McHugh's, Belfast

With just time to visit one last pub in Belfast city centre before heading to the airport and with the bus stop being just opposite, McHugh's was the obvious place to finish this trip on. Reading my last review of this place from 2009 on another site, I apparently found it too busy and suggested it might be a better place in the afternoon. It seems I was correct in my assumption. There were enough in to create a decent atmosphere and with plenty of bar staff on hand preparing for a busy night, I was served quickly. Indeed, I'd struck lucky and found a cask ale too. My Whitewater Hen, Cock & Pigeon Rock was also very enjoyable and was the best beer I'd had in Belfast this time around. There are a number of different seating areas on the ground floor, with a staircase offering further seating upstairs. Food also seemed to be quite popular. Worthy of a visit.

McHughs has a bar on the rear wall that is lined with bar stools and faces some high tables on the stone floor. There is seating up the right where there are stairs that lead down and another flight that lead up to the toilets and a multi-level seating area that I think is mainly used for dining. This was roped off during a recent early weekday evening visit. In the left side of the pub away from the bar is more seating and a television which was switched off. Live music is advertised. Available from the bar on the lone handpump was Whitewater Brewing’s Maggies Leap. A standard and premium keg range was also available, I went for half a Heverlee priced at £3. I found the staff to be polite and would visit here again.

Close to the Salmon of Knowledge (which I decided was my favourite Belfast tourist attraction) the exterior is an odd little amalgamation job - three distinct buildings knocked into one over two levels. Therefore fairly rambling inside but also obviously fairly new looking (so I guess it can’t be too old in its current guise) but the feel is that of a cosy, atmospheric middle class ambience ‘Stained glass Albert Tower’ says my notes but I fail to recall it now but it was obviously of interest at the time, though I do better recall the wall mural of the RMS Titanic. Listed in the GBG and indeed there was one handpump dispensing Whitewater Maggies Leap which was a nice fruity number that had been well looked-after (NBSS 3.5); this meant I didn’t explore the fridge options but I’m under the impression they stock a decent range. Friendly barman and a pleasant stay, though it was fairly quiet and they were closing up early as a consequence. If you like your cask, you should make sure you drop-by.

A traditional looking pub just a short stroll from the river, a sign outside proclaims it is the oldest building in Belfast. The premises do however appear to be two separate buildings that have been knocked in to one. Internally it’s quite traditional in appearance with a tiled floor to the right and sanded wooden boards elsewhere. There was a low beamed ceiling, and dark wood panelling on the lower part of the walls with lemon paintwork up above. Large murals all along the left hand wall depicted a pictorial history of Belfast including such iconic events as Titanic’s maiden voyage. Seating to the right was fairly limited, although there also looked to be some sort of a mezzanine level which we did not investigate. The right hand half was somewhat cosier with large padded bench seats and a disused fireplace. The menu offered a decent looking selection of pub grub dishes, including several “Boxty’s” which are presumably a local delicacy and consist of a potato pancake base with various toppings. Most of these sounded quite appealing, and I went for the barbeque pulled pork and apple, and this was a decent and tasty dish with a decent kick to it, and good value at £7.50. Beer choice was unfortunately rather limited, with Maggie’s Leap being the sole real ale offering, although this was very much appreciated by my fellow drinkers. A number of local brews were chalked on to a board, but other advertising elsewhere suggested that these were bottled. Certainly there was no sign of any of them on the bar counter. The solitary cider meanwhile was Magners.

One of several pubs purporting to be the oldest in Belfast, this one’s claim centres around the age of the building itself, which started out as a private residence back in the early 1700’s, not converting to pub use until the mid-1800’s. Today, the pub presents a nice mix of the traditional and contemporary cross a number of rooms and levels. You enter to a rather cosy feeling ground floor bar with snug-like booths close to the front door, soon giving way to a more opened out bar area with the servery along the rear wall. The bar has a nice, traditional counter and bar back, befitting of an historic building such as this. From here, you can access a small seating area off to the left with some comfy looking bench and chair options, or else move to the rear right, where a lovely little isolated seating area can be found, with four or five tables around a fireplace in a space with some nice, interesting decor on the walls. Stairs here lead up to a first floor bar with a similar servery once again running along the back wall. This floor offers split-level seating areas including a nice section to the right which looks down over the front part of the ground floor. Up here, you can admire the amazing high beam ceiling with some dazzling modern lamps hung from them and some brilliant large-scale murals, including one that depicts the Irish equivalent of a Hogarth scene. Standard tables and chairs serve pretty much all of this area, although there are a few padded banquettes here and there too, with the seating options extending into a fairly uninteresting space to the left of the bar. There is also a third bar in the cellar, which we couldn’t explore due to a charged gig taking place in there that evening. Just the one cask ale was available on this visit – Whitewater Upstream Tangerine – which I enjoyed a couple of pints of, despite it not being entirely to my taste. A few interesting keg beers infiltrated the usual suspects and we stopped off to eat, finding the food to be very good quality, whilst the service was outstanding, with the waited making one of our party a hot chocolate from the staff’s own hot chocolate stash, due to it not actually being on the menu! This is a very interesting pub that gets a lot of the basics right and despite being a little touristy, would actually make a perfect introduction to Belfast’s pub scene for a newcomer to the city. I really enjoyed visiting this place and would happily call in again.