Le Winters

Was in Ards today and decided to call in for lunch. A long time since i had been in the place and I don’t know why. Food was great and we will be back.

LeWinters is the properly busy bar part of Newtownard’s Strangford Arms Hotel. There are loads of small, local-​type boozers in Newtownards, but here and Molly Brown’s on South Street provide the only competition at the more higher-​end scale of things.
Me and three others happened to be in the town a couple of months ago, on a Sunday afternoon, and decided to go here for lunch. It’s always a good sign when the restaurant looks rammed, but the friendly staff make a table materialise from nowhere for you, and you don’t feel remotely cramped afterwards.
All four of us enjoyed our reasonably priced meals. I had a spicy beef pitta with a lovely dressed salad — how nice, too, to get a proper menu on a Sunday instead of being referred to the boring carvery unit in the corner. Overcooked meat, mush that used to be veg, instant gravy — Ireland’s (Sunday hotel) signature dish, but not in LeWinters.

This bar has lost some of its authentic charm since it was The Horseshoe Bar a few years ago. The Horseshoe was a great old mans bar where you could huddle over your pint in the smoky atmosphere and share a few tales with the older folk. Not anymore… in the shadow of Scrabo Tower now sits Le Winters’
It has a Saturday night disco which feels like a wedding party without the bride or groom. Or a school formal — cheesy vibes, bad dancing, creepy men and even creepier women. The crowd is a mixture of ages with youngish men and older ladies.
It does offer your run of the mill function rooms upstairs catering for Christmas do’s and wedding parties.
Not the kind of place I would feel comfortable in as a woman of thirty but if you fancy a dance and the possibility of a grope then grab this place with both hands.

Had a good ol’ knees up here last Christmas with the girls from work. Twas rather good, I must say.
There’s nothing quite like going out for a Christmas dinner. I mean, there literally is nothing the same… crazy things happen, everyone goes stark-​raving mad, and the friends you thought you knew, well you never really knew at all.
Le Winters is the restaurant /​bar aspect of the Strangford Arms Hotel. On this particular night, less than a week to Christmas, the eight of us girlies were only one of many parties enjoying their night out. One table in particular had bribed one of the men into dressing up as Santa and producing large gifts for a bunch of hysterically screaming ladies, none of which were younger than forty.
Meanwhile, being the undeniably quiet group of the night, we pulled a few crackers, took a few pics, and tucked into the dinner. Quite possibly the most random thing *anyone* has ever said to me came around this moment…
Waiter: Eh, so love, what are you havin’?
Me: I’m going for the melon starter.
Waiter: Yes, you do look like a melon kind of person…*walks off*
Indeedy.
The food was great, and I even tackled the waiter about whether or not I looked like a turkey kind of person when he asked me my main course. Embarassment ensued, and he just smiled and said nothing. Good move Mr Random Waiter.
The in-​house DJ was doing such a good job on the decks that we decided to end the night with a good oul boogie. We weren’t the only ones, with bleary-​eyed old men and off-​their-​head drunk younger (but not much) women ‘dancing’, gyrating and performing other unmentionable acts which still haunt me. Gross.
If you’re in need of a Christmas dinner location for this year, or just fancy a wee tipple, Le Winters has definitely got a few tricks up its sleeve… just watch out!

One of the best places in Ards to eat. They have a very good menu, food is always scrumptious, portions are a decent size and prices are fair. The staff are very friendly and helpful. Definitely worth giving a try.