Hen Dogs, Belfast. Clucking Good Gourmet Hot Dogs & More.
/I continue my series of restaurant reviews from the perspective of a family of three, low to middle income and with a fairly adventurous palette, but as yet not too knowledgable about much beyond steak and chips, or chops and mash.
This weekend our venue was Hen Dogs, in the Cathedral Quarter, just beside the MAC. The setting is relaxed, you order your food at the bar, and from the mains to the sides it's one of those places where it's a real struggle to choose as half a dozen of the dishes sound amazing.
The setting it bright and clean, friendly and service is quick. Hen Dogs is open all week, so would do rightly for a quick spot of lunch.
I love the mismatched furniture, some of the chairs are old school chairs.
Children have a choice of pork or beef sausage and chips. Coming strictly from a family used to chippy shop sausages wrapped in paper, we found our pork sausages a little anaemic looking. No doubt they are cooked in a much healthier, less fatty way than fried and wrapped in newspaper, but I would have liked to see a little browning on the sausage, even from grilling. I said I am going to be deadly honest in my reviews, so it had to be said!
My son loved the chips though, which were freshly made, still with delicious skin on them. I pinched a few, for review purposes obviously ;-)
My own choice was the Hog Dog, pork with black pudding, apple ketchup , bacon crumb. It was lovely. I would have liked a little more bacon, but the black pudding gave it a real kick. The bap is soft and cloud like; make sure you try their in house ketchup and house sauce and use any leftover bap to mop it up. My husband would have gladly taken the house sauce home, it was his favourite part.
I should have picked a side other than the house slaw, as you get a little bit of it with your hot dog any how, but on the other hand I was glad I got slaw as I really enjoyed it.
My husband went for the spicy Raging Bull Dog. He beef sausage looked nicer than our pork offerings, and he said it was very very good.
His side choice was 'messy fries' which include salsa and cheese.
The final part of the kids' menu is the choice between a Nutella or a Raspberry icecream shake. We all had a slurp of this and it was heavenly.
Mums and Dads, don't feel out! Look what we can choose from! The Refresher shake with rose water, coconut and popping candy is just for big kids like us.
