Say 'Aloha!' to Belfast's Freshest New Eating Experience & Try Something Different from the Kua 'Aina Lava Grill

Situationed on 2nd floor of Victoria Sq Belfast beside Nando's

I'll make you a wager: you'll have never tasted tuna any finer than the Lava Grilled tuna steaks on offer at Victoria Square's newest eaterie  Kua 'Aina. Belfast is usually the last place that restaurant chains open up in, but thanks to Kua 'Aina being owned by two homegrown Northern Irish folks, we are privileged to be only the third branch to open, with the other two being London based.

We went along for a meal and met Harry for a chat. He usually runs the Carnaby Street branch, and he also mans the Kua 'Aina festival van (more on that later).

Harry explained that Kua 'Aina is actually the only restaurant in the complex who cook completely from fresh. The Hawaiian menu is a fabulous breath of fresh air indeed. I had peeked at the menu online before our visit, and initially had pictured it as another burger bar, and whilst they do a great burger, that's only part of the picture.

The menu offers traditional burgers, fish, veggie and chicken & turkey options. Then you choose whether you want it served as a burger, or hot sandwich, or bunless with salad. There are also very tempting 'Super Salads' , and the tuna & avocado caught my eye immediately. Sometimes when you are trying to diet especially at this time of year pre-summer, the salad option on the menu can feel like the booby prize. Your lettuce arrives and you longingly stare at everyone else's meal and decide you'll just buy a sarong for over that bikini and get something tasty next time. BUT- look at that salad!

Its an enviable rainbow of fresh, crunchy goodies. The ginger and soy dressing with the tuna and greens is to die for. The tuna fillet tastes like no tuna I've had before. I've had tuna at restaurants before which literally tasted of nothing, but the Kua 'Aina fillet it meaty, smoky and delicious.

Tuna & Avocado Super Salad includes a whole avocado! Hooray! 

All the 'proteins' in the meals are cooked on the special lava grill. I asked Harry what this actually meant. He explained it's a Hawaiian way of low fat, healthy cooking, and it's what the George Foreman grill is based on.

Mahi Mahi fish sandwich. 

Huli Huli chicken burger

The other food we went for was a Mahi Mahi & Monterey Jack sandwich, Spicy Huli Huli Chicken as a burger and a kid's meal of chicken strips and sweetcorn. If I did have a negative point about Kua 'Aina, it would be the kids' choices I'm afraid. The options aren't plentiful and the meal like a bit anemic beside our colourful offerings. I would love to see more Hawaiian options too, as kids are just as open as us to trying new things. I did totally love the glass Smix's apple juice came in however (top pic in this post) I want one myself!

When Kua 'Aina asked us along, they said I simply had to try the milkshake, so we had one each. Coconut and strawberry, in cute pint bottles. They are just as good as they tipped us off to, and they source the ice cream from Morellis locally. You can even make it dirty with spirits, and check the Kua 'Aina website for their signature cocktails and 2 for 1 offers on those. 

Sweet potato fries (portion is bigger than it appears here!)

We also picked a couple of sides, although saying that, the main meals were plenty. We had sweet potato fries which rivalled the kings of the sweet potato next door (N**dos!), very crispy and delicious. The onion rings are comically large and made for sharing. 

Onion rings

Chilli fries side would do as a main course £5.50

I couldn't resist the chilli fries, but a word of warning. They are HUGE. The portion could be a meal for one in itself. Fries with mince and cheese and jalapeños. I couldn't manage even a 1/4 but kindly they wrapped it up for me to take home. Incidentally you can order Kua 'Aina for delivery thanks to the Deliveroo service arriving in Belfast. Also while I mention it, the Kua 'Aina staff, I think we dealt with three local staff during our visit, are all really upbeat and friendly, which makes me think they must be nice to work for as well as eat in.

We adults were too full for dessert, but Smix used his special, child's 'dessert stomach' to fit in this freshly made, thick and fluffy American style pancake with maple syrup (icecream optional) .

