31 Best Restaurants in Northern Ireland

For 25 years, Michael Deane has been the leader of the Belfast culinary pack, and his flagship operation has three distinct restaurants in one building. The Meat Locker is a beef-driven grill room and steak house; Eipic is an upscale, one–Michelin star restaurant and opulent champagne bar serving a variety of multicourse menus; and Love Fish is a less formal seafood restaurant with a Hamptons vibe. The Meat Locker is inspired by London's Hawksmoor steak-house chain. Menus come on meat hooks, while a "salt wall" is used for dry aging locally sourced beef. In the extension is the Eipic (Wednesday to Saturday evenings, lunch Friday), a classy round-table, 30-seater restaurant and champagne bar serving a variety of multicourse menus featuring venison, quail, or halibut; lunch costs either £30 or £45, and dinner £70. Running beside these two eateries, in an elongated conservatory, is the seafood restaurant Love Fish. A bright atmosphere with Brentwood steel chairs and local artwork dominate here. Lunchtime staples include fish-and-chips, roll-mop herrings on toast with chips, smoked mackerel salad or an open prawn sandwich, with main courses starting from £6.50. The Deanes empire also includes Deanes Deli Vin Café in Bedford Street, Deanes at Queens in the university area, and Deane and Decano on the Lisburn Road (check website for details).

A cut above the average fish-and-chips restaurant, award-winning Fish City serves sustainably sourced seafood including Carlingford oysters, cod, scampi, and other treats. For non-pescatarians there are vegan and vegetarian options, too.

With its raw wooden tables, wood-burning stove, sand on the floor, and outdoor terrace, this beachside restaurant in Portstewart, about 20 minutes from Dunluce, is the destination restaurant par excellence of the north coast. Brunches might consist of pancakes with maple syrup, smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, or pasta. Dinner highlights include the just-landed Greencastle hake with chorizo or whole lemon sole, while summertime sees lobster, langoustine, or mussels on the menu. A deck with picnic tables and an outside bar have been added so you can watch the sea coming right up to the front door. The food is a great value and the outside attracts crowds for both eating and enjoying a pale ale (try the house Shack beer), a stout, or crisp beer from the local Lacada brewery.

This self-styled "restolounge" in the happening Cathedral Quarter is one of Belfast's buzziest bistros and is especially popular with weekend brunch lovers (10:30--12:30). Decorated in a giant mishmash of vintage lamps and fabrics, 1950s collectibles, and drawings from local artists, this outlet follows the Cuisinart school of restaurant design, mixing and matching all sorts of antiques and upcycled objects, including a ceiling covered in glossy magazine photographs. It's truly one of Belfast's most eye-popping decors. The typewritten menu, set on clipboards, showcases seasonal and retro dishes, specializing in steaks best downed with fab cocktails such as the Jaw Breaker with Jawbox gin, ginger, lemon and lime, and homemade honeycomb. Start with whipped goat cheese or delectable tomato jam and Guinness wheat bread.

You’d be hard-pressed to eat this well, for so little money, in such relaxed surroundings anywhere else in Northern Ireland or indeed the whole island. Lunches are either two courses (£30) or three (£35) with choices such as smoked Armagh goose, wild wood pigeon with figs and salisfy, or halibut and lemongrass, and to cap it all, views through the large windows stretch over the River Lagan to the glowing 56-foot-tall Ring of Thanksgiving beacon by the Scottish artist Andy Scott. Dinner entrées—unadulterated with butter or cream—could be châteaubriand, wild venison, or cured river trout. The six-course seasonal tasting menu costs £65, or £95 with wine, while the four-course menu is £50, or £85 with wine. They are served for dinner on weekends with European wine pairings to each course, from the amuse-bouche to the white chocolate parfait. In the Ox Cave next door, you can enjoy light bites from a charcuterie, cheeseboard, (try the Boyne Valley Blue or the triple cream Ballylisk) and other nibbles with live music every Saturday from 9 pm.

