Restaurant’s rebrand brings French flavour back to city
An east Belfast restaurant has rebranded as a French-style bistro after less than a year in business.
Co-owner Niall Davis and his business partners Tamsin Harper and chef Niall Duffy had now transformed Monad on Belmont Road into Marcel.
The trio also own Monad sister venue Duad the Two on Belmont Road.
And Mr Davis and Ms Harper are the owners of Mexican restaurant Cu on Lisburn Road and vegan venue Jumon in the city centre.
Mr David was a co-founder of city centre restaurant Howard Street, before moving on to set up Jumon on Fountain Street.
Mr Davis said: “What we were trying to do wasn’t represented properly in the original brand”.
“So we thought we could change to get the message across.
“Niall Duffy is a classically trained chef so that has its roots in French food, but we just want to spell it out.”
And he said the food would be priced as low as possible.
“We need to tap into what people want, and it will be as low cost as we can make it. It’s all about getting the right ingredients and making things tasty without spending a lot of money.”
Main courses include moules frites at £16.50, beef bourgignon for £18.75 and steak frites at £19.95.
He said French restaurants were now lacking in the city, following the closure of L’Etoile on Ormeau Road two years ago.
“French restaurants had been a staple in Belfast for a long time, if you think of Frogities back in the 1990s, and from then on, you had L’Etoile,
“There had always been one kicking about it until now, so we wanted to fill that gap.”
However, he said the venue would steer clear of typical French dishes like frogs’ legs. “It’s more about having a French cooking style rather than traditional French dishes.”
Marcel chef Niall Duffy previously worked at Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud, Dublin’s first restaurant to gain two Michelin stars, as well as The Ritz Hotel and the triple Michelin-winning Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in London.
