Stix and Stones City Centre — Restaurant in Belfast

Had a recent meal here on a busy Saturday night. I've been once before pre-pandemic and would I think have given it 5 stars on that occasion had I reviewed it. But unfortunately little is quite as good as it was pre-pandemic anywhere. We were a party of 9 celebrating a birthday. Our order was taken quite quickly after we had time to settle in. Our waitress was pleasant and soft spoken. We decided we were going to have starters. I chose the deep fried squid followed by a ribeye steak with a whiskey and cognac pepper sauce. When it arrived, my squid was served with a small side salad and squidge of what appeared to be puréed avocado. Whilst the squid was fine the avocado, if that's what it was, tasted of nothing in particular and unfortunately the salad was similarly lacking in any real flavour. I was hungry and it was all eaten but it was not a memorable dish. Next up were our mains and I had told my waitress I wanted my steak medium. Imagine my puzzlement then when the only rib eye at the table was served as medium well. I really like my steaks just slightly over medium rare having asked for one that way in Spain and getting it dripping with blood! 🥴. That kinda turned me against having anything inclined to emit blood on to my plate so I've asked for them medium since and been pretty satisfied with the result. This 'medium well' offering before me looked well on the upper side of the medium area of the steak cooking spectrum! I thought about it for a second and tried to cut into the steak to see how it looked inside. I immediately remembered that well cooked steaks get tough as it wasn't easy to cut. I hate to see food wasted and thought of just covering it with sauce and taking one for the team...but hold on. Did I really want to grin and bare it on a fairly infrequent night out and paying £28? I decided to voice my disappointment at the specimen before me to the young man who had brought it. He told me immediately he'd get it sorted and took it back to the kitchen hatch. I told him to take my chunky chips too and keep them warm for me. A young manager duly arrived to oversee proceedings and immediately came over to ask me about the problem. When I started to explain I really wouldn't have enjoyed it he immediately said it was not good enough and apologised for the inexperience of our server who had confused medium with medium well which was what she had written for the kitchen. Patrick, the young manager said they wouldn't charge me for the meal. I hadn't been expecting that. I waited for my replacement meal to come whilst all my friends tucked into theirs (mains had taken quite a while to arrive for our large table and we were all really more than ready for them.) This wait led me to reflect indeed it was less than satisfactory and Patrick had been right to give me mine on the house. When it came my replacement ribeye was beautiful - tender, juicy and absolutely worth the wait. I was pleased with myself for having complained as I shall now be happy to revisit the venue. An Irish coffee rounded things off nicely and our 3 course meal with house wines worked out after my complimentary main and a 10% service charge on our table of 9 at £45 per head. Not bad at all for a decent meal on a...

The owner manager never responded back to me nor did he send me any details to return and enjoy the meal at its best so sadly this review stands . I booked it as it looked like it was award winning and look delicious. Wellllll. OK firstly went to the bar at the entrance to get a drink waiting a good 10 mins while the bar man was looking at me and doing tricks with bottlecaps and taking orders across the bar from tables and ignoring people right in front of him . Eventually after calling him and getting my drinks order then the table was ready . Now I do have to say My steak was spot on a fillet but my partners sirloin was full of sinew and grisle and was barely edible and wasn't medium rare . The plates kind of over took the tables huge massive plates made the portions look tiny and there was no room for them even tho it was only two of us I expected a lot more from them. The pepper sauce was amazing . We then ordered dessert from a waiter and waited around for 15 mins and then where told he had walked out of his shift so by that time we where Done with the place and we also left with no dessert as we where done waiting . All the staff seemed to be Congregating at the end of the bar swamping the bottle cap tricks bar man with drinks orders. I expected a higher quality from the place. And to be honest the menu was very linguisticly flamboyant loads of words and not much appeal . Nothing on the menu invoked in me anything that said ohh that sounds nice it was over worded and messy to read simple and sounding delicious is what it should be not a steak worded to be from a 19th century Egyptian chef .disappointed for sure but even more so when he did call me and offered for us to come back and enjoy it properly which Is why I never tend to ever go back to place as it should be good all the time not just when u get a complaint. So unfortunately nothing more can be said in...

We chose the restaurant after great reviews on TripAdvisor and as recommendation from work colleague. What a disappointment! We visited this steak restaurant for the first and last time. Decor has a little bit of New York style but environment iis very loud. For starters we got crab on toast and teriyaki chicken wings. A toast was disaster; toast wasn't even near the toast size and wasn't toasted. There was maybe one prawn chopped on the top with a bit of guacamole sauce. Portion size disappointing but guacamole had good texture and flavours were fresh. Chicken wings were alright but the treriyaki sauce had a very thick consistency.For mains we ordered fillet steaks, chunky bacon and cream chips and Cajun fries and whiskey, peppercorn sauce. They have good quality meat but my steak was destroyed. "If you want to know if the restaurant is good, ask the chef to cook your steak for you." Well, my steak was overcooked. I asked for medium and it came medium to well done and charred on the edges to the point that meat was bitter, my fries wre not fries but wedges with overload of Cajun pepper, a little bit of green pesto, cream and some cheese. What a waste of good quality meat. For deserts we went for baked Alaska and chocolate parfait. Baked Alaska was just fine and chocolate parfait had a consistency of dark chocolate butter rolled in peanut crust. Service was poor. Waiting staff was giving you the feeling that you need to hurry. Overall very disappointed and definitely not going back. There are far better restaurants and steak houses in Belfast, like Dean's which is just 2 minutes away. If you're looking for experience of cooking your own steak on a stone, this place is right for you but if you're looking for good quality food, look...