Academy Restaurant,
Ulster University, York Street,
Belfast, BT15 1ED.
028 9536 7332
Returning to any office after two-and-a-half years of working from home was always going to involve getting used to some changes, but going back into The Irish News office in Belfast city centre really did feel like stepping into a different world.
While Ulster University’s new campus was still a building site in March 2020 when Covid shut things down, by the time last autumn rolled around the soon-to-be-vacated Irish News building was surrounded by a shiny new educational behemoth, with 10,000 more bright young things also giving the northern edge of the city centre an entirely different feel – especially if it’s two decades since you were surrounded by that many students.
The old 'art college’ building next to St Anne’s Cathedral had already been renovated before the new construction work made the rest of York Street unrecognisable.
It previously housed the Academy Restaurant, which showed off the work of hospitality and culinary arts students but now, like the rest of the place, the Academy is a different beast altogether. It’s been shifted across the road and transformed from a neat room to the very model of a modern city eaterie.
Every day at lunchtime the place is jammed as it caters to the new world it finds itself in, but it’s during the evening dinner services on Tuesdays and Thursdays that the Academy does what it always did and gives the stage to the students.
Previously it felt like much more of a hidden thing. A supper club where all the diners seemed to know/be related to the students.
This Academy, there for all to see at one of Belfast’s busiest crossroads, feels more like A Real Restaurant. And it’s a good restaurant. For the most part, a very good restaurant.
There are a few misses, but rare enough to get them out of the way now. The sundried tomato bruschetta with a cool scoop of goat’s cheese was all but killed by raw red onion and scallion, as well as completely incongruous coriander cress which bludgeoned everything else into submission. The idea was the problem before it hit the plate and it stuck out because everything else felt planned out just right.
Excellent bread, especially the toothsome sourdough, was followed by a study in simple balance, with a cylinder of smoked salmon atop a tiny blini that was used to chase a cracking vivid green garlic and scallion emulsion round the plate. Here the allium flavours brought everything together in maybe the best-made thing in the entire meal.
A palate-cleansing sorbet came between the bruschetta and the main course which, while welcome after the onion overload, was sweet to the point that it probably would have sat better before dessert. That said, it was so good it could barge its way anywhere and feel welcome.
With perfumed sweetness from the pomegranate and strident twang from the rhubarb in its lush velvety texture, it was a gorgeous mouthful.
A little crispier skin on the perfectly cooked chicken supreme would have been nice but the main of breast on the bone with a white wine chasseur sauce – a nod towards winter allegedly ending despite freezing rain hammering away at the huge windows – faultless mash and a knobbly, crunchy outside, fluffy inside mushroom, ricotta and tarragon beignet, was the sort of comforting plate to take the edge off the wild weather.
Someone clever got to show off their technical expertise with a slimmer than wafer-thin tuile and good mango and blackcurrant purées but the star of the cheesecake dessert was the thing itself. Sitting on a moreish rubble of biscuit base it came semifreddo, somewhere between ice cream and soft cheese but a study in not overthinking things. It tasted of vanilla, it tasted of cheese and it was superb.
While coffee and some tasty little biscuits and chocolates were still to come, the cheesecake finished things off in a calm, reassuring way. No panic, no stress, it all melted away with the smoothness of the cheesecake.
It was the same with the service. The nerves were clear to see as things got started but as the courses came and went across the room you could feel strides being hit.
The ‘tasting menu’ comes in at a competitive £35 a head while glasses on the wine list start at £5.25 with the majority of bottles not breaking £25.
Or you could go for a deftly-made coconut margarita from the well-stocked bar. Although there didn’t appear to be any Buckfast or Aftershock. Things really have changed at university.
THE BILL
Tasting menu x 2 £35
Coconut Margarita £10
Appletiser £2.80
Total £82.80
