Guru,
11 Wellington Place,
Belfast,
BT1 6GE
028 9099 0344
You can find yourself hit by regular doses of deja vu if you go Eating Out enough, to the point that you sit down somewhere and it feels like, well, you, know…
Oh boo hoo, how are the first world problems for you over there at that nice wee table in the corner with someone bringing you lovely stuff to eat?
True but as far down the list of actual work (Work? Pull the other one, mate) tribulations as this comes, it’s still a thing.
On menus you see the same of-the-moment things, or old standbys, popping up.
Obviously restaurants are in the business of pleasing crowds so offering crowd-pleasers is to be expected, but the deja vu goes beyond the fare to the restaurants themselves.
For a couple of years I could probably have written enough instalments of this column to take in a couple of birthdays if I went nowhere but places full of bare brick, exposed ironwork and ye olde filament lightbulbs, no matter what sort of food was being served. Even if the spaces are completely different the echoes are there.
And so it is with Guru, an Indian restaurant in Belfast city centre that, despite being nothing like the nearby Ivy still managed to catch a deja vu stray when we walked in.
It’s not Guru’s fault, it’s just that it sits on the same stretch of road passing across the front of the City Hall and because when you walk in it immediately hits you with how shimmeringly beautiful it is.
Read more: ‘The Ivy in Belfast is decidedly meh, with fab service but drab food’
Because for all the problems with the food at The Ivy – and there were plenty – when I visited soon after it opened towards the end of last year it was, and remains, a stunning place to sit down for a serviceable shepherd’s pie.
The building in which Guru sits isn’t quite so fancy and, while it’s deceptively big, it doesn’t match the cavernous Ivy, but when you step inside the sparkle of the place grabs you straight away. And, as lovely as all that is, when it comes to the food the substance matches the style.
Having operated successfully in Newry since the summer of 2023 Guru spread its wings with a new branch in Belfast last October and the big city should be grateful for it.
The considered chutneys that come with the stacked in-tray of poppadoms to get through bode well for the rest of the meal. Kermit-green mint and coriander, sweet and tamarind-sour-edged mango, and full-whack onion all blast flavours at different levels, with a couple popping up again next to excellent starters.
The duck tikka offers three well-cooked boulders of bird, with deep charred edges and a tangle of red cabbage.
The sauce of deep ochre has penetrated the meat right through to a bone that comes away as cleanly as a Rory McIlroy five-iron
There’s similarly well-treated chicken tikka across the table, coming as part of a trio of bites on an individual platter. Its mates are a fat samosa rammed with spiced potato and a brace of crunchy onion bhajis.
The hefty main courses are a study in simplicity – until you taste them. The mango prawn masala is a bowl of thick, sunshine bright orange sauce adorned with a few deep-green fried curry leaves.
Chubby sweet tiger prawns lurk beneath the surface of a liquid that first hits you with the fragrant sweetness of mango, then alternates between that fruit burst and coconut smoothness, while all the while building a surprisingly potent chilli dig. As much as those prawns are the headline act – and the reason it costs £23.95 – the sauce steals the show, begging to be mopped up with the bang-on naan bread, or slopped over a bright bowl of lemon rice.
While the delicate prawns only met their saucy partner briefly, the lamb shank of the awadhi nalli gosht has clearly been in a much longer relationship.
The thinner sauce of deep ochre and probably even deeper thoughts has penetrated the meat right through to a bone that comes away as cleanly as a Rory McIlroy five-iron.
The lamb itself is soft and comforting and the sauce has more of a suggestion of heat than anything else, but is full of rounded, comforting warmth.
It’s all done with a classy edge to match the surroundings, while gulab jamun, little dumplings soused in sweet syrup next to a scoop of vanilla ice cream, would calm the heat of even the fieriest choices beforehand.
The mango kulfi, meanwhile, perfectly reflects the whole bejewelled twinkle of Guru. It’s a luscious, pretty thing, with the dense, rich ice cream under a scattering of pistachio nibs and rose petals, with a healthy squiggle of rose syrup adding to the heady mix.
Tonnes of style, even more substance and – thankfully – not a hint of deja vu.
The bill
Duck tikka £11.95
Starter platter £11.95
Mango prawn masala £23.95
Awadhi Nalli Ghost £23.95
Lemon rice £4.50
Garlic naan £4.25
Mango kulfi £7.95
Gulab jamun £7.95
Frozen mango daiquiri mocktail £7
Elderflower tonic £3.95
Total £107.40
