Michael Deane is an acclaimed Belfast chef and restaurateur with quite a little empire of restaurants across the city.  I was looking for a special meal on our last day of a trip over to Belfast in March 2022, and chose to book a table at Deane’s flagship restaurant, Eipic, which has one Michelin star and a chef called Alex Greene who has been successful on TV shows such as Great British Menu (“GBM”). Mr A and I ate at Eipic in early 2019, before Alex Greene took up his position, when I found the food good but not particularly memorable.  The name supposedly comes from “Epicurean”, but I don’t know where the extra ‘i’ comes from!  I booked a table for lunch through their website.

We arrived outside the restaurant for our 12 noon reservation, but we couldn’t find the entrance. A single building on Howard Street houses 3 of Michael Deane’s restaurants; Eipic, Deane’s Love Fish and Meat Locker, and entry to Eipic is through Love Fish.  As soon as its doors opened, at 12:00, we went inside Love Fish before being taken into Eipic, where we found a bar area leading into a smart dining room.  Maitre d’ and Sommelier Didier showed us to a good sized corner table by the (curtained) window. Didier is a very warm gentleman who has lived in Northern Ireland for 24 years, yet he still has a clearly French accent, but with an Irish flourish to it.  He presented us with the day’s menus, including one for an extra (optional) dessert called “The Incredible Edible Book”, which was the dish Chef Alex got to the GBM banquet in 2020.

Mr A and I opted for the Menu Surprise at £55, plus one of the GBM desserts to share, with accompanying wines at £6 a “shot”. This was a novel approach to a tasting menu wine flight, in that Didier would tell us about the wine before each course and we could choose to have it or skip it. (We didn’t do any skipping!). Also, by calling it a “shot” the restaurant is being more honest about the amount of wine you get on a tasting flight. Nowhere gives ‘full’ glasses of wine these days!

Mr A had an espresso martini and I had a glass of Billecart Salmon as an aperitif whilst a selection of “snacks” were brought to the table.  (It’s very noticeable how these days “snacks” is often used by restaurants instead of “canapés or amuse bouches”).  First we were brought a large “chicken crisp” each (essentially roasted chicken skin infused with herbs), then a cheese custard sphere encased in an onion gel (delicious).

The final snack was a mini crumpet with tomato jam and grated cheddar on top.  All three snacks showed different cooking techniques and the skills of the kitchen brigade, which is what I think should be their purpose. 9/10

Next we were brought bread and butter. The bread was made with Guinness and topped with a treacle glaze and seeds and came with two types of butter.  The bread was awesome!  Without doubt this was the best bread I’ve had in a restaurant. 10/10

Our first course was barbecued mackerel with apple, candied walnut, pickled pressed grapes, foraged herbs and a ponzu sauce.  It looks so simple in the photo, but this dish blew me away with its flavours! The fish was perfectly cooked and full of flavour. 10/10

Our second course was an Eipic signature dish, as well as a GBM entrant: mushroom tartlet containing bacon jam and sautéed mushrooms, with shavings of raw oyster mushrooms with a mushroom and tarragon powder sprinkled on top, all sitting on a brown butter emulsion.  There were also pickled shimeji mushrooms which beautifully cut through the rich sauce and bacon jam.  This was a great dish of differing mushroom flavours and textures. 9/10

Our main course was “Bushmills cured beef fillet” with rainbow chard, salsify and celeriac three ways (pickled, pureed, and salt baked), all brought together by a beef fat jus and a shaving of black truffle. Champ was served on the side from a mini copper pan, which was soft pomme puree with chives on top.  The beef was oh so tender and well rested, but we couldn’t detect the taste of the Bushmills whiskey (later our waiter confirmed the beef was only cured in the whiskey for one hour) which was probably a good thing; the flavours of the other ingredients wouldn’t have shone if whiskey had been dominating things.  This was a very tasty dish. 9/10

Dessert was an ultra smooth chocolate ganache, with banana ice cream, banana tuille and lemon gel.  I’m not sure of the official difference between this “ganache” and the “delice” we had at Blank a few nights previously, but it was luxuriant, rich, smooth and chocolaty. The banana ice ream was good and smooth, and the delicate tuilles added much needed texture.  One point lost for the big thumb print on the plate. 9/10

Next came the extra dessert course for us to share, “The Incredible Edible Book”, which came to the table inside a wooden book-shaped box.

The edible book was made with a coconut parfait, a chocolate ganache, and coffee jelly. The ‘book’ cover was made of rice paper.  This was a very good dessert, full of fun and creativity, but the ganache element was too similar to the previous dessert course, and the rice paper was quite tough to cut through with my spoon.  10/10

We both ordered an espresso, which, unusually, came in a small glass. It was served with a brown butter financier and a Bushmills flavoured chocolate. 8/10

After our luncheon chef Alex Greene came out of the kitchen for a relaxed chit-chat in the bar area, which I appreciated a lot.

We had an excellent lunch at Eipic!  The food was in season and perfectly cooked, and represented a fabulous bargain compared with London restaurants.  The wine shots were spot on and the service from all staff was friendly, but on a higher level of professionalism than I’ve encountered elsewhere in the Province.  My overall score is 9.5/10; a very high score from me, for a one star restaurant.

Total bill for two was £234.68, a veritable bargain for roughly 6 courses of food of this quality (note that all of the places I ate in in Belfast included a 10% service charge on our bills.  In London it’s at least 15% these days.)