Belfast Restaurant Guide

2017 Review: This spacious, trendy Japanese has been satisfying the crowds for over a decade, and continues to elicit glowing (if limited) feedback.

Solidly good marks last year for Niall and Joanne McKenna’s “understated and classy” venue, which last year incorporated its neighbouring ‘bar and grill’ and fine dining operations into a single more brasserie-style set-up, complete with cocktail bar: many of the dishes, including steaks, come from the charcoal grill.

“Amazing food” and “prestige wines” are “delivered with a bit of ‘craic’” at former Ox chef Gareth McCaughey’s increasingly well-known open-kitchen venue in the Cathedral Quarter, named after a revolutionary secret society in the 1790s, which is celebrating its fifth year of operation last year. “The surprise tasting menu always feels like a real treat” and delivers “outstanding” results.

2018 Review: “Renowned and inventive chef Joery Castel, who moved recently from the multi-award-winning Boathouse in Bangor” has set up Belfast’s most “luxurious” new eatery, in a “beautiful old church” plushly converted by celeb designer Kris Turnbull. Enter through an interior design shop and be rewarded with “wonderful food, including a not-too-expensive tasting menu”.

A “bustling” operation from Johnny Elliott, who learnt the ropes with Gordon Ramsay and Gary Rhodes, before setting up on his own in the city-centre two years back; choose between “brilliant tapas” or meaty dishes cooked on the rare Bertha oven, which uses apple and pear wood for a smoky flavour.

2017 Review: “A relaxed dining experience that always provides a tempting menu and an excellent wine list”; Michael Deane’s large, popular bar/brasserie (with outside terrace), in the University Quarter, won consistently high ratings across the board this year, especially for business entertaining.

2018 Review: “Small but with big ambitions” – this “tiny but amazing” courtyard eatery in converted Victorian stables turns “good locally-sourced produce into solid, tasty cooking” (“goat’s cheese pannacotta anyone?)”.

2018 Review: A chic Cathedral Quarter two-year-old, set in a former 1760s iron foundry, from James Street South luminary Niall McKenna; the set lunch includes some “great culinary delights”, and is a bit of a steal.

“Good fish in down-to-earth surroundings” has won renown for this simple haunt (which has an offshoot in Dundrum) serving its own shellfish direct from the owners’ beds.