Restaurant review: I'm still smiling from my visit to the brilliant Ox in Belfast

Leslie Williams: "There is an almost austere simplicity about the room with bare brick painted white, a stained wood floor and blonde wood tables, but thanks to good lighting and friendly, efficient staff, it still feels warm and welcoming."

Ox, 1 Oxford Street, Belfast

Our rating: 9.5/10

Growing up in the Midlands in the 1970s, all I knew about Belfast was what I saw on the TV news and that was rarely good. But there was also music. Thanks, in part, to my brother, I knew Van Morrison, Stiff Little Fingers, and The Outcasts well, and they made Belfast City sound exciting, diverse and fun; it’s no wonder Belfast is a Unesco City of Music.

In more recent years, I’ve had hugely enjoyable nights in Belfast’s pubs and I’ve eaten well (very well), but I confess I don’t visit often enough. I suspect I am not alone. If you need one reason to visit, however, consider Ox: one of the most brilliant restaurants on these two islands. I’m still reeling a little from the experience.

Chef Stephen Toman and sommelier Alain Kerloc’h opened Ox in 2013 and were awarded a star by the Michelin Guide two years later. Housed in a former tile shop, the room has a dramatically high ceiling and a large picture window looking onto the River Lagan. 

There is an almost austere simplicity about the room with bare brick painted white, a stained wood floor and blonde wood tables, but thanks to good lighting and friendly, efficient staff, it still feels warm and welcoming.

Next door is Ox Cave, a sister wine bar where you can order simplified versions of some of the dishes on the Ox tasting menu, an option worth remembering as the Ox tasting menu for lunch or dinner costs £110 (€129). No bargain, but this is less expensive than many of the one-star restaurants elsewhere in Ireland and Britain.

First taste of the night was a mouthful of ‘winter salad’: Baby leaves sitting in a curve of chicory with some salty-meaty bresaola and a fine dusting of coffee. Coffee is a flavour I’m rarely interested in seeing outside my espresso, but here it added an intriguing earthy accent to the crisp, bitter salty and air-dried beef. A thin rectangle of velvety foie gras on an onion galette followed, and then an airily tangy Coolattin cheddar gougère.

Ox is strictly seasonal in its ingredient choices, but despite the sparseness of the winter larder in Ireland, those three amuse bites were a signal that all would be well. Nutty, tangy sourdough with Glenilen butter from West Cork proved especially useful for mopping up sauces over the next few courses, including the creamy butternut squash velouté on which had sat a barely cooked scallop that retained its sea-breeze tang of freshness.

Ox’s wine list is manageable in size and well chosen, with prices beginning at £50 (€58). Classic French regions feature strongly, but you can also find wines from Georgia, Lebanon, Austria, and Hungary.

Wild Wicklow venison tartare was topped with peppery radish slices and a red wine vinaigrette. Tartare is not a complicated dish, but this was outstandingly good, the grassy sweet, earthy notes in the cured meat balanced by acidity and crunchy toasted pine nuts and a properly pungent Dijon mustard on the side to hold it all together.

Halibut was immaculately cooked, the flakes barely holding themselves together and the sweet, delicate flesh lifted perfectly by a beurre blanc sauce enriched with umami bonito flakes; on the side, dried oyster mushrooms for more umami and romanesco broccoli for contrast. Honestly, this was one of the most perfectly executed fish courses I’ve experienced.

Châteaubriand fillet of beef with the first of the season’s wild garlic was served rosy pink with a light but expressive meat jus and slices of properly pungent winter truffle. Pearl barley ‘risotto’ added some depth to the dish as did beetroot, and the wild garlic leaves brought pungency. The Engineer’s beef was more textured than mine and would have benefited from a steak knife to slice through the tendons, but this is a minor quibble.

Ox’s wine list is manageable in size and well chosen, with prices beginning at £50 (€58). Classic French regions feature strongly, but you can also find wines from Georgia, Lebanon, Austria, and Hungary.

I chose one of the better priced reds, Thymiopoulos Xinomavro from Greece (£56-€65) — a fine choice, perfumed, silky, fleshy — somehow a match for the velouté, the halibut and the beef, thanks to its balance of dark berry fruit, acidity, and tannins.

A pre-dessert of lightly chewy blood orange macaron sat in a perfumed foam with candied orange peel and toasted almonds, packed with textures and seasonal orange flavours. Rhubarb, white chocolate, and ginger oat sablé was like a large pink Oreo with punchy ginger and sweet-sour rhubarb flavours and a shot of rhubarb ‘espumante’ fizz to wash it down.

Petit fours followed, with the highlight a finely executed caramelised luscious canelé pastry better than any I’ve had in its home town of Bordeaux.

This was one of my best meals of the last 24 months, almost every mouthful did for my palate what the opening chords of SLF’s Alternative Ulster does to my ears and my soul.

Go soon.

• Two tasting menus plus a bottle of wine, €355 with 10% service included. oxbelfast.com
• Leslie’s accommodation was arranged by Tourism Northern Ireland and hosted by Grand Central Belfast. grandcentralbelfast.com