Morning Star in Belfast

We ate here both nights we were in Belfast. The pie, seafood chowder and chicken burger were all delicious. We got a table in the bar easily both nights as it was quiet. It felt like a traditional Irish pub and the staff were lovely The toilets need a refurb though in my opinion.

Call in for your Sunday roast, no finer in town.

This is our first time in Belfast and coming to Morning Star was our first taste of what this city has to offer… we were not disappointed at all! The food from the restaurant upstairs was absolutely amazing and probably one of the best meals I’ve had in quite a while. We got the Potted Beef to start, which was phenomenal, the meat was melting in my mouth and the gravy rich and delicious. I have the Chicken Parmigiana (which is one of my all time favourite meals) and this is hands down the best one I’ve ever had (outside of Australia)! My partner got the Fish & Chips and being Kiwi’s, it’s hard to beat back home, but he said his meal was great and so fresh. The service was amazing from Owen and the other gentlemen working, they were so friendly and attentive, they also made some really delicious cocktails! All round 20/10 for me, I’d come back to Belfast, just to come here again!

Great service from Owen and also the other gentleman working Friday night (1st). Cocktails were really nice and then the FOOD. Amazing! Would give it 6/5 stars if I could. So fresh, so filling. Perfect. Thanks guys and thank you chef!

Visited the Morning Star today for lunch. Ordered a fish and chips. It took a considerable time to arrive at the table and was possibly the worst meal I have ever tasted. It had obviously been under a heat lamp for some time and was dried up to the extent that the batter was hard on the fish at the ends. I could count the number of chips on two hand. I complained when paying to no avail. Not a good experience.

Great bar. Great to watch rugby and steaks

Brilliant bar but best to stay indoors if you're not a smoker. Not a reflection in the Morning Star but you will be bothered by beggers asking for money.

Came here for a pint and something to eat - looked at the main menu outside and was exactly what we were in the mood for. We were a bit early before the kitchen opened but staff gave us a menu and told us we were welcome to have a drink while we waited - whilst waiting we noticed a buffet style counter being set up with a sign of £7.95. We decided to go for that instead and couldn't believe how cheap this was for the quality. Proper homemade style food and the options were very good. Highly Recommend the lunch

Food is fantastic! Service is great! I really enjoyed the beef ragù! Had a nice time with my friends

The Morning Star is a true gem in the heart of Belfast. From the moment you step inside, you’re greeted with a warm, traditional pub atmosphere, full of charm and character. The staff are friendly and welcoming, making you feel right at home. The food is excellent – hearty and delicious, with great local options like their famous pies and steaks. The bar has a brilliant selection of local craft beers and whiskeys, perfect for any enthusiast. Whether you’re in for a meal or just a drink, The Morning Star never disappoints. Highly recommended for anyone visiting Belfast!”

Eoin was the best waiter! Would 100% recommend the market fish was unreal!

I called in here for a drink whilst exploring the city and ended up staying for nearly 2 hours! I was a solo female and I felt comfortable and extremely welcome here by the bar staff and by the regulars who were sat at the bar. I literally pulled up a stool and sat and chatted with everyone. What interesting lovely people!! I didn't eat but the hot buffet of homemade delights looked and smelled incredible!! The prices were fab. I had to walk up a little alley way to get there which had a few homeless people but they were also friendly and harmless so please don't let them put you off.

Food was fab… had the Guiness pie and fish and chips. Waitress was inattentive and the playlist was terrible!

Great food Good Belfast ambiance and hospitality unmatched I know it’s pub food but fish & chips in lager batter was not what i wanted- wish they had a non lager batter Served by Alley & Jack - what pleasure to see smiling young men

Seafood chowder was amazing, freshly cooked to order! Even though there was a mix up with the order the staff were very apologetic and resolved it quickly Not overly busy which was wonderful First Beamish beer, very nice

This is the worst restaurant avoid at all costs really bad experience had friends over from Scotland so embarrassing offal food complaints are brushed aside such a pity for Belfast city centre

Went to the Morning star on two occasions when visiting Belfast. On the first occasion we went for drinks on a Saturday and the vibe was so good- busy pub, good service and friendly staff! On the second occasion we visited on the Monday for lunch. Three of us had the steak and Guinness pie and one had the beef dinner. We were all really impressed with the food& if ever in Belfast again would 100% visit! One of the best pies I’ve ever had!!

