In the past couple of years, Belfast has quickly become one of my favourite places to visit.
Last week, Mrs Molloy and I hopped on the short flight to Northern Ireland’s capital for the third time, after my in-laws paid for the trip as a generous wedding gift.
At three nights, it was our longest visit yet and we decided that we’d have to try and take in some more of the local culture, rather than just spend the whole time drinking Guinness.
Here’s everything we did in our 72 hours:
Where we stayed
We landed at Belfast International and got the AirPort Express bus into Grand Central Station. It takes around 30 minutes but if you don’t mind shelling out a little bit more on your flights, you can fly into City Airport, which is very close to the centre.
Our hotel was the Europa – part of the Hastings Hotels group – and I was taken aback by its grandeur when I walked through its revolving front doors.
A blue plaque on the wall stated that former US President Bill Clinton stayed there in 1995, alongside Hillary. In its rich history, the likes of Elton John, Brad Pitt, Lady Gaga and even the Dalai Lama have also passed through its doors. It also has the unenviable distinction of being the most bombed hotel during The Troubles – with 33 reported IRA bombings between 1971 and 1994.
Despite it only being around 9am when we arrived, we were also thankfully allowed to check into our room six hours early, which got the trip off to a great start.
What we ate
Although it was our third time visiting Belfast, we still hadn’t got round to trying an ‘Ulster fry’ – the local version of a full cooked breakfast and one with a few differences to the ‘full English’ that I’m accustomed to.
After hearing good things about Maggie Mays, we made the short walk from our hotel to the Castle Street café. The décor somewhat reminded me of Lexington Candy Shop in Manhattan and I noted on the menu that it also offered ice cream floats, like those that Lexington is famous for. A very crisp February morning didn’t seem the best time for that, however, so I went for a vanilla latte (£4.15) and a ‘full fry’ (£9.50) consisting of fried egg, bacon, sausage, potato bread, soda bread, pancake, hash brown, mushrooms and tomato.
Safe to say, I was in carb heaven.
Having potato bread (or a potato cake as I’d call it back home), soda bread, a pancake and hash browns on a breakfast may seem like overkill but it was exactly what I needed at that moment of my life. The soda bread in particular was a game changer and something that I will now be craving every time I go for a full English.
I enjoyed it so much that I took full advantage of the ‘all you can eat’ breakfast included with our hotel booking, the following day.
The buffet-style fare inside the hotel’s Causerie restaurant was all sourced locally, with sausages from Lisdergan Butchery, bacon from Grant’s and bread from Irwin’s. The quality of the ingredients shone through and it is definitely the best hotel breakfast that I’ve ever had, with the only thing letting it down being the poached eggs, which tasted fairly strongly of white vinegar.
If you like your breakfasts a bit more avant-garde, then the Levantine French toast from The Pocket is probably another very strong choice.
The menu description (vanilla and cream infused Bara Bakehouse French toast, rolled in cardamom and cinnamon sugar, topped with spiced plum and cherry compote, orange blossom, mascarpone, white chocolate and hazelnut sauce, amaretto, pistachio and rose crumb, chocolate candy rocks and angel hair pastry) is frankly unhinged, and to be fair it looks just as insane on the plate. But while it’s messy, sickly, and very indulgent, it’s undeniably absolutely delicious. Any right minded person would probably be worried by the sheer volume of flavours and textures on the plate, but by some miracle, they actually all complement each other amazingly.
I also have to give a shout out to the pumpkin spiced s’mores hot chocolate that I had to wash it down, which was again quite rich, but also extremely tasty.
If you’re visiting Belfast on a Monday, then one of my top tips would always be to visit Pizza Punks for their ‘cheapdate Mondays’ menu offer (two pizzas and two alcoholic drinks for £29.50).
My favourite thing about Pizza Punks is the ability to have a completely custom pizza at no extra cost. There are 34 toppings to choose from and in theory you could have all of these, however impractical that may be. You can also pick between three sauces – red, white and BBQ.
I went for meatballs, nduja, buffalo chicken, chipotle pulled pork, and mac and cheese, on a BBQ base. I had really wanted to try the Irn-Bru pulled pork but unfortunately this was unavailable when we visited.
The pizzas look quite rustic but the flavours are great. The wood fired sourdough base is a real highlight and the BBQ sauce isn’t as overpowering as it is in some places, allowing the toppings to shine in their own right. The hot honey and garlic mayo dips are also a winner if you need to drizzle a little something on your pizza or need somewhere to dip your crusts.
