It comes from one of my favourite films, so it would be rude not to try it
Justin is our Youth Audience Lead and Content Creator. He can usually found trying out new restaurants, at a gig seeing a local artist or world class singer and out with his trusty red mic chatting to the public for our TikTok and Insta.
The Doyen in South Belfast has got a brand new menu item called ‘The Bruce’ which is a take on the famous cake from Matilda that Bruce Bogtrotter is forced to eat by Miss Trunchbull in the film.
Growing up this was one of my favourite movies and the song ‘Send Me On My Way’ by Rusted Root which features in the film has also become one of my favourite songs of all time. So when I heard somewhere in Belfast was offering a version of the cake I had to give it a go.
I’ve been to The Doyen a couple of times for a drink but never for their food and definitely not for a cake. It’s a really nice bar/ restaurant in my opinion and is always quite busy which is a good sign.
I did get a main while I was there which I’ll touch on a bit later. The start of the show and the reason I was there was to try out the cake and when I seen it on the menu I won’t lie I definitely got a shock because of the price. It was £20 which is more than I’m usually prepared to pay for a dessert.
However, I was assured that this was for sharing so I gave it the benefit of the doubt. When it came down it was set on a lazy susan which spun around which was a great idea for the group to share. It also came encased in metal and a hot chocolate sauce was poured on it.
Once the metal was removed though the chocolate flowed out and revealed a huge slice of cake. It was a bit overwhelming because there were only 2 of us so I wasn’t sure how I was going to tackle this given the size of the cake in front of us.
The cake itself was really tall and was really tasty, as long as you liked chocolate that is. It came with a side of ice cream which I don’t think we even touched because the cake was a lot on its own.
This defeated me and I didn’t quite do as well as Bruce did in the film so we had to take it home. This goes to show that it is definitely for sharing for more than 2 people anyway.
As I said earlier we also got food and went for a katsu curry, some sweet potato onion bhajis and hand cut chips. The food was lovely and what you’d expect from a pub style meal. The chips weren’t for me personally as I prefer something a little crispier but they did offer fries which I should have went for instead as they might have been more my taste.
There were a range of different deals on different days in The Doyen like Taco Tuesday and curry club on a Thursday. So there really is something really approachable about this spot. I will also say the staff were really friendly and made a show out of the cake too.
Was this cake really tasty? Yes, absolutely! Was it a cool spectacle? Yes, it was definitely fun having them pour the sauce at the table? Was the price a shock? Also, yes but it definitely was big and clearly was for multiple people so that made more sense.
If the cake in Matilda tasted like this then I don’t blame Bruce for finishing the whole thing. This is definitely a cool idea that will definitely be popular among really large groups who love a dessert.
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