I’m in Belfast for a couple of nights. Arrived yesterday evening. Staying in a B&B off Botanic Avenue near Queen’s University. I worked in Northern Ireland more than 20 years ago and spent a reasonable time in Belfast during that time. Man, the scene has really changed between now and then. Everything seems more vibrant and so many diverse places to eat.
We walked around Botanic Avenue looking into the windows of different restaurants. We decided to step into Cafe Arirang (32 Botanic Ave, Belfast BT7 1JQ) which is a Korean ‘mom and pop’ style cafe, very basic but seemed quite busy. Cash or bank transfer only (this seemed to be the case in several of the smaller establishments we looked at). We got an order of tteokbokki (called topoki on their menu) and two orders of dumplings,one steamed and one fried. Paid the £28 total upfront in cash. The dumplings came with a small saucer of what seemed like a mix of soy sauce and rice wine vinegar. My son asked for some chilli sauce - he was handed a small saucer of what looked to me like gochujang - he added the soy rice wine mix to make the paste more like a sauce. Dumplings were well made - six large ones to an order. Skins were thin and silky. I inhaled my steamed ones immediately and forgot to take a photo! These are the fried ones:
This was the tteokbokki/topoki. It was reasonably spicy, and had some thin translucent noodles as well as cabbage and carrot and a hardboiled egg. The rice cakes had a good texture, better than anything we’ve managed at home with packaged tteokbokki.
The menu looked very extensive and interesting. We weren’t that hungry so couldn’t sample other things we were interested in like the kimbap or panjeon. Photos of the menu (sorry for poor quality, it was paper stuck on the curved surface of a cabinet.
The lighting in the restaurant was very dim (I’ve had to enhance all the photos on my phone to make them better visible) - half of the lightbulbs in the place didn’t seem to be working. On our way out we saw a notice on the door thanking their customers and saying the cafe will be closing down next year (maybe that’s why they haven’t bothered replacing the lightbulbs or the drinks fridge that was not working). Presumably mom and pop wish to retire and the kids probably have professional degrees and not interested in keeping this little place going. We’re glad to have sampled this place before it’s gone. Never thought I’d be eating tteokbokki in Belfast!
The apple and sea salt flavours were the ones we were most interested in. There were two ladies in the queue before us. One lady asked the counter guy about the sea salt flavoured one: “Is it, like, salty?” “Aye”. This conversation playing out in Belfast accents was quite interesting to me. We asked for a taste of the salt one and the counter man handed us a fairly large taste on a metal spoon - it was like a salted milk flavour, no big vanilla or caramel flavours, mainly the salt coming through against a more muted sweetness. My son got one scoop of sea salt and one scoop of apple and I got one scoop of Baileys and one scoop of apple. The apple flavour was really a sorbet but very appley and refreshing. A few ice shards here and there - oh well. The Baileys was too muted for me - not a hint of booziness. But went fine with the apple. Servings were quite large. Next time I’d get just one scoop!
Interesting rendition. I’ve never seen tteokbokki served with noodles before. Also interesting that one can order jjajangmyun over rice rather than noodles.
Happy that mom and pop can retire.
PS My autocorrect tried to change that to “trombonist.” It obviously doesn’t know me very well.
I’ve never come across a Korean menu as extensive as this near where I live in England. I’m sure London’s Korean enclave New Malden has spots which have top notch Korean cuisine.
The customers here were a mixture of young Koreans (who were conversing in Korean) and local Northern Irish.
Dinner was at Molly’s Yard (1 College Green Mews, Botanic Ave, Belfast BT7 1LW), which was mentioned on our B&B’s website. We managed to get a table as walk-ins. I’m not sure what to think of this place:
All these Michelin Guide stickers, but a food hygiene rating of only 3 out of 5 ?!? The chairs we sat on were a bit rickety. There was a slightly too loud playlist of Dua Lipa playing, which was out of keeping with the old fashioned decor and if I’m paying £10 for a cocktail, then I don’t want a lemon seed stuck to the side of the glass. My son had the rhubarb and ginger gin fizz (with the lemon seed stuck to the side) and I had a dark end stormy.
Chowder had a very good flavour and the fish flaked beautifully. The accompanying wheaten bread was really nice. I love wheaten bread.
Son enjoyed his steak (medium rare) with chunky chips (fries). He ate only one onion ring - the battery was too thick. I tried a bit of an onion ring - too stodgy.
Menu had interesting choices and your food looked good! Too bad about the lemon seed…
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Harters
( A culinary patriot cooking and eating in northwest England)
7
Most recent Michelin sticker is 2018.
But the food hygiene rating dates to the last inspection on 29/1/24 (according to the Scores on the Doors website). I wonder if it’s requirement for NI restaurants to display the sticker as I think it is in Scotland?
The Crown is a Belfast institution. I have been in there a few times in 2002/2003 when waiting for a bus from the Europa Bus Station (now replaced by the Grand Central Station). It has heritage status under the National Trust, I think.
Thanks for signposting to Mourne Seafood. We’re flying back to England tomorrow morning but I’m hoping we might visit Belfast again next year. Will keep this recommendation on the list for then.
They had Christmas crackers on each table, which was a nice touch. When we pulled ours, the locals at the neighbouring table gave a cheer and pulled theirs as well, with some entertaining commentary. That’s one of the nice things about Northern Ireland - despite all the political issues, the people are some of the friendliest I’ve come across in the UK.
Yesterday we were a bit frazzled in the morning so I didn’t take any photos. Yesterday I had poached eggs on toast which were perfectly poached with adequate amounts of buttered white and brown toasted bread. Percolated coffee is available and topped up regularly by attentive and polite staff.
This morning I went for pancakes with bacon and maple syrup. Son repeated his order of the cooked breakfast but requested the sofa bread to be replaced with potato bread and no cherry tomatoes please.