Bar entertainment in Dublin
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Café en Seine
A tidy jazz band for Sunday brunch and some Big Band Swing on Monday nights fill out the musical menu at one of Dublin’s biggest and most wildly extravagant bars. The Belle Epoque décor make it easy to imagine that you’re actually at one of F Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald’s decadent parties.
reviewed
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Auld Dubliner
Predominantly patronised by tourists, ‘the Auld Foreigner’, as locals have dubbed it, has a carefully manicured ‘old-world’ charm that has been preserved – or refined – after a couple of renovations. It’s a reliable place for a singsong and a laugh, as long as you don’t mind taking 15 minutes to get to and from the jax (toilet).
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Market Bar
This fashionable watering hole is run by the same guys as the Globe around the corner. Little would you know this beautiful, airy Victorian space was a sausage factory in a former life.
reviewed
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Ice Bar
Not to be confused with the Dice Bar in a taxi – practise your elocution because the bars are worlds apart in every sense. Young, single 20-somethings with infinite disposable incomes come here to see and be seen, making this either the most sought-after destination in town or somewhere to avoid like a bad dose of plague. Flash your convertible-beemer car keys at the door for speedy access. The all-white chichi interior with central chrome and marble bar is softened by some lovely, specially commissioned wall hangings by Irish artists. Vodka-based cocktails are the house speciality.
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Kiely’s
Fans of satirist Paul Howard’s lovable D4 monster Ross O’Carroll Kelly will instantly recognise the favourite hangout of the rugby-loving southsider, where the fortunes of Drico, Shaggy and the Darce are discussed in earnest by hardbodies wrapped in Leinster jerseys…and that’s just the girls. If you’re going to the next-door Donnybrook Rugby Ground, this is the perfect pre- and post-match place to be.
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Morrison Bar
This is the north side’s version of the Octagon Bar, only far more difficult to get into if you don’t look the part. If you haven’t spent a fortune on your outfit (or managed to fake it), forget it. You wouldn’t have enjoyed the luxurious John Rocha–designed dark-oak and cream interior, the views over the Liffey, the suave and sophisticated clientele. Nah, you didn’t miss much.
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Odeon
This former train station is light, airy, and jam-packed with Art Deco elegance and Red Bull–loaded punters getting ready for a gig next door at Tripod. The comfy sofas are too scarce but this is the kind of place to be parading or standing along its impossibly long bar rather than sitting down anyway. Sunday afternoons are all about indulgence and taking it nice and easy with Bloody Marys, the newspapers and comfort foods.
reviewed
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Globe
Dublin’s original and best cafe-bar is a mecca for hip young locals and clued-in visitors. With its wooden floors and brick walls, it’s as much a daytime haunt for a good latte as a watering hole by night. Eclectic music, Sunday-afternoon jazz and friendly staff help the place thrive. It has recently changed hands, but the new owners will hardly try to fix what ain’t broke.
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Temple Bar
The most photographed pub façade in Dublin, perhaps the world, the Temple Bar (aka Flannery’s) is smack bang in the middle of the tourist precinct and is usually choc-a-bloc with visitors. It’s good craic though, and presses all the right buttons, with traditional musicians, a buzzy atmosphere and even a beer garden. It’s also one of the most expensive pubs in Dublin.
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Bailey
Perpetually popular with self-appointed shakers and movers – and a few frustrated office workers looking to shake and move – the Bailey has wall-mounted light boxes and comfortable seating, perfect for an evening schmooze. Outside gas braziers allow you to sit on the pavement and observe the street life by day. It also does a mean trade in continental lunches.
reviewed
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Davy Byrne’s
The place where Leopold Bloom popped in for a Gorgonzola sandwich and a glass of burgundy. Davy Byrne’s makes the most of its Joycean connection, but the contemporary version bears about as much resemblance to the boozer mentioned in Ulysses as it does a hole in the wall. It is popular with out-of-towners and gets especially packed on rugby weekends.