Recommended to go here for Sunday roast & it didn't disappoint. Roast beef & the beef & Guinness pie were amazing. Toilets could do with a bit of a refurb tho...

Promoted as one of the top 30 Sunday lunch pub spots in UK, we had high hopes that were soon dashed. It took just over 2 hours to receive one shared starter, main each and one shared dessert. The food was average and service very slow. The price was well above average with extra gravy a princely sum of £3.75 and a subpar cappuccino that was essentially warm milk costing almost £4. I ordered the cauliflower cheese as an additional extra and was disappointed to find that after waiting over an hour the cauliflower was still rock hard in the middle. For the money we paid we should have went to some of the more expensive restaurants that we know do excellent Sunday lunches. In future we will. Sadly do not recommend at all.

Very typical, very local. Absolutely amazing Irish Coffee, the best of my life! After a long flight I enjoyed stopping here.

Had a fabulous meal tonight during Restaurant Week. All the staff were very helpful and knowledgeable about the food and Gary looked after us tremendously 😁

At the lunch “buffet”, they need to tell you can’t get a second plate at the start LOL I didn’t know and didn’t get enough food on my plate assuming I could get another. If I had been told this from the get go, would’ve been a positive review as the food I had was good but not getting what I paid for was raging!

The only place I've ever heard of that a veggie burger is called a smash burger. Ordered this without reading the description and luckily I like veggie burgers, and this was very tasty. But save the confusion and just change the name of it to something else 😂

Having made a reservation we were seated in a half full restaurant well to the back of the house. Not a great seat. I read the menu before and was excited to have a nice steak for a change. This was not to be. to me a 28 day dry aged medium rare rib eye would be tasty and to my liking. It was cooked medium or more and was not juicy as I usually have a rib eye. The Baby gem Salad was the only one on the menu and barely ranked as a salad. a few leaves and some dressing. On the up side the Pork belly bites were tasty and hot. The roast beef was well done and not really tender. Over all we were disappointed.

A cracking evening for a big group of us upstairs. Eoin and Michael looked after us very well. Great Guinness and great food. Super evening.

Ate here and had a few drinks with fiends and enjoyed it. Good pub food and drinks, friendly service; would recommend this.

Food was ok - but over priced and took over a hour to arrive. Had to chase. Service was non existent, just left at the table. Had to chase for an another drink. Staff didn’t seem to care or have a clue what customer service is. I would not recommend this place - pick somewhere else, the staff won’t notice or care.

Great service from Eoin. Lovely food and good atmosphere. Will be back again

Unfortunately not recommended. The tables savvy and sticky. The 3 waiters were more busy gossiping than serving. It was made clear to us very quickly that we were not wanted. We were the only ones who had to pay for the beer immediately

“Award winning sausages” must be self-awarded. Worst I have had, tasted like they came fresh from a tin can.

At the princely sum of £7.95, the buffet lunch in the Morning Star must be one of the best value lunches in Belfast. It's piping hot, great quality, tasty, fresh and there's plenty of it! All in the surroundings of a properly traditional Belfast pub. You really couldn't go wrong!

Excellent food both nights we visited. Seafood chowder. Chicken Parmesan and beef pie were really good. Service friendly. Highly recommend.

Eoin was a fantastic bartendet~the BEST

Do not waste your time or money! If I could give 0 stars I would. Worst meal I’ve ever had in Belfast, including out of date foods. I could go on forever in detail but It just annoys me everytime I think about it. The price is absolutely ridiculous!! And the kitchen is not clean. The fact that the Owner is aware of how bad experience & meal we had and hasn’t did anything about it is shocking. So many good food places in Belfast & this is not one of them. Disgusted.

staff is super friendly and attentive! Cute little tucked away treasure 😊

Parmesan chicken was really oily, not smelling good. Kid’s nuggets were also dripping with oil. Upgraded fries with truffle and Parmesan came covered with mayonnaise. Not recommended for food.

