Ask anyone about food in Belfast, and it won’t take long for Michelin-starred OX to drop into the conversation. Unstuffy and unpretentious, this riverside restaurant achieves its reputation from fine, European dishes, made entirely from local, seasonal produce.

Perpetually popular, book early if you want a taste of Shu’s fantastic French-influenced food. Housed in a handsome Victorian terrace along Lisburn Road, this award-winning bistro cooks fresh, seasonal ingredients in a theatre-style kitchen. Order the salt and chilli squid, and you’ll return again and again.

The stunning Great Room Restaurant, once the banking hall of the Ulster Bank (built 1860), is now the centrepiece of the 5-star Merchant Hotel. Only its wonderful fine dining surpasses its intricate Victorian interior with premium local produce sourced and served in traditional Irish, British and French dishes.

For great value, hook a seat at Michael Deanes Love Fish. Bright and airy, this casual dining spot has nautical touches like lobster nets and potholes mirrors and offers a very affordable lunch menu. The seafood chowder and Guinness wheaten is wonderful as is the simple but rollmop herrings on toast.

Chalking up the providence of its meat on blackboards, Made In Belfast (as the name suggests) takes considerable care in sourcing local ingredients, though its thrown together furniture – junk shop chairs, chunky tables, cubist tiles – gives an impression of fashionable indifference. The flat-iron steaks and ginger beer-battered cod are great but don’t leave without trying an earl grey mojito.

This stylish but simple restaurant offers the freshest local mussels, oysters and seafood classics as well as more creative concoctions, all at very reasonable prices.

As well-lit as its name proposes, bustling Brights is where locals chomp down on hearty Irish meals like Ulster fry and cider-poached gammon with champ (spring onion mash potato). It also does the best belly-filling Irish stew in the city, which comes mounded high in a bowl with soft wheaten bread. Arrive early to avoid the lunchtime rush.

Pub food is a staple of the Belfast restaurant scene. This classic Belfast inn (a 200-year-old coaching house) serves the best pub food in the city. It is famous for its steaks, homemade pies, and liver pate.

This former bank now looks like an artist’s warehouse: the industrial girder over head is bright yellow with lights hanging from exposed wiring. Ideal for breakfast, it does an excellent eggs Benedict and filter coffees with daily papers available too. For something wholesome, try the porridge with rum and cacao cream.