Holywood, International Restaurant Guide

Glasgow chef Nico Simeone’s distinctive concept has grown into a national chain with 11 restaurants (including Fitzrovia and Canary Wharf) in just six years, offering a quick-changing succession of themed six-course menus for under £50 a head. It’s widely seen as “fantastic value” and has a sizeable fanbase amongst reporters (“every six weeks, the menu renews and for me, it is something to look forward to…”; “we simply love it and we’ve yet to miss a menu!” – “the Tokyo menu was so good we went back a second time”). Only a tiny few say, “you can feel you’re on a conveyor belt with lots of upsells”; or that the whole thing is “a dystopia of where restaurants will evolve”.

Jonny Elliott’s “buzzing restaurant a short walk from Belfast City Hall” is set around “an open kitchen where you can sit and watch the busy chefs prepare your food” – “Spanish (and more)-style plates with fresh local produce (the scallops were fabulous), a good wine list and friendly, attentive staff” make it an attractive option. Linguistic note: ‘edo’ is Latin for ‘I eat’.