4 Best Restaurants in Golden Mile, Northern Ireland

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.

Hearty eaters adore this long-standing institution, which has served fish-and-chips for more than 100 years, and now serves wine and local beers with food. The completely basic Athol Street premises, close to the city center, welcomes garbage collectors, business execs, schoolboys from the nearby Royal Belfast Academical Institution, and patrons from every sector, who flock here for the secret-batter-recipe fish. They also offer gluten-free fish suppers such as lemon haddock, or fish goujons; you'll also find hamburgers and cheese or chicken burgers. It's the best value in town.

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.

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.