6 Best Restaurants in Central District, Northern Ireland

For 25 years, Michael Deane has been the leader of the Belfast culinary pack, and his flagship operation has three distinct restaurants in one building. The Meat Locker is a beef-driven grill room and steak house; Eipic is an upscale, one–Michelin star restaurant and opulent champagne bar serving a variety of multicourse menus; and Love Fish is a less formal seafood restaurant with a Hamptons vibe. The Meat Locker is inspired by London's Hawksmoor steak-house chain. Menus come on meat hooks, while a "salt wall" is used for dry aging locally sourced beef. In the extension is the Eipic (Wednesday to Saturday evenings, lunch Friday), a classy round-table, 30-seater restaurant and champagne bar serving a variety of multicourse menus featuring venison, quail, or halibut; lunch costs either £30 or £45, and dinner £70. Running beside these two eateries, in an elongated conservatory, is the seafood restaurant Love Fish. A bright atmosphere with Brentwood steel chairs and local artwork dominate here. Lunchtime staples include fish-and-chips, roll-mop herrings on toast with chips, smoked mackerel salad or an open prawn sandwich, with main courses starting from £6.50. The Deanes empire also includes Deanes Deli Vin Café in Bedford Street, Deanes at Queens in the university area, and Deane and Decano on the Lisburn Road (check website for details).

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.

Inside the lavish Merchant Hotel, beneath the grand dome of this former bank's great hall and Ireland's biggest chandelier, find the perfect setting for a memorable dinner of adventurous European fare. Exceptional dishes include wild Irish venison loin, lamb saddle, or, for vegetarians, pappardelle pasta with black truffles and olive oil. First-class service in truly opulent surroundings makes this restaurant worth a detour. The two-course dinner is £25 and three courses are £29.50 and are an exceptional value, considering the surroundings. There's also a nine-course tasting menu at £90 with wine or £70 without. Afternoon tea is also a specialty with vegetarian, gluten-free options. Vegetarian and vegan options such as artichoke royale, wild mushroom ristotto, and roasted cauliflower steaks feature on dedicated plant-based lunch and dinner menus.

Halfway down a narrow lane is the 19th-century Morning Star, one of the city's most historic pubs, first built as a coaching stop for the Belfast-to-Dublin post. There's a traditional bar downstairs and a cozy velvet and wood-panel restaurant upstairs serving locally sourced food. On the menu you might find venison and game in winter, lamb in spring, and grilled haddock or roast Antrim pork in summer. Also notable is the steak menu; you'd be hard-pressed to find a larger assortment of aged cuts, and they are enormous: sizzling steaks, some up to 42 ounces, arrive at the table in red-hot cast-iron skillets and are served with a flourish by the friendly staff.

You’d be hard-pressed to eat this well, for so little money, in such relaxed surroundings anywhere else in Northern Ireland or indeed the whole island. Lunches are either two courses (£30) or three (£35) with choices such as smoked Armagh goose, wild wood pigeon with figs and salisfy, or halibut and lemongrass, and to cap it all, views through the large windows stretch over the River Lagan to the glowing 56-foot-tall Ring of Thanksgiving beacon by the Scottish artist Andy Scott. Dinner entrées—unadulterated with butter or cream—could be châteaubriand, wild venison, or cured river trout. The six-course seasonal tasting menu costs £65, or £95 with wine, while the four-course menu is £50, or £85 with wine. They are served for dinner on weekends with European wine pairings to each course, from the amuse-bouche to the white chocolate parfait. In the Ox Cave next door, you can enjoy light bites from a charcuterie, cheeseboard, (try the Boyne Valley Blue or the triple cream Ballylisk) and other nibbles with live music every Saturday from 9 pm.

The Grand Central Hotel's first-floor brasserie is a bright, stylish space and a favorite rendezvous for well-heeled locals, especially on weekends. Entrées lean towards modern Irish treatments of local surf-and-turf dishes, but there are tasty vegetarian options, too.