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Here are some of the nice things said about Copper.
Copper Restaurant
Just off the diamond in the centre of Warrenpoint, Neil Bradley and Sarah Meaney’s appealing restaurant lies
behind a smart understated façade.
Inside, there’s a bar and a fine high-ceilinged dining room, with
tables welcomingly set up with classic white linen and all the nice little touches that convey a quality feeling.
Neil is an extremely strong advocate of local food: his fish is bought straight off the boat at Kilkeel Harbour, his herbs
and vegetables are from Lurganconary Organic Farm at Kilkeel, and naturally reared beef and pork for the restaurant come from
the nearby Narrow Water Castle Farm…thus the building blocks of good food are in place and, if you add the magic ingredient
of seriously good cooking by a talented and dedicated chef, it is no surprise that this delightful restaurant should be on
so many customers’ list of favourites.
A range of imaginative but admirably concise set menus is offered
(lunch, early dinner, vegetarian) as well as a more extensive à la carte; typically delicious summer offerings might
include starters using vegetables, herbs and local fish in season such as fresh pea risotto with local ham & mint or spiced
mackerel fillets with orange & rhubarb salad, possibly followed by a great meat dish like char grilled Narrow Water sirloin
with dauphinoise potatoes & chili butter, or cumin roast lamb with potato gnocchi & aubergine.
Finish,
perhaps, with an unusual dessert like vanilla mousse with crushed strawberries and vanilla sherbert…
The
vegetarian menu is equally appealing, and also an 8-course Tasting Menu (£35) available for whole tables, which offers
exceptional value.
Everything served here is delicious, but the underlying reason for this restaurant’s
success is that it is so customer-friendly – all menus offer extremely good value and, where possible, flexibility too;
an interesting wine list is very fairly priced and, not only is service charming and efficient under Sarah’s direction,
but she keeps in constant contact with customers throughout the year, offering special dining deals that entice people back.
And, once through the door, Neil and Sarah ensure an enjoyable – perhaps memorable - experience, at a fair
price.
Well worth a detour.
*A daytime Copper Cafe is now open at the Newry Museum.
Taken from Georgina Campbells Ireland Guide
Copper restaurant Warrenpoint has
been selected as a regional finalist in the 2008 UKTV "Food heroes" awards.
Neil Bradley,
Head Chef & Owner of Copper Restaurant, Copper Cafe & Copper Catering was announced as finalist in the 2008 "Best
young business person award" section.
Copper
won the highly prestigious "Nothern Ireland Tourist Board award for Hospitality 2008"
The judges said "the
Copper restaurant opened in December 2004 and is now firmly established as a popular restaurant for both locals and visitors". Judges scored Copper highly for the excellent presentation of food and the friendly
and knowledgeable staff who “smiled as if they really loved their jobs”.
Copper has been selected for inclusion in the highley respected Michelin Guide
for 2007 and 2008
In it's first year Copper has enhanced the reputations of its' owners
- chef Neil Bradley & manager Sarah Meaney. The atmosphere is relaxed, the waiting staff friendly and attentive,
and the food a crisp mix of classic French with bits of Asian, Irish and Italian thrown in. Ingredients are mainly sourced locally
and the menus change every month - there's even an attractive and interesting vegetarian menu. This is relaxed and
fun dining. And being in county down diners can still (for the time being at least) enjoy a cigar at the bar with a
fine port or whiskey afterwards. The web keeps diners up to date with the restaurants menu, special offers and other
activities. There's a fun blog site as well. Upside: a
really welcoming atmosphere. Downside: booking advisable. Taken from "the definitive Guide to Irelands Best Restaurants, EatOut 2006"
On Sat Jun24th myself and 3 others booked a table in copper, I had heard lots of good reports and
was keen to try it out. I can honestly say I have never had a better meal or better service in a restaurant. The food
was superb and all 4 of us are fussy eaters. It was a real treat from start to finish, with all the little extras, the
home made breads and the hand made chocolates. We are still raving about it. Keep up the good work.
Una Barron.
hi there, four of us came to the Copper restaurant on Sunday evening, it was the best evening ever, we'd never been before,
but the food was amazing, the service we got was exceptional. the atmosphere was brilliant, the girl that served us just couldn't
do enough to make our evening special. we are definitely coming again as it was
just such an amazing evening. also
i had a play on the piano, which made the evening, i have always wanted to play the piano in a restaurant and i had a bit
of a play, it wasn't brill as i'd no music, as i can never remember songs, but it was a gorgeous piano to play. so thankyou again, for a fabulous evening. Ariane Evans
I enjoyed
a really beautiful meal with my husband in your restaurant and returned recently with female friends for lunch, we received
as good of service for the lunch as we did for the diner, with complimentary bread rolls and sweets. Would highly recommend
your restaurant. L. McArdle Warrenpoint
On the 31st May 2006 Copper won the Best New Business Award at the Greater Newry area business awards!
Belfast Telegraph Home > Lifestyle > Food & Drink
A
tantalising tale of the unexpected
Eating: Copper 4, Duke Street, Warrenpoint, Co Down & 4175 3047
03 March 2006
You know how it is; one glance at the menu and you can tell right away if you're going to have a
good night or not. Sometimes it's deep-fried brie for starters and surf 'n' turf for mains and the spirits slump.
Then again, sometimes reading the a la carte is like wandering into an episode of Tales of the Unexpected, and spirits soar.
After a quick browse over the list of dishes on offer in Copper, our spirits were in the stratosphere and heading
for earth orbit.
