Pica

We are completely honoured to be included in @businessposthq 101 Great Irish Restaurants announced at the end of last week. It took us by surprise and to be featured alongside @roambelfast , @barfiskdownings , @oldeglenbar , @lasa.belfast , @oxbelfast , @stock_kitchen_bar , @themuddlersclubbelfast , @macnean_house_restaurant & the rest of the excellent restaurants named in Ulster that we’ve visited on multiple occasions as customers & friends is a huge compliment and finished off our 1st birthday week perfectly! Congratulations to Barry & Jen of @chubbyskitchen.ie who made it in Dublin and will always hold a special place in our hearts here, well worth a visit for the vibes alone never mind the great food, drinks and fun staff! Big up yourself Barry, hope ya enjoyed the tequila and you should be proud of what you’ve built! Also @forestavenuedublin where I ate one of the most delicious meals of my life in 2024! Finally, again and most importantly, a huge thanks to our managers, chefs, front of house, bar staff, KPs & all the others who have thrown their hands in to help at some point. These guys & girls are the fabric of Pica and when it takes 10 staff at once to run a 26 seater we are either doing something very right or very wrong! We’ll do our best to continue to put Belmont Road & Belfast on the map, serving Tacos, Tequila & Tunes that are probably slightly too loud. ESO PICA!!! (It may have taken me 40 minutes to write this nursery school style speech, crouched over like a Prawn, sitting in the corner of The Dirty Duck but I’ll be damned if I’ll concede to ChatGPT! Exhausted.)

We opened Pica on 15th May 2025 so this week marks our first birthday! We can hardly believe we turn 1 this Friday! Feels like we opened last week or twenty years ago depending on the day of the week. Looking back across the year at how the team has grown, the diary progressively getting busier as the months went on, the bank account go up and go straight back down again like Barry’s Big Dipper, the dishes we brought in and changed, the back bar incrementally get bigger and more exotic for lack of a better word (Thanks Shane & Chris). It’s been a very FUN first year with not a single argument the entire time! Anywayyyy, we keep moving forward, always. We are facing all the exact same pressures everyone in this industry is facing, we won’t bore you, it’s brutal, but Botox and a heap of Just for Men could be on the plans this week. Despite this, we have forged on and signed the lease for next door. At the minute we don’t know timelines or anything, we’re having meetings with all the right people who want to make this a success and as we know everything in this country moves quickly and there’s absolutely no red tape to overcome so it should be relatively smooth. Just know that within 6 months from now we need to have the new Pica up and running, more seating, longer table times and hopefully a restaurant, that when you step off the Belmont Road, you’re in for an experience! Oh, and aside from this we will be working on La Chispa in the background to launch it as a proper product, keep your eyes peeled. To our Team, to our Customers, to all our Friends and Family that helped get us to Year 1, to the Journalists, our Photographer, our Suppliers and Everyone Else, Te Lo Agradezco Mucho!!!

The lads in taste testing before we re-open tomorrow! Bring on the better weather til we get these windows opened, come on Barra, give us some decent news here! See you all tomorrow for the usual Tacos and Tequila!

And here she is, La Chispa, what a moment. It was important to us from the start of Pica to create a Lager which compliments our food. Light, crisp & refreshing, nothing over powering and as close to a Mexican Lager as possible. @ourbrewery have absolutely hit the nail on the head, from sourcing Maize & other ingredients to playing with water hardness, they’ve achieved exactly what we asked for. It’s been a joy to watch them work & to work alongside them. Seeing it going through the final steps today and into cans is a big moment for us and we’re so excited to serve these little silver vessels of deliciousness when we return from our Easter break! TO THE FUTURE 😉 SALUD 🇲🇽 🍺

Just about sums up prep in Pica! Emily smiling, Fionn confused, Cally deep in thought and Gribben getting in the road of everyone. Wouldn’t change it one bit! One more week of service, then we are off for the Easter week. If all goes to plan, our beer will be ready upon return and we will begin work on the next project! Here we go!

