This hotel is beyond charming. Beautiful buildings, gorgeous grounds, and the air of a real Irish estate. Dan, the proprietor, could not have been more delightful and helpful. His years as an award-winning restauranteur was made evident in the care he took in getting us settled and seeing to our every need.

Our suite had a downstairs sitting room with fireplace and kitchen, with two beautifully decorated bedrooms upstairs. Perfect for a family with two teen-aged children.

The restaurant was first class; we ate dinner there twice and had excellent meals both times. Local ingredients are key to the food prep, much of it grown in their own garden. The breakfast was not your usual "full Irish breakfast" but featured such homey touches as home-grown stewed rhubarb, freshly-baked scones and hand made poached eggs.

The tiny town of Ballingarry was an excellent base to explore Adare and the surrounding countryside. We had the misfortune to have an accident with our rental car, and the staff at the Mustard Seed were extremely helpful, sending faxes and taking phone calls as we sorted out the details.

We can heartily recommend The Mustard Seed -- those who have given it less-than-sterling ratings on this website surely must have caught them on a very off day, or stayed somewhere else. Our experience was outstanding.

The Mustard Seed Inn at Echo Lodge was our final stop before heading back home and it was the perfect way to end our vacation in Ireland. The Inn is located in the quaint village of Ballingarry, which is just a short drive to Adare.

Dan (owner) is a very friendly and accommodating host. We also found the staff to be the same.

Our room was nicely furnished and comfortable.

Dinner was superb. One of their dessert choices was freshly harvested black currants (from their own organic garden) in crème brulee, ice cream and as a sauce on chocolate cake. Delicious!

We would absolutely recommend the Mustard Seed Inn to any of our family and friends and hope to return some day.

What is everyone carrying on over? This place was a noisy overpriced dump with an extremely rude staff. It took us almost 30 minutes to get anyone's attention to check us in. We had to go into the kitchen to find someone and then one of the cook's snarled at us. But, truly, beware the noise! You can hear every word, whisper, and footstep. We were awakened in the middle of the night by some druken guest saying good night to the owner downstairs. The walls were so thin, it could have been happening in our room. Stay somewhere else!

We had the pleasure of staying the first two nights of our holiday at Echo Lodge. It was an easy drive from Shannon airport. Our large room was in the front of the house, so beautifully decorated with antiques. Our bedding was extremely comfortable, and the house was very quiet at night for sleeping. The house is very well kept up and clean. The grounds are lovely, we enjoyed walking through the gardens and viewing the herbs and vegetable garden and the chicken coop. The meals were unbeatable, very creative and delicious, we enjoyed dinner both nights. The menu was the same for both nights. Breakfast was bountiful and fresh. We enjoyed sitting by the fire at night before going into the dining room for our dinner. The hosts are very cordial and helpful. Location is good for touring Dingle, or playing golf in Adare, but otherwise it is somewhat remote for day trips. There are many groups of tourists and some locals that come in from other locations for dinner, as the Mustard Seed is known for its great dining, so some of the intimacy of a traditional manor house is lost on that point.