Everything about Patisserie Mimi is stylish and elegant, from its store display right down to its logo. It has beautiful packaging too - macarons lovingly cupped in red scallop-edged paper adorned with a ribbon bearing "PATISSERIE MIMI" in its signature font.
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| Don't you just love the look of this? |
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| Clockwise from top: Pear and Yuzu Tarte Bordeleau, Peach and Honey macaron, and Ivory Chocolate and Tonka Bean macaron. |
Wagamama was established in1992 and has branches in 17 countries across the world, so they must be doing something right with their food. Let this post, therefore, be mainly about what not to order at Wagamama.
We visited the Victoria Square branch last November as part of a group. The service was fast, although the staff got our order of Wagamama Ramen wrong and served us the Chicken Ramen instead.
Wagamama has the dubious honour of having the worst ramen I've ever eaten. The broth was thin and bland, as were the pieces of chicken breast accompanying it - some effort in marinating the chicken would certainly have helped. The serving size was also significantly smaller than the teppanyaki dishes that some of our group had ordered, a fact accentuated by the enormous bowl it was served in. The large bowl meant that there was a generous portion of soup, but was in this case an unfortunate turn-off with all of that tasteless liquid staring back at us.
Chicken karaage is another dish on my must-order list. While it's basically fried chicken and easy to make (theoretically at least; I've yet to try it myself), it's seldom found on menus outside of Asia. Hence, we jumped at the chance when we spotted it at Wagamama.
Sadly, the chef's hand must have slipped when preparing the chicken, as there was so much rosemary (which doesn't belong in karaage) that it overpowered all other flavours and had me spitting out bits of the dried herb. Wagamama also used breast meat instead of thigh meat, which was a tad dry after frying. Thankfully, our chicken gyoza was much better with a well seasoned filling, and the ebi katsu another of us had ordered was as crispy and as light as you'd get.
The dessert I had was delicious and the highlight of my meal - but unfortunately is no longer on Wagamama's website. It was a scrumptious tart with a tropical custard (mango or pineapple or both; I can't quite recall!) and raspberries, with dried coconut shavings that complemented the flavour.
The dessert E ordered is also no longer on the menu - and thankfully so. It was a taster trio of desserts, and a case of how less can be more. For example, wasabi does not add to the taste of chocolate fudge cake, ginger does not belong in a white chocolate cheesecake, and pistachio mousse doesn't really go with raspberry jam.
The dessert trio reminded me of Wagamama's sauce accompaniment to their gyoza. In place of the traditional vinegar + soy sauce combination, Wagamama had a chilli garlic sesame soy sauce version instead. So many ingredients, yet none of the 'extras' were really necessary and also did little to bring out the flavour of the chives. There is a reason why certain combinations exist in food, and being innovative or modern does not necessarily mean mixing up many different things.
I might still be persuaded to return to Wagamama though, as their teppanyaki noodle dishes looked tasty enough and seemed to be the more popular items too. I'll just stay well clear from the ramen!
Shu, located on Lisburn Road, is among the first few restaurants in Belfast that were recommended to me. I've also heard a lot about how good it is since then, so we thought to splurge a little and head there for our anniversary.
The thing about celebrating special occasions in December is that restaurants tend to thrust their Christmas menu upon customers. Shu was no different, and instead of their usual set menu, we were only given the choice between their ala carte and Christmas menus. This would have been fine if the latter were half decent, but quick calculations revealed that the same items from the ala carte menu would actually cost more if we were to choose from the Christmas menu - well, sod that.
The restaurant was packed at its first sitting of the evening, and it took quite a while before we could get any attention from its staff. Being tucked right in a corner between a wall and a lively 8-person Christmas dinner group probably didn't help either. However, it wasn't too long after placing our orders that our starters were served.
I'm a sucker for crab on the menu, hence was dismayed by the size of the crab linguine with chilli, lemon and parsley (£9). It was tiny enough to be devoured in a few mouthfuls, but it was delicious and I forced myself to eat slowly and stretch out every moment that the flavourful broth was in my mouth. E's crispy duck confit with spiced red cabbage puree (£8.50) was a much more sizable portion. However, it was a bit dry and would have benefitted more from a sauce accompaniment instead of the puree.
