Indian Ocean Carrickfergus

I fell in love with Indian cuisine during my stay in South Shields. I lived there for about 3 years and you literally couldn't move in the place without tripping over a curry house. I was a reluctant Indian convert at first sticking to European dishes and milder flavoured food. However almost ten years on and the fussy eating habits have well and truly left me. I now try and experience as much different food as possible. Now living back home in Ireland im still a big fan of Indian Food and one of my favourite Indian restaurants is the Indian Ocean in Carrickfergus

Location

The Indian Ocean is located off the Belfast Road in Carrickfergus. It's pretty much on the way into Carrick from Belfast located next to the fortfields garage complex. If you didn't know it was there is could be easily missed however it is a decent sized restaurant.

Opening Hours

The restaurant is open Monday to Friday 12 - 2 for lunch and 5- 11 Monday to Sat for evening meals. It's also opened 5 to 10 on Sundays.

My opinion

Over the past number of years I have eaten here on numerous occasions and I have always found the staff to be friendly and courteous. The service is very prompt and I have never been left waiting to long on my food. Overall the food is excellent and I would highly recommend to anyone.

The Indian Ocean has expanded to take on an extra restraint at the Odyssey Complex in Belfast. This is a prime site as the Odyssey is considered to be Northern Ireland's premier entertainment complex. With this being such a prime site they obviously have very high over heads. I only mention this because I notice the restaurant in Carrickfergus has higher prices when compared to other Indian restaurants in the town. To me there is no real reason that the prices should not be around the same level as the competition other than the fact that they have a large restaurant in a prime location that's probably costing them a lot of money. Sadly as a result of this each time I have eaten in the Indian Ocean in Carrickfergus it has been very quiet and on two occasions our party has been the only diners.

Although I cannot be sure about the Carrick branch I remember ordering a drink in the Odyssey restaurant. I got a pint bottle of Cobra Beer. This was about 3 years ago but what struck me then was that the drink set me back four pounds. Ok this might not seem so bad now but four years ago as a student this was a phenomenal amount. This experience has always left me with the mindset that the Indian Ocean is an expensive place to eat and drink.

Although I really like eating here my overall view of the restaurant having just reviewed it is that it's a bit too dear. The extra prices just don't seem justified when there are other just as nice if not nicer (certainly newer) Indian restaurants which are serving food at a more competitive rate.

Overall the foods nice and the staff are very good so dining here is a nice experience. Personally I would like to see them match the competition in terms of prices certainly in the Carrickfergus branch at least.