The Smugglers Inn

My wife and I held our wedding reception at The Smugglers in July. We live in Australia, therefore communication and experience was key to us putting on a successful reception, all organisation was done via email or phone calls from the other side of the world. Having worked in hospitality for 16 years managing restaurants on 5 star island resorts, 6 star cruise ships and stand alone restaurants, I find it very easy to spot experience and quality.

After enjoying a casual lunch at The Smugglers a few years earlier whilst visiting relatives in Waterville I was familiar with the setting and layout of the restaurant. From the initial quoting stage, to receiving menus, nothing was trouble for Lucille and her manager, Sue. They were by far the most accommodating and professional to deal with out of the three venues that we shortlisted.

We chose to chop and change menu options and also chose wines from the main winelist - nothing was a problem, their flexibility was excellent and very welcome. Our big day at The Smugglers was perfect, we imported the Australian sun for the day, meaning that our entire party could enjoy the beautiful grass area overlooking the bay for pre-dinner drinks.
Now, for one of the most important aspects of the event as far as I'm concerned - the food. Henry, Lucille's son and Executive Chef, absolutely excelled, every dish that came out of the kitchen was perfect, you know when the food is good when you see your guests photos months after the event and many of them are shots of the food - even our photographer (which we chose to feed) commented that it was the best food that she had ever enjoyed at a wedding - even she took photos of the food! I was particularly happy to see some of our guests sitting at The Smugglers the next day having lunch and drinking the same wine that we served at the wedding - a great endorsement of the quality of The Smugglers given that they were the fussiest of our Australian guests!

The service that we received on the night was excellent, water and wine glasses were always topped up, food was timely, in fact I find it very hard to think of anything negative, and for that matter, why bother trying to find a negative - the whole thing was pretty much perfect!

We stayed the night upstairs at The Smugglers after a very late finish to the wedding in a lovely room which had a stunning view over the ocean.

Thank you to Lucille, Sue and Henry and all of your staff for making our day as successful and as memorable as it was. Many of our Australian friends continue to comment on just how good the food was and now benchmark all weddings that they go to against ours - we haven't been beaten yet, not that that was what we set out to do, we just wanted to put on a cracking party and that's exactly what we got.

We had an amazing day at the Smugglers for our wedding and I would recommend this excellent venue to anyone planning a mid-sized wedding in South Kerry. We had 120 extremely happy guests that had both a wonderful and unique experience. The food was incredible and a couple of years later our family and friends still reference the delicious meal. The venue itself creates a really intimate atmosphere due to its design and the beautiful views looking out towards Ballinskelligs Bay. Lucille, Henry and the team couldn't have looked after us more, they were warm, friendly and very professional. We are delighted we choose the Smugglers as our wedding venue, the venue was paramount to the unique experience we wanted for our guests and we love going back for a meal every summer to reminisce on what was a really special day for us.