My first proper night out in town was Lavery's on a Thursday, sticky floors, two-for-one promotion, and a hand stamped on the way back in if you needed a smoke. That's not the night I'd recommend now, but it's how a lot of us learned how Belfast drinks. The city has, since then, become something more interesting — traditional pubs that have been pouring stout in the same room since George I, sitting beside cocktail bars that would do well in London, all within a fifteen-minute walk.
This is where I'd send people to drink, by mood. My husband's the beer person in our house — he gets a small consultancy credit on the craft section.
Traditional pubs
The traditional pubs in Belfast are the ones that mostly didn't need to change. They were already pubs in 1900 and they're pubs now. Slow Guinness, sawdust some places still, music if it's the right night.
In and around the Cathedral Quarter
Kelly's Cellars £
Location: Bank Street | Music: Traditional sessions, Wed–Sun
The oldest in town — 1720. You walk down from Donegall Street through what feels like the wrong alley and end up in a low-ceilinged room that hasn't been re-themed for anyone. Music sessions are actual sessions, musicians playing for themselves. No food beyond crisps. Cash is easier. It's perfect.
The Duke of York £-££
Location: Commercial Court | Music: Most nights
Vintage signs floor to ceiling, the alley out the front lit up in summer with strings of bulbs and a busker on the bin. Whiskey list is long. The food is honest pub food and it works.
The Dirty Onion ££
Location: Hill Street | Music: Daily, multiple stages
Three floors, a courtyard with the heated Yardbird garden upstairs that's the city's best outdoor pint. Trad downstairs, indie and singer-songwriter at the higher levels. Food is the rotisserie chicken from the Yardbird, which has aged well.
In the city centre
The Crown Liquor Saloon ££
Location: Great Victoria Street | Notable: National Trust interior
A Victorian gin palace owned by the National Trust — ornate tiling, snugs with bells to call the bar, stained glass, the whole thing. The food is standard Nicholson's, but you're not here for the food. Book a snug on a weekend or you won't get one. Every visitor to Belfast should be in it once.
The Points Whiskey & Alehouse ££
Location: Victoria Square | Specialty: 200+ Irish whiskeys
A modern pub with a properly serious whiskey list. The staff know the list and won't bluff. Trad sessions Thursday to Saturday. Pub food a notch above usual.
Cocktail bars
Belfast's cocktail rooms are good and properly thought through, mostly run by bartenders who went to London and Dublin and came back. Prices are friendlier than either of those cities. None of these will refuse you for being underdressed but the Merchant is the one to dust off for.
The Merchant Hotel £££
Location: Waring Street | The bars: The Great Room, Bert's, The Cloth Ear
Three rooms in one Victorian building. The Great Room is the chandelier-and-piano one and is properly opulent. Bert's downstairs is live jazz every night, dark wood, leather booths, drinks that cost what they should. The Cloth Ear round the side is the pub end — easier, craft beer alongside cocktails. Worth doing once if it's a birthday or a date.
Babel Rooftop Bar ££-£££
Location: Bedford Street | Notable: Rooftop, Cave Hill view
Sixth floor of the Bullitt Hotel. Open in summer, covered and heated when it's not. The view across to Cave Hill is the thing. Cocktail menu has a small-plates menu attached. Book at weekends or you won't get in.
The Perch Rooftop ££
Location: Commercial Court, Cathedral Quarter
Smaller rooftop tucked above the quarter, about forty people at capacity, which is the point. Cocktail-led, craft beer and natural wine alongside. Bartenders who know the list. Worth booking.
Bullitt Hotel Bar ££
Location: Bedford Street | Mood: Industrial, low-lit
Ground-floor bar in the Bullitt, dark wood, serious classics done properly. The house menu rotates and the bartenders behind it know their spirits. Open late. The pre-club drink, or the conversation drink. Either works.
Craft beer and taprooms
The craft scene here grew up while I wasn't really looking — most of it driven by a small number of breweries (Hercules, Boundary, Bullhouse) and a handful of pubs that started caring before anyone else. Worth a separate evening.
The Sunflower ££
Location: Union Street | Beers: 15+ rotating taps
The Sunflower was doing craft before anyone else in the city. Fifteen-plus rotating taps, good staff, a back courtyard that's the place to be on a warm Friday, pizzas out of a small kitchen that punch above their weight. Live music most weekends. The clearest centre of gravity for the city's craft beer crowd.
Hercules Brewing Co. Taproom ££
Location: Castle Lane, Cathedral Quarter | Notable: Brewery-fresh
Taproom for one of the best breweries in town. The IPA and the stout are on the core list and both are very good. Weekend brewery tours. A food truck or two outside most weekends.
Boundary Brewing Taproom ££
Location: East Belfast (Newtownards Road)
Worth the trip east. Boundary's taproom is the centrepiece of what's become an East Belfast brewery cluster — three or four within walking distance. A weekend tour, then a wander between the others, is a good afternoon.
Cheap, cheerful, student
Belfast is a student city, and the student bars do exactly what they should — cheap drinks, late licenses, no airs.
Lavery's £
Location: Bradbury Place | Best night: Thursday
Belfast institution. Several floors, several rooms, a pool room in the back. Thursday is the big student night with deals on. Sweaty, loud, exactly what it's supposed to be. If you're under 25 it's home. If you're not, it's home for a nostalgic hour.
The Botanic Inn (the Bot) £
Location: Malone Road | Crowd: Queen's students
The Queen's student boozer. Big beer garden, multiple bars inside, a small dance floor that's full by 11. Thursday and Friday are the nights. The pints aren't expensive.
