IN THE SPIRIT OF BOURBON

BOURBON
60 Victoria Street
Belfast
BT2 7BB
028 9033 2121
www.bourbonrestaurant.com

DILEMMA. Strange city, lack of knowledge, don’t want to take a cab
or walk too far, seeking city centre but looking for quality food at a decent price.
So, what do you do? Ask the locals, of course, then consider your options. That’s exactly what I did in Belfast.
I’ve been there before briefly on business and know of The Crown Bar, one of the oldest and most loved landmarks in Belfast, just across from the Europa Hotel.
The Irish stew and Guinness is sensational at The Crown, but that is not what we were looking for. However, we did retire there later.
Bourbon came up on the radar as a possible and so we booked for a party of four, all with different likes and dislikes. The spring/summer menu seemed to fit all tastes.
It could not have been handier, just across the road from the four-star Europa and places were available – but not many.
That’s a good recommendation on a Wednesday night during a recession with Spain playing Germany in the World Cup as a counter attraction.
I’m aware that Belfast is in Northern Ireland and they were not in the World Cup, but Scotland and Wales didn’t make it either and England didn’t last long. However, there is general interest in the football.
So, what of the selection? There were 13 starter options and the roast tomato and red pepper soup, olive oil and croutons stood out for me. It was absolutely brilliant and the portion was enormous.
Grilled garlic Portobello mushrooms, pepper gapon cheese gratin also proved popular with two of my colleagues and the crisp goats cheese and Iberico ham pizza with creamed roquette salad was another winner.
On to the main course. Casserole of spring lamb Irish stew, early vegetabes and Guinness wheaten was attractive and caused much discussion. I’d eaten Irish stew earlier so I side-stepped that option.
The 12 other options had my colleagues silent for some time while they picked.
Grilled sea bass on a casserole of white beans, chorizo and tomato was selected by two of us. Both John and I loved the look and taste of the dish.
The chorizo provided extra flavour but the fish was not overpowered by the sauce. The triple cooked hand-cut chips were a delight.
The Irish Angus beefburger with baby gem tomato and Cashel Blue mayo plus triple cooked chips also went down extremely well.
And there were no complaints about the crisp local Fermanagh pork belly, roast apples, carrot puree and Calvados sauce.
Not surprisingly, nobody could find a place for dessert. And the overall impression? Extremely favourable.