Frae
Strictly speaking, this beautiful restaurant is located in the seaside town of Holywood—just a 10- or 15-minute drive or train ride from Belfast city centre. These days, Holywood is more or less joined to East Belfast, so you can get there in two shakes of a lamb’s rump.
Booking is strongly recommended—and for good reason:
It’s a small restaurant, and
It’s extremely popular.
If you’re planning a visit, the train is the perfect way to turn lunch into a lovely little jaunt. Just hop on the Bangor-bound line and get off at Holywood. From there, it’s only a five-minute walk to the restaurant. Here is a link to the Translink timetable for the train. A taxi from the city centre isn’t that bad either by the way, we’ve done it in the past.
On our days off from our own café, nothing beats going out for lunch—and this spot is one of my all-time favourites. The owners and staff are people after my own heart. Their menu truely is like nothing else you’ll find in Northern Ireland. and I’m pretty certain I’d recognise their cooking style a mile off.
Front of house is run by the wonderful @patricknoir, who welcomes you with a drink and a genuine smile. He’s got a confident grasp on all things wine and food—an absolute master at translating what’s happening in the minds of the kitchen crew into what’s about to land on your plate.
On our last visit, the menu was cracking—and yes, we do sometimes steal ideas to learn from them. (What’s creativity without a bit of flattery, right?) Their veda bread tart, for example, has found its way to my table in other forms… including ice cream and a bread and butter pudding.
They were serving oysters from Achill Island—now I don’t know where you stand on oysters—but hear me out. They had one on, topped with steak tartare. You aren’t going to eat a plate of them, but trust me in knowing it was a thing of beauty. After that, I had their raw brill dish served with chicken vinagrette and chestnut mushrooms. I know, I know—it sounds unorthodox. But my god, it was incredible.
Whenever someone asks me where to go for lunch, this place is always one of the first five names out of my mouth. It really is that good.