Filthy McNasty's £
Location: Dublin Road | Mood: Rock and alt
Rock pub, deliberately a bit rough around the edges. Pool tables, dartboards, metal and rock on the sound system, occasional live bands. Cash is easier.
Late and dancing
The clubs in town are fewer than in Dublin and the licenses run to 3am at the weekend. Quality is high where it matters, the rest is what it is.
Limelight & Katy Daly's ££
Location: Ormeau Avenue | Music: Rock, indie, alternative
The big live-music room with a club attached. Katy Daly's downstairs has bands most nights — locals and touring acts. The Limelight upstairs flips to a club after midnight. Where anyone who likes guitar music ends up at some point in the weekend.
Thompson's Garage ££
Location: Patterson's Place | Music: Electronic, house, techno
Smaller, underground in the Cathedral Quarter, proper sound system, a crowd that's there for the music rather than the night out. Thursday is locals night with residents on the decks, weekend slots bring guests. The closest Belfast gets to a Berlin-shaped room.
Alibi ££
Location: Bradbury Place | Music: Chart and commercial
Bradbury Place commercial club, multiple floors, chart and R&B. Birthdays, hen parties, the night out where everyone knows the song. Reliable rather than cool.
Live music
For a city this size, the live calendar is unreasonably good.
The MAC (Metropolitan Arts Centre) ££-£££
Location: St Anne's Square | Music: Jazz, world, contemporary
The MAC's programme is the one I'd actually check before a weekend in town. Jazz, world, contemporary Irish music. The room is the right size and the sound is the right sound.
The Black Box ££
Location: Hill Street, Cathedral Quarter | Music: Folk, indie, electronic, trad
Small flexible room — seated some nights, standing others, sometimes a club. The programme favours the genuinely interesting over the commercial.
The Empire Music Hall ££
Location: Botanic Avenue | Music: Bands, comedy
A Victorian church flipped into a music hall. Tuesday-night comedy here is the city institution — book ahead. Weekends are live bands across rock, indie and folk.
Which night you pick matters
Belfast nights have shape. A Thursday is a different city to a Saturday.
Thursday is student night, traditionally. Bradbury Place and Botanic are packed, Cathedral Quarter quieter, but with most of the live music. Last orders by 1am in a lot of places. Probably the best night for trad sessions and an early one.
Friday is the biggest one. After-work crowds in the Cathedral Quarter from five, late licenses through to three, the energy peaking around half ten. Book a table if you want to eat. Get to a bar before eight if you want a seat.
Saturday is the groups night — hen parties, birthdays, more fancy dress than Friday. Trad sessions happen in the pubs from late afternoon, which is the underrated time to do them. Taxis get genuinely hard between one and three, so plan how you're getting home before you start.
Three crawls that work
The traditional one
Where: Cathedral Quarter | Best night: Friday or Saturday
- Kelly's Cellars (around 7) — start at the oldest one, listen to the session.
- The Duke of York (around half-eight) — outside if the weather will let you.
- The Dirty Onion (around 10) — three floors, different music on each.
- The Cloth Ear (around 11) — finish at the Merchant's pub end with a proper cocktail.
All inside 300 metres. Hard to lose your way.
The craft one
Where: mixed | Best night: Thursday or Friday
- The Sunflower (around 6) — start at the city's craft anchor, pizza if you need it.
- Hercules Taproom (around half-seven) — brewery-fresh, a half pint between you.
- The Perch Rooftop (around 9) — cocktails, a view, sit down for a bit.
- Bullitt Bar (around half-ten) — closer, darker, the classics done right.
The student one
Where: University area | Best night: Thursday
- The Botanic Inn (around 8) — the beer garden if there's any weather at all.
- Lavery's (around 10) — work your way upstairs.
- Alibi (around midnight) — dance until they kick you out.
Getting home
Most of the nightlife sits in safe, well-lit parts of town. Walking between bars in the Cathedral Quarter and out to the University area is fine and people do it all night. After midnight on a Saturday, getting a taxi is genuinely competitive — book a Value Cab in advance or use Uber, but don't assume you'll wave one down on Bedford Street at half-two. The night buses run weekends but the schedule is thin.
One thing visitors often ask: the central nightlife areas are deliberately neutral spaces and the old sectarian geography doesn't really apply once you're in town. The usual urban common-sense applies — stick to main streets, mind your drink — but you're not navigating something more complicated than that.
A few customs, briefly
Rounds. If you're with a group, somebody buys for everyone and you take your turn when it comes round. Leaving before yours is bad form. If you're not up for it, say so at the start, nobody will mind.
Guinness. A proper one takes about two minutes — the two-part pour, then a settle, then a top. Don't hurry the bartender. Ordering a fresh Guinness ninety seconds before last orders is the sin.
Tipping. Not expected on pints. "And one for yourself" is appreciated at the end of a long night. In cocktail bars, a quid or two on a complex drink, or 10–12% if there's table service.
Sessions. A trad session is musicians playing for themselves, not a gig. Quiet conversation around the edges is fine. Don't talk over a tune. Applause comes after a set of three or four, not after each one. Don't request anything unless someone visibly invites it.
Final thought
Most nights I have out in Belfast now are some mix of all of this — a pint in Kelly's, a stop in at the Sunflower, dinner in the quarter, finishing somewhere I didn't plan on. The good thing about a city this size is that you can do four very different things in an evening and still be home in twenty minutes. Don't be too strategic about it. Pick a starting pub and let the night work itself out.
For more Belfast resources, check out our guides to where to stay in Belfast and the city's food scene and restaurants.