Belfast - Hometown Tour
Duke of York, Cathedral Quarter
‘There’s no place like home’ and in my case that could not be truer. Despite having moved away from Belfast 15 years ago, I find that I just can’t keep away!
Belfast is a city where the good vibrations run from the Black Mountain through the streets and into the North Channel. It is more than the sum of its parts, the result of a complex history, and a place which today stands proudly, welcoming people from across the world.
Belfast is on the world map for so many reasons, spanning culture and innovation. It’s the birthplace of the life-saving portable defibrillator, and of course history’s most (in)famous ship. It gave the world the original Belfast boy, George Best, and was chosen by the mighty Led Zeppelin for the live debut of ‘Stairway to Heaven’. (All top fodder for the pub quiz!)
With roots in the Iron Age, Belfast is both an ancient city and a truly vibrant modern one. It’s a fascinating place that is constantly evolving, pushing boundaries, and coming out on top – whilst having the best craic along the way.
So, join me on this hometown tour where I share some of my favourite spots to eat, drink, stretch, swim, soar and enjoy the city…
COFFEE TIME
A recent addition to Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter, Neighbourhood is the perfect brunch spot in the coolest part of the city. The interior is to die for! Exposed brick walls and a raw concrete ceiling give the space an edge, whilst a gorgeous timber slatted counter and wooden stools add warmth. The menu is an exciting mix of brunch classics with a Neighbourhood twist (try the French Toast with baked apple and salted caramel sauce) and signature dishes like the Sage Butterbeans (proper comfort food).
Having teamed up with Galway-Based roaster, ‘Calendar Coffee’ you can expect excellent brews to go with the sweetest little cakes.
If you are planning to visit during peak times be prepared to join the line out front. The wait is worth it and the queue moves quickly. Owner, Oisín McEvoy provides a warm, friendly welcome and pops outside regularly dishing out little glasses of cold brew and making sure the waiting hungry are kept informed . Once you are in, grab a stool at the counter in the front window and watch the world pass by.
With its cool booths and healthy menu, this super dog-friendly cafe on the Lisburn Road has fast become our favourite breakfast spot. Fuel’s roots are in Dublin but its heart is firmly in Belfast! This Dublin chain opened its first Belfast branch in December 2022 without any noise and it quietly blew our minds. Owner, Belfast-born David Beggs brought his vision for healthy street food ‘home’ and with the amazing Tom and Lucy running the show, you will be delighted by the warm and friendly service, relaxed vibes and delicious food.
A recent addition to the city’s coffee scene, Morning Martha is already one of my favourite Belfast breakfast spots. Located on the Belmont Road, this tiny café is decorated in dreamy shades of pale pink and beech wood, making a lovely calming place to start your day. Try out a delicious acai bowl, and don’t miss the coffee cocktails (if it’s not too early…) Plus you can treat yourself to a beautiful bunch of blooms from Memento Floral Design on the way out. EDIT: Heartbreakingly, Morning Martha has now closed its doors making way for ‘listening’ cafe, Duad. Watch this space for our review once we get the chance to try it out.
Image courtesy of Morning Martha
This beautifully designed deli - cafe - mini market on the Lisburn Road has fast become my favourite neighbourhood spot. The owner aims to ‘guide you to the heart of Italian Gastronomy’ (mission accomplished) and does so by bringing real Italian coffee and delicious food to BT9.
With its terrazzo floor, terracotta walls and mid-century furniture, La Bottega is a gorgeous space to enjoy delicious arancini or mouth-watering focaccia. During the weekend, pop in with a bottle of wine in the evening and the guys will build you an amazing charcuterie board and serve up great craic. The atmosphere is electric as the owner chats and banters with the customers. Grab a stool at the counter or tuck yourself away at a cosy table in the back. Sit amongst shelves of Italian specialty groceries, soak up the vibes and loose yourself in this little slice of Italy.
Housed in the iconic Flat Iron Building, The Pocket is one of my long-time favourite brunch spots in the city, serving up unique dishes such as pineapple and coconut French toast. The coffee is great, and they are dog friendly! Keep your eyes peeled for local ceramist Sophie Mcilwaine’s amazing Tit- Tea workshops that are hosted here throughout the year.
Photo credit: Stephen Johnston
Located in the car park of Cairn Wood, great coffee is served from a cute converted horsebox. Owner, Rachel was furloughed during lockdown and decided to start her own business, turning an old horse trailer into an Instagram-worthy coffee shack. Rachel also bakes the most delicious cakes so once you’ve worked up an appetite in the woods you can have a well-deserved treat.
