The Chocolate Room

this place is lovely and the chocolate is cheap and very tasty.

Ipopped in here the other day to to compare it to the gorgeous Co Couture in the city centre. Who knew there was two of these fine chcolatiers? Anyway, the selection was much much larger than co couture with a vast array of chocolates, truffles, animals, bars and even offering hot drinks to sit in and enjoy your purchase with. I decided to get just 6 chocolates, not wanting to be a complete piglet, and opted for two banoffee cups, two cherry liquor cups and two strawberry champagne truffles. It all came to under £$ if memory serves which isn’t actually bad. I was also pleases to see that the smallest gift box, while priced at £6.95 could hold between 10 and 12 chocolates which is pretty good. The drawback? The chocolates aren’t homemade. Nope, no delicious smell of melting chocolate cooking away out back. They order it all in which is probably why they have a huge selection. Quality wise, they’re great. Really strong flavours and very rich! For me Co Couture wins hands down as the Chocolates are homemade and the truffles I got were much better. But that’s not to say I wont be back… yum!

Unilocal’s helping me discover that Belfast has not just one but two chcolatiers! This also means that it is helping contribute to my early demise via sugar shock. But hey, it seems a good way to go. This place has a vast selection of chocolates in all shapes and forms to entertain your taste buds. Their truffles are flipping epic! If your ever looking for a nice gift, then it would be a good idea to pop in here and create a little box for that personal touch.

Mmm, mmm, mmm! Um one of each please?!? I really did want to buy one of everything, but we reckoned it would cost about £70 so decided to settle for a little less. In the end we got (two of each) irresistibly sweet little chocolate hedgehogs, silly but scrumptious sheep, cute dozy looking cows and some big floppy eared deliciously delightful dogs. As if that wasn’t enough I bought my Mr a ‘I love you’ chocolate bar (sad I know!) and we had a banofee cup chocolate and a champagne truffle. Drool! Can I have some more right now? The total came to about £10 which wasn’t bad seeing as my friend got a pile more chocolates. The lady who served us giggled away with us as we tried to choose our (small?) selection of creature friends. I was pleased to note the other two wee grannies who came in for a coffee and ice cream were friends of the woman (or at least regulars!) and she chatted away with them about their day. Bless. It would be nice to sit outside and relax after shopping and treat yourself to some yummy chocolates and maybe have a scoop or two of ice cream. I’ll be back (God love my waist line!)

I stood and stared and dribbled.
I battled with my conscious, she said no but I said yes. We fought a bit more.
I crossed over towards the front of the shop but stopped before reaching the entrance. It was time for a pep talk.
‘You are about to enter a shop which sells chocolate, are you aware of this?’ asked my conscious.
‘Yes’ I replied.
‘You are on the Lisburn Road and this is a speciality shop, this could be an expensive decision, are you aware of this?
Yes’ I replied reaching for £2 from my purse before dropping it into the recesses of my bag.
‘I’m only going to spend £2′ I told my conscious and in we went.
I stood and stared and dribbled.
The lady behind the desk asked if I needed any help but I was fine just staring and breathing in the smell of homemade chocolate. I could have stayed there all day — they probably would have phoned the police.
I settled on a couple of the special little individual sweets in the glass cabinet at the front. I had a strawberry and pepper ganache, a mango truffle, a blueberry fresh cream in white chocolate and a couple of other absolute delights.
I grabbed the little bag and dashed outside like a greedy little piglet ready to sit at the outdoor seat and gobble down my delights.
‘Should you really eat them all in one go?’ asked my conscious.
‘Shut Up’ I replied with my mouth full.
In one word — AWESOME!

If chocolate is mentioned in any shape or form, you can be guaranteed I’ll not be far behind. Yesterday was no different, and as I’d been dying to have a nosey in this place, my sister and I popped in for a quick look.
I was however, rather full, having just eaten a Barnams two scoop tub of ice-​cream (review coming your way shortly!), and decided that if I purchased any more sweet stuff, I would be far too tempted to eat it. That was until I discovered that The Chocolate Room sold ‘Duncan’s Original Ginger’ plain chocolate for only 99p. Ooooh, this stuff is so good, I just couldn’t help myself. My sister decided she would go for a bar too, having been reliably informed by myself off its deliciousness.
I did, you’ll be glad to hear, manage to restrain myself from buying any more chocolate, but this, of course, did not prevent my little sister from eyeing up all the beautifully designed chocolate animals, indecisive as to which ones she should choose. The variety was incredible… everything from pink chocolate piggies to cute chocolate cats, making her choice even more difficult.
She settled on a cartoon cat for 75p and a teddy bear for 25p, delighted at the fact it came to a pound (bless her). I was later told that both were «really nice». Wish I’d bought one now…
As well as the chocolate novelty animals, they also have an exquisite range of little chocolates, you know the ones you stand and stare at for ages, and get to put in a sweet, shiny box. Maud’s ice-​cream is also available for sale.
Seeing as I missed out on a bite of the cartoon cat /​teddy bear, I’ll simply have to go back. It’s a matter of life or death really…

I try to avoid going in here. Simply because it’s too gorgeous. I’m the first person to pass on a KitKat or a Mars Bar, but gourmet chocolates are verrrryyyy different. I just can’t say no. They make these chocolates by hand, and you can tell because the quality is just so good. They offer white, milk and dark chocolates — I’m a total sucker for the dark chocolate ones, I would rather have a whole box of those alone, but that’s personal taste. They know their market too — they offer wedding favours (a waste of money in my opinion but I’m sure they are lovely), and they are really smart — offering gourmet diabetic and gluten free chocolate too. They sell ice-​cream too, so they’ve got the market cornered. There are hardly any places like this in Belfast, and they are in an excellent location. They also have seating outside which is nice if you like to sit in the sun (when it shows its face) but it’s quite close to the busy Lisburn Road, so it wouldn’t be the most peaceful.