Ulster Sports Club in Belfast

Nice bar friendly staff and a lovely pint of boundary beer, and some decent advice about what not to wear.

Went to watch the rugby, only to be told very rudely by the bar staff that “they didn’t pay for the sports channels and it “wasn’t their problem”. The very least you’d expect of a sports bar is to show sports, this appears to be a little run down place with 2 small tvs showing no sport. I wouldn’t recommend going there unless you enjoy drinking an overpriced pint with the aroma of BO and stale beer in your nostrils. Best avoided.

Coolest bar in Belfast. Great drink selection, great gigs, and great atmosphere.

Went to see Dj Rolando and Conor Schmtz. Awesome night tunes and atmosphere world class

Came for a night time event which was held upstairs and was awesome. Returned the next day to watch the rugby. Great location and staff.

Sound crowd, 2 floors, decent techno upstairs and great tunes downstairs.

Great pub for a casual pint or a bit of a dance later on. Love it.

Always a great experience here be it a few post-work pints or something more musical. Gamma Ray on draught too.

Smashing wee bar - we threw beer glasses all over the place and they cleaned it up and served us more!

I had money stolen from my bag for the first time in Belfast. Obviously not the bars fault but some dodgy visitors

Stickiest floors I’ve ever encountered. Need to hire different cleaners

Walked in on Boxing Day for a few drinks while the football was on, nothing but rude bartenders that didn’t even know when the lounge opened, not be back, bunch of boots

No frills dive bar. Great selection of craft beers, good music and always have a mixed crowd but great atmosphere. Consists of several bars on the weekends when it's busy, one of them usually has djs.

Great little bar with a massive area on the inside past the initial bar at the front door. Would write a further review but it was a blur after the first pint.

Accused me of drinking the drink that I ordered, when in fact I did no such thing. Then proceeded to throw me out when I called their staff out of essentially scamming me. Please train your staff better in future. Absolutely disgraceful service.

Great sound system in the upstairs gig/club venue. Best place to see bands in Belfast.

Busy Saturday night and staff were on fire! Quick service at the bar, great range of beers.

I love it here the vibe and the music is always top tier

Three of us had local beer. Two brewed on premises and one in east Belfast. Informative and pleasant female server told us. She is a great representative for the bar.Recommend . 9/11/24 @1826 £20.10

Delicious, yummy craft beers, lovely staff, cosy vibe.

Bouncer Mike was told about my girlfriend getting grabbed and screamed at by a man in the bar on the middle floor, got the man took him out the man denied it but happened and Mike understood, the man even apologised and then denied it. He brought my girlfriend over to the man and made her decided whether or not he should be allowed to stay, after she told the bouncer she didn’t want to speak to him, this is the same room artists playing gigs have been assaulted your bouncers are so bad, I spoke to Mike after he told me I was abusing him and to leave him alone when all I said was he left her in tears and did not seem to care about a girl being left embarrassed and upset, we paid money as well to be here and love being here just can’t believe how he dealt with this first time we seen this in sports club.

A cool place to visit and try their own brew.

Like this place for a solo pint during an afternoon. Front bar is nice.

Great venue, unique. Great music in the back bar, and great sociable smoking area.

What used to be a laid back, and fun venue is now fraught with bad attitude bouncers. This is such a shame as I used to really enjoy a USC night out. I'm not the only one who's had issues with door staff. The club need to address this issue before people vote with their feet, to not be insulted or unfairly treated by horrible staff. Approach with caution.

This place is great for a night out in Belfast with your friends. Went with Babs & Glenn when they were back on Irish soil. Service was a bit slow but what do you expect for a Saturday night. Staff are delightful. Great atmosphere (especially the smoking area even though I am not a smoker I enjoy this). Take your friends out and go here. Will be back soon.

A nice spot, handy if you are having a drink before a concert at custom house. A lot of very underage looking faces in there when we visited though 😬 Drink price fairly reasonable

Excellent place for a gig, proper gig venue

Great pub with a nice selection of good beers. They also have a great room at the top for sport which was a new one on me. One of the pubs in Belfast that is worth returning to.

The door staff were class they knew our banter the only thing about belfast city is that the bars and club are trying to price out the working class that's facts they want rich people to drink in the town and to by pass places shankill road east and south belfast when in facts these places are the real belfast save working class areas

Great DJs but the bartenders are absolutely atrocious.

