Baps,
52 Upper Arthur Street,
Belfast
BT1 4GJ
The closure of Trademarket on Belfast’s Dublin Road didn’t just deprive the city’s culinary landscape of quantity but was a hefty blow to its quality too.
The appeal of the sort of food court/street food venue that Trademarket was – and its sister site Common Market on the other side of the city centre continues to be – comes in large part thanks to its variety.
Lots of different cuisines under one roof – or, in the case of Trademarket, some awnings.
While the usual suspects often come up across such bingo cards – burgers, pizza, burritos, fried chicken, etc, etc – there are occasional wildcards, and Trademarket always seemed capable providing something different.
Yes, it hit all the targets in the paragraph you just read, but there was also bagels, pies and Filipino staples.
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But, more than anything, Trademarket’s traders were just so consistently good. The bagels from Bodega Bagel were flawless, Pie Queen’s pies were spectacular, and the Filipino staples from Kubo were brilliant.
Fin produced the best fish and chips you’ll ever find, and sadly hasn’t reopened after Trademarket stopped trading.
But others have found somewhere else, with a couple – Frankie’s Lasagneria and Rebel & Ruse – both pitching up in city pubs at the John Hewitt and the Criterion respectively, and Kubo and Katsu Kitchen opening in the Great Northern Mall at the Europa.
As well as ordering directly from eponymous Pie Queen Shonee McWilliams you can find her creations at Stereo on the Cregagh Road, while a couple of other Trademarket favourites have established bricks and mortar presences in the city centre – Bodega Bagels near Ulster University and Baps, which ticked the burger box in its previous home, on Upper Arthur Street.
The sign outside says ‘Smash Burgers, Fried Chicken, Music’ and the twinkling disco ball, metallic tables tucked into diner-style booths and gently glowing pink neon does give off the waft of a nightclub, or a least a Kylie Minogue video.
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But the real waft is the one that hits you even before the Bee Gees coming out of the speakers. Burgers are being smashed and grilled to craggy-edged loveliness before meeting their baps.
These are high-level examples of the style of burger that sees a ball of beef walloped into a thin disc that crusts up in no time but, ideally, retains the juices to wreak havoc with your table manners.
The Signature burger gives you two of these patties, with a sweet umami grenade of bacon jam, the bite of fresh jalapenos and some creamy smoke from chipotle mayonnaise. There’s the burger non-negotiables (my review, my rules) of cheese and grilled onions, while the bap holds everything together as it should. It is indeed a tasty burger.
The Nashville hot chicken sandwich is perhaps even better. The balance between the steadily building tangy spice, the crunch of the coating and the succulence of the bird, finished off with a cooling tangle of cabbage in the form of a ranch slaw make for a very good time. It’s also, like its beefy friend, a sizable sandwich.
As is the vegetarian option, although the headline act – a masala chickpea patty – underwhelms as it falls apart into something approaching jarring blandness. Which is a shame because everything with it – pickled onions from the same neon pink colour palate as the rest of the place, mango chutney, curry mayo and especially the vegetable pakora – are all on point. Take the patty out and you’re not really missing anything. Add another pakora, and now you’re talking.
Fries that come blanketed in aioli, parmesan, chives and bacon bits or, even better, a duvet of strong cheddar and slick of chicken gravy, show that baps aren’t always required, while the chicken wings are another textbook example of the form.
Hefty lumps of poultry in a buffalo sauce tempered ever so slightly with some honey sweetness are rich, hot, and embarrassingly messy. Everything you want, even if your table manners might disagree.
The bill
Signature beef burger £11
Nashville hot chicken burger £11
Spiced chickpea veggie burger £11
Cheesy gravy chip £6.50
Bacon parmesan fries £7
Honey buffalo chicken wings £7
Total £53.50
