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Belfast Empire
A converted late-Victorian church with three floors of entertainment, the Empire is a legendary live-music venue. The regular Thursday night Gifted session showcases the best of new talent, both local and UK-wide, while Saturday is either big-name bands or tribute bands. There's also stand-up comedy every Tuesday.
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Bittle's Bar
A cramped and staunchly traditional bar that occupies Belfast's only 'flat iron' building, Bittle's is a 19th-century triangular red-brick building decorated with gilded shamrocks. The wedge-shaped interior is covered in paintings of Ireland's literary heroes by local artist Joe O'Kane.
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Black Box
Describing itself as a 'home for live music, theatre, literature, comedy, film, visual art, live art, circus, cabaret and all points in between', Black Box is a new and intimate venue in the heart of the Cathedral Quarter.
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Botanic Inn
The 'Bot' is the second pillar of Malone Rd's unholy trinity of student pubs, along with the 'Eg' and the 'Welly Park' (Wellington Park). The latter has sadly been renovated into airport-departure-lounge anonymity, but the Bot is still a wild place, with dancing in the upstairs Top of the Bot club Thursday to Saturday (people queue down the street to get in), live folk music from on Wednesday, and big-screen sport when there's a match on.
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Crescent Arts Centre
The Crescent hosts a range of concerts, plays, workshops, readings and dance classes, and there's a regular club night called New Moon ( to late, admission around £6 , first Saturday of each month), which showcases live bands, with DJs playing afterwards. The Crescent also stages a 10-day literary festival called Between the Lines each March, and a dance festival, City Dance, in June.
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Crown Liquor Saloon
Belfast's most famous bar has a wonderfully ornate Victorian interior. Despite being a tourist attraction, it still fills up with crowds of locals at lunch-time and in the early evening.
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Dubarrys Bar
One of Belfast's newest gay venues, Dubarrys is aimed at a slightly older, more sophisticated crowd who are looking for designer décor, cool tunes and conversation rather than flashing lights and banging dance music. Lick! (www.lick-women.com) is a lesbian club night, held at Dubarrys the third Friday of the month.
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Duke of York
Hidden away down an alley in the heart of the city's former newspaper district, the snug, traditional Duke was a hang-out for print workers and journalists and still pulls in a few hacks. One claim to fame is that the Sinn Féin leader, Gerry Adams, worked behind the bar here during his student days.
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Eglantine
The 'Eg' is a local institution, and widely reckoned to be the best of Belfast's student pubs. It serves good beer and good food, and there are DJs spinning most nights. Wicked Wednesday pulls in the crowds with an electric rodeo bull, bouncy boxing, sumo-wrestler suits and other fun, and Tuesday is the big music and entertainment quiz night. Expect to see a few stag and hen parties stagger through at weekends.
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Empire Music Hall
A converted late-Victorian church with three floors of entertainment, the Empire is a legendary live-music venue, preaching jazz (in the Basement Bar) and stand-up comedy (in the main hall) on Tuesday, blues on Thursday and live bands - tribute bands are a favourite - Friday and Saturday.
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Garrick Bar
Established in 1870, but recently refurbished, the Garrick hangs on to a traditional atmosphere with acres of dark wood panelling, tiled floors, pillared bar and old brass oil lamps. There are snug booths with buttoned leather benches, and a real coal fire in each room. There's traditional music sessions in the front bar from on Wednesdays, and to Fridays.
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Globe
This popular student pub seems to be the karaoke capital of Belfast, with sing-it-yourself sessions almost every night; the pseudo-1970s décor goes well with the wild retro sessions on Wednesday nights. On Saturday afternoons sport is the order of the day with football or rugby blaring on half a dozen giant screens.
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Harty Room
Queen's University's School of Music (www.music.qub.ac.uk) stages free lunch-time recitals on Thursday and regular evening concerts in the beautiful, hammer beam-roofed Harty Room, and at the Sonic Arts Research Centre (Cloreen Park), with occasional performances in the larger Sir William Whitla Hall (University Rd). You can download a programme from the website - click on the Music at Queen's link.
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Irene & Nan's
Named after two pensioners from a nearby pub who fancied themselves as glamour queens, Irene & Nan's typifies the new breed of Belfast bar, dripping with designer chic and tempting your taste buds with an in-bar bistro. It's a laid-back place with a 1950s retro theme, good food and good cocktails.
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John Hewitt Bar & Restaurant
The John Hewitt is one of those treasured bars that have no TV and no gaming machines; the only noise here is the murmur of conversation. As well as Guinness, the bar serves Hilden real ales from nearby Lisburn, plus Hoegaarden and Erdinger wheat beers. There are regular sessions of folk, jazz and bluegrass from on Saturday, Sunday, and around the rest of the week.
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Kelly's Cellars
Kelly's is Belfast's oldest pub (1720) - as opposed to tavern; see White's Tavern - and was a meeting place for Henry Joy McCracken and the United Irishmen when they were planning the 1798 Rising. The story goes that McCracken hid behind the bar when British soldiers came for him. It remains resolutely old-fashioned, with vaulted ceiling and elbow-worn bar, is crammed with bric-a-brac and pulls in broad cross-section of Belfast society.
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King's Hall
Northern Ireland's biggest exhibition and conference centre hosts a range of music shows, trade fairs and sporting events. It's accessible by any bus along Lisburn Rd or by train to Balmoral Station.
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Kremlin
Gay-owned and operated, the Soviet-kitsch-themed Kremlin is the heart and soul of Northern Ireland's gay scene. A statue of Lenin guides you into Tsar, the pre-club bar, from where the Long Bar leads into the main clubbing zone, Red Square. There's something going on seven nights a week - Event Horizon (admission around £5 , midnight to ) on Saturdays is the city's only all-night club.
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La Lea
Billed as Belfast's most prestigious nightclub, La Lea caters to a cocktail-sipping, style-conscious over-23 crowd (which translates as 'no students'), with a strict door policy to keep out the riff-raff. Impressive décor with space-age lighting and huge Cambodian stone heads. There are two floors and a members-only lounge to spread out in. It goes and flows with the latest in global zen-chic, and the staff are suitably gorgeous.
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Lavery's
Managed by the same family since 1918, Lavery's is a vast, multilevel, packed-to-the-gills boozing emporium, crammed with drinkers young and old, from students to tourists, businessmen to bikers. The Back Bar has live acoustic music from local singer-songwriters on Wednesday and live indie and alternative bands on Thursday, while the Bunker stages various local and touring bands Sunday to Thursday and DJs Friday and Saturday.
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Limelight
This combined pub and club along with next-door venue the Spring and Airbrake (under the same management) is one of the city's top venues for live rock and indie music, having hosted bands from Oasis to Franz Ferdinand, the Manic Street Preachers and the Kaiser Chiefs.
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Lyric Theatre
Located on the riverside south of the Botanic Gardens, the Lyric stages serious drama and is a major venue for the Belfast Festival at Queen's. Hollywood star Liam Neeson, who first trod the boards here, is a patron.
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Milk
Set in a converted red-brick warehouse, Milk has maintained its position as one of Belfast's hottest and most sophisticated clubs. Snatch on Thursday is the city's biggest R&B and hip-hop night, Fridays are for disco, house and electro, and on Saturday resident and guest DJs play house.
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Molly's Yard
This atmospheric bar-restaurant is home to Northern Ireland's first microbrewery, producing three varieties of real ale - Belfast Blonde (a continental-style lager), Molly's Chocolate Stout and Headless Dog, a dark amber ale with a refreshingly hoppy and slightly flowery flavour.
