I had been to Harlem once before, when visiting the Belfast Beer Festival in the Ulster Hall a few years ago. The Festival catering that year didn't appeal to me as it had in some other years and so I decided to eat elsewhere. It was raining extremely heavily that day and so I made a run for the nearest eatery i.e. Harlem, where I had a much more pleasant lunch than what was on offer at the festival.

I went along to Harlem and when the waiter gave me the menu I just said that I already knew what I wanted - the supposedly worst salad, whereupon I was asked what I wanted with it. The choice definitely included both prawns and salmon and I think tuna, possibly chicken, but no vegetarian option. I chose the salmon and also ordered an Americano. 

About the coffee, I noticed one reviewer commenting about stingy milk rationing. Well, I judge my coffee quality by how much milk I need to put in it for reasons other than temperature. The better it is, the less milk I want. In Harlem's case, I used barely enough milk to colour the coffee and most of the milk stayed in the small jug.

The salad arrived, presented very photogenically in a hierarchical arrangement of large and small crocks on a board with wheaten, salmon, butter and a slice of lemon. This wasn't simply style over substance; it was really nice food.

Now this is a matter of preference but I would have liked a dose of Balsamic vinegar on this (just the vinegar, as opposed to dressing). However, that is a minor point. As salads go, this is definitely a good one. For someone to call it the worst salad that she ever had in her life, I'd be interested to know what she calls a good one.

First Ulster fry and it did not disappoint in this traditional grand restaurant. Food service was very quick but took a while to order and to receive our drinks. It seems staff are eager to keep table turnover as high as possible and as such we did feel a little forgotten about. The food tho was excellent, a large portion and quality matched the fairly high price but sadly paying was complicated and splitting the bill impossible. Nice and in a convenient location but I imagine better breakfast options in Belfast