Part restaurant and café, part cocktail bar, part French-style patisserie, Primrose overlooks the Quay and is all raves from Derry foodies. Main courses may include roasted cod loin with parsnips and butter sauce, bacon loin with choucroute, pulled pork, or haddock with buttermilk batter, best washed down with local craft beers such as Northbound's Oak Smoked Beer from their Campsie brewery near Derry. Their "scratch" bakery—so-called because all breads and cakes are made fresh from scratch every day—produces scrumptious desserts such as lemon meringue pie, carrot cake, or gluten-free lemon and blueberry drizzle cake. The high-quality patisserie is famed for such delights as strawberry and white chocolate scones or treacle tart.

The Grand Central Hotel's first-floor brasserie is a bright, stylish space and a favorite rendezvous for well-heeled locals, especially on weekends. Entrées lean towards modern Irish treatments of local surf-and-turf dishes, but there are tasty vegetarian options, too.

Modern Irish classics with an international twist attract the foodie crowd to this cheerful bistro just off Great Victoria Street, which was extended in 2018 to become a 70-seat bistro. A short but perfectly balanced menu emphasizes locally sourced seafood and lean meats. Fishy dinner highlights include plaice, sea bass, or hake. Braised-then-roasted belly of pork with fennel is popular, but the flavorsome fried squid far outsells anything else on the menu, and don't forget the parsnip chips to go with it. For lunch goers in a hurry there is an excellent-value menu with haddock and chips, fish pie, and rib-eye steak, as well as an impressive vegetarian selection. The wines are outstanding, or try malt-flavored handcrafted Belfast ales or lagers from the Mourne Mountains, made with Saaz hops and yeast.

Inside the lavish Merchant Hotel, beneath the grand dome of this former bank's great hall and Ireland's biggest chandelier, find the perfect setting for a memorable dinner of adventurous European fare. Exceptional dishes include wild Irish venison loin, lamb saddle, or, for vegetarians, pappardelle pasta with black truffles and olive oil. First-class service in truly opulent surroundings makes this restaurant worth a detour. The two-course dinner is £25 and three courses are £29.50 and are an exceptional value, considering the surroundings. There's also a nine-course tasting menu at £90 with wine or £70 without. Afternoon tea is also a specialty with vegetarian, gluten-free options. Vegetarian and vegan options such as artichoke royale, wild mushroom ristotto, and roasted cauliflower steaks feature on dedicated plant-based lunch and dinner menus.

Halfway down a narrow lane is the 19th-century Morning Star, one of the city's most historic pubs, first built as a coaching stop for the Belfast-to-Dublin post. There's a traditional bar downstairs and a cozy velvet and wood-panel restaurant upstairs serving locally sourced food. On the menu you might find venison and game in winter, lamb in spring, and grilled haddock or roast Antrim pork in summer. Also notable is the steak menu; you'd be hard-pressed to find a larger assortment of aged cuts, and they are enormous: sizzling steaks, some up to 42 ounces, arrive at the table in red-hot cast-iron skillets and are served with a flourish by the friendly staff.

The owner, Ian Orr, a former maestro chef who has handed over the cooking to others, has put Derry on the culinary map. Candles on tables and leather-upholstered horseshoe booths with calming cream and brown timber shades set a stylish scene, where the three-course dinner menu at £27.50 is a hit. The menu showcases seafood chowder, chargrilled steak, chicken wings in a honey hot sauce, or braised shoulder of Lough Erne lamb. If you have space for a dessert, then indulge in the chocolate fondant or banoffee profiterole. Attentive service and comfort means you leave here with a mellow afterglow that lingers.

A huge mural on brick walls features a top-hatted Isambard Kingdom Brunel, this relaxed seafood restaurant's namesake and a famous figure in engineering history with connections to the area. The food philosophy here means using seasonal and local produce, and the menu features wild ingredients freshly foraged from nearby Dundrum Bay or Strangford Lough. Lunch and dinner are on offer, with main evening fish courses such as halibut or coley, as well as a variety of delicious meat and pasta dishes.

