City Picnic — Restaurant in Belfast

Originally I left a review as below. However I have edited to reflect a great experience. The manager, Katie showcased great ownership and invited us back to try again, with assurances the service would be better. It most certainly was!! Staff attentive, food amazing and atmosphere was lovely! Very well decorated for Christmas and a great ‘buzz’ in the restaurant. Service was really on point! It was busy when we visited today 19/12/24, but the service and quality of food was not lacking!! Originally 2 stars based on service, now a well deserved 5 stars! Well done Katie and team 😀

Original review below…

Dined here with my wife around 3pm 14/11/24. Not one to leave low star reviews but I’ll explain why….. Staff really friendly and pleasant ✅ Food was fantastic ✅ But, that’s where it ends.

We were one of only 2 couples in at the time and 3 staff were working. Seated immediately and given menus.

10-15 mins passed and my wife had to go to the bar to ask if we needed to order there, or if someone comes to take the order. Guy behind the bar came over and placed order. Asked for water for the table….. Food arrived within 10 mins, but no water - had to ask for it again.

Nobody checked in during the meal to see if everything was ok.

I found this disappointing. In this day and age - service is everything. Staff as I said were very pleasant, but lack the attentiveness expected in hospitality. One member of the team was constantly looking at his phone and ignoring customers. Not a good look.

We would come back as the food was first class, but I would hope the management would address the lack of service. I could appreciate delays and a lack of attentiveness if it had been busy -...

We saw an Instagram review for this place and thought it looked lovely, so chose it as our lunch spot for a very rare trip into town. The menu had lots of tempting options. Two of us went for the half n half brisket bowl, one got a burger, and we got the pulled pork & chorizo nachos for the table as they had been highlighted in the review as being particularly good. We were told you can't have a starter so the nachos had to come out at the same time as the mains which was a bit odd & annoying. When the food did come, the mains were luke warm and tasted OK. A bit disappointing for all 3 of us. The nachos however were inedible. They were freezing, like they'd been taken out of the fridge, and we're one big solid mass, you couldn't lift a single nacho out of it. We complained and they changed them for a fresh plate. The new plate was fresh & hot, but just tasted horrible. All 3 of us took one bite and couldn't make ourselves eat any more. It's hard to understand how you can make nachos taste so bad, even the plain crisps from the bottom without the pork weren't nice. The chorizo was sliced like you'd been put on a pizza and had not been cooked (I know it's edible like this, but definitely did not work on nachos). The service was poor, one quick sorry about the first plate of nachos, hard to get the staffs attention, nothing taken off the bill in spite of 2 plates of inedible nachos, and £60 spent for a really unenjoyable lunch with so many other places we could have chosen was very frustrating. I don't know if we were just unlucky and went on a bad day, but we certainly...

We visited one Monday morning in October in the hope that we we could sit, have a drink and plan out our day of sightseeing in Belfast. Having eaten breakfast at home we explained we wouldn't be eating; however a good salesperson could probably have persuaded us to take something small with our drink, probably without much hesitation! On entry the place was completely empty aside from one member of staff who appeared to be waiting/bar staff, and 2 men with laptops having what looked like a business meeting. We were ushered in and found a spot and a heavily-pregnant member of our group quickly went to use the bathroom. Whilst 2 members used the facilities and the 3rd ordered oir drinks, it became apparent we weren't welcome to just have a drink; the barman/waiter approached our party and said 'his boss' had said they couldn't serve us drinks without ordering any food as they only have a 'restaurant licence'. No signage to state this anywhere for customers to see, but also no attempt to persuade us to have something to eat either - we suddenly felt very unwelcome. Admittedly 2 of us had ordered an alcoholic drink but we would have had soft drinks or coffees had these been offered or suggested to us. Therefore we quickly left this place and have vowed never to return; poor customer service efforts on all parts - guess there's a reason why it was empty in the first place! Certainly won't be wasting my time there again next time I visit the city, and neither will the residents I was visiting! Would give zero stars if Google...