Probably the best burger I've had in a decade..

Only had a drink but it was very good. Helpful staff. I would imagine it's busier in the evening.

Small glass wine and a pint of Guinness £14.85 to expensive for a local pub

Such a lovely experience! The staff are so lovely and respectful and the food is the best food I’ve had in a really long time. If you’re visiting Belfast, definitelyyyy make a stop here for a pint and some food.

Decent homemade food with locally sourced ingredients! Has a really good vegetarian Wellington dish too!

Average, over-priced food living off location alone.

Never ever had the worse as bad in any establishment than what i did in the upstairs restaurant, two occasion's we have visited for food the second we were hoping improvements had been made but still same middle age - oldish restaurant manager there. The sceond time we were totally ignored for over 10-20 minutes after being seated upstairs, therefore we walked out as didnt want a repeat of the first experience, instead we to fountain street bar and restaurant highly recommend there. The first expereince was a while ago but we dining in restaurant for ‘Belfast restaurant week’ and i was horrified at the service. We arrived at about 20 mins to 7 and was promptly seated, then took 20 minutes to get staff attention to order despite several staff member walking past checking on table right beside us. After getting her attention at 7pm a Young blonde girl waitress then took our order, we waited over 45 minutes for starters to arrive and had to ask staff members twice to be give the excuse it was busy despite my partner going to toilet and noticing half the restaurant was empty and several members of staff just seemed to be walking about and that we could could kitchen staff laughing and joking beside being seating at the other side of the restaurant to the kitchen door. When starters arrived we were amazed at how it was small and simple starters soup and bread that was unbuttered and pork bites - ideally this is starter that would take no longer than 10 mins to prep and serve. A table nearby that was seated 30 mins after we arrived then received their starters promptly in comparison to us. After we had finished starters we sat a while with empty dishes before having to ask the same waitress could she clear our dishes rather than walk past us we said our mains would be shortly. Then Another 35 mins still no mains despite the restaurant getting quiet I asked the bar man for two drinks which he just left on a tray on the bar instead of bringing them to the table, after 10 minutes waiting for them to be served I just went up and lifted the tray to service myself to the table. After still waiting for our mains and getting ready to walk out and being ignored by several member of staff a staff member a oldish balding man told us our mains would be shortly 5 mins, this was despite the nearby table who seated 30 mins after ourselves receiving their mains of steaks before us, this made no sense. Our mains were basic burger arrived with no beer battered onion ring and was dry and tasteless very basic. My steak medium - well done, was definitely well done very grey and was I considered a cheap selection of steak similar to a buffet cooked steak with a lot of fat on it. After our mains we promptly decided despite ordered deserts we would cancel them and leave rather than waiting another 45 mins for them to come. On our bill we were still fully charged and no compensation. This experience ruined our evening, we thought being restaurant week we would have been impressed with the morning star, this is honestly the worse service I’ve ever seen from staff lacking basic incentive to no manager seeming to be in charge and customers receiving food despite arriving much after ourselves. I will most definitely be in touch with yourselves tomorrow.

Fantastic food and the service was brilliant.

Had a lovely time - the food, music and service was incredible. Special shout-out to Eoin for taking such good care of us and for the good Craic :)

Had a couple pints here. Wonderful atmosphere, everything I would have hoped for in an Irish pub.

Owen is the gem of your establishment! We were in Belfast for 3 nights but made a point of returning to his service a second evening! Wonderful and quick sense of humor that we loved. -Jennifer & Dana, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

Our server was excellent and the chef, Damian, prepared a hearty, flavorful and tasty meal of mussels, Guinness and steak pie and stout braised beef and Yorkshire pie. The food was made from scratch and excellent. That coupled with a couple of beers made for a perfect night. Highly recommend!

