Menu of the Month

Paul Rankin's Belfast Bar & Grill

It was one of those dinners that made you ask yourself: am I in an hotel dining room circa 1966, and should I be wearing a communion suit, or at least a cloth cap?

The dinner was; crubeens to start; Irish stew for mains; bread and butter pudding for afters. All that was missing was grace beforehand and a mug of tea to finish.

But, with a smart and savvy restaurateur such as Paul Rankin (is there a smarter or more savvy restaurateur?) a meal eaten in the new Belfast Bar & Grill in the Ramada Hotel at Shaw's Bridge in Belfast, was an absolute triumph. No pastiche. No mindless culinary nostalgia. Just Irish food brought to table with a contemporary cutting edge. Brilliant, nothing less.

Rankin's menus in the BB&G are simplicity itself: potted duck with Donegal chutney (superb); fish cake with a poached egg and a herb butter sauce (superb); ribeye with whiskey cream or flavoured butters; lamb with peas and mint butter; fish and chips with mushy peas. Straightforward, logical, and delivered by Sean Murphy and his team with profound respect.

If the food is the good ­ the seriously good ­ news, then the room is much less of a success. The entrance (the room is on the first floor of the Ramada) is too small; the area in front of the kitchen too big and too bright, and we were seated in a part of the room which will quickly be dubbed "Siberia" unless something is done quick. But the staff are great, and prices are ace, and the menu covers are extremely witty. Another great Belfast address and, given recent events in the North, how wonderful to see the image of the Harland and Wolf cranes which feature on the menus, crockery and glasses, used not as a symbol of Northern industrial triumphalism, but instead transmuted into a richly aestheticised image of great simplicity and beauty.

Paul Rankin's Belfast Bar & Grill The Ramada Hotel, Shaw's Bridge 
Tel: 028 9092 3500 
www.ramadabelfast.com

Paul Rankin's Belfast Bar and Grill Menu

Tuesday 23rd October

Table d'hote Lunch

Irish broth

Little gem lettuce
With lemon, garlic, Mizen cheese and soda croutons

Smoked chicken & bacon Terrine

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Pot roast chicken with bacon, mushrooms and herb cream

Our Irish Stew

Fish & chips

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Hot chocolate & Black Bush cake

Apple & blackberry crumble

Pavlova with summer fruits

2 Course lunch £13.50
3 Course lunch £15.50

A recommended 10% service charge will be added to parties of six or more

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text © John & Sally McKenna
illustrations © Ken Buggy