Last Couple of Days in Beautiful Northern Ireland!

The next morning started with a bit of rain and a bit of sun- I guess it is typical of Irish weather.. my daughter is longing to get back to the hot and humid weather back home.. I think I can wait for another few days.. As we got ready for the day, I was looking online to find a good breakfast place close to our hotel… well, I found a really funky, bohemian cafe called Harlem. We walked in there and the vibe immediately made me happy. I could smell the delicious espresso smell… we sat down onto unmatched chairs and ate the most delicious breakfast consisting of a cinnamon scone and a bacon sandwich! I can’t speak enough of the yummy butter I have been consuming! We lingered there for a while and walked back to the hotel to catch our hop on hop off bus to get the Crumlin prison tour- my daughter was very keen on it. Luckily it poured like crazy as we were indoors… after a few hours we came outside and it was beginning to clear up. We caught the bus back to city center and made our way to city hall where they were setting up for a movie in the park! We bought an apple and cinnamon crepe and sat down for some lovely black and white, silent short films. As I was watching, I started to look at dinner options close by and came up with a restaurant called Home which was very highly rated, apparently they serve farm to table with sustainable ingredients. We had walked past many times but didn’t really pay attention… but there menu seemed very simple but really good! I got very excited as we walked over. As we approached, we saw a sign saying they were closed for a private party but will reopen at 7:30, that was in half an hour. We decided to walk around because that burger on their menu was really calling me plus I loved their ambiance… After walking around, we came in and asked for a table .. but were told they were fully booked! What?? How about tomorrow evening, I asked.. thinking we had a whole day tour  of the countryside but would be back around 7 or so… I was told they were fully booked but that I should try to just walk in tomorrow. Hmm, I didn’t like the sound of that.. In the meantime, he recommended a few other places in the area for dinner. We ended up at a place called Allotment. The guy was really nice and welcomed us in.. by that time the restaurant was getting crowded so we sat down and decided to order. I asked for a glass of wine and found out they were BYO.. what?? I have never ever been to a place in Europe that is a BYO.. anyway, he suggested we order and he can give me directions to a liquor store around the corner. I ordered a rib eye steak for myself with chilie fries.. I know what you are thinking- she is really indulging! Well, yes I am .. and why not, I work hard enough when I am home..

Anyway, I bought a yummy cabernet to go with my steak and settled down to eat my steak which was delicious! The wine was yummy as well.. but I felt we needed to have dessert to complete the meal, so I ordered the sticky toffee pudding and my daughter indulged in a mess, which is a mixture of whipped cream, meringues and fresh strawberries.. yum!

It was a great meal but I was still thinking of the other place we couldn’t get into…so I went back to our hotel and asked the concierge to try. Once I got back to our room, I went online to the restaurant’s website and tried to reserve online. The next morning I got a message from the restaurant saying they had a reservations for us at 8 PM.. yay, persistence paid off!

The next morning was super early with a quick cappuccino and scone. We got onto a coach bus and made our way to the Northern Ireland countryside including the Giant’s Causeway. The weather really cooperated and we had an amazing sunny day for our excursion and the countryside was absolutely gorgeous- a great reason to come to Ireland!!!

We got back around 7:45, just in time for our reservations. We quickly ran to our room to freshen up and walked over to the restaurant.. a good reason to find a hotel with a great location that is walking distance to a lot of good eateries. Trip Advisor is what I use to find fabulous restaurants! We got there exactly at 8 and were seated right away. All I wanted was the burger- so we ordered right away as we were starving. I washed it down with a yummy Rose and it was a lovely meal. The burger was enveloped with a delicious Irish cheddar, there were sautéed onions at the bottom and a corn and jalapeño relish on the side. The burger was juicy and delicious!  After a perfect burger, I thought some dessert was in order.. so we ordered the buttermilk panna cotta, which was topped with strawberries and delicious as well! Overall a great day… we are off to Dublin tomorrow. It was been lovely visiting Belfast, great attractions, yummy food and super friendly people! What more could you ask for??? Will report back from Dublin!