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Joris Minne: Shu Restaurant: Just don’t end up in the basement
Monday, 2 February 2009
enlargeChoosing a restaurant is as much down to mood, sometimes, as it is to the kind of food you want.
Some places are library-like in their atmosphere, while others provide an experience akin to |eating your dinner in the middle of Belfast's Great Victoria Street rush-hour traffic.
That's a good thing because increasingly, restaurateurs are |considering what kind of place they should be operating, not just what kind of food they should be serving. Of course, the food should come first, but the mood is usually a close second when choosing a place to go out of an evening.
Fancy professional women like to go to Shu for hen parties (and a few wealthy old lechers go there to watch them, I'm sure) because it has the right kind of atmosphere.
For some of us, this is an unfortunate side-effect of Shu's attractiveness. It's fine if you are out in a party of your own, or indeed, one of the hen party, but not if you are sitting next to them at a table for two.
And it's no mystery as to why this has happened to a restaurant as good as this. The clue is in the basement, where there is a dance floor and bar.
In the earlier part of the evening, the tables surrounding the dance floor are used to serve meals. Having eaten in the basement, I would recommend you ask to be seated upstairs, unless you like that kind of thing.
It's uncomfortable, the tables and seats are not designed for diners and while lots of hen parties (and late bookings) seem to be banished there, it's not good enough, even for those of us who might be half caked with drink.
This is a a shame, because the food served here is truly top quality. The staff are among the best trained in Belfast. Our waitress, Leah, was such a font of seriously useful and matter-of-fact advice on wine that she could have been a sommelier.
Thanks to her, a £15 bottle of Languedoc red — with the jokey title of Chateau d'eau (French for water tower) — which she explained to us was actually a great Burgundy now made by Moillard in the south west of France, was revealed to be the best buy of the year.
There is a warmth to the service that, in the company of 10 people on a busy Saturday night, is almost miraculous considering the hen-party demands and the tight operating spaces.
But while the noise and bustle might encourage the diner to drink more and relax, there is no |relaxation in quality standards |coming from the kitchen.
A short menu offered starters |including duck confit with Indian mango salsa, asparagus under a deep-fried duck egg and truffle emulsion, foie gras and chicken liver parfait with peach chutney and toast.
All of these arrived appetisingly quickly. These aren't subtle dishes but they shone with taste and texture, thanks to great raw materials.
The main courses were equally |appealing. The pork belly was crispy, the meat tender and shredding like a confit. The potato gratin was a solid but light little brick of layered potatoes saturated with the milk and butter they were cooked in and the cider raisins provided the fruity |accompaniment salty pork usually demands from apple compote or the like.
Sea bass with beetroot and horseradish sauce was finely executed and evidence of a deft hand in the kitchen. So easy to over-cook, the sea bass was a generous size and the |accompanying oyster mushrooms and beetroot were entertaining |partners in the dish.
Another revelation was the |panacotta made using Clandeboye estate yoghurt. This is the height of creaminess, smooth and thick with vanilla. Offset by a fresh appearance of the Indian mango first seen beside the duck earlier, this was a |memorable dessert, made all the more attractive by its local |provenance.
Hats off then to the restaurant, thought of by BT9 women as hen-party central, for sticking to its |culinary principles.
Dinner for two:
Duck confit £7.00
Foie gras £7.75
Sea bass £15.75
Pork belly £14.00
Panacotta £5.25
Chateau d’eau Pinot|Noir (Moillard) £15.00
Total £64.75
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