Belfast: Getting Better by the Minute

Belfast's now coming into its own since its troubles have come to an end. Recent architectural additions to the landscape sit comfortably alongside old, antiquated buildings.

A concert in the Waterfront Hall is a treat and a trip up to Queen's University a must. If you're here for some partying, Queens and the surrounding student land is where all the best bars will be found.

Cavehill in North Belfast is beautiful on a sunny day, giving views all over the city. The Cavehill Country Park is the home of Belfast Castle, and if you've got spare cash a visit to its cellar restaurant makes a great end to a long walk up hill.

For fantastic shops outside of the high street look minutes from the City Hall to the Spires Centre. Expensive but fantastic presents lie alongside vintage clothing and fairtrade food.

Quick Tips:

Foodwise the best restaurant I know is Cayenne. It's owned by celebrity chef Paul Rankin and situated in the heart of Belfast, Shaftesbury Square.

The best coffee in Belfast comes from Oscars Champagne Cafe. If you're into fair trade, the Clements coffee shop chain is the place to go!

For traditional Irish gifts the Wicker Man in Donegall Arcade is the place to start. Belfast Welcome Centre isn't bad either.

Night-life wise, students go to the Bot! The Botanic Inn, as it's known lies just up from Queen's University, at the start of the Malone Road. The Crown Bar on Great Victoria Street is the oldest in the City, and a highlight on any Belfast tour.

Best Way To Get Around:

The City Centre's small and part pedestrianised so if you're planning on shopping the best way to go is by foot.

The Metro bus service travels all over the city. Prices depend on where you're going but for handiness and value the Adult Day Pass is best. It costs £2.50 and lasts until midnight, bringing you anywhere you fancy in the city.

Coming home at night, the safest option is a taxi. There are a number of reliable, registered firms, with Fonacab (90333333) and Valuecab (90809080) being the most reliable.

Further afield, the rail network is pretty good, as is the slower but reliable Ulsterbus.

You can now get bus tours right around Belfast. I haven't been on one myself, but if you're savvy with bus times you can do it yourself with Metro.

Cayenne is dining with a difference. Each meal is a mini adventure with taste, texture and colour in every forkful.

It's hard to describe exactly what kind of cuisine is served—it's a bit of everything, often with local ingredients.

As a vegetarian I find it hard to get a good selection of food when I'm eating out - not a problem here: there's a separate vegetarian menu with at least eight choices on it, and not just vegetarian pasta special. I tried parsnip purée and it was fantastic, my friends had cauliflower dumplings and butternut squash risotto.

Meat-wise the selection was good, but when the food came it didn't look half as appealing as the vegetarian menu.

The atmosphere was great. The decor is rather dark, but pleasant. It was mainly couples dining midweek when we went.

Don't scrimp and avoid desserts—they're far too good to miss! I had cappuccino semifreddo, a warm donut alongside ice cream with cappuccino foam on top. Fantastic!

The staff are really helpful. When I couldn't translate some of the dishes in the menu they spent ages by our table explaining what they were.

The food in Cayenne is expensive, but it was well worth the money we paid. I can't wait to go again! Cayenne's not a place to go if you like food plain and simple. If you're an adventurous eater, you'll love it!

Another Rankin-owned restaurant, Rain City seems best fitted for family dining. Only one or two couples also ate there the Friday night I visited, although perhaps it's different during the week.

It seems that Rain City couldn't decide which type of cuisine it should keep to, and the limited choice of main courses varied from venison burgers (my friend loved his) to tasty pasta carbonara. Starters seem much more exciting than mains, with everything from duck to crab cakes on offer. And they're big: I could hardly finish the plate of Dundrum mussels with naan bread that I actually ate as a main meal.

Rain City doesn't cater brilliantly for vegetarians. Maybe the veggie burger on offer really does differ from those you can buy anywhere else, but it's not exactly an inspired addition to the small selection for veggies to eat.

One thing all our main courses had in common was the fantastic taste of the food, which more than matched its pretty presentation.

