Restaurants in Belfast
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Nick’s Warehouse
A Cathedral Quarter pioneer (opened in 1989), Nick’s is an enormous red-brick and blond-wood wine bar and restaurant, buzzing with happy drinkers and diners. The menu is strong on inventive seafood and veggie dishes, such as grilled cod fillet on a king prawn, mussel and noodle laksa, and butternut squash, sage and blue cheese risotto.
reviewed
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Charlie's Gourmet Sandwich Bar
Charlie's is good place for cheap, healthy and filling sandwiches, and also serves a range of breakfasts from toasted soda bread to the full Ulster fry.
reviewed
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Beatrice Kennedy’s
This is where Queen’s students take their parents for a smart dinner. It offers a candle-lit Edwardian drawing-room decor of burgundy, bottle green and bare red brick, with polished floorboards, starched white linen and brown leather chairs, and a simple menu of superb cuisine, including homemade bread and ice cream. Enjoy dishes such as smoked haddock and prawn chowder, or pan-fried salmon with basil mash and roast red pepper sauce. There’s even a separate vegetarian menu, with dishes such as crispy potato rösti with fine beans, poached egg and truffle hollandaise. From 5pm to 7pm you can get a two-course dinner for £14.
reviewed
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Roscoff
A muted décor in shades of slate blue, white and dark grey, with polished wood floors and white linen, puts the food squarely centre stage in this sophisticated and smoothly run restaurant. Part of the Paul Rankin stable, Roscoff takes inspiration from Irish produce and French cuisine, with dishes such as carpaccio (very thin slices of raw meat) of venison with celeriac remoulade, and pot roast turbot with mussels and tarragon cream.
There's a two-/three-course lunch menu for around £16/around £20, and a three-course dinner menu for £25 (Monday to Thursday only).
reviewed
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Molly’s Yard
A restored Victorian stables courtyard is the setting for this quirky restaurant, with a cosy bar-bistro on the ground floor, outdoor tables in the yard and a rustic dining room in the airy roof space upstairs. The menu is seasonal and sticks to half a dozen each of starters and mains, ranging from gourmet confections such as warm salad of black pudding with roast apple in curry oil, to hearty comfort food such as home-made hamburgers topped with smoked cheddar and onion jam. It also has its own microbrewery.
reviewed
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Ginger
Ginger is one of those places you could walk right past without noticing, but if you do you’ll be missing out. It’s a cosy and informal little bistro with an unassuming exterior, serving food that is anything but ordinary – the flame-haired owner/chef (hence the name) really knows what he’s doing, sourcing top-quality Irish produce and turning out exquisite dishes such as salad of seasoned pork belly with fennel and apple, and tempura of hake with pineapple salsa, roast cashews and pickled ginger dressing.
reviewed
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Shu
If you want to know who to blame for all those copycat designer restaurants with the dark-wood-and-chocolate-brown-leather decor, then look no further. Lording it over the hipper-than-than-thou Lisburn Rd since 2000, Shu is the grand-daddy of Belfast chic, a stylish restaurant that is still winning awards for its food. The French-influenced menu includes smoked Lough Neagh eel with horse-radish cream and beetroot purée, and crispy pork belly with cauliflower purée, potato gratin and cider soaked raisins.
reviewed
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Deane’s Restaurant
Chef Michael Deane heads the kitchen in Northern Ireland’s only Michelin-starred restaurant, where he takes the best of Irish and British produce – beef, game, lamb, seafood – and gives it the gourmet treatment. Typical dishes include pan-fried scallops with apple black pudding, glazed pork belly and butternut squash purée, and saddle of rabbit wrapped in bacon with macaroni gratin, roast cep mushrooms and caramelised salsify. The ultra-cool dining room is open-plan and minimalist.
reviewed
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Serai
Crammed with well-heeled students gabbing over glasses of Chilean Sauv Blanc, Serai is a stylish bar-restaurant with an intriguing Asian fusion menu ranging from succulent chicken satay with salad dressed in soy sauce and sesame seeds, to stir-fried squid with lemongrass and chilli, and ikan kukus (fish steamed in banana leaf with hot-and-sour sauce).
