Sheen Falls Lodge

Our stay at Sheen Falls Lodge was wonderful. The hotel is stunning, with spacious bedrooms and beautifully designed bathrooms. The scenery and grounds are beautiful. There are so many lovely areas throughout the hotel to sit and relax. We especially enjoyed spending our evenings playing games in the library — such a cosy and charming space with a lovely fireplace. The cocktails in the bar were divine and the perfect way to unwind. The standout meal of our stay was at the Falls Restaurant. The food was exceptional, and I’m so grateful to the managers for ensuring my birthday dinner was so special and memorable. We ate in the Stables Brassiere and the food was lovely. I do feel the bar food menu in the hotel has room for improvement and service in the bar is hit and miss at times. My spa treatment with Annalise was outstanding — genuinely one of the best I’ve had. I would return just for that experience alone! A big thank you as well to the team for the lovely glass of bubbles after my treatment — such a thoughtful touch. We did encounter a few issues initially due to some miscommunications and service issues. The way the team handled everything truly made the difference. The staff went above and beyond to rectify the situation and turned what could have been a frustrating experience into a genuinely five-star stay. A very special mention must go to Raluca at reception, who assisted us at checkout. I only wish she had been there to check us in! She is an absolute asset to the hotel — bubbly, professional, and incredibly attentive. Her warmth and efficiency left a lasting impression, and she is honestly the reason I would consider returning in the future. Thank you for ensuring we left on such a positive note.

My wife and I stayed in the Sheen Falls last Friday night March 28th.We arrived at 15.15 and checked in we received a warm welcome and we were shown to our nice room. We booked an evening meal for 19.00 in the Falls Restaurant. We visited the leisure centre for a swim and sauna once again the staff were friendly and informative. We returned to our room to freshen up before our evening meal and decided we would have an aperitif in the bar before dinner. We arrived in the bar at 18.25 and sat by the fire and waited to be attended to. Two barmen were on duty at the time and they were chatting behind the bar, we waited patiently. There were six customers in the lounge at this time. Eventually at 18.45 a staff member came to us and asked us if we would like to order a drink, we ordered two gin and tonics. A further wait ensued and at 19.05 not wanting to be late for our dinner reservation, and not having received our gin and tonics, we decided to go to the Falls restaurant. We went to the two barmen and told them to cancel the gin and tonics as they had not still been poured. This is not five-star service or even related to it. We were shown to our table at the restaurant and we met with our waiter George who was friendly and very helpful. We ordered our meal and a bottle of wine. Our starters arrived I had the lobster my wife went for the ravioli. My starter was disappointing as the lobster was tough and tasteless the ravioli was also described as lukewarm and tasteless and poorly presented. Our main courses were no better we both had the lamb. The lamb was small in portion and lacking in flavour the shoulder of lamb presented was not edible. The pureed potatoes were lukewarm at best. The deserts and coffee were acceptable. We both left the table disappointed and not satisfied. This is not five-star food or even related to it. In the morning we were advised to go to the restaurant before 09.30 as we were advised it gets busy after that, strange advice to be given in a five-star hotel I thought to myself. We arrived at the restaurant at 08.40 and were shown to our table, the server asked if we would like tea or coffee, we both order americanos, ten minutes later a pot of tea was delivered to the table.!! We re ordered the coffees and 15 minutes later they arrived. My wife then ordered the mini-Irish breakfast and I ordered the scramble eggs and smoked salmon and I asked for some white toasted bread also.Ten minutes later the breakfasts arrived the scrambled egg was luke warm and no toast arrived. The mini-irish was not freshly cooked and was also lukewarm and had all the appearance of food which had been under warming lamps. We both do not like buffet breakfasts and this is a reason for booking a hotel that supposedly cooks the breakfast on demand. I eventually got the attention of a server and asked for my previously ordered toast as my eggs and salmon were eaten at this stage. The toast arrived eventually, the server said they were very busy, which is hardly an excuse for very poor service, and at this stage the restaurant was only half full. We had planned on staying in the Sheen Falls until late afternoon on the Saturday and to have lunch in the Stables, but we both agreed that we did not need anymore disappointments so we grabbed our belongings and checked out immediately after breakfast. I took the time to write a letter of complaint to the General Manager and I am still waiting for a reply from him

