Dina Dina
52 Music Hall Lane,
Belfast BT1 4GJ
028 9543 4110
SOMETIMES the lunchtime hunger pangs demand more than a supermarket sandwich or even the most filling of vegetable soups.
At that point, the sussed city centre worker heads for a really good cafe like Dina Dina.
It's an Italian outfit that's been feeding Belfast's visitors and natives from premises in central Belfast for the past nine months.
Their tagline is Food, the Italian Way and that pretty much sums up the culinary pleasures inside.
The decor will appeal to anybody who loves Italian sport.
There's a large poster of L'Allenatore nel Pallone or Trainer on the Beach, a cult '84 comedy movie directed by Sergio Martino and popular for the cameo roles featuring journalists and football players.
But what really gets the juices flowing is the food.
Owner Allesandro is handy with the advice, starting out by praising (correctly, as it happens) DinaDina's speciality, piadina or flat bread.
Made very much as his mama would approve of back home in Milan, this is what his menu majors in.
It's also what makes these big wrap snacks delicious. An Italian version of pitta bread, it's softer and friendlier than the Greek staple.
You can have the griddle-cooked flatbread with seafood, as a classico with ham and cheese, with chicken or with sausage – although they'd run out of their homemade sausage when we visited on a Wednesday after the lunchtime rush.
My dining partner, otherwise known as the husband, opted for the chicken piadina and instead of the sweet chilli sauce, asked for some pesto.
This was a good move. He said the combination, filling enough to get you through an afternoon's work and costing £5.25, was "flavoursome".
I cunningly managed to sample the elusive homemade sausage, cooked with red wine and garlic, when I chose as my main a generous slice of pizza adorned with these nuggets of intense flavour.
This pizza had everything to do with the Italian dish, majoring in a hefty slice of glorious dough showing off its ingredients, nothing to do with the anaemic circles of dough with unmatched toppings we're more use to here.
But before I even got to the flavours, I had to decide how to eat the thing.
By hand, as Alessandro suggested, or with cutlery, which he was quick to bring?
Nearby sat a Methody student, Cait, who divulged that DinaDina had become her favourite haunt on Wednesday afternoons.
She recommended I twist the paper lining the dish, raise it to my lips and eat.
I did just that and at the risk of sounding like a Masterchef judge, first got the rich sweet tomato base, with good seasoning and onion and maybe some basil, then a cheese hit and on top the perfect sausage.
You could taste the red wine in the meat too, a nice detail as DinaDina's currently has no alcohol licence and we accompanied our meal with Pellegrino.
There is something about eating a simple, well cooked dish, but it's about more than that. It's about authenticity.
Alessandro's keen on authenticity and said that although some restaurants offer it, he'd never (and I am paraphrasing here) insult a pizza by putting chicken on top. It may taste OK but is not the real taste of Italy.
Similarly, when we came to ordering coffee – a black-as-hell, grown-up espresso for my husband ("Should have coffee after a meal more often" he said on the way home) – Alessandro opined that when they get their new coffee machine, he'll undoubtedly provide people with cappucinos to accompany their meals, but his mother would not approve. "It's coffee for the morning."
Eating in at Dina Dina's (named after the piadina) is an enjoyable experience.
Service was impeccable and I was even given an off-menu green salad, with mixed leaves and roast peppers.
The price suits an austerity budgets and Dina Dina has big plans for 2016.
They aim to open the cafe for breakfast and introduce a new range of side dishes.
THE BILL
1 gallo (chicken piadina) £5.25
1 Italia (salad £4.25
1 pizza slice £2
1 bottle of San Pellegrino £1.50
1 espresso £1
Total: £14
