Valentine's at Robinsons

This Valentine’s Day marked our seventh Valentine’s Day together, our fifth as a married couple, and our first in Europe.  Therefore, we looked for a special place to eat on this international night of romance.  Our real estate agent (property agent over here) recommended Robinsons as a good place to go out.  We already had name recognition of this place, as it was directly behind our hotel.  We learned that Robinsons is an establishment which houses five venues under one roof.  Those venues range from a “spit and sawdust bar” to a “New York styled nightclub”.  We opted for the “Bistro”, which advertised a modern and elegant dining experience.  The night started off right, with our taxi driver arriving promptly to whisk us away to a night of delight.  Our taxi driver was very conversational and asked us what we thought of Belfast thus far.  We told him that it was much more pleasant than the news media portrayed it, and how everyone had been so welcoming to us in our new city.  He responded with, “Aye, the Irish love er'one, except fer other Irish.”  As we approached Robinsons, the taxi driver asked us if we knew that it was across the street from the Euorpa Hotel.  We responded that we did, that we would walk by it on our way to our hotel where we had stayed our first ten days in Belfast.  He went on to inform us of an anecdote about the Euorpa Hotel: it was (and still is) the most-bombed hotel in all of Europe, thanks to the Irish Republican Army (IRA).  What a charming piece of knowledge, given that we lived for ten days within a stone’s throw from this infamous building.  We tried to set the scary piece of historical trivia aside as we went to eat in an establishment facing the notorious Europa.  Thankfully, the inviting atmosphere of Robinsons quickly put us at ease.  The initial venue in Robinsons through which we walked en route to the Bistro gave one the sense of an old-fashioned Irish pub, with the regulars noticing us newcomers sticking out like two cats in a dog house.  We quickly made our way up to the Bistro, a site which could be plucked out of an IKEA catalogue, with modern furniture and curio adorning the floors and walls.  After settling into our booth, we ordered the highly recommended shepherd’s pie with a secret ingredient.  Dave also ordered a pint of a locally brewed stout, otherwise known in the U.S. as Guinness, the taste of which he described as carbonated dew drops from heaven.  After our main course arrived, we both agreed that it was worth the wait to have a proper British shepherd’s pie.  It was the most light and fluffy shepherd’s pie I have every eaten, and I was only disappointed that I became filled up and couldn’t fit anymore in my belly!  They wouldn't tell me the secret ingredient, though, so I won't be able to recreate it anytime soon.  The highlight of the night came when I asked for a box to take home my remaining shepherd’s pie, something I never thought twice about when dining in the U.S.  The waitress brought out a piece of tin foil, explaining that was all she had in the way of a “doggie bag”.  I must have given her a quizzical look, because she then came in close and, in a hushed voice, told us to quickly wrap up the shepherd’s pie as it was, including its small casserole dish.  She said this might offer a more sturdy transportation device, but to not let anyone know we were walking out the door with Robinsons’ crockery.  Dave suggested afterwards that he should have asked for a box for his Guinness so as to receive the Guinness mug as his transportation device, but felt that might have been pushing our luck.  So, now thanks to Robinsons, we have a sturdy miniature casserole dish to add to our cupboard, which we can use to remember our first European Valentine’s Day over and over again.  It truly made our European Valentine’s Day one to remember.