Terrible service, waited an hour to order food only to be told the kitchen was closed 2 hours before advertised but they waited till we ordered more beer before telling us.

Dark ,dingy and in need of renovation/modernisation

Great traditional pub. Shame they don't show footy on the TVs

Made a reservation while passing through on vacation and was not disappointed. The beef truffle ragu was amazing as was the fish and chips, staff and atmosphere.

If you are dining with 2 people, you only need to order the sharing steak, because the portion is really huge and the steak is well controlled. It is highly recommended.

Popped in for a pint and a pie. Well actually it was potted beef with lovely onion gravy. Not at all bad for a quick bite before a few more drinks. Lovely carvery here but not on at 8pm unfortunately.

Amazing food, quality is exceptional, great service and well priced!!

4 of us visited Belfast for my daughters 50th birthday and met up with another 5 family members .Food at morning star was fantastic the service was amazing.Thank you Morning Star for making our visit fabulous will definitely be visiting again should we return to Belfast.Highly recommended

We completed our two hour walking tour of Belfast’s CBD and asked our guide for a recommendation on where we should eat lunch and without hesitation he gave us directions toThe Morning Star. The pub is close to the docks in the centre of Belfast, it’s tucked away so we pushed open the door to find a cosily comfortable bar with a large area housing the lunch buffet. We were approached by a very friendly waitress who explained how the buffet choice worked as well as taking our drinks order. The food all looked appetising and choices included curry. Irish stew, chicken wings etc etc. Most of the clientele were local workers who made their food choices quickly, paid, are and left! We enjoyed the food the service and the price (£8 per plate) The Morning Star will not disappoint .

We dined in the Lounge restaurant above the pub and had a most disappointing experience as the service was terrible. The restaurant was almost empty but it still took our waitress over 10 minutes to come and take our drinks order after we had been shown to our table. We ordered chateaubriand which was nice but although it's a sharing dish we weren't given a plate each so had to both eat off the main dish in the middle of the table which was less than ideal. I ordered a side of chips and my wife ordered a side of mash. The mash was lovely but the chips were dry and pretty horrible.

Fancied a lunch so called into a wee bar/restaurant down Pottingers Entry in Belfast city centre…The Morning Star has always delivered on everything. I dont think I’ve ever had a bad experience.Eoin our waiter was brilliant, knowledgable and informative, from the food plus the bar. Pork Belly starter was delicious..Recommended the best sticky toffee pudding I've ever had.. and I've had a few.

Owen was superb very attentive. Went to lounge upstairs for a quick lunch. Food arrive quick and taste soooo good, fresh chips nice steak and good peppercorn sauce. Very good value and nice atmosphere. If looking for quick quality well priced one try it out. Never go wrong with steak in morning star.

Excellent food! The beef pie was amazing. The best I've tried in my travel to Ireland

Traditional style pub with truly amazing food. I’m sad to say we devoured it all before thinking of taking pictures. One couple shared the chateaubriand steak with sides, OMG melt in your mouth, dried aged steak. Another guest had the Truffle Beef Ragu and pappardelle pasta and I cannot even tell you how amazing the sauce was. Everyone at the table had bites because we were all loving it. The tomato sauce was so fresh and bright, just a perfect balance!! Another one enjoyed the Beef and Guiness pie was pure layered goodness!! Believe us, you cannot go wrong with… every bite of everything we selected was amazing. So much so, we also needed to dive into dessert!!

Delightful traditional place, the rump was killer and our server Tyler was great

I recently visited The Morning Star Bar & Restaurant in Belfast, and it was an absolute delight! 🍽️ The historic charm of the place instantly makes you feel like yo'reu travelling in time! The staff are incredibly welcoming and friendly. The food is top-notch, with a menu that offers a great mix of traditional and contemporary dishes. The quality and flavor of each dish are exceptional, and the portions are generous. 🍻 The atmosphere is cosy and lively, making it a perfect spot for both a casual lunch and a night out with friends. If you're in Belfast and looking for a memorable dining experience, I highly recommend stopping by The Morning Star! 🌟

Lovely little spot, great staff, great pint of Guinness, some sports on the tele. Highly recommend the seafood chowder, top quality, well priced, plenty of fish in it and nice and filling!