My other recommendation for Pizza Punks would be the delicious Love Heart Caipiroska cocktail (Love Heart-infused vodka, limoncello, cherry, lemon, and Love Hearts) which is also included in the Monday offer.
After our superb breakfast, we decided to visit The Causerie in the Europa Hotel for a meal on our last night in Belfast, but it was a bit hit and miss.
The starter – hot and sour crispy shredded duck, with stir fried greens and glass noodle spring rolls – was superb but the main course of fish and chips didn’t live up to expectations and actually still had some bones in it. The service also came off a bit unfriendly, so that was a bit of a let down after such a positive experience the previous morning.
Where we drank
Our previous visits to Belfast had been very alcohol-heavy and I’d love to say that this time was any different but that would be a lie. The first stop was the historic Crown Liquor Saloon, which is conveniently situated directly opposite the Europa Hotel.
The Victorian pub is gorgeous inside and one of its unique features are the wooden snugs, which date back to the 1880s and were designed to allow ladies and high society in those times to have a drink without being overlooked. Although now, it does make you feel a little detached from the rest of the pub, so not the best place to sit if you want to soak up the atmosphere of the venue.
My favourite area of Belfast to go drinking is in the Cathedral Quarter and there are plenty of great pubs to go at. If you’re wanting to just have a drink and a chat somewhere, then you can’t go far wrong with Duke of York or White’s Tavern (especially if you can get a seat by the fire in the ‘old’ bit of the pub).
If you’re after more of a lively, party vibe then Dirty Onion and Thirsty Goat are the places to be, with both offering live music and huge beer gardens.
Kelly’s Cellars (if you can get a seat) and The Garrick are also worth a visit, in my opinion, with the latter getting extra points for stocking one of my favourite alcoholic drinks I had in New York, Angry Orchard cider, as well as serving up ‘Irish Coffee’ inspired by my favourite New York bar – the Dead Rabbit.
Guinness is usually pretty reliable in Belfast and a lot of the pubs have old-school 1960s red tap boxes. As a cider fan, I also really enjoyed Outcider, which is made in Ireland. However I would strongly suggest not mixing it with copious amounts of Guinness, as that led to possibly the worst hangover of my life on the final day of our trip.
What we did
As I mentioned at the top of this post, I wanted to learn a bit more about Belfast’s history and culture on this trip, rather than just eating and drinking our way around the city centre.
I’ve recently been researching my family tree and have lots of Irish heritage so it’s embarrassing how little I actually knew about The Troubles. One of the top recommendations that people gave to me was to go on a black cab tour, so I booked on with Paddy Campbell’s.
A 70-year-old driver called Emmanuel picked us up from our hotel and took us down the Falls Road, close to where he grew up himself. He took us past the International Wall (which has recently been updated with murals in solidarity with Palestine) to the Garden of Remembrance and the Bobby Sands mural.
Most of the tour was spent on the Catholic side, as this is where Emmanuel grew up (despite not being religious himself). As I did not know much at all about the history, it blew my mind that there is still a massive peace wall between the two sides, as well as a gate, which is closed every single night.
Throughout the two hour drive, Emmanuel told a lot of personal stories of his experiences during The Troubles. I won’t get into the details, as I don’t want to ruin his tour for anyone but it was extremely powerful and moving, and I would strongly advise anyone who visits Belfast to do a similar tour.
In the interests of balance, I would be quite interested in also getting a tour from someone who grew up on the Protestant side, to hear about the conflict from their perspective.
We also found time to visit Crumlin Road Gaol and did the self-guided tour, which took us around 45 minutes to an hour.
There are some quite theatrical elements to the experience but it was definitely worth a visit and I was impressed how much of the prison we were allowed to see – you could even partially go into the tunnel, which linked the gaol to the old courthouse across the road.
You can also see the executioner’s room, including the original noose, which is quite disturbing but really interesting in a macabre sort of way.
One thing worth mentioning is that it is a one way system and the only toilets are at the start, so if you need to go halfway round, you need to walk all the way through to the end and then re-enter, but this doesn’t take too long and there seemed to be no issues re-entering once you’d finished.
We ran out of time on this trip but next time, I’ll definitely be checking out the Ulster Museum and Belfast Castle as well.
Have you been to Belfast? What are your must-visit spots for food, drinks, and history? Let me know in the comments!
Leave a Reply