When the Castlebar opened it was popular with me & my friends, for 3 reasons; The food, it had a large, covered (& I'm fairly sure illegal) smoking area, & the service was good, particularly the table service. Sadly, only two of these 3 selling points remains..Over the past couple of months the standard of service has deteriorated markedly, & it has become nigh on impossible to get a drink directly from the bar, with the bar staff actually making a point of ignoring you.The only way to get a drink is to open a tab. However the quality of the table service from the overworked & I suspect bullied bar staff has become so bad that this isn't really a viable option. Tabs are lost, items are erroneously added to the bill on a regular basis & waiting times of 15-20 minutes for a single drink are standard (often resulting in the wrong drink).Most often these sorts of problems are a direct result of bad management, & this seems to be the case at the Castlebar.The last time I went (a Saturday night) I was, as usual, forced to open a tab for just two drinks. After a 45 MINUTE wait, I finally got the attention of the bar maid, who admitted that she had forgotten our order, & that the bar was now closed (11pm; Castlebar is open until 1am). If I wanted my drinks I had to speak to the manager..I finally managed to locate the manager buried amongst a crowd of his employees (he is a good foot shorter than any one of them) & was told, aggressively, that the bar had closed. After explaining the situation he pointed at each of his staff in turn & asked them if they remembered serving me, ignoring their replies & basically calling me a liar; at which point the barmaid had to openly contradict him with the truth. I was then told, like a child, to go back to my seat & wait for my drinks.After a further 25 MIN wait I was served my drinks, without apology, forced to down them and then ushered out.To sum up then. Overcrowded, overpriced and badly managed. *AVOID*

Excellent Service and Food, the selection available is very wide from snacks to a full three course meal all freshly cooked.
After just moving to the area really love this freindly bar and will now use as my local.

Mightily impressed with The Castlebar. I tried Toulouse Sausages and Mashed Potatoes with Red Wine and Onion Jus from the lunch menu and have to say it was very good indeed, especially for the money.


The staff at The Castlebar were also friendly, helpful and polite which made a huge difference.


Overall, I found The Castlebar an excellent choice and shall be returning.