Urban Fire — Restaurant in Northern Ireland

Update April 2023 Went last week, it was a lot quieter and the food was even better! I think the loo issues I mentioned have been addressed so props to them for listening to reviews! Now I'm full on 5*! I'll say again had the restaurant been on the Lisburn Rd, Botanic or any of the popular areas to eat out, I'd say it would be impossible to get a booking. So please don't move lol! 😂

Went here the night before Christmas Eve.

Location: Location is surprising being its at the side/back of a shopping centre. I truly think a different location and you would have serious trouble getting a booking!

Atmosphere: It's loud, boisterous and energetic. Not necessarily a bad thing but if you want a quiet meal perhaps this isn't the place to go. Not sure if this was due to the season or its like this all the time.

Food: Food was fabulous! Plenty of variety, really tasty and good portion sizes. I got the mushrooms to start and they were gorgeous, they were breaded with a cheese filling, gorgeous! Then I got the smoky stack burger and it was a proper homemade burger and was gorgeous. Chips were fabulous! I've been going off chips recently as they were seeming to be all the same; tasteless and seemed to be made with either a processed or potato substitute but these were proper boiling hot, crispy, very bold 😁 but light and absolutely gorgeous homemade chips. I didn't get dessert but my sister said her brownie was to die for.

Service: Service was great, plenty of staff, helpful but not the overly attentiveness that I don't like.

Accessibility: I add this bit in as I need somewhere accessible. This is were it falls down a little. The door is difficult to get into. It's wide enough but very heavy, thankfully another patron held the door open for my Mum and I or it would have been very difficult to get in. The tables are very close together, this made it very difficult to get a rollator around and in fact they had to move chairs to allow us past. This made the initial impression not very favourable and I was a bit frazzled by the time I sat down. Lastly the toilets. There was no separate disabled toilet. The main toilet was made accessible too. This isn't always a good thing. Disabled people for obvious reasons need longer to go to the toilet and then if someone able bodied is in them then the disabled person has to wait, which again isn't great. Also the toilet roll was out of the dispenser and on the floor which makes it difficult for a disabled person to get not to mention the germ factor! Lastly there was ordinary liquid soap (like carex) which was almost empty. The pump had been taken out to get the very last dregs out. This would be difficult for a person with limited hand strength and again there's the germ factor.

Overall I think the food massively saved the place. If it hadn't of been as good as it was I think the accessibility issues would have really stressed me out and gotten me frustrated and interfered with my enjoyment of the meal, so thankfully my lasting impression is fantastic and I look forward to going back. I'd just make sure to get a table at the front of the restaurant and hopefully they see this and change the small things in the grand scheme of the toilets.

8.5/10 but could have easily...

If I could rate this place zero stars I honestly would. Not a single person spoke to me in 20 minutes of standing waiting to be seated when I had a booking made hours ago so I basically just had to walk out even though I was also five minutes early. First of all a woman who appeared to be a manager ran out with a crying boy straight past me and ignored me then left me there and made me move to another part of the restaurant to stand in the middle of service while everyone was looking at me and I’m just as confused as everyone else then after all of that she doesn’t even come back for me she just walked straight past me again and in the end of all of this still not a single person is at the desk and not a single person had even spoken a word to me and now i’m just leaving because that was definitely the weirdest restaurant I have ever visited, or attempted to. The woman was also shouting at some people in a car before they drove off with the crying boy. Why? I have absolutely no idea. Not even that busy and every one of the workers just stared at me and walked straight past.. nice way of...

We went here for my daughter's birthday meal which happened to be on Father's Day. I usually love this place, but unfortunately we were very disappointed this time. Although the food was lovely and the staff themselves were friendly there were lots of negatives. It took approximately 40 mins before our order was taken (no drinks order taken), we had to ask for more room to sit, although the table was pre booked and they were aware of the size of our party. We had to ask several times for more napkins, drinks, cutlery etc. Food took a long time to be served, which was an hour and a half after our booked time, the kids were all starving! We had a cake to be brought out and I had to ask 3 times for this. It all seemed very haphazard with the food being served in dribs and drabs. Maybe they were understaffed? When we were presented with the bill, there was a hefty service charge added, now I don't mind paying a tip for good service, but this is not what we got! It was very disappointing all round. I'm hoping this is just a one off, but I'm not sure we...