Portrush is more than rip-off meals and extortionate pints
I was in Portrush during The Open and there's more to it than we know
Justin is our Youth Audience Lead and Content Creator. He can usually found trying out new restaurants, at a gig seeing a local artist or world class singer and out with his trusty red mic chatting to the public for our TikTok and Insta.
You can't go anywhere without hearing the word Portrush at the moment and for very good reason. The town is currently hosting the 153rd Open Golf Tournament and with over 200,000 people attending the tournament businesses are flat out.
There has been story after story of businesses hiking up their prices for the tournament which has rightfully caused outrage amongst locals and tourists alike.
However, I wanted to look past those businesses and shine a light on a few other businesses and just the town in general which is a place I spent a lot of time in when I was growing up. There's definitely more to the town than the headlines of late.
I first headed up for the final practice day of The Open and the weather was absolutely fantastic so the first thing I tried was a complete no brainer. It was of course an ice cream from the famous Morelli's.
I'd heard that they had teamed up Tourism Ireland and were serving a golf flavoured ice cream. What flavour is that you might ask? Well, it's an Italian white peppermint base, matcha and sea buckthorn.
I wasn't sure about this initially as it didn't sound like something I'd go for when I was heading out for ice cream. However, I was pleasantly surprised and it had a really refreshing taste to it and I'm a bit of a sucker for something that is themed around an event. So I actually really enjoyed this Open themed ice cream.
The cost is what everyone really cares about at the minute it seems. So for the medium tub, which was 3 huge scoops, it was £6.25. While it's not a bargain, I've definitely seen more expensive than that out there. More importantly the prices don't seem to have shifted from before The Open which is always positive.
What goes hand in hand with a seaside town? A chippy of course. I asked around while I was there to find out the best chippy and everyone had a different answer to their favourite spot. But I happened to pass by Mr Chips and noticed it had a seating area that looked out on the sea so I settled on trying there.
It was much like any other chippy when you went in and felt familiar which is always a welcome sight. There were the usual things on the menu like a fish supper, chicken burgers. We went for a small goujon supper, 2 battered sausages, 2 dips and 2 drinks.
We took a seat right by the window and the food was with us in a matter of minutes. The small goujon supper came with five goujons and loads of chips which was great to see. The battered sausages were also bigger than my head. All in all this spot was exactly what we needed on our trip to the seaside town. It wasn't trying to pretentious or anything more than what it was which we love to see.
For everything we ordered from Mr Chips it came to £19.70 which was is cheaper than one meal is some of the other more 'famous' spots around Portrush. So take this as a lesson that there are spots in the town that do good food for a decent price if you look beyond the usual spots.
The buzz about Portrush right now is absolutely electric and wall to wall with people flocking to watch the golf. This will have a lasting impact on the town the people of the town should be celebrated as it is a team effort to come together to hold a sporting event of this magnitude.
Portrush has existed long before and will exist long after The Open but the fact it is back here in such a short period of time shows me a lot. It's an absolutely great place in my eyes that people flock to for very good reason. I love when big organisations like The Open come to somewhere like this because it shines a spotlight on it.
If you look beyond the pricey meals and extortionate pints you will see some good hardworking businesses who are creating fun exciting products and others that are feeding the masses with great food at even better prices.
In the interest of fairness and transparency we pay for all the meals and drinks we review. This ensures that we are giving accurate and honest representations of the food and service that we receive. So unless we state otherwise we have paid for the meal ourselves so you can trust our opinions aren't skewed by a freebie.
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