The Alchemist

Extending over the top of Urban Outfitters in Trinity, The Alchemist is a trendy bar slash sit down restaurant that seems to have such an abundance of staff that some of them were standing around with nothing to do.

I phoned ahead and luckily that allowed us to get seated almost immediately on arrival. Inside we found a variety of interesting novelties - conical flasks, steam pouring out of cocktails and drinks that were on fire. Service was quick and once we had ordered, the food arrived remarkably quickly too.

My special fried chicken came in a wire mesh chicken. This was a nice novelty, but ultimately was incredibly annoying. It did not seem to lift out so I had to try and get in via the hole at the top, which made the entire thing difficult to eat. The food itself was not great and the tomato dip that came in a pot would have been greatly improved by not being stone cold.

I accompanied my meal with a strawberry milkshake, which was a little smaller than I would have expected and was not the best I have ever had. It was rather lumpy and still frozen in some places.

Service times really were impressive and the staff were friendly, but that is all I can really say about The Alchemist. The food and drink were all flash and no substance. Elina felt my conclusion was rather harsh though, as she enjoyed her food more than I did.