Review of The Barking Dog

I am American. I was invited to Belfast to perform as part of a global conference at Queen's University. My airline misplaced my luggage, so I stopped into The Barking Dog to utilize their WiFi to check the status of my luggage and have a drink and a snack with my collaborator, who has unusual allergies. The menu did not have anything that appealed to us so we decided just to finish our drinks and move on.

At no point did anyone communicate that it is illegal to have drinks only and our server ran our check without mentioning any legislative requirements. After paying, someone who I assume was the manager, came up to the table and inspected our receipt. "Uh-huh, just what I thought," was what they said before berating me about how it is illegal to purchase drinks in a restaurant without food. I immediately apologized and explained that I had no idea. I offered to purchase food retroactively and they refused. Following, they proceeded to repeat that I was in a restaurant and not a pub and that my actions were illegal. They coldly denied my multiple attempts at apologizing, while I explained that I am not from the area. This experience was very confusing for me, because the night before I had drinks in a restaurant with no food and it wasn't an issue.

Afterward, I asked about this supposed "rule" at multiple restaurants. In each case, I was told that there is no such law and that ordering drinks without food in a restaurant is very common. I have never been treated so poorly in a customer service dynamic and I'm not sure why this happened. I feel targeted and completely mistreated for what seems to be no good reason. To top it off it was my birthday. Complete fail on behalf of whomever this person was. I will say, the rest of the staff was very pleasant and accommodating.

Allergies are clearly marked on the menu, but the experience was truly awful.

Is there a gluten-free menu?

— Gluten-free items are marked on the main menu

How much of the menu is available gluten-free?

— Some

How would you rate the taste and quality of the gluten-free food you tried?

— Poor