Yardbird Belfast has given me Chicken Fever!

Yardbird in Belfast is a restaurant who have taken to heart the culinary advice of, 'do one thing, but do it really well'. They serve chicken, and that's that, but they are bloody amazing at it.

Nestling just a stone's throw from The Merchant Hotel, Yardbird can be found inside & upstairs of The Dirty Onion pub. 

The cosy, first floor eaterie is family friendly, with kids eating free at the weekend (one free child's meal per full paying adult). Their menu is straightforward, well priced and can all fit on one table mat.

The main question is 'how much chicken can you handle?', then it's a choice of sides including skin on fries, corn cobs with garlic butter, coleslaw and an avocado salad to die for. I also went for a quarter chicken, and should you visit on a weekend you can try their lunch special of 1/4 plus side for only £5. They are also trialling a chicken burrito, which we are coming back next Saturday for, we loved Yardbird so much.

A whole chicken straight from cooking. Yardbird only serve free range birds, sourced from Crossgar here in Northern Ireland.

The free kid's meal- not bad at all!

Golden corn cobs with hot, liquid garlic butter poured over them at your table.

Two stuffed and happy boys.

They also have their own special sauces, a hot version and a BBQ one. You can buy bottles of them to take home too.

We also had the chance to try the dessert menu. Leave room for these because they are out of this world. Apple pie, lime cheesecake, or a hot brownie with fresh cream or icecream.

As I said, we are going back this Saturday for another chicken feast. Maybe we will see you there?

Hen Dogs, Belfast. Clucking Good Gourmet Hot Dogs & More.

I continue my series of restaurant reviews from the perspective of a family of three, low to middle income and with a fairly adventurous palette, but as yet not too knowledgable about much beyond steak and chips, or chops and mash.

This weekend our venue was Hen Dogs, in the Cathedral Quarter, just beside the MAC.  The setting is relaxed, you order your food at the bar, and from the mains to the sides it's one of those places where it's a real struggle to choose as half a dozen of the dishes sound amazing.

The setting it bright and clean, friendly and service is quick. Hen Dogs is open all week, so would do rightly for a quick spot of lunch. 

I love the mismatched furniture, some of the chairs are old school chairs.

Children have a choice of pork or beef sausage and chips. Coming strictly from a family used to chippy shop sausages wrapped in paper, we found our pork sausages a little anaemic looking. No doubt they are cooked in a much healthier, less fatty way than fried and wrapped in newspaper, but I would have liked to see a little browning on the sausage, even from grilling. I said I am going to be deadly honest in my reviews, so it had to be said!

My son loved the chips though, which were freshly made, still with delicious skin on them. I pinched a few, for review purposes obviously ;-)

My own choice was the Hog Dog, pork with black pudding, apple ketchup , bacon crumb. It was lovely. I would have liked a little more bacon, but the black pudding gave it a real kick. The bap is soft and cloud like; make sure you try their in house ketchup and house sauce and use any leftover bap to mop it up. My husband would have gladly taken the house sauce home, it was his favourite part.

I should have picked a side other than the house slaw, as you get a little bit of it with your hot dog any how, but on the other hand I was glad I got slaw as I really enjoyed it.

My husband went for the spicy Raging Bull Dog. He beef sausage looked nicer than our pork offerings, and he said it was very very good.

His side choice was 'messy fries' which include salsa and cheese.

The final part of the kids' menu is the choice between a Nutella or a Raspberry icecream shake. We all had a slurp of this and it was heavenly.

Mums and Dads, don't feel out! Look what we can choose from! The Refresher shake with rose water, coconut and popping candy is just for big kids like us.

My New Favourite Restaurant in Belfast- Canteen at The MAC.

The World of Kitsch certainly didn't start out as a restaurant review blog, but I've had lots of wonderful opportunities in the past two of my five blogging years to share with you the best spots to get grub all over Northern Ireland. I love places who use lots of local produce, and The Canteen at The MAC, Belfast, structures it's menu especially to show of Northern Ireland's best of the best. 

