Bootleggers

Cool interior with a wide selection of drinks. There is loads of different quirky booths and seating areas. Great for a 2 – 3 people or a large group. Also check out the popcorn machine. #Popcorn

Great wee hipster place. Quite alt in décor and menu.
Food was awesome. I had 3 tacos of my choosing which came in a soft shell which I prefer. Very flavoured and stuff filled. Also had Parful fried which where lush. Chips and sweet potatoes covered with garlic, bacon, cheese and sour cream.
Other people had burgers. Will defo be bck to sample the menu.
Lots of seating. We where seated as a group of 10 very quickly and the service was good.
Price is also decent.
Not a fan of their cocktails. They are not flavour blended as well as other places. The names and ingredients are tempting though.
Saturday night they have a DJ in. Good it’s music you can talk over.

Went here last night with some friends, it was really good! Great pulled pork burger with sweet potato fries. Nice place, although a little dark, found the menus hard to read. Atmosphere was really nice but when the musician came on my friends and I couldn’t talk or hear each other. If we had of been sitting somewhere else it wouldn’t of been so loud.

Popped in here of a Tuesday evening before the cinema & was craving chicken wings & a burger ( Unilocal off what are u doing to me!??) Any ways the place is cool haven’t been in since it was alley cat. the décor is laid back & spacious; however one of the staff members was pairing behind the wall behind the bar so there was a nasty paint smell (not the nice freshly painted smell but more a real ammonia type smell!).
The menu looked great I could have ordered it all! The three of us decided on; hot wings, poutine fries & 3 of the Brooklyn burger (comes with shin beef, Tabbaco onions & horseradish Mayo). Food came & only one burger. the waitress didn’t hear us saying THREE burgers lol. Really think orders should be read over (well I do now!).
So all burgers (didn’t really taste the horseradish Mayo), wings & fries were demolished. very very tasty!
Over all I would go back. hopefully the paint will have settled by then! — suppose score would be four the next time!

On Sunday afternoon I was so hungover and in need of a fixer (common occurrence). The only thing that would fix it was chicken wings and a Coke.
We were already in town doing a bit of shopping (not helping the hangover) and decided to give Bootleggers a go, have been to this place on manys an occasion in all its different guises, And have always had a decent enough meal, it was a favourite haunt of mine back in the day for a night on the tiles but it’s relaxed a bit and it finding its feet as a causal bar/​eatery.
It has a diner feel to it, with the boots and the décor, it was great to sit in a window seat and watch the world go by, all cosy and hungover.
The buffalo wings were ordered and were perfectly cooked, will certainly be back for them again but alas no Coke, only Pepsi, but I can forgive them for that. They had milkshakes too if you are particularly hungover.
My bf had a Mexican burger, and his plate was polished off so that’s a good sign he enjoyed it.
This is the perfect place to go before heading out for a night in Belfast, next time I go I’ll hopefully be in the mood to try their interesting cocktails!

I had dinner in bootleggers on Friday 13^th November and I was very happy with the overall experience, I ordered what was the probably the messiest two things on the menu the chilli dog and the soft shell tacos both were delicious, I also ordered a whiskey sour which was very nice and cheaper than I’ve gotten elsewhere, I also ordered a strawberry milkshake which was also very enjoyable and very liked the friendly vibe of the restaurant as well, as the staff were very friendly I will definitely be returning in the future

Not going to compare this to Alley Cat. I still feel it’s entirely unfair how they were put under blast by certain publications, even though they took adequate control of the circumstances that caused the previously extremely popular Belfast haunt to close. Joke is on them though, since Bootleggers is now jam-​packed pretty much every night.
In regards to the place itself, it’s alright. I mean it can be noisy, it’s a bit scrappy looking but nothing terrible. The staff seem to be stretched a bit thin due to how popular it is, but that was expected.
The food? Messy. I get it, tacos are meant to be messy. But really, charge a little bit less, put a little bit less inside them, nobody will forgive you for doing that if it means they don’t have to constantly keep an eye out on their clothing. Taste wise? Yeah, it was alright, nothing to write home about but it wasn’t terrible.
I think after another few months they’ll find their feet, but only if they keep trying to improve the food. The drinks are grand, but that isn’t going to carry a place like this so close to the city center anymore, especially since half of the location is an eating area. My main worry would be that they see their level of popularity currently (which is very high, for what it’s worth) and use that as an excuse to just stick to the same old.

