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Belfast has experienced an influx of au courant and internationally influenced restaurants, bistros, wine bars, and—as in Dublin—European-style café-bars where you can get good food most of the day and linger over a drink. Local produce and seasonal creativity are the order of the day with top-quality fresh local meat and experimental chefs constantly trying out new ideas. Traditional dishes, of course, still dominate some menus and include Guinness-and-beef pie; steak, chicken and pork; champ (creamy, buttery mashed potatoes with scallions); oysters from Strangford Lough; Ardglass herring; mussels from Dundrum; and smoked salmon from Glenarm. By the standards of the United States, or even the rest of the United Kingdom, restaurant prices can be surprisingly moderate. A service charge of 10% may be added to the bill; it's customary to pay this, unless the service was bad.
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.
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.
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