Cafe Havana - 52 - 58 Berry Street - Belfast

When my friend asked me to try this Cuban place she had heard about, I was intrigued. I couldn’t figure out what it would be like or where it was and I was excited at the opportunity to discover something different.

She booked a table on a Saturday night and we met there at 8 pm both starving and impatient to find out a bit more about the restaurant and the food.

The first impression was magical. It was like stepping into a real Cuban café. Everything had been carefully designed to provide an authentic Cuban atmosphere: the luxurious and extravagant chandeliers, the paintings picturing Cuban men smoking cigars, the beautiful mosaics on the ceiling and the tables each individually handcrafted. We felt instantly romanced by these warm and festive surroundings.

First of all we ordered cocktails, which the café was famous for. I had the Che Guevara, which was an elegant and delightful combination of Havana Rum, Angostura Bitters, lime and Ginger Ale. It was honestly the best cocktail I ever drunk! It had everything I love in a cocktail: a bit of strength, delicate flavours without that over sweet aftertaste or thick pureed texture. As for Katie she picked the promising Bon Voyage combining tequila, sugar syrup, lime and Chambord. It was delicious as well even if slightly to syrupy for me.

As we were perusing the menu, I was literally drooling…the food sounded unbelievable and we decided to order different things so we could share and sample more.

So, between the two of us we asked for the ballotine of chicken and the ham and egg.

The chicken was sensational, it basically melted in your mouth, delicately infused with chorizo and served with Mesclun salad, a tomato to die for, roasted with olive oil, herbs and bread crumbs and golden and crispy chicken skin which was the icing on the cake. We couldn’t have enough.

The ham and egg was a very satisfying starter as well. The runny quail eggs had been expertly cooked within a sort of ham and potato croquette. It was divine even if slightly less extraordinary than the chicken in terms of flavors.

We had struggled to select our main courses and finally opted for the slow cooked pork belly and the slow roasted beef. The pork belly was perfection to my tastebuds, beautifully prepared, caramelised and tender without that sensation of fat. It came with a potato croquette, black pudding crumbs (I only regret they were not giving away more of the texture and taste of the black pudding that I love so much) and a crackling. The presentation blew me away. Elegant and delicate, it had nothing to do with café food and definitely reached the standards of fine dining.

Katie’s beef was served in a rich black pepper sauce on a bed of luxurious garlicky buttery mushrooms: heavenly combination! The side of fat duck chips was unreal, I simply couldn’t resist them, both fondant and golden crispy with that extra kick brought by the duck fat! It is a shame though but the beef that was a superb piece of meat was slightly dry at core. Except from that, the whole experience was a huge success.

I actually forgot to mention that the waitress brought us amuse bouche before the starters, a surprising association of mashed garden peas, hot smoked salmon and Parmesan crisp. It was a great start to our evening and made such a positive impression on both of us.

With such refined food, I would have expected the wine list to be quite expensive but I was wrong. The selection of wines was short and sweet but nothing above 17 pounds. We ordered and Italian red wine that accompanied beautifully our dishes and was really good value for money.

My friend who usually doesn’t have much of a sweet tooth was impressed enough by the whole dinner to want to try out one of the desserts. We then ordered the very enticing and promising “best chocolate recipe I know”. It was a chocolate cake served with a delicious puree of fresh red berries and topped with a scoop of homemade whipped cream. I can’t say that it wasn’t good but we maybe expected a bit more after such spectacular starters and main courses. The cake was a sponge, which, in my opinion tends to be a bit dry. I always have had a sweet spot for rich buttery chocolate cakes as we often bake them in France and this one was definitely not that kind of dessert. However, the balance of flavors was really nice and the homemade chocolate sauce unbeatable.

Well, as you must be expecting, I would highly recommend this young and vibrant restaurant. It truly is a gem and has so much to offer. The food was unbelievable, incredible value for money, the service was warm and efficient and the surroundings exotic and charming: what’s not to love about it?

For info:Café Havana also offers free tapas with your drinks every Thursday and Friday night and hosts Salsa nights for those who enjoy a bit of Latin dancing.

Maze - Wellington Place - Belfast

I hadn’t eaten out for ages so when I heard about this new fusion food restaurant that had just opened its doors, I immediately booked a table for the next Saturday night.

The settings were inspiring: sleek, modern furniture, beautifully designed space, intimate and yet buzzing atmosphere. It was very impressive!

The waitress directed us to our table and brought us the wine list and dinner menu. How inspiring! I was completely seduced by the mix of inspirations, Asian, diverse European, everything sounded refined and delicious.

We decided to both try and share the crispy salt and pepper squid and the lamb sheek kebabs. While we were waiting, we ordered a nice bottle of crisp Chardonnay from South Africa. We were both nicely surprised at how affordable the wine selection was compared to the restaurant posh style and the food prices. After a 45 minutes wait, we were both starving and quite frustrated. The service was rather appalling; the waitress presented us with the wrong bottle of wine twice, another one kept bringing us dishes that we hadn’t ordered and were clearly meant to somebody else…it was not a great start to our evening.

When the starters finally arrived we were a bit shocked at the size of Damien’s: three tiny sad looking sausage shaped pieces of lamb mince. It didn’t taste bad but it just felt a bit bland and uninteresting.

As for my crispy squids, they were nice, delicately coated in a light golden batter but again they lacked this little kick that I would have definitely expected from fusion cooking because of all the spices and flavours that usually characterise it.

One hour later, within which we had been entertained by the multiple complaints from customers on their way out, a waiter served us two supposedly “brioche bap” onion ring burgers. I had chosen the bacon and cheese option and Damien the goat cheese and red onion jam one. What we were actually served were two greasy beef patties sandwiched in between two small pieces of industrial chewy Panini bread that didn’t even covered the meat. When we asked what had happened to the brioche baps, we were told that they simply ran out of it and asked if it was ok. Well, it would have been nice to know beforehand as there was no way we were going to wait another hour to get something else. The skinny French fries were the only successful part of the dish, beautifully crunchy; but the fake burger was horrendous. The meat tasted as greasy as it looked and was definitely really low quality. The cheese was burnt and the bacon very scarce. Damien’s goat cheese was not very good either and the red onion jam was clearly bought from a shop.

Picking at our main courses didn’t satisfy our appetites and we decided to order a chocolate fondant for both of us. Well, dessert didn’t go down a treat. The cake that we thought we would share was ridiculously tiny. I am really not kidding, it was the size of a golf ball and we barely got two spoons out of it. It was served with a scoop of ice-cream that must have been melted and frozen again many times, crunched under the tooth and tasted rank.

That was honestly the worst restaurant experience I ever had and if it weren’t for the Treat Ticket Discount we used to pay, I would have expected a refund. They did apologise profusely when we left but all they had to say for their defence was that they had only been open 6 weeks. I personally believe that it is when you open that you do have to provide the best service and food ever because the first impressions about your restaurant and the word of mouth determine your reputation and your name. So, as you could guess, Maze won’t make it to my list of top 10 favourites restaurants in Belfast but hopefully the next culinary experience I share with you will make it up for this one!