Taking its name from the eponymous first-class café on RMS Titanic, Café Parisien divides itself into a downstairs creperie and a stylish upstairs restaurant in a landmark six-story sandstone building opposite City Hall. Choose from an array of savory or sweet crepes and galettes or head upstairs for main courses at lunch or dinner, which may include beef bourguignon or bouillabaisse, the celebrated stew of Provence. At £19.95 the two-course lunch menu du jour is expensive but worth it for the views.

Ask for a terrace table (the halogen heaters keep you warm on a chilly day) from where you can watch the progress of city life and cradle a digestif.

The small dishes known as cicchetti, beloved of Venetian bars and a counterpart to tapas, draw the crowds to Coppi in the ever-popular Cathedral Quarter. Named after a world-champion Italian racing cyclist, Angelo Fausto Coppi, it serves flavorful Mediterranean cuisine amid modern industrial decor. Entrées include dishes such as risotto and mushroom puff, the traditional Roman specialty pork scallopine with mushrooms and spinach, or the staple porcini mushroom ravioli with duck ragù. For cicchetti dolce, the tiramisu is deliciously light, and it's no surprise that Italian wines feature prominently. Eat at the counter on high chairs or at cozy booths with rustic wooden tables.

In this atmospheric, whitewashed coaching inn dating to 1642, noted for its architectural merit, exposed oak beams, stone floors, and a large open fireplace testify to the antiquity; the Snug bar top was crafted from timbers of ships wrecked in Lough Foyle. On the menu, solid traditional dishes dominate—fish from Ardglass, chargrilled steaks, burgers, chicken, and spring lamb. The best-selling craft beer is Maggie's Leap, an India Pale Ale from the Whitewater Brewery brewed with American, Australian, and New Zealand hops and packed with citrus flavors. Back in the mists of time, it was a member of the same Denvir family who gave his name to a small settlement in Colorado, later modified to Denver. The six spacious guest rooms retain the old inn's character, with original wooden floors, mahogany sleigh beds, and pristine white linen. Live music in the bar mixes traditional Irish with old classics on weekend nights.

Great-value portions of burgers, steaks, lamb shank, fish, and Caesar salads are dinner favorites at this popular city-center brasserie that has chalked up over a quarter century satisfying the Derry palate—it's rumored that the first cappuccino in the city was served here. The lunch dishes may include seafood chowder or the delectable chicken melter, made up of cheese, tobacco onions, and bacon with Mexican spices. Fitzroy's frequently has specials, including half-price meals on Monday and Tuesday (excluding bank holidays) and 30% off the rest of the week on all food and drink—check the website for the latest offers.

The mainstay of this classy city-center big hitter with an epic reputation is County Tyrone sirloin, rib eye, or beef fillet steaks as well as prime cuts including enormous Tomahawk steaks (for two) cooked to your liking on a charcoal grill. Based in a former linen mill, exposed brick walls and leather banquettes set the scene for a terrific meal. For an appetizer, try the Kilkeel crab and chili linguine or smoked eel and duck egg. Popular lunch choices may include blue cheese salad with candied walnuts or roast monkfish, while the two-course pre-theater menu (4:30--6:30) is a good value at £19.50. Evening staples of steak, fish, pork, and chicken are served with the Comber potato, characterized by its sweet, buttery flavor and harvested earlier than other potatoes; May and June are peak months to enjoy them. Such is their importance that they have been given a European designation of protection. Wash it all down with a choice of classic dry reds from the vineyards of Burgundy or Loire Valley favorites such as Sancerre or the smoky gunflint-flavored Pouilly-Fumé.