So we had a lovely visit and most certainly shall be back. Sadly if you aren't in London or Belfast, it may be some time before you get a Kua 'Aina of your own. Why not petition them on their Facebook Page for a restaurant in your area?

As I mentioned earlier, they have a food truck that visits festivals. Not sure if this is last year's or this season coming's food truck calendar, but keep an eye out this summer!

I wonder what the secret is? 

Purple Sauce, Flamingo Croquet, Sneaky Sushi & Climbing Walls

We've had a mega busy day and it's only 2pm as I start writing this. Our first stop this morning was Belfast's Premier Inn. Today sees the launch of their exclusive purple breakfast sauce, so we popped along for a bacon butty & a cuppa.  

The sauce is available in all Premier Inns throughout the UK, and non-overnight-stay-guests are welcome to call in for breakfast to try it any day, and grab a Costa blend coffee too. It's really tasty, but I can't put my finger on what it reminds me of.  The base is blackberries, but it goes really well with savoury flavours. It isn't obnoxiously purple, like the green ketchup of the 1990s, but you can see the violet hue off it in real life.

Our next stop was Victoria Square, which is all dolled up with an Alice in Wonderland theme for the summer. There's a hedge maze and flamingo croquet to play. 

We then hit Yo Sushi at 11.02am, two minutes after opening, to try to get some takeaway sushi to bring home with us for later. Sadly nothing was ready, but they made some boxes up while we waited. Of course we got too tempted by the treats going round on the sushi train and ended up eating a few dishes while we waited too. 

Our afternoon plan for today was to drive down to Castlewellan. My brother & his wife are down at the Methodist Holiday Week and today is the open day. It's been raining all morning though, and the thought of trudging round in the drizzle wasn't too appealing, so we stopped off at Ikea in Holywood and decided against the long drive to Castlewellan. 

They have a free climbing wall today, which Michael scaled up whilst I held my breath. He's a lot braver than I! 

So that's been our busy morning. Michael is now building a Premier Inn in Minecraft, and I'm about to tuck into my takeaway Yo Sushi, with maybe a little splash of purple sauce! 

Spur Nachos, Wings, Ribs, Steak & Miley Cyrus Riding a Giant Hot Dog.

Last night Ms. Miley Cyrus played Belfast, Northern Ireland, and we had been lucky enough to win a pair of tickets for the spectacle. First though, keeping in with Miley's country roots, we headed to Victoria Square to have a big feed at the Spur Steak & Grill.

Local readers, a great tip for attending Odyssey concerts is to park closer to the city centre, and grab something to eat first. This way you avoid queuing for the couple of restaurants there are left in the Odyssey Pavillion, and even better once the gig is over you just walk across the Lagan foot bridge & avoid the bumper to bumper traffic trying to escape the carpark. 

We got to Spur at 6pm & already it was pleasantly buzzing. They have an extensive menu and it's definitely a kid-friendly eatery, with a soft play area for them to enjoy while you have a coffee or cocktail after your meal. If you visit Spur on a Friday, children eat free.

Our waiter, Havier was very attentive and friendly. Our starter was a a delicious plate of nachos & Jack Daniels buffalo wings. 

The menu includes combo meals, like ribs and chicken, surf and turf, ribs and steak, which is handy as it's all so tempting you might not be able to decide on just one meat.

My husband went for the rack of ribs, with two sides included, cone and chips. The ribs were drop-off-the-bone tender. 

I had rump steak with blue cheese sauce. I always ask for rare steak and look how perfectly it came out.

I'm still losing weight, so for my two included sides I chose side salad and the corn.

Overall opinion? If you love your meat, you'll love Spur. We are going to call back with our son next time so he can enjoy the atmosphere too. 

Time to dander over to The Odyssey for Miley! We had great seats, especially for the acoustic set she does mid-way through. I shall let the (far away, pretty blurry) photos speak for themselves. I tried not to have my phone camera out too much, as there's always the risk you end up watching a show through a tiny screen instead of soaking up what's going on; and a lot was going on.