Sunflower, Belfast

Sunflower doesn’t look like the most inviting place with the iron gate and window grills, but glad it’s still there for historical reasons. To the left of the entrance is a small banquette seating area and more banquettes run up the right wall under pub merch and a print of the Hand of God from 1986. The background music was a mix of pop and Irish folk. Regular live music is advertised. There was nothing going on during my visit but it was still busy with a midweek local crowd. However, the large beer garden out the back was much busier than the bar. The handpump was unused so it was a keg choice of Pilsner Urquell, Erdinger, Whiplash Body Riddle, Grolsch, Kinnegar Rustbucket and Beamish. The service was polite.

Backstreet pub in a quiet, run-down backstreet. Seeing the cage in front of the entrance would have put the willies up me as well if I hadn’t done my research (it was deliberately left there after the cessation of The Troubles). It’s a staple-shaped interior with a flagstone floor and banquette seating along the perimeter. Was bustling on my Sunday evening visit and we bagged the last available table. Décor is the usual collection of brewerania which is standard in most Norn pubs alongside some framed album covers. The main reason to come here is that it’s one of the few pubs in the city to offer a more varied selection of wares and also a cask ale, in this case a suspect Hilden’s Halt (NBSS 2), plus 40 or so craft (almost all Irish – the missus went for a Heaney’s Gingerbread Imperial Stout) and some foreign beers. Friendly staff and plenty of them too, unlike many other places. Despite the less-than-stellar cask (I was its only imbiber in the hour or so) I enjoyed the place and would recommend you place it towards the upper-end of your Belfast list.

This is a cracking little backstreet boozer which, despite its somewhat foreboding external appearance, has a very inclusive feel to it. The exterior boasts some nice etched glass windows with the pub’s name cut into them, but this look is tempered by the large metal security cage around the entrance, which was apparently erected during the troubles following a shooting in the pub and has since been retained due to its popularity with tourists. You enter into a simple quarry stone floored room with the servery along the left hand wall. Banquette and hard pew seating runs around the perimeter of the room, supplemented by low stools and chairs. The bar has a dark wood panelled counter with a cheap Formica top, and a smart, part tile, part mirror bar back, decorated with lots of pump clips and a few cuddly toys. A unplayable dartboard has been hung from a far too high height near the front door and the rest of the walls have been decorated with brewery mirrors, enamel signs, black and white photos, cartoons, framed LP covers, road signs and all sorts of other random bits. A couple of high windows have been filled with beer bottle collections and an acoustic guitar hangs on the front wall, hinting at the pub’s live music policy. A door next to the bar leads out to a decent sized garden area, partly covered and with a concrete floor, corrugated iron walls and long tables. The whole garden seemed to be bigger than the interior and plenty of people had gone outside to take advantage of the extra space. There may well have been a further room to the back of the main bar, as a few people were coming and going through a door here, but I failed to explore myself. There was just the one handpull in operation, dispensing Hilden’s Barney’s Blow for £3.90. This wasn’t the best pint I’ve ever had, but the conditioning was at least very good. There are a few craft keg beers available and one very friendly chap gave me a pint of one of these that he’d just bought and decided wasn’t to his taste! I really liked the feel of this place, with its mixed crowd, friendly staff and punters, interesting decor and comfortable seating options. This felt more like the kind of pub I’d hope to spend time in than the more tourist-oriented Crown and McHughes and I think the next time I’m in Belfast, this will be my first port of call.

Official site of Sunflower - www.sunflowerbelfast.com