The good news is because it's Belfast Restuarant Week, The Canteen have two courses for £10 which is a steal. This isn't 'canteen' food, it's melt in the mouth perfection. I have to admit I've always been snobby and thought from the name, Canteen, made me think of plates of floppy, ham sandwiches with a few crisps on the side. Instead here is yet another of my restaurant reviews bulging with praise! It's getting a little embarrassing. Someone should suggest me somewhere poor to eat and review via Twitter so I mix things up a bit, as my review for The MAC food is a ten out of ten!

As you can see the Canteen is big and airy, but it's worth booking a table especially on busy weekends. The MAC is an art gallery, and even the tables were part of an art installation. There is an old fashioned phone at each booth. You can actually ring through to another table anonymously and have a chat and flirt! 

Perhaps more of a night time game when the cocktails are flowing, we had fun being arty which we waited the short while for our main course.

I'm a seafood lover, and althought the salted chilli quid appealed, I was fairly hungry so went for the battered coley with beer battered chips and peas for £9. Of course that meant for an extra £1 I got the Restaurant Week deal and a dessert! 

The batter was delish, so perfect, and the chips freshly made.  The peas were mild and a perfect compliment.

My husband had the Morrocan spiced chicken which he describes as one of the tastiest things he's ever eaten in his entire life. Now there's a recommendation!

Our son had a great kids' menu to choose from. Not just the standard anything with chips, he also had mildly spiced chicken skewers with noodles, or sausages with mash to choose from. Surprisingly to us he went for the house special, the MAC and cheese with pinenuts crust. We all had a little dig into this as it is available on the adult main course menu too. It is tasty indeed, and the pinenuts give it an usual sweet, vanilla edge.

Dessert time and the boys went for peanut butter brownies. My husband's brownie was intimidatingly huge, like a brick or the monolith in Space Odyssey 2001. Both boys loved them and the delicious accompaniment of Glastry icecream.

My choice was the cherry bake well tart. It was a little tiny compared to the boys' but it was beautiful.

I strongly encourage you and your family to try out The MAC this week when the Restaurant Week deal is on, and get back to me on Twitter to let me know your thoughts on what you chose to eat. And someone, please, suggest to me somewhere to go and review that I might NOT like, so I stop looking like a rumbly, tumbly sycophant!

Don't miss out on the free galleries to visit while you are in The MAC.

The MAC Gets Arty with Food

Saturday 4 October  will see the multi award-winning 'Canteen' restaurant, located in the heart of the MAC, Belfast, kick-off a bountiful weeklong series of food and drink events to rival any in the city.

Sean McCann, Head Chef at Canteen at the MAC is pictured alongside award-winning guest chef, Joery Castel who will  be holding a  special Art of Food & Wine night, on Thursday 9th October. 

Sharon Wright, director JRS Catering, explains: 

“Saturday will kick start the week with our Craft Beer & Cider Tasting event which allows guests to sample the very best of these brews alongside some well matched food bites.

“On Saturday 11 October, we will be holding our ever-popular Coffee Brew Bar Masterclass which allows extensive coffee tasting allowing guests to discover brewing methods from the experts.

“And the absolute pinnacle of our Belfast Restaurant Week celebrations will be our extra special Art of Food & Wine night, held on Thursday 9th October where Sean McCann, Head Chef at Canteen alongside award-winning guest chef, Joery Castel will cook up a culinary storm.

For further information on Canteen at the MAC, including menus and photo gallery please visit themaclive.com/foodanddrink or call 028 9023 5053 to make a booking or enquiry.

Wagamama For Dummies : How to Do Noodles Without Looking Like a Beginner

My lovely friend Jane often posts beautiful pictures of Japanese cuisine on her Instagram feed. It always looks so healthy, colourful and delicious, so I decided on our next night out, my husband and I would try Wagamama's Belfast restaurant.