Female bouncer is on the power trip of a lifetime. I come here so many times a week after work to catch up with friends, and tonight I left for a few minutes to chat to someone and I was refused entry because I'd “had too much to drink”. Funny because I'd finished drinking for the night a while back, and hadn't drank a drop since being accepted into the club initially. I was showing some Dutch friends around the city and met up with some work colleagues, but was humiliated by a female bouncer by being disallowed re-entry. Absolutely disgraceful behaviour. Unnecessarily upsetting, embarrassing and a sure fire way to ending a night.

Approximately around 2AM I was thrown out by a female bouncer for no apparent reason, and none of which was relayed to me. I was leaning against a pillar in the back room waiting for my friend who was in line at the bar ordering us drinks. as I was waiting the staff member in question approached me and told me I had to leave and gave me no reason why when I asked. However, contrary to her telling me to leave, she allowed me to approach my friend at the bar to tell him I was being kicked out, before having to walk the full way out the front to leave, all the while telling her that it didn't make any sense that I was being thrown out. My phone was dead and so I had no way to pay for a taxi home, and was meant to be getting a taxi with my friend who I was unfortunately separated from due to your staff. with no ability to pay for a taxi home due to my phone being dead, I was forced to walk home (approximately 5.6 miles to my home address from the venue).

Got told to leave 15 minutes after we arrived there because we’d “had enough to drink”. We weren’t drunk and were just sitting down having a conversation and not bothering anybody. Staff were very patronising and rude on the way out. I had never been there before and now I know not to return. I would recommend avoiding this bar if you want to have an enjoyable night out 👍

My friends and i stood outside having a smoke and then as we tried to go in the bouncers said they'd been told by management we aren't allowed in. We are visiting for the weekend and had never set foot in there, weren't too drunk either. Wouldn't go ever again.

Bouncers and management are overly aggressive and are seriously delusional.

Like stepping back into the 80s absolutely brilliant atmosphere and staff. Would be the first pub I would bring visitors to.

Great bar for a quick pint, has a beer garden, lovely selection of different drinks and craft beers and live music plays often.

Not an expensive drinking hole, nice outside area to watch folk walking by

Unhygienic place and racist people

Lethal spot, just witnessed Sprints, 👏, public bar, concert hall, Upper bar, class 👏

Good bar with a good range of beers

Northern Irish beers on the tap!

Lots of different areas, so it's like its own little world! You can even have meetings in a room! There are chill out areas with candles, typical pub areas, loud music areas... Cool place! Parking right nearby which is reasonably priced too.

Really nice place, however the male young bartender charged me random amounts even though I purchased the same drink 3x. I ordered 3 guinnesses and when I checked my bank account I was charged 3 random amounts ranging from 5.95-7£. Very odd

One member of staff - Connor - was very cheerful and helpful and great at service, however the other member of staff was quite abrupt and rude and disengaging. I will return but at the minute I would not like to enjoy the company of this staff member again, he claimed his name was JohnJo at first then said his name was Padraig? But the bar in general has a good atmosphere. Several people outside agreed he was very rude.

A little hidden jem, recommend by staff at another bar. Front bar for a drink, back bar for pool and darts, upstairs for live music. Try the dark mode stout, you won't regret it.

Very friendly and welcoming, great beers.

A great music venue on the first floor. Sound was very good, not too loud and very clear. The whole place has an old school feel. Not sure if it was designed like this or just hasn't had a facelift in 40 years but as a music venue it's great.

5 stars to the bar maid at the front bar. She was looking after the well-being of us tonight.

Went to see the magnificent Henry Wagons. Brilliant night of great craic and music

Great place for a gig and a pint

Does a beer club, which is very entertaining. Beer brewing is good too!

The Ulster Sports Club is unique, the atmosphere in the front bar is great and the main bar at the back has some.seroous social club vibes but it's perfect.

Great spot. Quite dark and quiet with good acoustics so not noisy even when busy. Has outdoor seating area. Now also has an upstairs bar with a craft beer type theme. Great selection and all new fit out upstairs. Can see the beer brewing equipment. The ground floor toilets could do with some work.

Sat in the front bar soaking up pints and atmosphere. Decor is excellent, light subdued. Wish it had existed when I was in my twenties. Pints on pricey side but overall worth it. Good music, from Leonard Cohen to Alice in Chains

Shockingly bad pouring of beers and poor service in bar last night.