We celebrated my birthday a few weeks ago with dinner at The Ginger Tree, a Japanese restaurant on Donegall Pass.
It looked promising enough upon entry, with Japanese sake, whiskey and beer bottles lining the shelves behind the cashier - just as in actual Japanese restaurants and an easy way to display the range of alcohol served. As we weren't very hungry but wanted to try a variety of their dishes, we ordered the Osaka Set Menu, sashimi moriawase and a side of croquettes to share.
The Osaka Menu boasts little in relation to Osaka and its regional specialties, and was probably named because it's the largest set on the menu and the hometown of the head chef and owner. It started with a tsukidashi appetiser - crunchy French beans topped with a dollop of sweet miso sauce.
The appetiser was followed quickly by the side of croquettes. Croquettes are among my many 'must-order' items on a Japanese menu, and these were fragrant and crisp on the outside. The potato and minced meat filling had a light curry flavour, which is probably more suitable for the palette of Ginger Tree's Belfast customers than the spicier curry I prefer. Unfortunately, the perfectly mashed filling was spoiled by bits of pork fat that accompanied every mouthful - while I love to chow down fat that accompanies bacon, steak and pork chops, I was neither expecting to find nor enjoyed the chewy fat in my croquettes.
The second of 3 appetisers from the Osaka Menu was next - the tonkatsu. I was probably too greedy in anticipating a full breaded pork cutlet and was slightly disappointed by the two strips of cutlet on skewers that arrived instead. The strips of pork were perfectly crisp on the outside but slightly dry on the inside, and lacked the thin layer of fat that a good piece of tonkatsu has, which serves to keep the meat moist and juicy. The pork was accompanied by the slightly sweet kushikatsu sauce and not the salty tonkatsu sauce - which seemed wrong until I was reminded that our tonkatsu, by virtue of being skewered slices of pork, was actually kushikatsu and should have probably been named as such instead.
When our next order arrived, I was surprised to see the sushi moriawase instead of our assorted sashimi. Sashimi was the one thing I was looking forward to the most, hence had to regretfully send back the sushi and insist on our actual order. This probably the reason for the sashimi, when it arrived, being unceremoniously dumped on the table similar to how wooden blocks are deposited during shuttle runs - I was not at all impressed. Thankfully the salmon, tuna and ika sashimi were fresh, delicious and all that I'd been waiting for, despite being oddly sliced and of uneven thickness. The pieces of cooked prawn and cooked octopus added further variety.
The final appetiser from the set menu was a generous portion of tempura, consisting of two king prawns and a slice each of courgette, aubergine, red pepper and carrot and onion strips. It was a treat to have tempura again, although the honest opinion would be that the tempura was merely passable. The batter was slightly soggy and lacked the lightness that tempura should have, while the items were a tad overcooked.
It is here that a few words on The Ginger Tree's service are in order. While the restaurant was at full capacity that night, the crowd did not justify the long wait we had between courses as the place gradually filled up. Our entire dinner - that comprised neither alcohol nor dessert - took about 1.5 hours and we must have waited at least 15 min for the main (and final) course to arrive. Such a long wait was unacceptable, especially since we'd ordered a set menu that should have taken less time to prepare than a range of ala carte items.
When our Nabeyaki Udon finally arrived, we dug right in, savouring the warm, delicious broth. We were pleasantly surprised to find a slice of sweet beancurd in the bowl - something we've missed from udon in Japan - until we realised that the udon did not come with unagi as described on the menu and website. Again, the udon and tempura were overcooked too, but the broth tasted so much like what you'd get in Japan that we were willing to overlook the other aspects.
Ultimately, The Ginger Tree is a place I'd visit again, purely for their sashimi and perhaps to also try their sushi and some other items. If the craving is too strong to deny, I'd also order their tempura and udon - just not the nabeyaki unless they can guarantee unagi in it. The Ginger Tree would also be a far more pleasant dining experience if they can improve on their speed and delivery of service, as well as turn the lights up a little so that diners can actually take some photos!
The Ginger Tree