We had been once before, back when the branch opened, but at the time Michael was still a toddler, and it was a busy day, so we didn't really get to enjoy the experience. 

If you're a beginner like me I'll explain what goes on, as it's a little different to a regular western restaurant experience. You are seated at one of the rows of benches and tables, it's surprisingly comfy, and the atmosphere is bustling and friendly. The Belfast branch is quite warm, I mention this because I always like to know that sort of thing when planning what to wear!

Wagamama is primarily a Japanese noodle restaurant, but the menu extends to lavish salads and tasty sides like ribs or dumplings. If you've never been then I strongly recommend using the Wagamama website as a cheat sheet to help you narrow down your meal choice in advance. It has photographs of each of the dishes, which really helps if like me you don't know your soba from your udon.

If you haven't time to play around on the website, don't feel shy about asking your waiter for advice. We had help from a great waiter called Luke, who described to me the most popular dishes and helped me to pick the teriyaki beef soba as my main. I ordered it rare and ohmygod it was delicious.

My husband chose the Firecracker prawn, which was presented as one of the most beautiful dishes I've ever seen. He loves spicy food and is used to ordering so called 'hot' food only to find it to be quite mild, but this was HOT.

Your main cutlery at Wagamama will be chopsticks. I like to think I can use chopsticks, so I ate my noodles with them, but I think I was just mashing the two sticks together and hoping for the best. Don't fret though, your waiter will bring a good old knife and fork with your food too. 

We also tried some sides, the gyoza chicken dumplings and the edamame soya beans with chilli and salt. The latter proved another problem for the uninitiated. I wasn't sure how to eat them. The outer shell was coated in seasoning, but was I supposed to eat them whole? Luke to the rescue again who explained your pop the pod in your mouth, eat the beans and pull the case back out. Of course this was after I'd already eaten two or three crunchy bean pods whole.... whoops.

We loved our meal, and big thanks to Luke for the great service. I'm currently having great difficulty resisting phoning my husband and asking him to pick up takeaway Wagamama after writing this post. That beautiful rare steak photo is making me drool! 

Let me know on Twitter if you love @WagamamaBelfast too! 

Afternoon Tea by the Sea

We returned to The Salty Dog in Bangor on Saturday to try their afternoon tea selection. Priced at £10 per person, with the option to add a glass of prosecco for £4, it's surprisingly filling. We enjoyed our's just before 4pm and didn't need to eat for the rest of the day.

To begin we had tiny, little posh sandwiches. BLT, smoked salmon and egg, really tasty. 

Next we had a selection of scones including cherry and raisin. The cherry jam that comes with your tea is perfect with either the butter or cream on offer.

The final top tier was something very special though. The chocolate shots are unreal, I've never tasted anything like them. The home made macaroons are perfect and beautifully light. I wasn't overly keen on the walnut cake cubes, but we also had a little plate of carrot cake that was light as air which made up for that.

If you'd like to visit The Salty Dog, afternoon tea is served seven days a week between 11am and 4pm.

The Salty Dog Facebook Page has a competition running this week to win a meal for two at their 'Fish Supper' night this Thursday. They also have a Game Night and a Gin Tasting Night coming up, with full details on their FB Page. They will be matching gins to various courses of the meal, and serving special gin based cocktails. We went to the 'Snout to Trotter' tasting night and it was quite an experience!

Proper Pizza All Round at Little Wing's New Holywood Restaurant

We Smyths are huge Little Wing fans, so when their newest location opened in Holywood a few weeks back, it was as good an excuse as any to 'wing it'.

Little Wing has restaurants in Bangor, Ballyhackamore, Ann Street in the city and on the Lisburn Road. Bangor is our usual, but Holywood previously being a bank building makes for a large, bright dining experience, and I think we will be locals there instead. The food was fabulous too, no teething problems with being a new restaurant to speak of, everything was beyond delicious.