My first Sunday roast! I went for beef one, it was around £19. The food was delicious, staff very friendly and polite.

Fabulous burger here today! Recommended by our Uber driver. Shaun was our waiter who has only done a few shifts so far. He was well mannered, accommodating and sweet young lad. Great pub for grub thank you Shaun and team.

A little slow in the service for the tables they had but everything was very good, including the desserts

Eoin our waiter was so helpful and could not do enough for us - especially as we were a group of 3 ladies who hadn’t met for two years and had a lot of catching up to do ! The food was delicious and Eoin tempted us to magnificent sticky toffee pudding that we did not regret - even after the splendid fish dish We will be back

Love this pub. It has barely changed in 40 years. Fantastic food, great service. Humorous, polite staff. Great place to get refreshments if heading on to an event in the city, or even sit and chill out for an evening (or afternoon.)

Restaurant provided an excellent serving of steak and the other food on the table was very good (Fish and Chips were noticeably my daughter's favorite of the trip). Good banter with the server provided for a lovely dinner after a long day of sight seeing.

Excellent food, beers, ambience, location and service. Really delicious meat. For a typical dinner in Belfast it is the right place.

The staff is very attentive. IMPORTANT Food will be served after 9 p.m.! We didn't know that most restaurants in Belfast don't serve dinner after 9 p.m., only delivery, which was out of the question for us.

Staff lovely and very pleasant however food very disappointing. Ordered fish and chips costing approx £17.50 each. We received a piece of battered fish and 10 chips, a pot of luke warm peas and a splat of tartar sauce on the plate. When asked if the waitress could get us anything else my husband asked for a portion of chips! She stomped away. Eventually a second portion arrived after half fish was eaten and we had asked 2 different staff for same. Ladies toilets dirty, no toilet roll, hand dryer not working. Very disappointing and very expensive for all you get.

Was really looking forward to eating here but was left underwhelmed and disappointed. Service which could be at best be described as pedestrian, both courses having to be chased up, bang average cold food, and a Sunday roast which came without Yorkshire Pudding, the absence of which was explained away because they were "busy" and had run out ... unacceptable. The manager also had an extremely poor and blasé attitude to customer service knowing we'd not ever return and couldn't give a **** - avoid

Really good food and nice staff

Beautiful place, fresh sea bass was really amazing. Molly was really helpful

Great Belfast pub. One of the oldest

My girlfriend and I had dinner and everything was gorgeous. It's a highly recommended place if you are looking for typical irish food. We had the roast beef, the chicken parmigiano and the banoffee pie sundae. All courses were unreal. Special mention to our server Molly that looked after us and she was really kind and attentive. We hope to come back soon.

The perfect experience. My trip to Belfast was completed with a plate of Ulster Beef, followed by a coffee&cream. Perfect service from Molly, who explained that all the meat is local. Loved it.

Great spot to have a pint and meal. Friendly service was much appreciated

Brilliant service from Eoin, great recommendations and quick service! Food was fantastic as well

amazing service in this place from human to human, with a special thanks to harry :) love popping in for a pint and to draw in the beer garden. large selection of food and sharing platters which i will be excited to try on my next visit. thank you morning star☆

Great food and fantastic service from Eoin😊

Amazing food. Great atmosphere. Reasonable prices x

Excellent food, excellent atmosphere but expensive drinks and the service wasn’t great. I was part of a large party so maybe that had something to do with it, but the food more than made up for it!

Pleasant, quality atmosphere at lunch time. A charming barman called Gary sold me a rare McConnell’s 20yo single malt. A handsome and simple spot with a good range tucked just off the busy high street.

Had wonderful service and amazing seafood chowder!

