Situated on Botanic Avenue, Madison’s Hotel is in a great location for those wanting to stay in Belfast without being right in the noisy city centre. Within walking distance to the centre itself, The Grand Opera House, Victoria Square, countless bars and nightclubs and the QFT you definitely won’t be short of something to keep you occupied.
Overall, the hotel is really nice, a little tired looking in places (especially the lifts), but for the price you pay, you’re getting a real bargain (prices start from about £30 per person). Have a look at the list of prices and offers here – also keep an eye on Groupon from some great deals. With a nightclub, restaurant and bar on site, Madison’s offers some fantastic deals and packages on their website too. The rooms are quite modern, surprisingly ‘roomy’ and have tea and coffee facilities. The only gripe we had is that the walls are pretty thin, so voices from the hall can be heard quite loudly.
The bar downstairs has a happy hour on cocktails between 5pm and 8pm, Sunday to Friday which makes the bar extremely busy and you will have to wait for a bit to get served, but with £3 cocktails, you can’t really complain! The restaurant is right beside the bar too, which takes away from the atmosphere a little bit, but the food is delicious. Have a look at the a la carte menu here. I sampled the caesar salad to start, which was simple and really nice; big cos lettuce leaves, crispy bacon, croutons and parmesan. My girlfriend had the confit duck spring rolls which were nice and crispy and equally as delicious. For mains, I had the beef burger, which was a little dense, but tasted nice and was served on a Yellow Door ciabatta roll and came with crispy bacon, caramelised onions and cheddar cheese. It was a modern take on a classic burger and I would definitely get it again, plus it came with twice cooked chips which are always a winner! My girlfriend had the sirloin steak which was cooked just right and came with tobacco onions and pepper sauce. It was good too, but maybe not worth £18.95… For dessert, the raspberry and vanilla cheesecake and the chocolate brownie were winners too, yet the brownie was more of a chocolate cake than a brownie, but it was nice all the same.
Breakfast is also always included with your room when you stay at Madisons, alongside wifi access and a complimentary newspaper. Although, when we stayed, we couldn’t access the wifi as it was out of range. The breakfast menu featured a choice of a fry, a bacon and cream cheese bagel, eggs cooked to order and much more, alongside a buffet of cereals and continental choices. It was a nice surprise having breakfast served to your table, rather than a serve yourself buffet even though it was included in the price of the room. Check out the breakfast menu here.
Overall, Madison’s is a great hotel; it’s great value for money and they always have deals on, the food and drinks are delicious and the whole experience was really relaxing and welcoming. Whether you’re a tourist from afar, or you just want to see a different side of Belfast, then it’s definitely worth a try. The only other problem we had was parking, as we really didn’t know where to park, there are spots outside the front doors which you can park in from 6pm – 8am, but aside from that it’s no return within 1 hour. However, that’s the only real downside and it’s definitely an option to park in one of the carparks in the city centre and walk over.
