The Times
Jay Rayner was highly impressed by a small-plates restaurant that opened “down an unpromising service lane last year in Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter”. The chef is Lottie Noren, who recently competed in Great British Menu, and her cooking is “many steps up from just fine. There is no clear guiding philosophy, save that it pushes superb produce from the island of Ireland into the service of very good ideas, wherever they might originate.”
Scampi made with the freshest of langoustines landed at Portavogie, on Northern Ireland’s easternmost coast, deserve a rebranding, Jay suggested. “Shall we call them Nuggets of Joy?” A round of crisped pork belly is seasoned with the spices used to cure guanciale, and is topped with a cured egg yolk. “It’s the intense, business end of a carbonara only without the pasta.”
“Beau is smart but wears that smartness lightly. It has one of those menus that grabs your attention and holds it.”
Jay Rayner - 2026-11-01
