunday Tribune Newspaper September 2001

Tom Doorley revisits McAlpin's Suir Inn and is delighted that it's still a fine pub with a penchant for good food. For the full article please click here

Bridgestone Guide 2001

Thank heavens for places like McAlpin's. This little pub can be found at the end of a long and winding drive down to the coast at Cheekpoint. It's an efficient, professional operation where things are always done correctly. Standards are high, and great service helps to make for a meal that's worth the drive to find it. The cooking is excellent and given its location, concentrates on fish and seafood dishes: hot spicy cockles; mussels provensale; smoked salmon and salmon mousse; crab bake; seafood pie; baked cod in Dijon and dill sauce; prawns in garlic butter. You'll also find beef fillet with black pepper and other classic dishes that suit this informal dining room. They have been cooking these dishes in here for years and they do them as well today as they have ever done, and there is always a crowd to enjoy them.

Food & Wine Magazine 2001

McAlpin's Suir Inn stands a mile or so away from that five-minute nautical adventure - the Ballyhack-Passage East ferry connecting Wexford with Waterford and hence on the direct route for those who prefer to meander southwards by hostelry rather than travel by crow-flight. A shame therefore to have to wait until the early evening to sample the fine rustic (in the best sense) local ingredient-fuelled cooking of this unassuming hospitable pub where the menu, if not quite set in stone, has the comforting nature of an old familiar friend.

Waterford Tourism Guide

A 16th century riverside inn, located seven miles down river from Waterford in the picturesque village of Cheekpoint. Renowned for seafood, McAlpin's has a reputation of providing wholesome hearty food at extremely competitive prices. The wholesome, hearty food, oIde world atmosphere and scenic harbour location can be enjoyed in equal measure. Egon Ronay, Bridgestone Guide, Travellers Ft Diners Guide recommended. Dinner is served 18.00-21.45.

Tipperary Water Guide to Ireland    2000

This immaculately maintained black and white painted inn is 300 years old and has been run by the McAlpin family since 1971. During that time they have earned an enviable reputation for hospitality and good food served at a moderate price, notably local seafood. It's a characterful, country style place with rustic furniture, cottagey plates and old prints decorating the walls. Seasonal menus offer a choice of about six starters (nearly all seafood and all under £5) and ten main courses, including three cold dishes and two vegetarian ones, again all moderately priced. All meals come with brown soda bread, butter and a side salad ~ and there's a nice little wine list including a special selection of eight good New World wines, "The £11 Cellar".

Georgina Campbell

Ireland Expert - Seafood on the Suir

Synonymous with handcut crystal, Waterford is equally well known for its waterfront settings, such as the one at McAlpin's Suir Inn, seven miles southeast of Waterford City.

This seventeenth-century pub is nestled on the banks of the River Suir at Cheekpoint. Just two hundred years ago, Cheekpoint was a busy port, with cotton, rope, and hosiery factories, and a depot for mail ships heading for England. Today it is a tranquil fishing village.

Step inside and leap back in time amid a décor of copper pots and nautical memorabilia. The McAlpin family bought the inn thirty years ago, and they have since earned a reputation for seafood, especially fresh catches of the day and shellfish platters.

Specialties of the house include crab baked in fennel sauce, prawns in garlic butter, king scallops in cheese and wine sauce, and a popular seafood pie. Open for dinner only; daily in summer and Wednesday-Saturday in winter (closed for two weeks at Christmas).

Patricia Tunison Preston

Bon Appetit    1996

The decor is simple at McAlpins Suir Inn in Checkpoint in County Waterford, but the range of spanking-fresh seafood on offer is as impressive and extensive as you are likely to find anywhere in Ireland. It is a simple matter of geography: The harbour is only yards away. In season, you can look forward to such things as monkfish cooked with a lemon butter sauce, king scallops baked in a white wine and cream sauce, hot spicy cockles, crab claws in garlic butter, and delicious wild salmon from the River Suir.

Most popular of all are the seafood pie - salmon, shrimp, prawns and cod with a potato, topping - and the gargantuan seafood platter, with its eight or nine varieties of cold fish. There are vegetarian choices, too (still rare enough in Irish pubs), and a splendidly authentic Indian curry.

0n offer for dessert are, about eight varieties of homemade ice creams, plus a gooey chocolate cheesecake and the general favorite, Mrs McAlpin's juicy fruit pie. But remember that this pub is open only in the evenings and in the off season only on certain evenings so plan accordingly.

Mary Dowey