Desserts could be skipped in favour of coffee. Though tasty they weren't exactly exciting (I had sticky toffee pudding, for example) and were rather small considering the £4.50 cost.

The atmosphere is noisy, a soft pop soundtrack vying with families for attention all night. Staff seemed rather too busy all night - our plates weren't cleared for ages, for example, and when we got coffee it was already lukewarm(although immediately swapped for something better!).

Rain City seems to be the sort of place to go with a large group of friends or family. It provides good value for fantastic food, although the ambience could be improved a bit more.

With branches all over Belfast, especially in the city centre and university areas, Clements is a great place to go for coffee and chat.

You can grab lunch while you're here but Clements' forte is its coffees, steamers and milkshakes, best eaten of course with the massive chocolate brownies and caramel squares!

The atmosphere is laid back and pretty trendy, with seats arranged in a long line - not the place to go for privacy!

Clientele in the university area - including Botanic Avenue, Stranmillis Road and the Students Union at Queen's University itself - are mainly students and young professionals. The staff take your order from your seat - I always go for a hazelnut steamer and a slice of banoffee pie, but the lattes are lovely and the mochaccinos pretty perfect. The Smarties milkshake is meant to be fantastic!

Price-wise, expect to pay around £2 per drink, and £3 if you're after a milkshake. There's a loyalty card if you're planning to go coffee crazy - buy ten drinks and the next one's free.

With friendly faces on members of staff, fantastic food and fair trade coffee, Clements is a perfect place to relax.

Not a lot of people seem to know about Flour, hidden parallel to the City Hall and slightly off the beaten shopping track. It's a great place to stumble upon!

Why the name Flour? Well, this is a cafe with a difference - crepes are the main item on the menu and flour of course is the principal ingredient!

Don't just expect pancakes with sugar and lemon (costing £2.80 and really very tasty). Flour offers crepes in a variety of flavours, from sickly sweet Belgian chocolate and marshmallow (I could hardly finish this - crazily sweet!) to more subtle salmon or stewed pears. There's a good few interesting vegetarian options.

For mid-morning when it's too early to eat pancakes, there's porridge, or - more continental - croissants, served with Nutella. Fantastic with Flour's coffee!

Prices are on a par with other Belfast cafés - around £5 for a pancake that would do you for lunch.

The decor is fantastic - modern and cosy, but get there early if you want to sit in - there are literally three tables in the shop - close and cosy, facing the long counter for cooking the crepes. The staff are fun and friendly. And they do takeaways as well.

A hidden gem in Belfast cafes, Flour's a great alternative eatery!

I love this place! If you're a student it's definitely the place to be, particularly on a Wednesday or Thursday night.

There are two floors in the Bot. Downstairs is where you'll find different bands—traditional Irish on a Wednesday and a cover band on Thursdays. It's free to get in to these and the craic's really good. By the end of the night prepare to be dancing!

Upstairs is the Record Club, a typical night club with DJ and usually far too many people. If you're claustrophobic, get too hot very easily, and don't like extra long waits at the bar, this is somewhere to avoid. Otherwise it's fantastic—why else do hundreds queue for an hour every night the club is open? The music is contemporary and seats are kept to a minimum—every one's expected to get up and dance.

Dresscode wise, anything goes, but most people make an effort.

Be prepared to queue for ages if you come any time after 10pm and want to get upstairs. It costs up to a £5 to get upstairs, but is usually free if you stay downstairs. The club isn't open every night of the week either, usually only Wednesday to Saturday but downstairs is always good craic. And unless you're walking home, it might be a good idea to leave a bit before the club actually closes just after 1am. If you're not careful you could be in for hour long taxi waits.

Belfast isn't the best for non-blockbuster films so thank heavens for QFT!

Queen's Film Theatre, to give it its full name, is a haven for film buffs tired of big box office hits. It caters for art house and foreign language film lovers, with cinema spanning the globe and a little bit different.

You don't usually need to buy tickets in advance, but there have been times when my film's been booked up, especially if it's a re-run of a classic.

