Bushmills Taste Trail spotlight on delicious sweet bakes and festival specials!

The Bushmills Salmon and Whiskey Festival Saturday, 15th, and Sunday, 16th of October 2022, is the perfect excuse for local businesses to get their creative culinary juices flowing and come up with a delicious range of festival-themed food for you to enjoy as you make your way around the village. 

Planning is key to allowing yourself time to enjoy what is on offer. Weather watchers need not worry as the businesses are all indoor venues, several with live music to enjoy! Read our blog for a taste of a few of our local foodie businesses and what you can expect to enjoy this weekend.

Lorna's Kitchen 

Lorna kitchen in the heart of the village is the place to visit for a flavour of traditional north coast food. Lorna heads to her kitchen at the crack of dawn to ensure that customers are served the freshest selection of firm favourites. Freshly baked scones, tray bakes, her legendary fry ‘The Big 1’, made-to-order omelettes with your choice of filling are just a few of the popular all-day breakfast options. Classics include Irish stew, warming soups with homemade wheaten bread and a wide selection of sandwiches, paninis, goujons, burgers and much more!

Available to sit in or take away, Lorna’s Kitchen is a warm and cosy café with a big heart! Over the Bushmills salmon and whiskey festival, you must try Lorna’s very popular signature salmon dish, ‘Kitchen Salmon’, a pan-seared salmon cooked in delicious lemon butter, served with baby-boiled potatoes and hollandaise sauce.

Bilberry Mill

Located in the centre of Bushmills, this light and airy café showcasing stunning local art is a firm favourite, with its outside tables being one of the hottest seats in town! Bilberry Mill is dog friendly and has a special menu for your furry friends. This hard-working team includes talented bakers that bake a mouth-watering range of delicious bread, savouries, scones, decadent desserts, and tray bakes every morning to enjoy in-house or to take away. Expect a delicious and varied menu of freshly prepared food. Favourites include daily lunch specials, sandwiches, toasties, paninis, burgers and all the daytime dishes designed to refuel a trip to the Giants Causeway or recharge the batteries on a lunch break from work or a much-needed catch-up with friends.

Over the festival weekend, you must try their Eggs Benedict with Smoked Salmon, lightly poached eggs topped with buttery hollandaise sauce. It is absolutely delicious and can be enjoyed at any time of the day. A full extensive barista-style menu is available, along with a wide variety of hot and cold drinks.

Mike's Coffee Shop

This family-run café has been operating in the village for 40 years, a firm favourite with visitors and locals alike.  Their substantial Ulster Fry is legendary, sustaining visitors from across the globe before they head off to explore the beautiful  Causeway Coast. The extensive menu includes daily specials – well worth checking out, including the ever-popular Fish of the Day.  With its superb location on The Diamond, the outside seating and open and airy glass frontage allow customers to take advantage of its position when the sun is out. The perfect place to watch the world go by, whether it be a coffee and scone or a delicious dish inspired by the Cochrane's travels!

Over the festival weekend, you can try one of their themed specials, such as the fresh grilled salmon.

Market Square

A relatively new kid on the block Market Square is a licensed café restaurant housed in the historic trading market established in 1827. Neil Campbell and his energetic team offer seasonal dishes featuring a range of local produce, many of which are from the Taste Causeway collaborative. A popular breakfast, brunch and lunch venue offering an extensive range of dishes and specials.  Reviewers rave about their MSQ Burger, Californian sourdough open prawn and Donegal Benny, to namecheck a few! Market Square is fully licensed and well stocked with local beers from Lacada, a great selection of wines and a cocktail list ready for Bushmills sundowners!  During the festival weekend, there will be whiskey and salmon-themed specials on the go, including a Smoked Salmon Terrine – Hot smoked salmon mousse wrapped in thinly sliced smoked salmon /Green House Brothers micro herbs/ lemon infused Broighter Gold rapeseed oil/ Bushmills whiskey pickleback vegetables and a selection of whiskey inspired cocktails and the world-famous Irish coffees. There will be live music on Saturday, 15th October, 12 -1pm with Geoff Gatt and his Ukelele and 5-7pm, with Cahir McLaughlin.

Lily's at The Diamond 

Adjacent to the clock tower, Lily’s superb location offers a bird’s eye view of the village from its cosy first-floor seating area. Serving a wide range of hot and cold beverages, breakfast, lunch and sweet treats such as freshly baked scones, tray bakes and pastries. A firm favourite with locals and visitors, you can pop in and choose your preferred filling for your sandwich, toastie or panini to enjoy to take-away or sit-in.  Lily’s always embraces the theme of the Salmon & whiskey festival. The girls will be featuring a Whiskey infused scone, Whiskey wheaten which can be served with their popular and ever-changing Soup of the day or try their Whiskey cupcake washed down with an Irish cream-flavoured iced coffee.

Wish upon a cake

 The story behind Wish Upon a Cake is the stuff of fairy tales. Boy meets girl, and she happens to be an incredibly talented and hard-working baker! The rest is history, albeit pretty recent history. Natasha McKendry honed her skills at her grandmother's side, started her first bakery in Gortin just outside Omagh and has now opened a second shop in her husband Chris's home town of Bushmills. In fact, she now calls it home too! This close-knit family business has a popular retail range of treat bags in many shops and cafes around the province and is working hard to expand its range and customer base over the coming months. Wish upon a cake is the go-to place for special occasion cakes. Located beside The Cods Way, Wish upon a cake offers a mouth-dropping counter full of Natasha's sweet treats and bakes, ice creams, milkshakes and coffees to take-away. Over the Salmon and Whiskey festival weekend,  don't leave without trying their festival-themed Chocolate whiskey cake served with a salted caramel sauce.

The Cod's Way

Famous along the “Cod’s Way” coast, the Cod's Way is a sit-in version of its sister take-out, the multi-award winning Hip Chip. Enjoy a relaxed, family-friendly atmosphere for breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner, where walk-ins are welcome, and there is a  BYO option.  Famous for its freshly prepared produce and superb fish, particularly “Cod and Scamp', battered in their own special recipe. The menu changes with the seasons. Other favourites include their hand-crafted pastie stuffed with local beef, potatoes, and fresh herbs with their own secret additions and the Bush Stack with traditional potato bread stacked with sausage, bacon and egg.   Follow their Facebook page for opening hours and menu updates. Music by Geoff Gatt and his Ukelele 2-3 pm.

 For the current programme (subject to weather and last minute change) see Bushmills Salmon and Whiskey Festival 2022 (bushmillsbanquet.com).

Thank you for supporting local businesses!