The early-bird menu, served 17:30 to 19:00, offers a two-course dinner including one drink for £12.50.
reviewed
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Great Room
Set in the former banking hall of the Ulster Bank head office, the Great Room is a jaw-dropping extravaganza of gilded stucco, red plush, white marble cherubs and a vast crystal chandelier glittering beneath a glass dome. The menu matches the decor: decadent but delicious, a French-influenced catalogue of political incorrectness laced with foie gras, veal, truffles and caviar. A set three-course dinner menu (£25) is available from 6pm to 10pm Monday to Thursday.
reviewed
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Cafe Conor
Set in the glass-roofed former studio of William Conor, a Belfast artist, this is a laid-back bistro with a light and airy dining area dominated by a portrait of Conor himself. The menu offers a range of pastas, salads, burgers and stir-fries, along with favourites such as fish and chips with mushy peas. The breakfast menu, which includes waffles with bacon and maple syrup, is served till noon on weekdays, 3pm at weekends.
reviewed
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Speranza 2
A local institution - it's been around for more than 20 years - the recently revamped Speranza is a big, buzzing Italian restaurant that complements traditional pizzas and pastas with more sophisticated dishes. It's family friendly, with a kids' menu, high-chairs, colouring books and crayons. They only take reservations for groups of six or more; otherwise, pop in and wait in the bar for a table.
reviewed
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Café India
A cut above your average curry house, Café India is a big, split-level barn of a place with a high, raftered ceiling and lots of varnished wood. The food is exceptionally good - we can recommend the palok chaat (spiced spinach and onion fritters) and chicken tikka achari zeera (tandoori chicken in a tangy sauce flavoured with cumin and pickles).
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Maggie May’s
This is a classic little cafe with two rows of cosy wooden booths, colourful murals of old Belfast, and a host of hungover students wolfing down huge Ulster fries at lunch-time. The all-day breakfast menu runs from tea and toast to eggy bread and maple syrup, while lunch can be soup and a sarnie or steak-and-Guinness pie; puddings include Dime Bar and sticky toffee. BYOB.
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Mourne Seafood Bar
This informal, pub-like place, all red brick and dark wood with old oil lamps dangling from the ceiling, is tucked behind a fishmonger’s shop, so the seafood is as fresh as it gets. On the menu are oysters served au naturel or Rockefeller, meltingly sweet scallops, lobster, langoustines, gurnard and John Dory. Hugely popular, so best book ahead, especially on Sunday.
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Cayenne
Behind an anonymous frosted-glass facade lurks a funky, award-winning restaurant operated by TV celebrity chef, Paul Rankin, decked out in designer black and amber, and clad in conceptual art. The menu concentrates on Irish produce prepared with an Asian or Mediterranean twist; the set three-course dinner menu (£20 or £25), available Sunday to Friday, is good value.
reviewed
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John Hewitt Bar & Restaurant
Named for the Belfast poet and socialist, this is a modern pub with a traditional atmosphere and a well-earned reputation for excellent food. The menu changes weekly, but includes inventive dishes such as pork and black pepper sausages with buttery mash and red wine gravy, and vegetable fritters with spicy bean casserole. It’s also a great place for a drink.
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La Boca
Named for the dockside district in Buenos Aires, this lively, high-ceilinged bistro is decked out with Latin American flags and local art, and has an Argentine-themed menu that includes grilled steak with chimichurri (a sauce of oil, garlic, herbs and spices), and grilled swordfish with chorizo, red pepper and olive dressing.
reviewed
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Hill Street Brasserie
In keeping with the design studios and art galleries that throng the nearby streets, this little brasserie is desperately trendy, from the slate-and-wood floor to the aubergine-and-olive colour scheme. The lunch menu is a bargain, offering a choice of home-made burgers, risotto of the day and a flavoursome and filling seafood chowder.
reviewed
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Cutters Wharf
One of the few bar-restaurants in Belfast with a waterside setting, Cutters Wharf has a terrace overlooking the River Lagan where you can enjoy a bar meal – try wild boar sausage with champ and gravy, or chicken caesar salad – while watching sculls and eights from the nearby rowing club messing about on the river.
reviewed
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Oxford Exchange
Smart and stylish with bare pine floors, chocolate brown chairs, white linen napkins and a yellow tulip on each table, the Oxford has breezy charm and a menu of high-end comfort food – try the beer-battered cod with mushy peas, and chunky chips served in a twist of newspaper, or pea, parsley and chervil risotto.
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Deane’s at Queen’s
A chilled-out bar and grill from Belfast’s top chef, Michael Deane, this place focuses on what could be described as good-value, gourmet pub grub: salt and chilli squid, sirloin steak with blue cheese gratin, green beans and red wine sauce, and smoked haddock and leek fishcake with curried mayonnaise.
reviewed
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Archana
A cosy and unpretentious Indian restaurant, Archana offers a good range of vegetarian dishes from its separate ‘Little India’ menu. The thali – a platter of three curries with rice, naan bread, pakora and dessert – is good value at £14/10 for the meat/veg version.
reviewed
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Other Place
This is another student favourite where you can linger over the Sunday papers amid red brick, orange pine and antique objets, or damp down a rising hangover with big plates of lasagne, cajun pitta or home-made hamburgers. Breakfast served till 11:00.
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McHugh’s Bar and Restaurant
This restored pub has a traditional feel with its old wooden booths and benches, and boasts one of the city’s best bar-restaurants, serving traditional pub grub downstairs (till 7pm) and fancier dishes in the mezzanine restaurant upstairs (from 5pm).
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