Connoisseurs of fresh fish and shellfish love Mourne Seafood, hidden down a side street and established as a firm favorite. Mussels are from Strangford Lough while oysters are sourced from shellfish beds in Carlingford Lough. Fresh seafood comes direct each day from the local ports of Annalong and Kilkeel and depend on the day's catch. The hake, accompanied with bouillabaisse potatoes and broccoli, and sea bream are done to perfection, but the standout dish for many is the seafood casserole with tomato sauce, fennel, thyme, and garlic served with focaccia. To complement your meal, try a bottle of Belfast Black or Maggie's Leap made by Whitewater Brewery in Kilkeel, or the locally made Shortcross gin. You can also eat and drink alfresco at the Shack, the Mourne's new open-air dining annex.

Named after a long-forgotten railway station in East Belfast, this casual brasserie has established itself as a calming spot in buzzy Ballyhackamore, where lunchtimes can get crowded. Dishes change monthly, but typical main courses for dinner are burgers, steaks, pork fillet, prawns, lemon sole, and sea bass from Walter Ewing, Belfast's top fish supplier. Weekend brunches include a malted waffle with fruit or bacon and maple syrup, scrambled eggs with Irish smoked salmon, granola with fresh fruit and natural yogurt, or a hot vegan breakfast. Small plates such as duck croquettes or potted crab are an excellent value. The drinks menu includes smoothies and cocktails or a fruity craft beer called Jack the Lad, an Irish pale ale made by the Reel Deel brewery in County Mayo.

Decorated with candlelit tables, redbrick walls, and vibrant artwork featuring Bollywood actresses, the loft-like 100-seat Indian restaurant is an energetic space filled with glamour and buzz and a menu that fuses traditional with the unexpected. Chicken and lamb dishes—ranging from mild to vindaloo hot—dominate, but the fusion grill also serves up kebabs, tender chops, and monkfish or sea bass and more conventional bhajis and pakoras. Vegetarian dishes include cheese and potatoes cooked with cauliflower florets or black lentils with kidney beans. The chef's recommendations may be chicken chasni, a sweet curry, or squid masala fried in a light batter. The house cocktail, Captain Morgan Rum, sugar syrup, lime juice, and cinnamon, provides delightful balance to your feast.

Living up to its Maori name---Ora means "life"---this airy tapas restaurant specializes in hot and cold small plates such as crab claws, Manchego Caesar tacos, or chicken, chorizo, and buffalo mozzarella fritters. More substantial dishes are spiced glazed pork, braised shiitake, and barbecue mushroom, or a cumin roasted cauliflower curry. Dessert highlights include homemade trifle, baked meringue, and a whiskey crème brûlée. Cocktail lovers plump for Irish Goodbye, made up of Roe & Co. premium-blended Irish whiskey, passion fruit, and soda, and Cocchi Americano, a quinine-laced aperitif wine.

Creative, moderately priced fare, alongside panoramic views in an elegant setting, attract locals and tourists to this popular restaurant and wine bar complex with multiple venues. The light-filled Mermaid Kitchen and Bar, serving seafood, conjures up a beachside feel evocative of coastal Maine, except you're looking out on Portrush's West Strand (although admittedly Belfast is only 100 km [60 miles] south); the more informal Harbour Bistro serves wood-fired steaks and burgers; Neptune and Prawn, on the other side of the harbor, serves Asian-inspired fare; and the Tourist Restaurant has a Mexican theme with burritos, nachos, and tacos and specializes in pizzas and burgers. At Mermaid Kitchen and Bar, the bountiful produce of the sea stars on the menu, with seven different types of grilled fish including sea bass, halibut, and turbot—all delicious, especially when washed down with a steely Sancerre and accompanied by a North Coast sunset. The best place for views though is their newly opened Basalt, a Spanish tapas restaurant with an outdoor roof terrazza. Its menu name-drops patata bravas, artichoke salad, gold crispy tacos, and even a steak foie gras burger.

