Ambrosia

While Ballyhackamore boasts the buzz restaurants and bijou eateries, just down the road, on the bohemian Ormeau  café culture reigns supreme, with coffee shops opening at a rate rivalled only by 2013’s glut of BBQ shacks. Soul Food’s survived an unlikely move to an upstairs unit above the Bengal Brasserie and Graffiti’s been bringing sustenance to the brunch crowd since  long before brunch was a thing. 

New-comer Ambrosia steps up to the plate, while not stepping on anyone’s toes, Italian cuisine not being a big feature on the road. Set in the former Xrtavision premises, it’s an handsome looking room, with a shiny new bar and sparkling kitchen, complete with a display of the chefs kneading the bread for the night’s service. There’s a few rough edges need polished out - the red and green lighting for a start - but it’s cosy, clean and spacious.

The first thing you notice about the lunch menu is just how cheap everything is - you’ll struggle to spend more than 6 pounds on a dish. The second thing you notice is that there’s only three main course items, one of which is vegetarian.

Spinach and ricotta ravioli packs a cheesy punch that is a million miles away from the bog standard Belfast-Italian style of sauce smothered floppy pasta. It’s slightly bitter, very smooth and has the bite that suggests cooked to order rather than an extended languishing in a pot of briny water.

Spaghetti Bolognese is a dish universally adored, and while we could question the dish’s authenticity, we can’t deny that what has been set in front of us is a splendid little dish, pumped full of garlic and basil with tender mince and the same perfectly cooked pasta. While I prefer more pasta to less sauce, there’s no complaints to be had as I mop up the remains with garlic bread, a man in carb-heavy heaven.

The meal was complimented  with a bowl of battered squid, fried to perfection and without a hint of the inner tube texture of overdone mollusc. The service was prompt and cheery, and a cursory glance at the evening menu suggests that a return visit is most definitely in order.

Shane Horan

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