Crown Bar Liquor Saloon

Beautiful bar. The tourists, not so much.
This place is allright when it’s not tourist season as it is much less croweded.
It’s a well noted location though facing belfasts pride and joy: Europe’s most bombed hotel!
On a less rude note the drinks are allright but the bartenders seem a little inexperianced and would likely rather serve you lager than a martini.

Went in on a Friday about 4.30 to get something to eat and a few drinks before going to Dublin. Service was pretty slow but they where busyish! What really annoyed me was when I asked to order food I was told I’d be quicker to go upstairs. I told him it was ok I’d be happy to wait. I was then told that they had already cleared the tables (although they weren’t when I went to the bar) and I would have to go upstairs.
Ridiculous attitude towards customers never mind the false advertising. Nice place that is let down by lazy staff

Decent bar, filled with history. Is it a bar I would go to on a Fri /​Saturday? No! It’s a tourist trap which isn’t a bad thing but does hurt your chances of a getting a seat. Waiting a train? Visit the Crown and binge a pint.

Stopped by while visiting Belfast for the day. Very cool bar to come and have a few pints, but food was only so-​so IMO. Totally would recommend having a pint for the experience.

This may be a tourist spot (but definitely not a trap), but I visit here once every time I’m in Belfast. I’d say it’s a «must see» for any tourists.
The bar service can be a little surly when they’re busy but on a Monday or Tuesday you shouldn’t have a problem getting served or a booth.
Dining room on the second floor serves credible pub grub — if they have room.

Beautiful bar. Great beer options. Nice bartenders.
This bar has an ambiance of its own in that it is fabulously ornate with cool booths that have doors for privacy. There is also a wonderful beer selection including many cask options.
We have already been back again. Great place to sit drink and talk to locals.

Very amazing interior– old school carved woodwork and stained glass. Awesome privacy booths with high surrounding walls were nice with our group. The beer selection wasn’t amazing, but I’m fairly confident there was more than just Whitewater beer on tap/​beer engine. Food was fish n’ chips style with some curries. Typical pub fare. At night, it was pretty packed so you’ll need a booth to sit down and eat. Very easy here to chat with the locals. 5-​star ambiance, 3-​star food and beer level.

Great bar for tourists. Grab a booth and a Guinness and enjoy the craic. Bit pricey for locals.

While on a student trip to Belfast, my friend group decided that we should visit the Crown before any other bar. Of course, we were amazed by the beautiful interior, but not the service. The bartender was very rude and condescending to our rather composed group of American students, and did not make the bar feel welcoming at all. Glad I checked it off the list, but I doubt I will go back on future trips.

My dad remembered this bar from trips to Belfast in the 1970s and we happened upon it just before midday. It was almost empty and looked utterly glorious with the sun streaming through the beautiful stained glass windows and every available surface covered with ornate woodwork, tiles or mirrors. On appearance alone, one of the most impressive pubs I’ve ever visited.
What we didn’t realise but became clear over the next hour or so was that this pub is now dominated by tourists, and a lot of them. Obviously this has a bit of an effect on the atmosphere, and I would suggest the Garrick if you want to try somewhere that combines beauty with local patronage. I wouldn’t miss a trip here just to see it though, especially if you can come at a quiet time.

You can’t go to Belfast and not have a drink in the Crown bar.
It’s a wonderful example of a bygone age of skilful masonry and carpentry. From the several wooden snugs you can sit in right down to the match striking plates at the side door, the whole place oozes history.
Now a National trust property, you can pick up a pint of good Guinness and a meal (for a half decent price). It is an ABSOLUTE MUST for any tourist. You’ll be hard pushed to find a more ornate bar in all of Ireland.

You just have to experience it. The Italian wood carpentry, the private little booths with stained glass, ornaments, privacy screens … where do I begin. It’s like having a boozer in a church (trust the Irish to merge those two!), but the best part is that you don’t just find tourists in here; locals drink here too! If you’re in Belfast and don’t stop here for a drink, you either don’t drink or didn’t know it exists…

I really wanted to love this place, as I’d been looking forward to going for a couple of weeks.
First impressions were good, the interior is beautiful! In fact it might well be the best pub interior I’ve ever seen.
I ordered a pint of Magners, and that’s where the problems started. It was a bit flat and tasted like the pipes hadn’t been cleaned regular. I remained optimistic and ordered a double crown burger.
I asked for my burger medium rare, but was told that wasn’t possible as the chef would not cook to individual taste. (Sorry, but after paying £13 for a burger, I think I’m entitled to have it cooked the way I want).
The burger appeared and I was so disappointed, the patties had been deep fried, which destroyed most of the texture and flavour. Any chef or cook with an ounce of passion wouldn’t have deep fried burger patties. The fries were disgusting and soggy, coleslaw and onion rings were lovely. Just a shame it was a very small amount. 2 little onion rings and a spoon of coleslaw.
Decided to order another Magners from the other side of the bar, this time it was perfect, and made me realise I should have said something about the first pint.
All in all, quite a cool place to visit, if you’re hungry on the other hand, forget it!
There are far better places for the money.