Starters include olives, garlic bread or dough sticks. As in similar family friendly Pizza places, there's a three course children's menu. They choose between dough sticks or soup for first course, with pizzas or pastas as their main meal. The dessert cone and mini-hot chocolate is all included in the set price.

The pizzas at Little Wing are PROPER Italian pizzas. Thin, crispy, with traditional toppings. I always get frustrated when getting Do******s Pizza due to the complete lack of anchovies or olives on the menu in the Bangor branch. In Little Wing you can have both, you can even have calamari (squid).

Shape and size wise the choices are  

1) a regular size pizza  

2) Ireland's BIGGEST pizza, 24", by the slice with side salad, or tackle the beast yourself

3) Skinny Pizza. I'm not sure it means it's a healthy option rather than the regular (although thin crispy dough is definitely healthier than big, thick bases other chain stores sell). These cost £2 more as they include more toppings, and are served on a rustic, wooden board. My husband went for the spiciest on the menu, and I got the anchovie pizza with black olives as an extra. Perfect.

4) a Calzone pizza, a folded, tasty wonder.

The skinny pizza truly defeated me, but boxes are on stand-by to bring your left overs home.

Now I may have been full, but my dessert stomach had room, and as our son got an ice cream with his anyway, we both perused the desserts and coffee menu.

I got the Nutella Pizza and my husband got, as he said, 'the best chocolate cake I've tasted'.

We were very happy with all concerned. Setting  friendliness, value for money, all spot on. They are even in the process of setting up a children's play area in the back, and kids get a spot-the-item colouring page on the back of their menu to keep them busy whilst the pizza is cooking.

You can also order pizza to take away. The Holywood restaurant also has a mini Patisserie Mimi, selling macaroons & treats. So you can pop in for a nosy even if you aren't sitting to eat.

Tweet me @rudedoodle if you get a chance to pop along over the long weekend ahead, your family will love Little Wing. 

Spur Nachos, Wings, Ribs, Steak & Miley Cyrus Riding a Giant Hot Dog.

Last night Ms. Miley Cyrus played Belfast, Northern Ireland, and we had been lucky enough to win a pair of tickets for the spectacle. First though, keeping in with Miley's country roots, we headed to Victoria Square to have a big feed at the Spur Steak & Grill.

Local readers, a great tip for attending Odyssey concerts is to park closer to the city centre, and grab something to eat first. This way you avoid queuing for the couple of restaurants there are left in the Odyssey Pavillion, and even better once the gig is over you just walk across the Lagan foot bridge & avoid the bumper to bumper traffic trying to escape the carpark. 

We got to Spur at 6pm & already it was pleasantly buzzing. They have an extensive menu and it's definitely a kid-friendly eatery, with a soft play area for them to enjoy while you have a coffee or cocktail after your meal. If you visit Spur on a Friday, children eat free.

Our waiter, Havier was very attentive and friendly. Our starter was a a delicious plate of nachos & Jack Daniels buffalo wings. 

The menu includes combo meals, like ribs and chicken, surf and turf, ribs and steak, which is handy as it's all so tempting you might not be able to decide on just one meat.

My husband went for the rack of ribs, with two sides included, cone and chips. The ribs were drop-off-the-bone tender. 

I had rump steak with blue cheese sauce. I always ask for rare steak and look how perfectly it came out.

I'm still losing weight, so for my two included sides I chose side salad and the corn.

Overall opinion? If you love your meat, you'll love Spur. We are going to call back with our son next time so he can enjoy the atmosphere too. 

Time to dander over to The Odyssey for Miley! We had great seats, especially for the acoustic set she does mid-way through. I shall let the (far away, pretty blurry) photos speak for themselves. I tried not to have my phone camera out too much, as there's always the risk you end up watching a show through a tiny screen instead of soaking up what's going on; and a lot was going on.