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White Horse Inn
This excellent quayside bar has been reinvented in recent times as a cool spot for the clubby crowd, thanks largely to the A:M Club, an early morning party that starts at 7am every Saturday for those who don’t want to say goodnight just yet. At more sociable hours, the bar dances to a soulful, jazzy soundtrack Thursday to Saturday night.
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Turk’s Head
This superpub is decorated in two completely different styles – one really gaudy, the other a re-creation of LA circa 1930 – and is one of the oddest and most interesting in Temple Bar. It pulsates nightly with a young pumped-up crowd of mainly tourists, out to boogie to chart hits. Be mindful of hidden steps all over the place.
reviewed
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Dice Bar
Co-owned by singer Huey from the band Fun Lovin' Criminals, the Dice Bar looks like something you'd find on New York's Lower East Side. Its black-and-red-painted interior, dripping candles and distressed seating, combined with rocking DJs most nights, make this place a magnet for Dublin's beatnik crowds.
reviewed
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Carnival
A party atmosphere and a candle-lit, down-at-heel room with lots of cosy corners makes Dermot Doran’s latest bar venture, Carnival, a great place to meet people. Don’t expect to chat though – the music from those DJs playing everything from Magic Numbers to Kraftwerk (Thursday to Sunday) will drown out those witticisms.
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Pravda
As un-Irish as you could probably get, this huge, multilevel Russian-themed bar was all the rage when it opened a few years ago. It has got a party atmosphere and is a great pick-up joint for young tourists, but you can forget about conversation at night (because the music is so loud) and the bouncers seem especially dim-witted.
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Bank
This architecturally dazzling bar occupies the site of a former Victorian bank and has opulent decoration, including a stained-glass ceiling, hand-carved plasterwork and mosaic-tiled floors to occupy your eyes while you wait for your pint of Guinness to settle. The atmosphere is conversational, and the bar staff are excellent.
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George
You can’t miss the bright-purple George, Dublin’s best-known gay bar, which has a reputation for becoming ever-more wild and wacky as the night progresses. At 6.30pm on Sunday it is packed for an enormously popular bingo night, while Thursday night is the Missing Link game show hosted by Annie Balls.
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Bar With No Name
A low-key entrance just next to L’Gueuleton leads upstairs to one of the nicest bar spaces in town – three huge rooms in a restored Victorian townhouse plus a sizeable heated patio area for smokers. There’s no sign or name – folks just refer to it as the bar with no name or, if you’re a real insider, Number 3.
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Thomas Read’s
The clientele at this spacious and airy bar, spread across two levels, seems to favour a selection of wine and coffee over beer. During the day, it’s a great place to relax and read a newspaper. For a more traditional setting its annexe, the Oak, is still a great place for a pint.
reviewed
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Solas
Wexford and Camden Sts have become the golden mile of the Dublin indie scene, with dark and loungey Solas playing a prominent role. Late opening, nightly DJs, a funky rooftop beer garden and its proximity to Whelans and the Village all add to its vibe. Oh, and of course the loos that flush rain water.
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Banker’s
A Friday-night improv club takes place in the basement of this bar near Trinity College. It has yet to establish itself as a success, but it’s a good spot to watch wet-behind-the-ears wannabe comics go through their (often terrified) paces. And who said Schadenfreude wasn’t fun?
reviewed
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Dakota
Surprisingly chilled out for a superpub, Dakota is distinguished by dimmed lights, funky tunes, crafty cocktails and a slick modern layout. Unfortunately, we found the weekend bouncers to be goons, the beer patchy and the bar staff so frosty that if you stuck your tongue out at them it might stick.
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Ba Mizu
Tucked away beside the grand entrance to Powerscourt Townhouse is one of the showiest feathers in South William St’s well-plumed cap o’ cool. Head downstairs to an intimate lobby dominated by a central square bar and surrounded by cosy nooks, perfect for ice breaking on first dates.
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Shakespeare
This marvellous bar is a great example of the meeting of two very different worlds, in this case a traditional old Dublin bar and the Korean love of all things karaoke and contemporary. We can’t think of a more successful and enjoyable example of Dublin’s new multicultural identity.
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