T U N A a n d O Y S T E R S . February and March at Pica is very much all about the finest tuna and oysters you can source so you’re in for a treat!! 👌🏻 . We experimented a little with colour this time, so much fun, the tuna looked so punchy against the green! . There is a hell of a lot to come from these guys so stay tuned, I’m already buzzing for the next shoot … anyone else excited for a glug of their Mexican style lager La Chispa?? 🤩 . Enjoy if you’re heading this weekend, the cucumber cocktail was ooooh a hit on the taste buds!! 🙌🏻 . #elainehillphotography #foodphotography #cocktailphotography #mexican #pica

BOOKINGS NOW LIVE APRIL-JULY!

Special brew day magic at Our Brewery 🍺 We crafted an incredible Mexican-style lager "La Chispa" exclusively for Pica Restaurant — crisp, refreshing, and the perfect match for those bold, vibrant Mexican flavours 🌮🔥 @picabelfast Can’t wait for you to taste this one. Salud! 🇲🇽🍻 #BrewDay #MexicanLager

Everyone, meet Ferrari. Ferrari is our third Tortilla Press since we’ve opened Pica and arguably the most important piece of kit we have in our kitchen. Without her, we have no Tortillas. Life didn’t start off too easy for Ferrari in our kitchen, she was called many a name not suitable for instagram as its features were different to its predecessor’s. Over time though, she settled in and proved us wrong. Ferrari is used to hand press between 700-800 tortillas per week, depending on how badly I estimate the number of tacos customers will eat. We use 9kg of masa harina per week, made in two batches per day (sometimes three if I really get my guesses wrong, this makes the other Chefs veryyy happy during service) so our Tortillas are fresh throughout the day. The flour is mixed with water, rested to let the water dissipate then rolled into 28-32g balls depending on which flour we are using. Between making the masa, rolling it, pressing it and cooking it, we spend around 10 hours per week on Tortillas alone. So here’s to Ferrari the absolute workhorse!

2025 brought us the birth of Pica on the Belmont Road and we’ve spent the weekend looking back to when we started in May with nothing but a dream, bags of chillies and a set of knives! Our team of 5 has doubled in size to 10 and will continue to grow, our food menu changes with the seasons and we’ll continue to put our spin on things, our range of Tequilas and Margaritas is sensational, our opening times have adjusted, we fitted a new bar in October to keep up with demand meanwhile the Chefs got treated to two new fridges which grows their total fridge count to 4 (OOOoooOoo), we see plenty of returning customers who are now our regulars and lots of new ones too, and finally, it’s clear there’s a tight race on for who is going grey first now that we’ve looked back through these photos 🥲 But it’s all with good reason. We have so much planned for 2026 which we hope to start sharing with you over the next few months. Plenty being worked on in the background, lots of long days and late nights, ideas and moves that will take Pica up another level, it won’t be easy but sure, we love it! But for now, we are going to thank you for visiting this little restaurant on the Belmont Road, keeping the dream alive and get back to serving the Tacos, Tunes and Tequila that we love to serve! Peace, Love & Tequila Baby!

Right 2026, here we go! 🎉 We are looking for people to join our team at PICA! Initially we are looking to grow our front of house team with both part time and full time positions. Pica is a small but very fast paced Mexican inspired restaurant, so ideally candidates would be experienced but we can offer on the job training for the right person! If it sounds like something you’re keen for, please email [email protected] with your CV and whether you’re interested in a part time or full time position. Alternatively you can DM us for more info! Gracias Amigos!

We are shut this incoming week for Christmas 🎅 Open Monday 29th-Wednesday 31st finishing with an NYE Party with DJ John Craig. We are closed at the start of January, opening again on Wednesday 14th through to Easter bringing you Tacos, Tequila and Tunes and hopefully a belter of a summer! Vouchers available to purchase through our website for that last minute Christmas Gift!