Image courtesy of Batch
One of Belfast’s newest additions, Dilly & Dolly’s has to be the prettiest café in the city. It’s a riot of pink with a floral ceiling making it difficult not to smile as you walk through the door. Owner, Natalie has poured her heart and soul into this café-cum-patisserie and with her crafty sister sidekick (she did all the woodwork!) they’ve created a friendly place where locals chat and your pooch is treated like royalty. As they say, Go for the Gram, Stay for the Coffee. EDIT: Dilly & Dolly’s has expanded and opened a second branch in the city centre on Ann Street.
Image courtesy of Dilly & Dolly’s
COME DINE WITH ME
Fortune favours the hungry! and those who go searching for Lucky Duck. This authentic Belfast Chinese "take-way” is nestled inside the painfully stylish Southside Social in Belfast’s University Quarter. This neighbourhood bar, with terrazzo tables, cosy booths, rotating craft beers and cool Spritzers also has a secret Chinese Restaurant hidden within. Styled on a 1980s take-away complete with red ring-dial phone on the counter and plastic shell chairs, Lucky Duck serves up proper Chinese food and is delivered to your table in a classic plastic bag with your docket stapled to it. Back in the 90s, every night out in Belfast seemed to end in ‘Ho Ho’ (a legendary Chinese take-away on the Dublin Road) so I love how Southside Social and Lucky Duck have brought a little bit of Belfast past into the present. Nostalgia is one hell of a drug!
Fruit Shop is a collective of Belfast-based, Turner prize winning artists who merge food production with grassroots growing initiatives and local food histories. Located on the Ormeau Road, their cool little café serves the most delicious Okonomiyaki, and their cakes are amazing!
Photo Credit: Phillip McCrilly
One of the city’s newest additions, Ferine is already a firm favourite. Meaning ‘untamed,’ Ferine lives up to its name as there is nothing recusant about this unassuming wine bar. Cosy, yet buzzing, Ferine is the type of place you become immersed in and completely lose track of time ordering small plate after small plate of delicious dishes like fried aubergine with honey harissa and Welsh rarebit croquettes with pickled walnut. The wine list is impressive as too is the cocktail list - don’t leave without trying the Belfast Coffee!
Image credit: Ferine
This sexy little neighbourhood restaurant on the Lisburn Road feels like it’s always been there. Cú (named after Irish mythology legend, Cú Chulainn) is a vibrant space that packs a big punch. With its focus on local produce with Mexican influences, Cú serves up mezcal cocktails, big favours and beats, making this little eatery the perfect weekend spot.
Share mouth-watering tacos and a few small plates and enjoy as this lively restaurant is - as it rightly claims - Always Punchin’.
This pared-back waterside restaurant with whitewashed walls and mid-century furniture lets the food steal the show. Enjoy a relaxed Michelin-star dining experience with a seasonal tasting menu and phenomenal wine list. OX is fine dining at its best. Their menus are designed to showcase local and seasonal products whilst focusing on sustainability. Don’t miss OX Cave, their intimate bar next door, the perfect place for an aperitif or nightcap.
Image courtesy of OX
For the longest time, Belfast has deserved a good street food market. Indoor food halls are the hub of many capital cities, blurring the line between street food and a restaurant experience, creating a space that attracts everyone and anyone, with a buzzing atmosphere built on diversity. Common Market does this for Belfast. Housed in the old Arnott’s fruit warehouse on the edge of the Cathedral Quarter, Common Market is a (dog-friendly!) hot-spot that showcases some of the best of Belfast’s street food vendors.
No spoilers! Blank is the ultimate blind date.
This fairly recent addition to the Belfast restaurant scene offers its customers a mystery dining experience like no other. The menu is never disclosed with diners only receiving The Blank List of ingredients on arrival. As each of the five courses arrive, the surprise of how all the ingredients are put together is slowly revealed.
Blank opened its doors in October 2021 and continues to impress customers with its unique approach to dining . Working with suppliers, farmers and growers (big and small) from all provinces of Ireland, Blank serves only the best local produce, and is the ultimate farm to table restaurant in the city.
The welcome is warm and the waiters are knowledgeable and friendly. Take their advice and order the wing pairing to enhance each course.
FANCY A PINT?
Welcome Bull House East, Belfast’s eagerly awaited first permanent taproom. The lads behind Bullhouse Brew Co. have recently opened the doors to their latest venture in East Belfast. A understated room with sharing tables, 20 taps and large chalk board above the bar to tell you what’s pouring, this taproom is all about the beer and the craic. The Boxing Hare has set up its wood fired oven in the beer garden and serves up some of the best pizza in Belfast. Its also very dog-friendly with pooches made to feel welcome indoors and out with water and treats provided. Belfast has long-awaited its own tap room and as they say, good things come to those who wait.
