Near you in Belfast
Belfast keeps its serious cocktail rooms in two adjacent pockets, so head to the one closest to you. The Cathedral Quarter holds four of the five picks within a few cobbled streets of each other. The city centre adds one heritage room near City Hall.
Almost everything worth a detour sits in the Cathedral Quarter, so if you start there you can walk between four bars in ten minutes. Only The Crown Liquor Saloon pulls you toward the city centre, and it earns the short trip. Each pick below is a top-rated room you can reach on foot from the last.
The Spaniard is a tiny tapas-and-cocktail bar with a serious rum list, the Cathedral Quarter pick if you want the most adventurous menu in the city. Rated 4.7, $$.
Muriel's Cafe Bar is a cocktail bar above a hat shop on Church Lane, a two-minute walk from The Spaniard and known for its gin list. Rated 4.7, $$.
The Duke of York is a heritage Belfast pub down a cobbled alley off Hill Street, the closest pick if you are in the heart of the quarter. Rated 4.7, $.
Sunflower Public House is a heritage neighbourhood pub that keeps a security cage on the door from the Troubles, a short walk north of the main cluster. Rated 4.7, $.
The Crown Liquor Saloon is a heritage Victorian gin palace from 1849, the room to reach for if you are near City Hall rather than the quarter. Rated 4.5, $.
The complete ranked guide to the best cocktail bars in Belfast, quarter by quarter.
The same query in every city, with the top room in each.
The five rooms above are the highest-rated cocktail bars in Belfast, picked so you can choose by which quarter you are standing in rather than scroll a single ranked list. For the full ranked guide to every room, follow the link to the city guide.
If a bar here has closed or changed hands, tell us. We keep the page honest by correcting it, not by inventing a replacement.