Belfast Restaurant Guide

“Excellent tapas-style dishes (not all Spanish themed), a decent wine list and great cocktails with efficient and friendly service” combine to make Jonny Elliott’s four-year-old an attractive option in the centre of town. There’s an open kitchen so “you can watch the chefs working away, including their wood-fired oven” – one of the first Bertha ovens in Ireland.

2021 Review: 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.

“Excellent local and fresh seafood” hits the spot at this straightforward venue with a glowing reputation. It now offers the option of outdoor eating in the covered ‘Shack’ beer garden, and has an offshoot in Dundrum.

2021 Review: Marty Murphy’s well-liked, industrially styled brasserie (est 2013, and recently revamped, adding to its appeal) may not gain any particular raves, but is a decidedly “decent” spot by all accounts – and, even on a “very busy Saturday night, it still produces good solid cooking”.

2021 Review: “When all you want is an old-school burger”, these US-based arrivals of recent years really “hit the spot” – you can “build your own”, with “tons of accessories”; plus “seriously addictive fries”, “thick milkshakes”, and “more soda flavours than is reasonable”. “The eat-in experience is as depressing as McDonald’s”, though, in fact perhaps more so – “some branches have a strangely gloomy ambience” – but fans feel that “if you don’t mind 1980s-rock, a trip can still be surprisingly fun”.

“Fabulous fishy food” is “freshly cooked and served by very friendly staff” at this straightforward but jolly three-storey spot – Belfast’s first sustainable seafood restaurant, whose menu ranges beyond chippie staples to local Carlingford oysters and other Irish seafood. “All in all a wonderful experience and well worth a visit”.

Chef Nico Simeone’s “amazing-value set-meal” concept, launched in Glasgow in 2017, has now opened in Fitzrovia and Canary Wharf, offering “a six-course tasting menu for only £37” – a “clever formula” with “well thought-out feasts that entice a bubbly audience”. “The menu changes every six weeks”, and is “themed around an experience” – ‘the circus’, ‘the Amalfi coast’ and ‘the chippie’ have all featured – with the cooking winning high praise for “variety, skill and quality”.

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.

2018 Review: Celebrity chef JC Novelli brings his name to the restaurant at Belfast City Quay’s new £25 million Marriott Hotel, planned for April 2018. The site will feature double-height windows with views across the Lagan and a French-style brasserie menu.

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?)”.

2021 Review: “An amazing local eatery where you can always guarantee to find awesome local food cooked to perfection, and exceptional front of house staff” – so say fans of Pearson Morris and Saul McConnel’s small modern bistro above the Iona health food store.