Once upon a time Boundary Brewery’s Taproom was just a pop-up, popping up from time to time in the iconic Portview Trade Centre in the east of the city. But good news has it that the legendary Boundary Brewery now has a permanent home for its Taproom and you don’t even have to go far to find it as it’s right next door to Portview Trade Centre. The space is incredible, boasting high ceilings and German beer-hall tables. It’s a great place to hang out.
Boundary is perhaps as well known for its creative names as for its craft beers. Fancy an ‘Awkward Zoom Goodbye’, anyone? Or perhaps my personal fave, a ‘Travelodge Painting on the Can’? In the pandemic, the brewery hosted a weekly virtual pub quiz that gained global (yes, global) recognition and built a wonderfully close-knit community.
If you get hungry, you are in luck as Belfast’s best (no contest) pizza joint is right outside. Head to Flout for a slice or one of their famous pizza pies, get a few mates together and head to this space for much beer and Idle Chatter (see what I did there!?)
This Belfast institution needs no introduction, but simply must be included on any guide to Belfast. Nestled in the heart of the Cathedral Quarter, the John Hewitt is special. Not only is it a great bar where you’re guaranteed a warm welcome, it’s also Belfast’s first and only social enterprise pub! In the mid-90s, the Belfast Unemployed Resource Centre – replying on grants to fund their work – thought it would be a great idea to generate their own funds by opening a bar, and what a bar they opened. The pub takes its name from a poet, socialist and freeman of Belfast who officially opened the Belfast Unemployed Resource Centre back in the early 1980s. Entrusted to Boundary Brewery in 2022, today, as a bustling live music venue, the John Hewitt is the best place to end a Belfast night out.
After 92 years, one of Belfast’s oldest members’ clubs underwent a facelift and now welcomes a whole new generation of customers. With its mid-century styled interior and good humour (its “Ulster Says Yeoo” banner was a big hit) it’s no surprise that the relaunched Ulster Sports Club is one of the Cathedral Quarter’s favourite venues.
Image courtesy of Ulster Sports Club
It might be a simple city pub sitting on the corner, but drinking spots don’t come much better than the Sunflower. It’s instantly recognisable by the security cage around the front door, a relic from the Troubles, maintained not from necessity you’ll be glad to hear, but simply to preserve a part of the city’s real social history. The Sunflower is a melting-pot of people known for its great local beers, live music and colourful beer garden (which also serves class pizza).
Image courtesy of The Sunflower
I’m cheating slightly by including The Nines (the rebranded Salty Sea Dog), as it is in nearby Bangor, not Belfast. But if you’re in the city, it’s a mere 20 minutes away, and such a great spot to have a pint by the sea that I’m including it here. A seaside bar and hotel with a lovely front terrace where you can watch the comings and goings of the harbour and enjoy a lovely sunset. It is my favourite place to go for a post-swim drink after a dip in Skipping Stone Beach and a good place to take a break on the Hollywood to Bangor coastal walk (this is a must walk). The outside areas are dog friendly.
TAKE A LEAVE OF YOUR SENSES
‘Drink and think’ is the aim of the game at Taste&Tour’s latest experience in Belfast. For a few years these lads have been guiding folks around the City filling their boots with local food, whiskey and gin! Now they will mess with your head in this interactive sensory cocktail experience. Enter The Spirit Circle at Sensorium where Phil will take you on a sensory journey experimenting with taste to learn what kind of taster you are before climbing the stairs to the Inhibitor Room where sound and imagery are used to test you further. The cherry on the top is in the Spirit of You Rooftop Garden where all the results of the experiments come together and a bespoke Emotional Serve Cocktail and Sensory Serve Cocktail are mixed especially for you.
Photo Credit: Taste&Tour
GO BANANAS
This event space gets a whole section to itself because it simply does not fall into any one category. Banana Block is everything from a living museum to a vinyl store. Set within a historic linen mill in the east of the city, it was inspired by the bizarre connection between Belfast and bananas (yes!). In 1911, East Belfast resident William Richardson, head gardener to Sir Otto Jaffe, became one of the first people to cultivate bananas in the British Isles. In a curious twist of events, during the Mill strikes of 1932, Sir Jaffe’s employees (from both sides of the community) went on the march and the only neutral, non-sectarian tune that they knew and could agree on was… ‘Yes! We Have No Bananas.’
