Robinson's, Belfast

An attractive and traditional looking pub, perhaps slightly in the shadow of the iconic and much better known Crown next door, it is nonetheless well worth exploring in it’s own right. It’s a good sized pub internally, and is divided in to two halves with the rear section being used for live music, even on our Sunday lunchtime visit. Fortunately there are doors between the two halves, so this is not intrusive in the remainder of the pub. I believe there is also a bistro upstairs, although we did not investigate this. Décor wise it’s quite ornate, with a gold panelled ceiling and painted gold columns, and in fact even the air conditioning unit had been painted gold. Victorian style tiling covered the floor at the front of the pub with parquet wood at the rear and there was much etched glass in evidence. A glass display case contained a number of old black and white photographs and there were also various items related to the Titanic including a large model of the ship in a glass display case and a brass Harland & Wolff plaque. An attractive bookcase was built in to the wall at the left, although the TV screen that was also built in detracted from it somewhat. This, along with a larger one at the rear, were showing a sports channel, although the sound was off so this was not too intrusive. A small vestibule to one side housed three or four fruit machines, which I thought was a nice touch to prevent then spoiling the traditional ambience of the pub. The rear room had dark wood panelling on the ceiling, and besides an area at the front set aside for the bands also had an attractive appearance with a depiction of many traditional trades such as hat maker, haberdashery, boot maker, draper, etc., as well as a display of old glass bottles. The food menu offered a decent enough selection of pub grub dishes, and I opted for the sausage and mash with caramelised onions and gravy. This was a generous portion with two very long sausages and a large pile of mash, and whilst it was all ok it was certainly nothing special. The sausages were a little gristly in places but otherwise ok. Elsewhere on the table, dishes of fish & chips and beef and Guinness pie & chips both looked rather bland, with no accompanying vegetables or salad. Unfortunately there were no real ales on tap, just the usual keg selection from Smethwick’s and so on. Even worse, there was no coder either, so I opted for a bottle of the Cardons Crisp which was ok, but, like the food, nothing special. This was all the more disappointing as it was such a lovely old pub, and if it were not for this it would have been an easy score of eight.

Main bar is quite disappointing. No real ale, but some Irish Lager. TV Screens, quite brightly lit and nothing really going for it. The back room is better - where live Irish Music was played. Quite surreal seeing a large group of Asian ladies doing riverdance to the fiddle music.

Sitting in the shadow of its next door neighbour, the famous Crown Liquor Saloon, Robinsons looks rather ordinary by comparison. Being a huge establishment, however, it is a useful overspill venue if the Crown is overflowing, and also a perfectly good pub in its own right.

Official site of Robinsons Bars - www.robinsonsbar.co.uk