At Molly's For Tea

All right, not exactly tea. It would be too formal to call it dinner, though, since I ate early in the bistro downstairs. I arrived at Molly's Yard, located at the end of Botanic Avenue, Belfast, unannounced at about five forty-five and asked the bar-man if the upstairs dining-room was open yet. No, it didn't open till six. No matter, there was a table vacant downstairs in the bistro - what a cosy little place - so I settled down and perused the fine menu.

The blackboard had cream of broccoli and blue cheese soup accompanied by Molly's special wheaten bread; so I began with that. It was delicious. Moderately thick, creamy and full of goodness. The wheaten bread was very fresh too. I heaped the butter thereon!

While I awaited my main course, I had a discreet look round the room: there were about three couples; a mature lady dining alone; and self. A couple of pretty young girls arrived for a drink; however, the bar-man explained that this was not possible because Molly's is a licensed restaurant, not a bar; so they left.

I had the confit of duck resting on a bed of some sort of special lentils, like a thick consistency of risotto rice. It, too, was splendid. The duck simply melted in the mouth. There was a fair amount of it as well. I had a glass of Perrier water with my meal.

What a great little place Molly's is. I'm looking forward to returning already! The bill came to less than £18.

I motored on to the Ulster Hall in Bedford Street for a BBC Invitation Concert. The Ulster Orchestra were dressed in black, as usual. I expect this habit must save them a fortune in laundry bills, what with these hard times. Were they to dress properly in full evening dress, the laundry bill for white dress shirts would cost the Orchestra more. It's a shame they feel the need to skimp in this way.