Today the Mill is a celebration of the creatives, past and present who have made this space unique. Centred around the Banana Ring (an interactive display of banana plants and other rare species which are grown in homage to William Richardson, the Mill’s former gardener) you will find delicious bagels from the inhouse bakery, Bodega as well as a great record store and a bar that comes to life as darkness falls. Pop into Sound Advice where DJ, Marion Hawkes has curated an impressive collection of new and pre-owned electronic, soul, disco and jazz vinyl for sale. Don’t miss the East Block Bazaar, a market on the last Sunday of every month made up of local artisan producers, makers, growers, vintage and curios. If you’re too late for fresh bagels, don’t panic, Flout out front serves up probably the best pizza you will ever have.
SEA SWIMMING
Skipping Stone Beach was a popular ladies bathing spot from the 1800s to the early 1900s, but fell out of favour and into disrepair during WWII. Luckily, its ship came in a couple of years ago when the local Dash & Splash group, with the help of Live Here Love Here, brought it back to life and restored the old ladders and railings. A tiny cove just north of Bangor Marina, Skipping Stone is a small beach where you can gently wade into the water, or if you prefer to jump right in, there’s a pier with ladders to access the sea at high tide. With Bangor's sugary candy-coloured houses behind and a spectacular view across Belfast Lough, this is a great spot for a quick dip or a leisurely swim. After you dry off head into Bangor town to warm up at Nines, Guillemot Café or The Starfish.
Sea you there, Skipping Stone Beach
Helen’s Bay, Crawfordsburn Country Park
This sandy beach is so handy to reach from Belfast; accessible by car, train or foot (if walking the coastal path) so you will find yourself in the cool waters of Belfast Lough before you know it. Helen’s Bay is ever changing, at high tide it becomes a waterfilled bay, but at low tide it is transformed into a sandy cove. With spectacular scenery and excellent water quality, Helen's Bay is an ideal bathing spot. If you fancy a flow before your dip, join Connect Yoga at sunrise or sunset for a practice on the beach to get your body and mind ready for the sea.
Jenny Watt’s Cove, Brompton Road, Bangor
The most spectacular swimming spot on the north Down coast must be Jenny Watt’s Cove. Named after folklore legend, Jenny Watts, a pirate smuggler who became a local hero as she shared the spoils of her activities amongst the poor of the local community. This gorgeous cove named in her honour is home to soft coral and starfish and is a popular spot for local divers and swimmers.
Further along the North Down coast, you’ll find Portavoe, a little beach practically hidden from the main road. Once you see cars parked in the lay-by, the Goonies style access to the beach becomes clear. Nestled between two beautiful houses, Portavoe offers a haven to swim at low and high tide, with clear views of the Copeland Islands.
TAKE A DEEP BREATH
The Salthouse Spa, Ballycastle
Looking for some relaxation and rejuvenation and an excuse to hit the coast, then The Salthouse Spa is the perfect escape. Just one hour from Belfast, along the spectacular Causeway Coast, you will find The Salthouse. This eco-hotel in the seaside town of Ballycastle has gone all out on promoting wellness and relaxation. The outdoor thermal suite boosts magnificent views of Fairhead and Rathlin Island that will help you relax, unwind and discover your coastal calm.
If you fancy testing your balance and having some craic, join the lads at SUP Hub NI in Bangor Harbour. Dock your board to a massive starboard and be guided by Mel from North Down Pilates for a challenging yet fun practice on the water. If yoga isn’t for you, just grab a board and head for a paddle along the stunning North Down coastline.
Photo credit: Anna McNeill
YQ has two equally warm and welcoming studios; one in the heart of Ballyhackamore and its newest space on the Lisburn Road. Both studios have a real neighbourhood vibe and cater for yogis of all levels with incredible teachers like Cathy Curran and Anna Lyttle .
Image courtesy of Yoga Quarter
With two gorgeous studios, on the Lisburn Road and the other being in East Belfast, SE7EN specialises in dynamic reformer pilates. In addition to running daily classes SE7EN also provides private and duo sessions.
Photo credit: Stephen Johnston
HIGH FLYERS
Is there a better way to see a city than from the air? How about taking off 100ft in the sky on the slopes of the Belfast Hills, soaring above the forest and watching the city stretch out ahead? Ireland’s longest zipline, the River Rapid can be found in West Belfast. Nestled amongst the trees in the Colin Glen Forest Park, the 700m zipline criss-crosses the Colin River and the forest below giving breathtaking views of the city. Gathering speeds of up 50mph it is exhilarating way to experience Belfast.
Photo Credit: Colin Glen
