Northern Lights, Ormeau, Belfast

Situated on one of the main roads heading south out of Belfast, the Northern Lights is worth a visit, especially in tandem with the Errigle Inn diagonally across the Ormeau Road. Whilst I'd visited the Errigle Inn back in 2018, I don't think the Northern Lights had been open that long and as such, had not been on my radar. However since then, this bar has been listed in the Good Beer Guide several times. Whilst the bar has a modern frontage, the interior has more of a dive bar feel, being reminiscent of an American bar. There is a long ground floor room with a lengthy bar on the left-hand side and plenty of different kinds of seating. One partiularly long bench table is in the middle of the room. Being unoccupied, I decided to perch on the end of that. A kitchen can be found at the rear, whilst there is also an upstairs space and an outdoor area to the front of the bar on the pavement. There is a handpull on the bar, but it was unclipped. The keg beer selection is listed on 2 separate blackboards behind the bar. Available were Galway Bay Ostara, Bay Ale, Magnolia, Lush, Full Sail & Althea, Bullhouse Budgie Smuggler, Bru IPA, White Hag Magic Mist, Modest Goodbye To The Old Country, Yardsman BPA, Hope Hop On & Mac Ivor's Ruby Black. I had the cider, which apparently was fairly new, being a mixture of fruit and mint. It had quite an unusual taste for a cider, but was still quite refreshing. Whilst I quite liked this bar and whilst I don't mind craft beers for which this place excels, I'm surprised that it continually appears in the Good Beer Guide. I guess the local CAMRA branch have a quota to fill and with so few places serving real ale, the mere presence of a handpull with the potential of serving a real ale is sufficient to get a venue into the Good Beer Guide.

Facebook page of Northern Lights - www.facebook.com

Facebook page of Northern Lights - www.facebook.com

Out in the student area, this is a modern and large bar run by Galway Bay Brewery. Sited over two levels with a mezzanine-style upper, it’s done-out in battleship grey with the usual stylings for this sort of thing. An unclipped and forlorn cask pump (confirmed only used occasionally) though 20 keykeg taps to dig into, clearly labelled with prices per portion over a pair of large blackboards. These contain about a third of GBB’s portfolio alongside a pretty-well curated selection of guests over a range of styles. In addition were a fair number of canned and bottled beers. Kudos to the young barman who was excellent throughout and rustled-up a spot-on replacement suggestion when one of the wife’s required cans was found to be sold-out. They do food here of the student variety, we found value in the chicken wings. Usually I ‘m unenamoured by these sorts of places (especially when they don’t even have a token cask on) but there was enough quality and good service to leave me feeling positive and they gained an extra few quid in pocket as we stayed for two extra drinks. With Errigle’s just over the junction, it’s worth spending a couple of quid to get the bus out here.

Official site of Northern Lights - www.galwaybaybrewery.com

Official site of Northern Lights - www.galwaybaybrewery.com