We have just returned home after another gorgeous stay at Sheen Falls. We first visited the hotel 10 years ago for a wedding and fell in love with the place. The old world charm, the ability to achieve 5 star service while maintaining a friendliness and informality that means guests feel completely at home. Our beautiful room, the amazing staff like Maia at reception, John and Monica in the stable brasserie, Nikki in the spa and Joyce the horse riding instructor all went above and beyond to make it a perfect stay for our family. With a two and six year old in tow it’s testament to their amazing service that we returned home relaxed and revitalised. Thank you all so much, Fiona and Brian Rickard

We chose Sheen Falls Lodge to celebrate my wife’s ‘big birthday.’ Based on recent high-profile awards and the Relais and Chateaux membership, how could we go wrong? Let’s not lose sight of the fact that this is a beautiful part of the world and the scenery is stunning. And we did enjoy our stay. We simply write to highlight some shortcomings that may help you with your expectations. I also hope that our comments inspire the hotel to improve in areas that are relatively simple to resolve. Our first impressions were great. We were greeted by a friendly young Irish porter who took our cases and showed us to reception. And he was one of very few Irish people that we encountered during our stay. Sheen Falls Lodge is a beautiful hotel in Ireland with almost no Irish staff. This isn’t to say that the staff were all bad, but there was certainly not the warm Irish charm (or ‘craic’) that we have enjoyed across in similar Irish hotels. On arrival, the receptionist was proficient but, frankly, unfriendly. And during the long walk to our room, her only words of wisdom were that we had the biggest room in the hotel, and she also told us about the breakfast times. On arriving in the room, no attempt was made to show us how the heating, lighting etc worked. The Falls Suite is an amazing room with an excellent view over the falls, two balconies and a very large, separate living area. It is worth noting that there is a large fridge, but it is not stocked as a minibar. Furthermore, my wife’s family had kindly ordered champagne for our arrival. Although the card was there, the champagne was sadly absent. Let’s talk about our dining experiences. We arrived at the hotel around 1pm and went for a light lunch to the bar at around 2pm. Although it wasn’t particularly busy, it took half an hour for two bowls of soup to arrive. And I suspect it could have taken longer had we not chased them. We had the 4 Hands Tasting menu on our first night. We arrived at 7.30pm and it took an hour for the first course to arrive. Given that everyone was eating from the same menu, we though that it would be easy to speed things up a bit; but apparently not. We finally left before the last course arrived. It was late and we were tired of waiting. The next morning, we arrived for breakfast at 10am (ok, that’s quite late) but they could not find a table for us until 10.30am. We were asked to wait on a windowsill in the buffet area, and it became clear that they had forgotten about us while showing others to their tables. The most irritating thing was that there were empty tables, but the staff were not re-setting them with any sense of urgency. And in each of these three experiences, the staff were not particularly friendly and certainly not Irish. All that having been said, the food is very good when it eventually arrives. On our last night we went to the Stables restaurant which was a lot better. Friendly, attentive staff, good food and good service. So much better than the main hotel! Also worth noting that the hotel offers lifts to Kenmare free of charge. But they do not volunteer that information. We only found out from a local taxi driver who asked us why we weren’t using the service. And finally, as we left. I pushed our cases from the lift to the door of the hotel and past the watching doormen who didn’t think to ask if we needed help. I really didn’t need help, but it was a very unusual experience for a 5-star hotel. So, there it is. A factual account of some shortcoming in this hotel. It should be an amazing place to stay but you may have to fight for the service that you should reasonably expect at the prices they charge.

Amazing location and amazing food! It was the best meal we have ever had and we've eaten in other Michelin star venues. Fantastic attention to detail and a great service by all staff. Lovely pool and Spa as well.