1 star is too generous. I come here quite regularly, on this particular night I was waiting by the bar to get my drink and I sat down on the chair beside me. I was aggressively shaken by a man and told to get off his seat, which I did. He continued to have a go saying he couldn’t get beside the bar because I was standing in his way, I replied saying I’m waiting on my drink I’ll be Out of your way in a minute. He then said he would get me kicked out of the place and started making a show to the bar staff. The bar staff weren’t engaging and basically told him to wise up. An hour later (once they had rinsed us of more cash) my friends and I were randomly approached by 2 bald bouncers, who were extremely aggressive, and told us to leave. They unnecessarily put their hands on us to the point where I was worried they would try to start a physical fight with us. They have no other reason other than we had annoyed a customer. This isn’t the first time these bouncers have been extremely aggressive towards me or people I know, I would never recommend this place to anyone especially another woman. The chances of being bullied by a bald man is extremely high. If this place has any chance of surviving they need to sack tweedle dumb and tweedle dumber

Bit boring,needs a good clean amd bar staff are rude but people are friendly and has a big enough smoking area

Fantastic. If you like to dance.

Just went for a few drinks. Sat in the beer garden which was quite nice. Inside its a bit dated and dark. Drinks city centre prices not club prices.

The bouncers REALLY want thier own show! Extremely aggressive and intimidating, We were having a very good night with Jamie and Kaidi Tatham (absolute legend) on the decks, very busy night but my boyfriends larynx nearly displaced by one of the bouncers for no absolute reason. Telling from previous comments some of the hairless ones are in need of a punching bag or a hug, wrong job fellas! Acting macho, to be putting your hands on people without warning and then spitting verbal abuse trying to rise them for validation - no aggression was reciprocated (nothing to see here) was basically a complete breach of peace;Hope you got what you were looking for. Offensive. Night Ruined.

Carpet smells that I wanted to vomit. Toilets with pee all over the floor. Ambient was not good, people wearing weird clothes not smart, but the dj was decent. I paid entrance 12£ and I left in less 30 minutes

I have mixed feelings about this bar. The beer is good and they have some good gigs but the attitude varies. We have been turned away by the door staff for no good reason - I suspect I was considered too old! As mentioned in other reviews there is a general lack of bar staff so there can be a bit of a wait sometimes. On the whole it is worth calling in to try the beer.

Nice enough bar but the bar man on the ground floor was wearing shorts and had pretty bad breath. The door staff looked dodgy too.

Love this place, music is great and the staff are fantastic, especially Daria

Absolutely lovely people, Anna is just lovely she made my whole night and it's super relaxed while busy. I love going here!

No food ordered. Great array of craft beers including some wonderful ones brewed on the premises.

Surreal venue not expected in Belfast

It's a lovely chilled vibe and a good place to relax with a drink

Unusual place... the downstairs bar is like many others, but if you go through to the back of the pub, and use the lift to the top floor, you'll find the much more hipstery brewhouse taproom! the brewery itself is at the front of the building, the taproom at the back, with a good range of beers on sale including tasting trays.

Great venue. Shame about the door staff; the bouncers are aggressive and very petty.

Go up to the top floor. Class selection of beers, try some of the lesser known ones. Or try a sour one for a very different experience.

Come here occasionally, out with friends for drinks tonight and the Bar Manager randomly accused me of spray painting in the toilets...? Was pulled aside and embarrassingly made to turn out my pockets by bouncers in case I had cans of spray paint..? Won't be back and don't recommend.

I go here occasionally because they have good gigs or nights on, but I try to avoid if I can. For a place owned by a massively wealthy group (that owns the Merchant etc) the place never has enough staff on, and so are always under pressure, the place is dirty, your feet stick to the floor and there's rarely toilet roll in bathrooms or even soap (even during the pandemic), and the drinks are expensive. Belfast has become notoriously expensive for drinks but it's interesting that the places they have risen the most are often owned by wealthy business owners. I would forgive these things if the place was independently run, but it seems to me they're cashing in on their shabby chic vibe while lining the pockets of one of the richest men in NI. You can have shabby chic and also clean the carpets once in a while.

