They have kept the old-style, unpretentious, black font on brown art paper menus in Ox from the day, in March 2013, when Stevie Toman and Alain Kerloc’h got their doors open and welcomed guests to something Belfast had neither seen nor tasted before.
Lots and lots of other details have changed in Ox over the intervening thirteen years – quietly; subtly – but the signature, humble, menus remain.
There were modern eating rooms in Belfast city, dating back to Roscoff opening in 1989, but Ox’s minimalism was a shock to one and all. Belfast didn’t do minimalism, and this was minimalism maxed: clean; uncluttered; more Scandi than the Scandinavians. With that palette, designed by Oscar and Oscar, Ox was either going to heroically swim, or sink super fast. You know what happened.
How it happened, how Ox became the unlikely leading light for the city’s food culture, was down to the fact that Toman and Kerloc’h always made the smart choices. On Tuesday evening October 14th, 2014, the second course on the dinner menu we were served was smoked veal with ricotta, fermented kohlrabi, and nasturtium, paired with a 2012 wine from Corsica, Domaine Fiumicicoli.
On Wednesday evening August 19th, 2026, the third course on the dinner menu we were served was halibut with a magnificent rolled courgette spaghetti, topped with a courgette flower, with shellfish bisque and Greek basil. The wine was a reserve Rioja, Bordon Vina Sole, from 2018.
Twelve years apart, the span of years had been unified by excellence, deliciousness, seasonality, and making the right choices. Smoked veal with fermented kohlrabi. Halibut with courgette spaghetti. Just right.
Harnessing the affinities between ingredients which characterises the restaurant is a hugely skilful job, and Ox is all about the skills. “Our main ethos was to be better than yesterday!” the pair wrote when they marked their twelfth birthday, last March.
Wanting to be better than yesterday is easy to say, hard to do. But the consistency of the dishes in Ox has been pretty phenomenal, so whatever may be the reason that brings you through the doors, Ox is your banker, come what may.
Toman has a painter’s eye, so every dish is firstly a feast for your eyes: the slender palimpsest of an onion galette with foie gras and cherry; the earthy lilac of a borage flower atop some butter-poached lobster that sits in a pond of pea velouté; a courgette flower draped like a couture gown alongside a rectangle of halibut; a jumble of green beans and Glasswater tomatoes cloaked by a spumante of St Tola goats’ cheese. Colours and forms are framed by the plating in styles that are both naturalistic and painstaking.
Good judgement joins with the stylish plating and the smart seasonal pairings, so the six courses glide by as a boon for the appetite, each new course taking flavour in different directions. This is well-tempered cooking from a well-tempered kitchen, and the hip-to-the-trip floor staff execute the performance with unshowy professionalism.
We keep going back to Ox for a simple reason: Ox delivers. There is nothing inessential or contrived in what Stevie and Alain and their team do. They deliver a luxury experience for all the senses: smart food; excellent wines; great service; a room with charm and presence. The frippery of top-end cooking has been ruthlessly discarded, and there is no cheffy self-indulgence. What you get is the most intelligent and rigorous of restaurants, a place of impeccable taste.