The £9.90 two-course lunch on Thursday and Friday is an exceptional value at this long-established central eatery. It includes a starter of fresh fruit or salad, along with a main-course dish of your choice with rice. In the evening the set dinner might include crispy aromatic duck pancakes as an appetizer followed by kung pao chicken, or roasted duck Cantonese-style. Seafood dishes, such as stir-fried king prawns with cashew nuts, are especially popular. This is a large popular venue.

A duo of dining experiences is reflected in different rooms at this refashioned old waterfront building which was once Derry's Custom House where taxes were collected from ships arriving at the port. Beef, chicken, and fish dominate the main restaurant, Entrada, where you can also enjoy snacks such as meatballs, salted cod fritters, or cured meats and cheeses. The elegant lounge, with its Spanish Para Picar menu, is a wine and tapas bar and may feature ham hock, spiced beef, or charcuterie.

Though its name is derived from a revolutionary secret society that met here 200 years ago, there is nothing exactly covert about the Muddlers Club restaurant, beyond the fact that it is hidden away in a historic back alley and kind of hard to find. Fashionably unfussy, the succinct menu showcases blackened Mourne lamb, sea trout with Caesar salad, turbot, crab bisque, and pasta all artfully arranged. They also have a six-course seasonal tasting menu (£60) with wine pairing an additional £40, as well as a vegetarian tasting menu. For dessert, the divine plum chocolate and coconut ice cream is rich and faultless as is the chocolate, passion fruit, and dulce de leche.

Housed in an elegant former newspaper building in Belfast's historic Cathedral Quarter, the Northern Whig is spacious and stylish. From Thursday to Sunday evenings, one wall slides away so you can watch a jazz band, or a DJ playing funk and pop. The food is brasserie-style—not astonishing, but good. The environment, wine and gin selection, and cocktails such as Perfect Storm (rum, ginger beer, and Angostura bitters) or French Martini (pineapple juice, vodka, and raspberry liqueur) are the main draws, though.

On the banks of the River Foyle, this airy and cool main restaurant of the City Hotel, taking its name from the old Thompson's Mill that once occupied this site, is a fine place to chill while taking in some great river views. The menu might include pork belly, oven-baked salmon, or supreme of chicken with an herb stuffing.

Reservations are recommended (and practically essential on weekends).

The Wine and Dine menu (available every night except Saturday), based on two people sharing two courses, is £39 for two. There's also an impressive but not expensive wine list. Breakfast is served daily, but lunch only on Sunday. The adjoining Coppins Bar serves wine and cheese (£9.95) and runs a special Tapas Friday from 4 pm at £4.50 each or 3 for £12.

Beside Casement Park—home ground of the Antrim Gaelic Athletic Club—this popular restaurant is just the place to catch your breath after taking a Black Taxi tour of the nearby political murals. The menu focuses on steaks and burgers, but you can also enjoy a wide selection of salads. The cocktail list includes the Wolf (gin, cucumber, and ginger lime) and the Whistle (vodka, limoncello, lime juice, and thyme).

The humble chicken is the raison d'être of Yard Bird, on the site of a linen warehouse built in the 1750s. Start your visit with an aperitif in the Dirty Onion bar downstairs (ask the bartender about the pub's name), which retains the original, evocative tree-trunk-size beams, bare floors, and walls of the 18th century. Free-range chickens, marinated overnight in lemon, buttermilk, and paprika are cooked on the rotisserie, then cut in half and shared between two. From Sunday to Thursday there's a special deal, with whole chicken and a half carafe of wine for two (£26). Return to the Dirty Onion for a nightcap; with its smoky turf fire, timber decor, and craft beers from Europe and North America, it has a "speakeasy" feel, with live traditional music most nights, except Thursday (bluegrass night) and weekends, when acoustic groups take over both inside and out.

Every Saturday at 4 pm, two local musicians lead the Belfast Traditional Music Trail, a 90-minute walking tour through cobbled alleyways and into private bars in some of the city's oldest buildings. The tour assembles outside the Dirty Onion and tickets cost £15.