HellCat Maggies — Restaurant in Belfast

I rarely, if ever, give a one star review even with the poorest of service. That being said, this experience was so outlandish I felt it was absolutely warranted. We arrived to Hell Cat Maggie's and it was clear that the place was a bit understaffed, no problem it happens in the restaurant business. A member of our party immediately ordered a Guinness from the bar as we only had about an hour or so to spend at the restaurant. We then got seated at a 4 top table directly across from the bar and were greeted by our server.

He took our drink orders and said he would be right back with them. In the meantime, the member of our group who had ordered the Guinness had already finished it and he went to use the restroom. In the 2 minutes he was in the restroom, the Guinness glass was collected from our table by a bus boy and our server appeared. He immediately started talking frantically asking us "where the people previously here" had gone. We were a bit confused as the table was empty when we arrived and we were the only people who had sat at it in the past 5 minutes. The server then started running, and I literally mean running, around the restaurant looking for "these people". The member of our party arrived back from the restroom and the server immediately started grilling him about stealing a Guinness and not paying for it.

I understand that this place probably gets busy and has many tourists but, if the server had just slowed down for 10 seconds and properly explained what he was trying to ask, we could have resolved the situation and told him the one member of our party had used the bathroom. Not to mention, the three of us paying customers were still sitting at the table so I find it hard to understand where he thought stealing was involved. Instead, we felt accused and embarrassed as he had made quite a commotion within the restaurant. Nevertheless, we decided to stay and order food. Our drinks arrived approximately 15 minutes after we ordered them which was confusing and infuriating as we were on a time crunch and also sitting 10 feet away from the bar, we could have just ordered them at the bar ourselves. As well, we ordered two appetizers (cheesy soda bread and nachos/artichoke and spinach dip) which were both sub par to say the least.

Overall, I would have to say this experience was absolutely horrendous and I would never recommend this...

We had the opportunity to experience Restaurant Week in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Belfast is a great little town with exciting history and beautiful buildings; definitely somewhere we wish we could have spent some more time at.

After getting a recommendation from a few workers at a local coffee shop as well as picking up a full restaurant week booklet from the tourist office, we decided to go to The Apartment for a gourmet Irish dinner.

We were seated upstairs at a couch adjacent to a big glass wall overlooking town hall and the city center. For the restaurant week special we got to choose two of either an appetizer, dinner, or dessert in addition to a glass of wine for €13.

We ordered an appetizer of smoked salmon with beetroot mousse, rye bread, and gherkins. The mousse was really something special, but when you got a perfect bite with each item on the plate it was mouth watering.

I ordered the Northern Irish Bacon Chopvwith traditional black pudding, garlic potatoes, and cauliflower puree. We’d never seen bacon served as a slab, but it was pretty epic, and yes I ate the whole thing. It was a little on the salty side, but well worth the experience. The cauliflower was amazing and left us searching for a recipe!

My wife ordered the roast local cod with potato mash. The cod was cooked to perfection with a buttery goodness that highlighted the delicate flavor. The artichoke puree complimented it very well. They really know their purees and mousses! The mash was very cheesy and tasty, but nothing too special, the garlic fries were better.

For our final course we ordered their steamed chocolate pudding with honeycomb ice-cream and a latte. The dessert was almost like a lava cake but with a very enjoyable and unique texture that made it light and delicious. The caramel drizzle and ice cream were a perfect pairing. The latte was delicious and a perfect rounded ending to a...

Had a reservation for food on a Saturday evening for 9 people. Table was ready on arrival. Drinks order taken quickly, asked for water for the table, still waiting even though asked a 2nd time. Range of starters and mains ordered. The only starter that was half adequate were the chicken wings. Prawns were awful, tiny frozen shrimp and served look warm swimming in butter with pre sliced chorizo cut into quarters (the type you'd buy for homemade pizzas), supposed to be served with garlic and chilli sourdough but got a slice of toast, asked about this and the manager came back 10mins later saying the kitchen didn't know how to make it so they gave me cheese on toast. Caesar salad starter came with no chicken, croutons or dressing, was awful. Pickled onion rings were just normal onion rings but exceptionally greasy. On to the mains, the salmon was served with freezing broccoli and half cooked baby potatoes for all of us that ordered this so they were sent back. Chicken stack was ok, burger was like one of the frozen burgers you'd buy and throw in the oven. Service charge was added to the bill, probably normal but not advertised anywhere we could see. Overall an extremely...