Fantastic little cafe across from the Ulster museum. Free wireless too…read more I just had the soup special and it exceeded all expectations.

Once upon a time I would've told a tale of how Cafe Conor was the best restaurant in Belfast. Sadly…read morethis is no longer the case. Nowadays I'm disappointed. It's not because Conor's gone bad, but instead, this restaurant which was once so great, is now mediocre. I had dinner here tonight (Tuesday 12/04/2016) and the food was tasteless. My sweet potato, halloumi and portobello mushroom burger with chips was completely bland. Wine was nice, service lovely and the Artist studio style interior of Cafe Conor ensures it's still one of Belfast's most beautiful restaurants. Unfortunately all this is for nothing if food is a let down. I rated Conor 5 stars over a year ago but now it's a 3. This is not just based on tonight's visit alone, instead in the past year I've had a couple of lunches and dinners here, each flavourless and a bit of a let down. I kept returning because a couple of years ago the food from Cafe Conor was fabulous, tasty and luscious. Their halloumi, green bean and poached egg salad would have topped my list of all time favourite dishes. Sadly this dish is no longer offered. I hoped on each visit over the last year that I would experience some of the old Conor magic, but that never happened. I don't know why this is. Maybe the Chef changed, maybe the recipes changed or maybe the ingredients changed. From now on I'll be going elsewhere. Such a shame...

I was introduced to Thornbury's a week or so ago. Lisburn isn't really a place I find myself in too…read moreoften, being a north Belfast girl, but the new boyfriend is from there, and so I found myself in Lisburn town centre with a hangover on a rainy Thursday morning. The only thing (and I mean the ONLY thing) that was going to fix my life at that point was a good fry-up. Thornbury's did not disappoint. Well, that's a lie. I'm pretty sure the mushrooms were past their best, and the service wasn't exactly the fastest (although that may have had more to do with the customer in front of me who took what felt like an eternity to order her coffee and pay) but everything else was done to perfection, so I was willing to overlook these small mistakes. It was nice and cosy to sit in, chilled atmosphere, plenty of seating. Thumbs up all round I think!

Thornbury's is a great restaurant in the middle of Lisburn city. They offer a self service, or…read morecarvery, option for food where you can go and have your pick of hot yummy home made foods, including gorgeous dinners, healthy salads, sandwiches and huge slices of cakes! The best thing is they're not afraid to give you a good portion that's a good effort to eat and will keep you going all day! I've been in several times and always for a nice hot dinner. Today I went for the steak and mushroom pie with loadsa champ and cabbage! It was fab! The steak pieces just broke apart in my mouth! I've also had the pleasure of sampling their apple pie and it really is divine! With a drink you can expect to pay around £7 for lunch which I think is a great bargain! They also boast an impressive roof terrace which is really beautiful and a favourite for smokers. This is certainly one place I intend to come back to again and again!

Hope is the cafe I went to when I was feeling hope-ful (I'm a barrel of laughs), namely in monetary…read moreterms. If I was having a poor day, Krem in the PFC was the first port of call, but if I was feeling slightly more affluent, Hope it was. I can see why they named it so... Apart from the varied coffees / teas and other heated beverages, Hope provide a range of sandwiches and the like, as well as hot food, such as pasta and pies. I tried a couple of their pasta dishes (apparently there weren't too many times in final year that I was feeling affluent), and both were very pleasant...not amazing, but tasty enough. I can't speak for any of the drinks, as tap water was the height of for me. Yes, I really was that poor, so it would seem. I love the yellow lampshades that have letters on them, and hang above the various tables. I was convinced the entire alphabet was there, but a friend told me that her friend had scoured the entire cafe and came to the conclusion that a few letters were missing...h, o, p and e. Not sure if that's entirely true, but I do know that once I was out with my friend Laura, and the two of us sat below a lampshade that had L on. Exciting, I know! Hope is not specifically a student haunt, and is open to the general public. In fact, it seems that the ratio between the two seems to favour the latter. Which may be slightly more appealing to those of you who aren't students. Hope to see you there...

A nice cafe on campus with table service (what a surprise). They'd come take your order at your…read moretable. Plenty of comfortable booth seating. Spooky Halloween decors including a life sized witch sitting nonchalantly at a table (which scared me)

Botanic Avenue is full of choice, you've got chip shops, artisan cafés, infamous Mexican eateries…read moreand then there's The Other Place - a place that isn't quite sure if it's an old school café or an upmarket eatery. To be perfectly honest we only went to The Other Place because the queues in all the other places were out the door. But I'm glad we went. This is another café where there's the element of uncertainty when you enter - do you sit at a booth, do you wait to be seated or do you approach the counter. Here's your answer - you take a seat and the waiting staff will come and take your order. The decor is simple - pine booths and traditional posters and Belfast ornaments make up the interior and there's a decent chilled out playlist creating background noise. The menu is pretty straight forward. It's all comfort food really. Lasagne, wraps, fish and chips, burgers, you get the idea. I went for the fish and chips that was chalked up on the specials board (£6.95). The portions are huge - I got a fish that was hanging off the side of my plate. The fish and chips was perfect for what I wanted - just honest food, nothing too fancy. It tasted great and was the hearty lunch I was looking for. You can't really go too far wrong with The Other Place - there's absolutely nothing offensive about it - it is what it is - it's not trying too hard to be fancy, it's your bog standard cafe, what you see is what you get. So if you're looking for something comforting, or a taste of home go here.

