They say you should never interview your hero, because nine times out of ten, what you’re met with will shatter your illusions. I say that for two reasons, first that I’m trying to set up an interview with Rick Stein when I’m in Padstow later on in the year. But secondly, because I feel a little like that after visiting Molly’s Yard.

A little less than two years ago in this review, I called Molly’s “Belfast’s best restaurant, without a shadow of a doubt”. It went on to be my best read article of all time due in part to the fact that the restaurant doesn’t have its own website and my review appeared on the first page of any Google search (no longer due to the move to its new home).

Like interviewing your hero, should you revisit one of the best meals of your life. In hindsight, I’d say no. Because like celebrities, it’ll disappoint you nine times out of ten. My two sisters bought me a voucher for Molly’s and we booked ourselves in last night.

First, the service. Two years ago I described the small seating area downstairs as quaint. But it works both way. It’s quaint if you have a busy room and staff who are aware that in such a small area, that the customers can hear mostly everything they say. We were the only people in Molly’s until we’d nearly finished our starter (we had booked for 6.30pm so we could go to the cinema afterwards). And once two couples were in, the waiter must have thought it was open season. A woman came in to ask if you needed to book, after clearing up it wasn’t for that night she double checked with him. She was hardly out the door – in fact the door hadn’t even closed when he was mouthing off to the other person behind the bar because he had to answer a customer’s question twice.

Well done sir, because, that single act would be enough for me to not go back. We all have customers who are difficult, annoying and irritating but there are those who are professional and don’t stand in front of other customers mouthing off about it and then there are waiters like him.

But on to the food. Mrs F ordered a crayfish salad to start and I went for a seabream salad. Mrs F’s crayfish was a little tough, but the slices of bread with pesto that accompanied were pretty good (although I think the menu said it came with wheaten). Had the crayfish not been tough, it would have been a pretty good starter – it certainly looked amazing.

The fish was cooked well in my starter and the little red pepper pesto on the side was tasty but I hark back again to the fact that warm fish doesn’t go with a cold accompaniment – it was nestled on a bed of rice, which didn’t taste of much. Had the rice been hot it might have been a pretty good starter.

For mains Mrs F had the steak with Lyonnaise potatoes and a blue cheese butter. She wasn’t feeling great anyway (nothing to do with Molly’s) and I think that’s why she removed most of the blue cheese butter – she said it was too overpowering for her, but I had a taste and it wasn’t bad. So I think she left half of it because she wasn’t feeling great. However, the potatoes were horrid. Not the way they were done, just the potatoes themselves had a bad taste of them. And I’m nearly sure every course we had came with the same salad garnish.

I went for pork belly on a bed of haricot beans and sausage. First off, there were two mighty slabs of pork belly. The portion size was too much and out of proportion, even with the two bits of pork there were still too much beans accompanying them, and not enough sausage (four little pieces of sausage that wouldn’t have even have made up one small sausage). Whilst the crackling was more chewy than crunchy my first piece of pork was pretty good, even if it was basically sitting on a chef’s idea of a tin of beans. The second piece, however, was about 70 per cent fat, a truly awful piece of meat.

Our wonderful waiter on taking our plates away – Mrs F’s still had half a steak and all but one and a bit potatoes on it, and mine with a shed load of beans and a big lump of fat, asked us if we had enjoyed our meal and left before we’d uttered a word.

We swiftly asked for the bill – we weren’t spending any more money there – used our voucher and left. There wasn’t one dish that didn’t have a problem with it and that’s a complete change from my previous experiences. I’m hoping now that Rick Stein declines my interview request in case it goes the same way.

I ended my original review of Molly’s with this “and, for anyone interested, if I was summing up Molly’s in just one word, choose your own from marvellous, sensational, outstanding, spectacular or use your own word to replace fandabbydosy”. This time, if you would like to choose any of those words and find out its opposite then you’ll know how I feel about Molly’s right now. Though I’m not sure what the opposite of fandabbydosy actually is…