Sunday Sunday? no good for me

Blur’s song Sunday Sunday may not be as well known as, say, Parklife, but it’s not a bad tune. And it came to mind when we were driving around Belfast on Sunday afternoon looking somewhere to eat.

As usual Mrs F was right. We were headed to Hill Street Brasserie and though there was no sign of opening hours on their website (really, that’s just silly) I noticed that they had a deal on for Mother’s Day. Heck, that must mean they’re open on Sundays. No way was I calling to check, I had my proof in Mothering Sunday form. Of course, I was silent when we drove past HSB and found the shutters down. Damn wife, she’s alway frickin’ right.

Damon Albarn was also right, I was dreaming of protein on a plate, but I’d no backup plan. We tried a few other places in town to find them closed. We even tried Deane’s to see whether the newly reopened place was any different. But it suffered the same fate. Motionless, empty and foodless… closed on a Sunday.

I’m a realist, and I know that many of the places we tried are small owners and probably need a day off, but if Belfast is to become a proper, real, god-honest tourist destination then we need people to be able to eat in our best places every day of the week.

Yes, I could have had a subway, as Mrs F suggested (I think she was getting bored of me rocking back and forward in the car murmuring that we needed to find somewhere I hadn’t reviewed before) but I wanted a nice lunch.

We did a few laps, driving up University Road (damn you Drennan’s) and Botanic before heading to the Lisburn Road. We saw Ryan’s and decided we’d had enough of driving and settled for the Botanic Inns restaurant/bar. A review will follow next week. Blur sang that “going out is your best bet”, they have obviously never tried to eat on a Sunday in Belfast.