Whiskies Worth the Wait: Lunch at Roam | Belfast Whiskey Week 2024

Name: Belfast Whiskey Week 2026
Start: 2026-07-24
End: 2026-08-01
Location: Belfast

Filed: 24 Jul 2024
By: Belfast Whiskey Week
Read: 3 min
Ref: BWW/24/084

Some events at Belfast Whiskey Week feel like a well-kept secret passed between those who know — and the Whiskies Worth the Wait lunch at ROAM on 24th July 2024 was very much one of those. Tucked into the heart of Belfast City Centre, this intimate afternoon brought together three seriously aged, highly sought-after whiskies and a beautifully considered three-course menu, all for a price that felt almost improbably reasonable. It was, in the truest sense of the word, a duchas moment — a gathering rooted in place, in craft, and in the quiet pleasure of time well spent.

About This Event

An excellent opportunity to dine in surely Belfast's coolest high-end restaurants without the pricetag. Enjoy a bespoke 3 course lunch with three highly sought after very mature whiskies that will compliment the fresh local produce selected by Ryan Jenkins and his tem as they deliver a curated dream.

Looking Back

ROAM is one of those venues that earns its reputation without needing to shout about it. A multi-concept entertainment space in Belfast City Centre, it carries a confidence that comes from knowing exactly what it is — and on the afternoon of this particular session, it was transformed into something closer to a private dining club for whiskey lovers. The room held a certain hush, the kind that settles when people realise they're somewhere special and decide, collectively, to pay attention.

Chef Ryan Jenkins and his team had clearly put genuine thought into the food, selecting fresh local produce that spoke to Ulster's larder without resorting to cliché. Each of the three courses was designed not merely to accompany the whiskies but to enter into conversation with them — a distinction that matters enormously in serious food and whiskey pairing. The acidity of one dish lifted a fruity top note; the richness of another gave a long-aged dram the grounding it needed to truly open up. This wasn't garnish. This was craft meeting craft.

The whiskies themselves were the kind you talk about for weeks afterwards — very mature expressions that carried the deep, layered complexity only time in cask can bestow. Without giving too much away for those fortunate enough to attend future iterations of similar events, the selection rewarded patience in every sense: slow sipping, considered reflection, and the kind of unhurried conversation that good uisce beatha tends to inspire. If you've ever wondered what a decade or more in oak actually does to a spirit, this lunch was a masterclass in the answer. For those who want to explore the broader whiskey landscape of Belfast Whiskey Week, our Whiskey Map is a fine place to start plotting your next journey.

At £40 a head for three courses and three rare pours, this session represented one of the festival's most quietly radical gestures — the idea that extraordinary whiskey experiences need not be the exclusive preserve of the deep-pocketed. That ethos sits at the heart of what Belfast Whiskey Week has always stood for. It's worth noting that fans of aged Irish whiskey expression had plenty of other richly rewarding sessions to explore across the week; Session 50's Bushmills Causeway Collection MasterClass offered another deep dive into maturation's magic, while Session 83's Bushmills History MasterClass placed that craft in its broader historical and cultural context.

In the seanchas of Belfast Whiskey Week, certain sessions earn a particular place — ones that linger not just on the palate but in the memory. The Whiskies Worth the Wait lunch at ROAM was one of them. A celebration of patience, of provenance, and of the simple, profound pleasure of sitting down to something genuinely good. Sláinte.