Review: Cayenne, Belfast
We’ve have some very uneven experiences with Cayenne over the years - to the point that last year we swore off it, in spite of its many supporters. Disappointing food, odd staff. Alas the blog didn’t even exist at the time so it couldn’t even be salvaged as an entertaining post.
But a couple of weeks ago a great little article over at the Irish Times put the Belfast stalwart back on our radar. If you haven’t read it yet, it gives a great impression of Belfast’s foremost ‘TV chef’, Paul Rankin. The highs and lows make for interesting reading and Paul comes across a genuine and honest guy who really wants Cayenne to be delivering the best food and value in Belfast. We had to go back and find out if he was achieving his goal.
Dining early, it was a no brainer for us that we would be going for the pre-theatre menu. It isn’t just that at around £18 this is superb value, but also that the a la carte has pretty much identical plates. So head down early and save yourself a few quid.
Unfortunately the pigeon salad starter (above) that arrived first was experiencing a bit of an identity crisis. Was it a good pigeon salad, or a very good blue cheese salad? Sadly the two stronger flavours found no common ground, in spite of both pairing well with the pickled squash and confit pear salad that surrounded them.
The main of lemon and panko breaded hake (above) was an impressive hunk of fish that was delivered more than a shade overdone. The resulting firm, meaty texture coupled with the thick crumb robbed the fish of any delicacy you might expect. Not quite the end of the world and thankfully the accompaniments of lime chilli lentils, wasabi potato salad and sauce gribiche were good enough to bring the dish back round into the positive.
The Venison Bolognese was also good; full of rich earthy flavours from venison, mushrooms and a dose of parmesan.
Desserts are where Cayenne really started to meet it’s potential. While the chocolate fondant (above) was good, it was the wonderful salted caramel and malt ice cream that really did it for us - the salt and malt giving a wonderfully savoury background to the sweetness.
Our second dessert, the pear and lime crumble, was a similarly blessed with a touch of savoury in the form of the sour cream ice cream. The sourness of the lime and ice cream well matched to the smooth, sweet pears.
Would we go back? While we may not have been blown away by the savoury courses, the answer has to be a ‘yes’ for good food and great value. £18 for three courses means that Paul is definitely hitting his ‘value’ target, but there is still a little way to go before the quality matches the best in Belfast.