Ok, this was the only place off the NYT list that we made it to, but can you really find any fault in where we did make it? The Crown is a Victorian decorated pub downtown that is obviously a bit touristy, but very cool. According to locals, it’s all Australians who go there, but on a day with a rugby match, we found mostly locals. The couple who built it originally were a mixed religion couple so they compromised on it. The name pays homage to the Unionist husband while the crown mosaic outside that must be stepped on to enter pleased the republican wife.
They had one of the best beer menus of any pub we found in Belfast with the obligatory Guinness, but several local craft brews including Hilden as well. They do the famous Guinness double pour here which we learned was a marketing thing created back when taps were unreliable and bars would half fill a glass with uncarbonated stale beer and half fresh beer, but it’s true that the Guinness tastes better in Ireland.
The little semi-​private stalls here are great for groups and make for great carousing with friends. There are even bells you can ring for table service.

The Crown is a lovely bar and an architectural gem. It’s such a beautiful building with cosy cubicles, Victorian interior and stained glass windows — you literally feel like you’ve stepped back in time when you go into it. The staff are lovely and the booze good, yesterday I visited it with some friends and had a nice bottle of prosecco. It can be a very busy bar, filled with crowds of tourists. It’s a bar I often forget about but do enjoy visiting — it’s much more of a place to visit, see and sit in for an hour or two rather than a place I’d spend a full night in. Definitely worth a visit though.

This is a crowded bar, but despite that it’s such a good place to grab a pint. Here are a few things I liked:
— They have a good selection of beers, nothing special, but you will definitely find the most common ones here.
— The bar itself is insanely beautiful. Make sure you check out the ceiling and the windows while you’re sipping on your pint. The saloons are also pretty cozy to sit inside if you’re visiting as a group.
— They have a delicious list of bar snacks, but I didn’t get the chance to try them out, but going by the other reviews, I’m pretty sure you won’t be disappointed.
— The bar is situated pretty close to the Grand Opera House and if you’re going to or heading back from the show you really can’t ask for a better watering hole in the vicinity.

The bar itself is great … definitely stop in for a pint in the downstairs area, which has awesome classic Irish pub décor and good beer! But skip the food. This was one of the few places open when we got into town so we decided to grab dinner here. I got a veggie burger and BF got the boar burger. Mine was fine and so was his, but both kind of lacked flavor and were expensive for what they were. Also, service was pretty abysmal.

I find the Crown a strange old bar, although it’s steeped in history I feel it lacks character somewhat. This may partly be due to it being a tourist trap so it doesn’t possess a set of regulars propping up the bar cracking jokes like so many other Belfast bars. Even though I don’t have an attachment to the Crown I still take tourists and people who aren’t from Belfast here when I want to show off the city. Maybe it’s the grand décor and the unique styling of the place that draws me in? Or maybe it’s the fact that it sits opposite Great Victoria Street Station and the Europa Hotel?
Whether it’s because proximity or grandeur I feel this Belfast institution should remain on the ‘must visit’ list for anyone travelling to our city. You can still get a mean pint of Guinness and a smokey tipple of Jameson’s which can act as a prelude of what’s to come in Belfast.
My advice is to ease yourself in to Belfast gently by visiting the picture perfect Crown but if you really want to get a taste of Belfast delve a little deeper — you won’t be disappointed with what you find.

Crown is not off the beaten path, but if you miss it, you’ll never forgive yourself.
The interior is like a museum that has the best beer selection I saw in Belfast. Nice staff; great place to meet people.

This place is great! It doesn’t quite open at 11:30am as we found out when hoping to get in on a Saturday.
We went next door for a drink and returned about 30 minutes later. We were fortunate to grab a high table at the bar but sadly no snugs were free.
Table service doesn’t happen at the high tops so we had to order at the bar. It took several minutes to be acknowledged.
The food was worth it though. We ordered the raw beef sandwich with a side of Mac n cheese. They ended up giving us the full order of Mac n cheese. That was a nice treat as the dish was creamy and perfectly salty. I think whatever cheese they use as the melted topping is amazing.
The sandwich was just ok. The horseradish mayonnaise wasn’t flavorful. The fries also just ok.
Would definitely return at the very least for drinks. The bar itself is gorgeous and has quite the history!