Pricing is normal for cinemas in Belfast - around £5 for an adult and reduced if you're a student - make sure you bring your card to claim a discount!

QFT's too upmarket for normal film food so refreshment-wise popcorn is nowhere to be found. Instead, think coffee and Stella Artois. QFT advertises itself as the only cinema in Belfast with a bar and it's great - the films shown are the sort you want to discuss and the bar is an ideal environ for a chat.

The best way to check what's on in the cinema is not necessarily by using the papers. QFT produces a booklet every month which gives a detailed run down of everything that's on, and has listings on its website for weeks to come.

I've been back to QFT many times now and I'm never disappointed, by the service, films or staff. If you're looking for a film that's a little bit different, QFT is the place to be.

Website: www.QueensFilmTheatre.com

Belfast city centre's not the best when it comes to designer clothes, but take a trip up towards the suburbs and you'll find a treasure trove of boutiques. The Lisburn Road in Belfast is well known for its more exclusive and expensive shops and is only a short ride away on the no. 9 metro from town.

The boutiques on the Lisburn Road sell everything fashion related.

Elegant party clothes are on sale at Koko, while sister-shop Rojo supplies super shoes. From Mulberry to Chloe, Harper sells the must-have handbags of the moment.

Jewellery-wise, the selection is expensive and chic, although not always as unique as that of some shops in town. Antique shops and art galleries cater to collectors.

Can't afford to shop in the absence of sales? Gilly's products are elegant and artistic with colourful, mid-price-range handbags that are well worth a look. Moda is the home of elegant heels at rather high street prices.
Pick up vintage finds at a reasonable price in the tiny second hand shop Déja Vu or trawl the good choice of charity shops for chic. At the upper end of affordable for students, stock up on gorgeous gifts at Kitty Galore.

There is something for every fashionista on the Lisburn Road in Belfast. If you're female, want to shop, and have money to spend, this is the place to be.

This is one of my favourite places in Belfast, the oldest subscription library in the city, and indeed, I think, further afield. A private library, you join by paying anything from £10 - if you're a child - to around £45 for an adult each year. The student discount knocks some off this price and if you sign someone up at Christmas there are sometimes special offers. If you're not going to be here long enough to be a member, get a visitor's pass free for the day.

Once in the library, enjoy a coffee in the café. Expect speciality coffees or straightforward teas with a small range of scones, sandwiches and fantastic homemade-style buns and cakes. A tea and bun comes to around £2 - not bad for city centre snacking!

Visitors go to the Linenhall for the ambience. It's an old Belfast building with lots of wood panels and pictures of old Belfast. There's always an exhibition in the building's newer extension, with more modern work by local artists for sale. The windows look over Donegall Square and the City Hall so it's a great place to people-spot as you study or read!

There are plenty of sofas and spaces to sit in the Linenhall. If you've time to spare, it's the perfect space to browse through a multitude of books. Upstairs the performance area regularly shows talks and plays.

The Linenhall is a great place to join, get lunch or simply spend a few hours browsing. A brilliant Belfast institution!

This has been part of Belfast life for many years - almost everyone's been to see something in the Opera House (most often the Christmas pantomime - always a lot of fun!)

The Opera House building itself is pretty old but recent years have seen a refurbishment and extension - the architecture of which meets with divided opinions among citizens here. I'm all for the very modern sitting alongside the antique-like old building, but many Belfast people think it's totally out of place. And, right in the centre of town, it's hard not to miss the Opera House.

Shows in the Opera House main auditorium are pretty expensive for people on a budget, but students can avail of half price seats if they wait until 6pm the day of performance - something I'm planning to try out pretty soon! Otherwise, the Baby Grand - not a piano (!) but a smaller auditorium - provides a brilliant night out at a fraction of the cost. This smaller auditorium houses independent productions, movie theme nights and concerts, etc. - one of my best evenings last year was when I got tickets to its Belfast Fashion Week shows.

Not sure what's on? www.goh.co.uk has all the details you'll need!