Too often there's only one thing that stands out in an otherwise bog-standard menu, or worse
still, there's about 50 dishes listed and every one of them is tediously predictable. What a delight, then, to discover
a menu like that at Copper where you want to try everything offered and have to take ages narrowing it down to just one choice.
The food here is an exciting collision of Mediterranean and Asian influences, where good meat and fish is often
just given a simple roasting or grilling and the real sparkle goes into the accompanying locally-sourced vegetables. So, for
example, you get a nice piece of seabass as a starter, but the main features of the salad that goes with it are orange and
rhubarb, or you choose lamb for a main course and it comes roasted quite simply with a few herbs plus mustard-crusted potatoes
and basil braised vegetables on the side.
Needless to say, all this temptation caused us some agonising, but after
some spirited horse-trading about who would have what, we agreed that my wife would have the artichoke and Roquefort pizza
for starters, followed by grilled salmon with fennel gnocchi and braised salsify, while I would tackle the pork and noodle
hotpot to begin with and duck breast with sweet potato mash and shitake dumplings for main course.
I'm glad
to say the food was just as fabulous as the menu promised. Topping a mini pizza with sharp, tangy Roquefort is the perfect
way to lighten what could easily have been a heavy starter, while the pork and noodle hotpot was a lively broth buzzing with
Asian signatures of coriander, ginger, and spring onion.
Both the salmon and duck had been treated well in the
kitchen; the salmon grilled just to the point where there's a slight stickiness abut the skin, and the duck left pink
inside but with its deep, dark flavour coaxed out. More Asian influences accompanied the duck - rich, earthy shitake mushroom
dumplings and green beans flavoured with soy sauce and ginger, plus a perky sweet potato mash to offset the saltiness. The
salmon's bedfellows were carefully calculated not to overpower the fish - braised salsify (how often do you see that on
a menu?), dainty little fennel gnocchi, whose aniseed flavour was perhaps too subtle for its own good, and a light lemon butter.
The problem of what to choose for dessert was solved when my wife ordered Copper's dessert plate, which has
a little sample of all five puddings on offer - Turkish delight panna cotta, pineapple upside-down cake, warm chocolate cake,
mango cheesecake and strawberry and champagne jelly - all excellent and freshly made on the premises.
I opted
for the cheese plate, a lovely selection of Irish favourites like Durrus, Ardrahan and Cashel Blue served at room temperature.
The quality of the food alone is enough to ensure a place Copper on anyone's To Do list of eating-out spots,
but what really makes it a must-visit is the extra little touches, that all-too-rare attention to detail that elevates a good
dining experience into the realms of the truly special.
The tables are adorned with crisp white linen and fresh
flowers, the menus are elegantly produced, the staff are unfailingly courteous, attentive and knowledgeable, there's an
excellent vegetarian menu, a cigar menu (though smoking is only permitted at the bar, not in the restaurant), and in addition
to the food we ordered we were presented with appetisers of an espresso cup filled with a tomato and basil consommé
and a freshly baked bread roll with roasted onion and a grinding of salt, black pepper and Szechuan pepper to sprinkle over
the top, plus a plate of home-prepared petit fours to enjoy with our coffee at the end.
And the most surprising
thing about all of this is that our three-course meal with all those little extras cost just £23.50 per head, minus
coffee and wine. I can honestly say I've paid twice that for meals I've only enjoyed half as much.
One
final note: the layout of Copper is ideally suited for diners with mobility problems - everything is at street level, there's
plenty of space between tables and a disabled toilet is provided.
Gary Law
Artichoke and Roquefort
pizza
Pork and noodle hotpot
Duck breast with sweet potato mash
Grilled salmon with fennel
gnocchi
Dessert plate
Cheese plate
£23.50 per person
Bottle of Shiraz-Cabernet
£14
Americano £1.50
Espresso £1.20
TOTAL £63.70
Menu OOOO
Service OOOO
Value OOOO
Disabled OOOO
Décor OOO
Parking OO
Ratings:
Excellent OOOO
Good OOO
Average OO
Poor O
Taken from Belfast Telegraph Friday 3rd March
2006
Copper Georgina Campbell
seeks refuge on a rainy Monday afternoon, and finds it along with comforting food and a warm County Down welcome. If
a reviewer walking in the door on a wet Monday lunchtime sounds like a restaurateur’s idea of hell, spare a thought
for Neil Bradley and Sarah Meaney. After working in well-known Belfast restaurants like Cayenne and Ta
Tu Bar & Grill (where Neil was head chef), Neil and Sarah opened their own smart new south County Down restaurant, Copper
just before Christmas. We selected a corner table with a commanding view of all the comings and goings,
welcomingly set up with classic white linen, fresh flowers, proper salt & pepper mills and a jug of iced water with fruit
in it – nice little touches, all giving out the right messages. The lunch menu was short and to the
point (bravo!) with five main courses offered, plus a soup: but the (quite extensive) a la carte menu was also offered.
Seeming determined to send customers away happy if at all possible, there was no problem ordering something not quite
on the menu. Portions were generous, and there was no need for any extra side orders. A highly enjoyable
meal and delightful service. Lucky south Down – another great choice for the discerning diners, and
well worth a detour. Verdict “A welcome addition to south Down’s burgeoning dining scene” Taken from “food
& wine magazine” June 2005
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Great site, good job the food is just as good, visited last saturday, everything was brilliant, pass this on to your Staff
http://www.copperrestaurant.blogspot.com/Regards