Navigating Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter

Eat, Drink, Stay and Explore

Cathedral Quarter, Belfast

“Basil” said the barista as he set down the two pour-overs we had ordered in Established, in Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter.

The V60s held Nestor Lasso’s Sidra, from Colombia, farmed by Nestor Lasso and his brother, Adrian. The Lasso brothers have been winning quite a name for themselves since taking over the family farm, and tasting notes on the Sidra tend to emphasise caramelised apple and pistachio notes. 

But basil? In a cup of coffee?

Yet, there it was: warm, welcoming Ligurian basil, wafting sweet scented molecules through the air in an almost miraculous act of transformation.The taste of the Mediterranean, grown at 1,800 metres in Colombia. Wow!

This is why you go to Established: you get what you don’t expect. For more than a decade now, Mark and Bridgeen have helmed the busiest spot in the Quarter, maintaining standards at stellar levels whilst seeing members of their team go on to open their own exceptional destinations.

During that decade, the Cathedral Quarter has developed quickly, spawning new businesses, many of which are large pubs. The sheer number of pubs has already provoked Willy Jack, the owner of two of the best-known watering holes, The Duke of York and The Harp Bar, to close his bars earlier – at midnight, rather than keep serving booze until 3am. Mr Jack’s fear is that the raft of mega-pubs will turn the Quarter into “another Temple Bar.”

Whether Mr Jack’s fear will come to pass remains to be seen, but for now, the Cathedral Quarter is the perfect place to relish a couple of days eating and drinking well. Whilst we mention a couple of don’t-miss destinations just on the edge of the Quarter, it’s a marvellously congruent maze of alleys and cobbled streets that invites you to explore it slowly on foot.