Not to be confused with DJ’s or Remixes
We came here on a Friday night, looking for somewhere different. Friends had told us this place had a bit of a checkered past, but we want to give it a go.
The place was packed! This is always a good sign. We had to wait 10 mins or so for a table, but it was worth it.
The theme of this place screams American Diner as the menu is pretty much burgers /​wings and fries. There was live music on and a buzzing atmosphere — so immediately i’m a fan.
Some drawbacks — They don’t do «Starters» everything arrives at once. This is a little annoying as if you fancied some wings to share and a main, by the time you get to your main, its cold. Its not a deal breaker though, we will certainly be back.
Oh and the student discount was a added bonus. Give this place a try and forget the past — even the poorest businesses can thrive under new management and a renewed focus on H&S.

3x tacos are a must in my opinion, 3^rd time here now in 2 months. Great beer, service has always been very prompt. Tacos come out very quickly, I’m sure other items on the menu wouldn’t be far behind. Great atmosphere and surroundings. If you’re into American tap beers get down here.

Good choice of beers and the lunchtime specials for £5 how can you go wrong. I had the chilli bowl and it was very tasty and nice and hot. I’ll be back again.

Love the place and it has great quality food (but be warned, the chilli dog is amazing but very hot, I couldn’t taste after it haha). The cocktails are amazing (I adore the daisy duke cocktail). The service was slow when I was in for the first time but I’ve heard it’s normally very fast so I’m sure it was just an off day. Lovely décor too.

The Clonakilty Burger is a proper mash up of a burger containing a beef patty, crispy pork belly, black pudding, rocket, onion jam, apple cider sauce and crispy onions. The end result is glorious. For big spenders and big eaters add the Parful Fries.

First up, I love the new décor — classy yet rustic — I think that was the look they were going for. It has the feeling of a hidden prohibition alcohol den, the cat look had definitely outstayed it’s welcome and this refit suits the vibe perfectly.
In terms of the food I liked it but I didn’t love it — the chef explained to me that it’s still a work in progress with plenty of tweaking still to be done. This is music to my ears because I felt like the wings I had were one grain of salt, one herb or even an extra 1 minute away from being absolute perfection. One thing that was perfect was the chocolate and peanut butter milkshake — you’ve got to try it! But beware they are made with real peanuts and the straws are quite wide so before you know it you could have a peanut in the back of your throat. Word of warning!
All in all it is a great new place, with amazing new food — give it a visit before the queues start!

Having been a fan of alley cat in the past I was dubious about this ‘upgrade’ on the look and décor about bootleggers but I was pleasantly surprised at the laid back feel of the place and chilled staff.
I got a Pepsi and a burger. The burger came with battered pickles. I love batter but hate pickles so I had a tricky decision on my hands here. I went for it, biting down into the juicy BBQ style burger. I still don’t like pickles it turns out. Decent burger, skinny chips. Can’t fault it, just not amazing…

Excellent place with great beer and my favourite «gourmet burger». The Sierra Nevada is extremely tasty as well as the food. I’ll be back …

We were big fans of ‘Alley Cat’ so when we heard it had closed and re-​opened as ‘Bootleggers’ we couldn’t wait to give it a go. It looks pretty much the same inside and is quite quirky. However the first thing I noticed was that the menu is considerably smaller with not a lot of choice. We were fans of Alley Cat’s hot dogs but now Bootleggers doesn’t have any hot dogs on the menu at the moment. It is mainly burgers and tacos and a few other bits.
The food was okay but nothing amazing. I think it was a bit disappointing as I remember how good the menu and food were in Alley Cat.
However on a positive note, we did mention to the waitress that we missed the hot dogs on the menu and she did say that the menu currently on offer is only a trial menu and that they will be adding more to it and making changes, so it will be worth giving it another go in the future as there may be a lot more choice and the food will probably get tastier over time.
I will update my review if I get another visit someday and if things have changed!