Great venue, with some great acts. Nice and friendly welcome

Went in with a few mates on thursday night, walked in and it was nearly empty and was told to leave as there were too many of us. We were told by the bartender with slicked back hair that there was too many of us in and since they only had two members of staff on. This would’ve been fine if both bartenders were actually doing something, but one was chatting up some women/talking to some mates of his, and the other one was standing behind the bar doing nothing. Had to leave due to the bartenders pure laziness.

Excellent bar man Really nice dude

Best to avoid this place, bouncers are on a power trip which will ruin a good night out, especially the female bouncers. Surprised they can act like this these days

Hates women so disrespectful to young woman and anyone part of the LGBTQ+ do not recommend far too dear and bouncers/security so rude and disrespectful towards young women! Go if you want to get body shammed and insulted

Dingy....please clean the carpet!!!

Went in to watch some football. There were 3 staff in the front bar. Ordered, went through to the sports bar, the floors were ridiculously sticky and the decor was something out the 70's.

Best. Great range of beers on tap in top bar on 4th floor, really nicely done up and does square croque monsieur style pizza slices. Wish it had a rooftop garden/smoking area as have to go all the way down to get some air. Nice decor and staff in other areas and plenty on. Can get 4 diff nights in the one place with the diff bars and acts on. Good place for gigs. Vibes

Went to a concert here and loved the vibes

I went to the Ulster Sports Club on Saturday night for drinks with friends and to catch a DJ set by Iain McCready in the Tap Room on the top floor. I didn't, on this occasion go to any of the other bars either on the ground floor or first floor so this review is only about the top floor bar. Can say however that the door staff were very welcoming on our way in and the ground floor bar was very warm and lively. The Tap Room is small with maybe 15 wooden tables placed about and quite utilitarian in decor, it's stark but quite cool looking! As I said, we were there to watch our friend DJ and the sound was absolutely amazing, the speakers are placed in such a way that it's just immersive. There's no dance floor as such, but that didn't stop anyone!! It was such a fun and eclectic mix of people when we were there which was really nice because, young and older, rockers and ravers. The bar staff were super friendly and we didn't wait more than a few minutes to get served. One thing I really liked too was that the bar staff were really helpful wirh offering suggestions on drinks if you were looking recommendations. The ladies toilets were very clean which is always a bonus!! The only complaint I have was that the drinks selection on this floor catered to a very niche market. My friend doesn't drink so asked for a Coke Zero and he got a Diet Karma Cola instead, which was so incredibly sickly sweet that he couldn't drink more than half of it. There was no alternative offered which made it feel like they're too cool for the likes of Pepsi Max or Coke Zero! The prices were actually pretty reasonable though for a city centre bar, and the lack of non-pretentious soft drinks aside, I'd definitely go back! Updated to add that in the Tap Room it's card only payment!

Amazing place, with a good mix of young and old. Great music and friendly staff. A must go for anyone who enjoys night life.

Excellent venue with an old school vibe.

Great spot quality Ales on tap trendy vibe about the place

Visited the Tap Room on the top floor different class!

Great venue, great drink great staff.

Good place to go to watch a match. Managed to even get a seat to watch the Ireland v England 6 Nations final! Upstairs bar is a bit weird in decor, the white tiles make it look like a butchers shop, and the back bar looks like it hasn't been redecorated since the 1970s, but still has a nice old-school vibe to it.

One of the best venues in the city for gigs, pints and experiencing some of the best bits of the underground music scene. The refurbished sports club is adorned with old fixtures and new. Unreal staff, great pints. Make sure to checkout the taproom upstairs and give a go at the beers brewed in hosue.

Very poor door staff. I was just sitting down and two bouncers picked me up and marched me out for no reason. Didn't let me get my coat in the middle of winter resulting me being locked out of my house.

Just stumbled upon this place by accident..great wee deceiving spot! Great choice of booze!

Not the best looking bar in Belfast but does great beers and really good gigs. Believe it has its own brewery and they are worth trying. Staff friendly and prepared to have a chat. Give it a visit.

From pint loving punk rockers to cocktail loving students, you get all sorts in here. It's a busy pub with several different sections within. It's like an old box of chocolates, ye never know what your gonna get next. I like it though...... 👌

Great bar/venue, friendly staff, a place where different is normal and normal is different, and no one cares.

Bit sweaty smelling but nice venue, was expected because I know they have rave nights with no windows. Nice staff, served me before the guy that bunked me which was nice of them.

Great atmosphere, decent prices.

Good spot but been turned away from the place too many times when it's "rammed", whenever the spot is dead