Food Review: The Hotplate Noshery

Going from never even having heard about The Hotplate Noshery before to receiving rave recommendations and finding a ridiculously good Living Social deal for the place in the space of a week is pretty coincidental right? Well, we took this as a sign and headed over to the Southern style restaurant on Belfast’s King Street for some grub.

Located near Castlecourt Shopping Centre, The Hotplate Noshery was a wee bit tricky to find at first (it’s located above Cosgroves Bar – follow the little signs on the outside of the building), but once inside we found a clean, welcoming little cafe-style restaurant. With white walls and mint green accents, it’s the little touches like the pallet cutlery holders, American sports being shown on the two TVs and wooden menus that really help to give this place character.

On the menu is a selection of burgers, hotdogs, po’boys, wings, gumbo and jambalaya – a true mix of Southern greats. We had a voucher for four which gave us a mammoth feast of a choice of burger or hotdog each, fries,  a piece of southern fried chicken each, 20 wings between us, chorizo beans, tobacco onions, coleslaw and a drink (a choice of cream soda, Dr Pepper or homemade lemonade)!

Despite only the classic versions of the burger and hotdog being allowed on the Living Social deal, the waitress advised us that we could upgrade to anything we wanted if we just paid the difference. I thought this was a nice touch, as restaurants can often be strict with deals like this.

The service was great and our food came very quickly. Served on rustic wooden boards with the wings and fries in little metal buckets, the presentation suited the theme very well. We all chose burgers – the Proper Burger with its deep south mayo, bacon and caramelised onions was my favourite; a good burger that wasn’t too dense or meaty, with some seriously smokey cheese making this more than your ordinary cheese burger. The K’n’F Job Burger was also a triumph as it came topped with smokey pulled pork, chorizo, bacon, shoestring onions, cheese sauce and gospel sauce (BBQ).

As we were getting an insane helping of 20 wings, we opted to get half BBQ wings and half hot wings. Now, these were the real star of the meal – the hot wings were classic buffalo (and not spicy at all), a perfect mix of taste and tanginess, whilst the BBQ were sweet and smokey and honestly some of the best wings I’ve ever had, ever. The fried chicken was great two, like a less greasy KFC.

From the outside The Hotplate Noshery may seem unassuming (that is if you can find it in the first place), but as far as really great Southern food is concerned, this place could be a real contender to the likes of Alleycat in the future.