Bar Twelve

Lovely wee bar for a quiet pint in the afternoon great seating area outside if you fancy a tab with your pint

Metro is an excellent place to eat — there is currently a cheaper menu before 7pm which is great value. Bar 12 is another matter — a bit dingy for my taste!

I have a very good friend who won’t drink in Bar Twelve because he says the décor reminds him of a brothel. I wouldn’t have the faintest clue what the interior of a brothel looks like, so can’t compare. I have managed to resist the temptation to search for images on google, lest my good lady catch me and slap me round the back of the head before I get a chance to explain.
I do like Bar Twelve though. It’s all about dim lighting, little private booths with dark wood, great service and a million times more character than most hotel bars (Bar Twelve is part of the Crescent Townhouse Hotel).
The food menu is very reasonable too, given that the food is prepared in the same kitchen as the hotel’s upmarket restaurant, Metro. I had a cracking Asian squid dish here a while ago, served with a fantastic wasabi mayonnaise. Not your usual bog standard pub food at all.

I went in here today for the first time and the first thing that struck me was the décor. Its very plush and was dark but not in the dingy way. A really nice traditional bar! I ordered a beer and the barman gave me a menu as I said I was just having a dessert. He said that the Sticky Toffee Pudding was highly popular and he recommended it. S who was I to argue? God was he right! It was truly a dessert on an epic scale! I can’t even put into words how good this was! the toffee sauce was laced with a liquor of some kind and was beyond good and there was loads of it too… my poor waistline! I would like to add that the two men serving behind the bar and also on the floor were perfect gentlemen. They were up for a bit of banter and seemed highly impressed that my lunch consisted of dessert and beer! Will certainly be back here again to try out some of the food I spotted making its way past me!

Bar Twelve is part of the Cresent Townhouse hotel which sits just off Botanic Avenue. It’s one of a multitude of bars in the area, this facilitates a slightly older crowd than some of the more student orientated areas.
It’s a nice environment. Nice is a terrible word but I can’t think of anything more descriptive on this occasion, it’s dark wood, warmly lit, low tables and comfortable chairs.
The typical depressingly predictable Belfast bar selection is on offer, the usual lagers on tap, along with Guinness and Smithwicks. A megre selection of ‘world lagers’ and a small list of red and white wine. The range of spirits is an improvement though, the last time I was there I had a measure of Macallan 18 which was fantastically rich, oily, oaky and vanilla rich.
Prices are fairly typical of what’s in the area. The clientèle is usually thirty somethings, an almost wine-​bar type crowd. You do get a combination of older ‘regulars’ and a spattering of students from time to time.
If you’re perusing the city streets at night time or looking for a quick post-​dinner drink then it’s worth a pop-​in.

I feel like I can’t really fairly review this bar, and I feel it’s important to be honest with you about that!
Basically, I like it. It’s nicely decorated, not too expensive, and quite enjoyable to sit in on a quiet night. The booths are great for a bit of privacy. If you manage to nab one of them, you can wile the night away without even noticing if the place is busy or not!
The reason I can’t give it anymore than 3 stars is that terrible things seem to happen to me in that bar. Awful, life-​changing, boy-​related disasters, so I break into a cold sweat everytime I go past…
It’s got nothing to do with the bar though, so please, go, try it out, enjoy it, but don’t expect to see me there!

Bar Twelve is attached to the Crescent Townhose a short jaunt away from both Botanic and Lisburn Roads.
The bar is your typical hotel bar — dim lighting, TVs in the corner, beer on tap and spirits on the wall. The one thing that stands out about Bar Twelve are the very high booths that line the room. You kind of feel like the king when you’re having a drink here.
Just a note of caution — the hallway leading to the bathrooms is VERY dark. Don’t try to navigate it after too many drinks. The bathroom also features a «convenience» machine that might come in handy if you manage to meet that special «someone» at the bar.

The restaurant itself is quite a simple place. The food experienced was lovely and the service very good. This makes for a lovely place to eat out.
The Botanic Avenue location is very good, it’s just opposite Botanic Rail Station also, for visitors coming into the city, who can take a train here from either Central Station or Great Victoria Street (Europa) Station, but it’s only about 15 minutes walk from G.V.S. station anyway. Metro an ideal place for a night out meal after a walk in the Botanic Gardens.
Metro is the restaurant of Crescent Townhouse Hotel, though it seems like a independent place if you are not a hotel guest, as the restaurant has its own street access.
The cooking is French influenced, where Belfast has nearly no French restaurants and even few French influenced places.
The prices are rather high from the main A La Carte menu, but this is one of the finer places to eat in the city. However, there is a good value menu for 2 persons which is a bottle of wine and 2 courses each for a total of 35 pounds. As well, the separate, and good sized, vegetarian menu should not be kept all to vegetarians (I am vegetarian but highly recommend this menu for anyone), and the prices are noticeably cheaper than the main A La Carte menu.
Really the only negative things I can say about Metro is that there is neither a good priced 2 or 3 course menu for someone to buy for himself /​herself, like a typical French style Menu at x many Euros. And further, that the only offer menu, the 2 course and wine menu I mentioned, necessitates buying wine, when all diners do not drink wine.
I visited Metro with family on my last birthdy and as a special treat I had 4 courses and a bottle of wine. The 4 courses were achieved by having both a desert and their cheese selection for my birthday meal. The cheese selection was absolutely wonderful and so cheap. I would say it would be a good price anyway for a smaller cheese selection, but basically this was a lovely selection of 4 or 5 most gorgeous Irish cheeses, which together made up the volume of roughly 3 supermarket packets of cheese. A brilliant cheese selection.
The desert, as the other courses, was delicious also. For those who would choose their meal from the A La Carte menu, the desert prices are low actually, good value.
I recommend a side portion of vegetables or some other side portion.
I had a really lovely visit and wonderful meal on this ocassion, and my family companions liked the place very much also.