Been here a couple times and really enjoy the atmosphere. There’s a new restaurant upstairs which is lovely. Usually get the steaks but wanted to try something different so we got Pork Belly and Sea Bass. Both unreal. Good service by a female waitress Molly. They have live Irish music on the weekend. Good selection of whiskeys and beers on draft. Seems very popular with tourists

Always guaranteed fantastic food. 👌👌👌👌👌

Myself and my friend visited here on Sunday. We where in belfast visiting so where not familiar with the area so decided to Google places to eat and came across the morning star, I read some of the reviews and we came here. I got the beef carvery and my friend got the ribs. It was honestly one of the nicest carvery we ever had. This is why giving places reviews is important as we would of not of found this place.

It is very pretty and I understand that it is eaten very well and cheaply.

Staff super helpful and friendly.

Very good evening, quality food, top Irish coffee and very attentive staff

Great cocktails and live music in the heart of Belfast.

Great place, good food, very kind service. I was not feeling well and could not eat anything from the menu, so I asked if they could make me an omelette... They did! I'm really thankfull for that. We also had fish and chips and chicken nuggets and they were delicious. Thanks a lot for that kind gesture to me today 😊

We came here for lunch. Very typical Irish place ☘️ in my opinion, and I like it. We were welcomed right away by a waitress who took us to our tables. We didn't book. Food: really good. We took pork cuts with whiskey glaze, very tasty, and two main dishes based on veal 🥩. These are also excellent. There is the possibility of taking a dish of your choice from those available on the menu of the day for a few euros if you want. To drink two beers, as you couldn't do otherwise in Ireland. Service: quick and helpful 👌 Atmosphere: very Irish 🇮🇪 we liked it a lot (at least I did) both inside and outside. Inside the use of wood is very appreciable, there are paintings hanging almost everywhere relating to the local culture. Toilets 🚽: They could have been better. Price 💶: we spent €75 taking the above. Not much, not a little I would say. Definitely worth going if you are in the area.

We had lunch on 25th July and thanks to Molly we had a great time.

This was recommended to us by one person and had good reviews, but it was absolutely horrible. Maybe the first time online reviews have led me so wrong. The server was rude from the second she approached the table, and was annoyed with questions about the menu. When the drinks did make it to the table eventually, one of them was on ice when we ordered a shot of Jameson. I asked the server to fix the error when it was delivered. It took about 10 mins to get back to me and when it did, it was clear that the shot had sat in ice for several minutes and turned into a watered down ice cold Jameson. I thought for sure it was a mistake but the server was not returning any time soon so I brought it to the bartender to ask for him to switch it out for what I had actually ordered, a straight up shot, and he said “yeah if you pay for it.” Ok, I’ve worked in the industry for a lot of my life, I get it people are jerks, but this was me asking him to fix his mistake. I told him I am paying for it, the thing that I ordered and he said, “you ordered a shot, I put it on ice, then I took it off the ice and sent it back to you, so there’s your shot.” Asked for the manager who very reluctantly fixed the issue…what?? They were not serving the steak pie, the item we specifically came to try, which was disappointing but it happens. The roasts and fish and chips were pretty bad though. So ok, horrible service, bad food.. the bill comes and there’s a service charge. I ALWAYS tip, I think even on an off day, people in restaurants deserve the support, but this was an exception. The people I dined with said they were going to ask for it to be taken off the bill because of how horrible every second of our experience was. One went the manager and asked for it to be removed because of how rude the staff had been (different manager than earlier who had not been present for any of the earlier rudeness of bartender, server and lack of care from earlier manager), he asked if everything was ok and the instances of rudeness and were explained, and he agreed. Less than 10 seconds later he approached us and said that “no one was rude, no one was rude.” Ok, again, whatttt is happening here? We reassured him that they were awful to us, and he reluctantly agreed to remove the service charge… toilet overflowed and bathroom was disgusting. Other tables were having to get up/ shout to server to ask her for her attention, which she ignored. Probably the worst customer experience I’ve ever had.

Fantastic time here service was spot on and Garry couldnt have been more helpful.