Classically trained fine dining chefs are serving up some of the most exciting street food and takeaways in Ireland these days, and Bia Rebel Ramen - which has a host of fans beating a path to its simple premises in Belfast and also makes an annual pop-up visit to Ballydehob in West Cork each August - is one of the best examples.
Brian Donnelly, who is from Tyrone and runs this little Belfast star with his partner Jenny Holland, has cooked with some of the very best in the industry, including Kevin Thornton in Dublin, as well as London luminaries such as Gordon Ramsay and Michel Roux Jnr). So what you're getting at Bia Rebel is emphatically not just fast food or just a bowl of Japanese soup - and it takes a lot ('40 hours of cooking and a lifetime of knowledge') to create these deeply flavoured, multi layered bowls of goodness.
There's a lot of information about Bia Rebel, its origins and philosophy on their website, and it makes inspiring reading. But their mission statement - "Bringing delicious, fresh ramen to Belfast. Fast food doesn't have to be bad food" - sums it up very neatly and, together with the universally positive reviews and personal enthusiasm that this small operation attracts, should be enough to guarantee that newcomers want to give it a try.
And a very good place to start would be to order their Belfast Original (c.£13.90). Consisting of Tokyo Style Shoyu Broth, served with home-made thin and straight cut noodles with 3 slices of pork shoulder Chashu, spring onions, 606 Tamago egg (cooked for six minutes and six seconds), marinated menma (bamboo shoots) and a slice of nori seaweed, it was the very first bowl to be served at Bia Rebel and is still one of the most popular dishes. Celtic Beef (Slow braised and pulled NI beef cooked with yellow bean, fermented chilli and broad bean and dark soy) is another favourite and there are some excellent vegetarian options with superb umami flavours.
'It's good to slurp' is one of the key messages at Bia Rebel. Far from being rude, slurping from wooden spoons cools the piping hot broth and brings out the complexity of flavour - and it's messily sociable too. But not every Bia Rebel dish is made for slurping. Their Schezuan Tantanmen (Brothless Ramen, c.£8.90) is a spicy minced pork dish served over noodles and with broth available as an extra, and there are several Japanse, Vietnamese and Thai rice dishes.
Bia Rebel hit a sweet spot in Belfast dining from the outset. Initially a mobile venture, it moved into its permanent home in March 2018 and word got about very fast - and the fact that it won the Observer Food Monthly 'Best Cheap Eats' Award (voted on by readers) that October, hardly six months after opening, goes a long way to explaining why it has had such an impact. And then there are the annual pop-ups at the extraordinary and much-loved Levis' Corner House, in Ballydehob, Co Cork, which bring the experience to a whole new audience. Simply superb.