Nice wee joint for good, decent reasonably priced food! was here recently with some family and…read morefriends for Sunday dinner. It's not the classiest restaurant by any means but it offers a big menu to cater for everyone as our age group was from 2 year old to 50 + and everyone had a good time! The food was pretty good with great portion sizes which always wins me over. I would be back!

Ok so I'm biased towards the Chelsea!…read more This is my local and you will find me here almost every Friday after work. Since the Chelsea was redone it has been the staff that keep me coming back as I'm not a huge fan of the new bar. The drinks are not the cheapest but again because the service is so good and always welcoming I would recommend everyone giving it a try. This is a great place to start your night and then head into Belfast or have a nice quiet night with the little lady.

The Chelesa's seafood chowder is incredible - the portions are huge and the flavours are just as…read morebig. The drinks selection is great - the wine and cocktail lists are some of the best in the City.

Passing through this fabulous department store to get to the Arthur Street Cafe, this was quite…read moreinteresting. It reminded my of Macy's or Bloomingdale's in the United States though smaller. Housewares and home goods, decor, small kitchen appliances, greeting cards, clothing, personal care, perfume and more that I just didn't have time to browse. Prices looked to be medium towards high but this is quality stuff. [Review 1881 of 2024 - 864 in United Kingdom - 22903 overall]

Great food, great service all attached to amazing shopping!! All my loves brought together in one…read moreplace... I love Avoca

If you like the minimalist vibe then Robinson & Cleaver is the lunch destination for you. Located…read moreopposite the City Hall Robinson & Cleaver is the café of choice for many local office workers - thus it can get busy at peak times. Robinson & Cleaver is a bit of a sun trap - the huge glass front of the building creates a green house feel - if you're a sun worshiper head here and grab a window seat - you'll be slathering on the factor 50 in no time. In terms of lunchtime grub Robinson & Cleaver offers sandwiches and snacks. You can opt to have your sandwich heated if you like, although the sun might cook it if you set it near the window. They have a great meal deal, which includes a sandwich, soft drink and a snack (apple, banana or tray bake) for a fiver. You'll be hard pushed to find a better deal than this in the City centre. I'm a fan of Robinson & Cleaver - I like the layout and the minimalist feel to the place - it's open and airy and the glass front makes it feel as if you're sitting outside. It's the perfect escape from a stuffy office.

If your looking somewhere a little different with excellent views and a gin this is the place on a…read moresunny day. The balcony at Robinson & Cleaver overlooks Belfast City Hall and has a lovely peaceful atmosphere above the buzz of the city. It would be excellent for a date/ special occasion. The balcony/ terrace has a Bombay Sapphire bar and a European/ irish style menu. I've eaten here twice and food has been average and didn't really stand out for me. On my first visit I had a meat sharing platter with my partner. The platter was somewhat disappointing as the only meat on it was some boiled ham and a duck pate which isn't overly a meat in my eyes. The ham was quite tough and had a plastic type texture instead of being dry and tender. We shared one slice between us and left the rest. This was served with melba toasts which were delicious but a few more wouldn't have been nice. Also on the board was a smoked apple wood cheese which was nice on the toasts. The pate I really did not enjoy and the majority of it was left. I definitely wouldn't order this again as I left feeling quite hungry. I decided to return a second time, mostly because of the view so that I could watch the Pride parade and also to try the hot food as I really wanted this restaurant to impress due to its location. I ordered the steak sandwich with a side of French fries. The steak was tender and served on ciabatta with crispy tobacco onions. It was however a very small portion and flavours weren't outstanding. My partner had the chicken burger topped with chorizo and was hugely disappointed at the quality of chorizo. Just looking at it you could see it was mostly fat and she had to leave it to the side. Unfortunately I won't be in a rush back which is frustrating as the restaurant is in such a great location. It just doesn't have much ambience and staff aren't the most pleasant and seemed very starey and appeared as though they were discussing our table as they pointed in our direction. This made me feel very uncomfortable. They also only have one toilet which had a queue on both days I visited. When there's a queue this then blocks staff coming out from the kitchen to serve food and also the elevators so you are made to feel quite awkward.

This was a first visit and we would certainly return. The place was very bright, spacious with huge…read morewindows facing onto a Main Street just off royal avenue. It was warm on a cold, fresh winter morning with a gas style fire burning away which added to the welcoming feel of the place. Most of the seating is low set, big leather couches so it's easy to get comfortable here too. The one thing I really liked was it was clean and properly clean. This contrasts with many of the chains and particularly Starbucks and Costa where my recurring experiences there tend to be consistently dirty floors and tables with staff not bothered. The service was ace. We were a group totalling five but three of us arrived first. The staff came to us twice to take our order but we wanted to wait until the others arrived. So service was certainly attentive and it wasn't a problem. The orders were taken and coffees were served pretty promptly once we were altogether. The coffee was good, although I would have preferred mine hotter, so maybe the cups hadn't been pre warmed, and they could have made more money from us had they asked us if we needed more coffee. We were there over an hour and once the first order was delivered we were not asked again. So folks you're missing a trick, especially with long stayers.

Welcoming in the early morning! Great view of the street and sky. Very comfortable sitting, good…read moremusic, great tasting espresso. Highly recommend.