Life

Eating Out: In a New York state of mind (ish) at Brooklyn SQ

Brooklyn SQ restaurant, formerly known as Speranza's, on Belfast's Shaftsbury Square Picture: Cliff Donaldson
Brooklyn SQ restaurant, formerly known as Speranza's, on Belfast's Shaftsbury Square Picture: Cliff Donaldson Brooklyn SQ restaurant, formerly known as Speranza's, on Belfast's Shaftsbury Square Picture: Cliff Donaldson

Brooklyn SQ, 16-19 Shaftsbury Square, Belfast, BT2 7DB, 028 9023 0213

IF YOU want to make something cool – or at least give it the appearance of cool – with the minimum of effort, slapping ‘Brooklyn’ on it has become a favoured way to go.

The New York borough is the epicentre of hipsterdom. It’s edgy, it’s now, it’s a bearded, bespectacled fella in a Borussia Dortmund hoodie, almost tripping over a mangy looking mutt called Marjorie, in a bar knocking out craft beer and blaring The Charlatans from the jukebox.

That’s an honest-to-God Brooklyn experience I once had and every word is true. Except the dog. She was actually called Audrey.

For 34 years, Brooklyn SQ in Belfast was Speranza, clearly and solidly Italian. The rebrand for the Shaftsbury Square location involved a £150,000 renovation and a complete overhaul of the menu, turning it into somewhere for steaks, ribs and burgers, with some pizza and pasta holdovers.

The place is cavernous, and exudes a polished kind of cool. Literally when we visited. It just smelled new, with wood panelled walls, splashes of neon and wrought iron bits and pieces that are intentionally Brooklyn Bridgey. The menus exhort you to ‘eat the Brooklyn way’, which these days is probably a cauliflower and beetroot smoothie (kale is sooooo 2016) or something from the all-avocado restaurant which opened there earlier this month, but in Belfast it means something quite different, and quite all over the place.

The references might not all be accurate but the food is good and the staff are helpful at Brooklyn SQ<br />Picture: Cliff Donaldson
The references might not all be accurate but the food is good and the staff are helpful at Brooklyn SQ
Picture: Cliff Donaldson
The references might not all be accurate but the food is good and the staff are helpful at Brooklyn SQ
Picture: Cliff Donaldson

The ‘Brooklyn specials’ include a fish supper; Eton Mess is a ‘famous Brooklyn desert’. There are also a couple of Titanic references on the menu, just to remind you you’re in Belfast. There’s also picture on the wall of Citi Field, home of the (not really that) mighty (at the minute) New York Mets, which is in Queens, but it’ll probably only be me who gets annoyed by that.

But it doesn’t really matter – although if a restaurant somewhere in America decided to go down an Irish-themed route with such gusto and was as wide of the mark as this you can only imagine the social media reaction from punters and publications over here: “You won’t believe this epic FAIL as a US restaurant mixes up northern Mr Tayto with his southern counterpart.”

Whether I believe it or not is irrelevant since I don’t care. Brooklyn SQ may be trying a little too hard, but so what? It’s a nice place to sit down for a meal. And it’s a good meal. And the people who bring it to you are efficient and helpful and pleasant.

The sweet potato fries could be a little hotter, but they’re still tasty and as crisp as sweet potato fries are ever going to get. The garlic potatoes are hot and crisp and swimming in garlic butter. As they should be. There isn’t a hint of grease on the onion rings on the rib platter or the tobacco onions that come with the steak. Not getting these sort of things right will sink a place like Brooklyn SQ, but they comfortably avoid the pitfalls.

The fillet steak is perfect all the way through and performs the role a fillet should – to melt away with minimum effort – to the letter.

The ribs also give way the right way, with only the extreme edge of the rack clinging to the bone. With chicken wings also on the platter the plate – actually a board, but the less said about that the better – ended up a gruesome sight and the wings were the one miscue.

Brooklyn SQ restaurant, formerly known as Speranza&#39;s, on Belfast&#39;s Shaftsbury Square Picture: Cliff Donaldson
Brooklyn SQ restaurant, formerly known as Speranza's, on Belfast's Shaftsbury Square Picture: Cliff Donaldson Brooklyn SQ restaurant, formerly known as Speranza's, on Belfast's Shaftsbury Square Picture: Cliff Donaldson

Unnecessarily coated with a light batter, they missed the point of the best Buffalo chicken wings – being a messy vehicle for rich, hot, vinegary sauce. Instead the sauce was on the side, a real shame as it was fantastically garlicky and deserving of a more prominent role.

The tiramisu wasn’t mind blowing but did the job of rounding off affairs nicely with a good boozy bottom, and the apple pie was more home bakery than ‘as American as’, but when has that ever been a bad thing?

Brooklyn SQ’s biggest crime may be trying to be something it clearly isn’t but what it actually is, and what it does, more than excuses that misdemeanour.

THE BILL

10oz fillet steak £22

Ribs and wings combo £16

Tiramisu £5

Apple pie £5

Brooklyn lager £4.20

West Coast Cooler £4

Coffee x2 £7

Total £59.70