Slim’s Tasty But Not So Healthy Kitchen – Belfast

The previous evening when going for dinner in a restaurant on the Lisburn Road, Slim's Healthy Kitchen had caught our eye as we passed by in the taxi. The bright lights combined with the distressed wood facade and a ginormous cow statue outside had us intrigued. So the following day after a busy morning spent on the Black Cab Tour and in the Titanic Museum, we decided to hit up Slim's for some munch. We were in the mood for a big feed, and were absolutely starving when we got there, but to our dismay there was a bit of a queue. We figured this was a good sign though and took a seat, hungrily perusing the menu as we waited.

We got a table pretty swiftly (probably due to Louise tweeting at them) and they either have really chirpy staff all year round, or the staff were being particularly friendly towards us. Louise went for the chicken burger complete with rocket, red onion and lashings of Slim's homemade garlic aioli while I chose the beef burger with cos lettuce, pickle, and salsa, without the bun. I ordered a smoothie jam-packed with loads of fruit and berries, which surprisingly arrived faster than Louise's Coke.

Our burgers came out pretty quickly, and we'd gotten a portion of grilled halloumi and a portion of fries to share. I was a bit disappointed by my burger - generally when a coeliac orders a burger without a bun, you hope that some thought has gone into making it more of a meal. Now, I also reckon it's fair to say that we have been spoiled in Dublin by the likes of Bunsen and JoBurger, so the quality of beef really didn't seem up to scratch.

Chances are that with a bun the whole burger would have come together really nicely, but chopping up my beef burger and mixing it with the side salad just felt a bit weird. The fries were great though, and the halloumi was unreal. Louise's chicken burger got a great report until she realised the second piece of chicken within the bun was a little bit pink, so she just left that to the side - you can never be too careful with chicken.

To finish I ordered a matcha latté as I had been craving a matcha hit since heading up north and this was the first place in Belfast that I'd found that did them. It was perfect - not too sweet and really frothy. On further inspection of the menu I realised that I'd probably made a bit of a poor choice - there were wings, and hefty salads filled with avocado and rocket, or halloumi wraps and teriyaki salmon fillets. In the same way you should never hit the supermarket when starving, sometimes a hasty decision made on an empty stomach means you don't pick the best dish on the menu.

Slim's is a great spot though, and very clever marketing ploy to present yourself as a healthy kitchen even though there are plenty of fried items on the menu. I would love to pop back to check their dinner menu, and will definitely pay them a visit next time I'm up north. They've also opened a city centre Slim's Express where you can pick up smoothies and quick snacks or lunch items in Victoria Square which is perfect for anyone working in Belfast city.