50 Best Bars in Dublin, Ireland

Dublin's first superpub received a €4 million face-lift just before the pandemic with three floors of opulent Art Nouveau style à la grand Parisian brasserie, an extensive food menu, and a spectacular enclosed garden terrace with a retractable glass roof. This is one of Dublin's more elegant places to socialize.

A glorious house of ale in the best Dublin tradition, the Cobblestone is popular with Smithfield Market workers. Its chatty imbibers and high-quality, nightly, live traditional music are attracting a more varied, younger crowd from all over town.

Somehow you always get a seat in this tiny sliver of a pub—a warm, old-school boozer at its best—tucked away on a corner near St. Patrick's Cathedral. Pure Dublin class.

Also known as the Castle Lounge, Grogan's is a small place packed with creative folk. The old owner was known as a patron of local artists, and his walls are still covered with their work. There's no music or TV, so you can have a proper chat with your pint and toastie.

The who's who of city society have always been drawn to the elegance of this glorious Dublin institution at the Shelbourne hotel. There's comparatively little space for drinkers around the famous semicircular bar—but this does wonders for making friends quickly.

Old meets new in this award-winning, cozy spot adjacent to the Drury Court hotel. The dark-wood and bar-mirror interior is classic Dublin, but the craft beer selection and chilled-out, board-gaming atmosphere has a more millennial vibe. 

Established in 1823, and scarcely changed since the 1940s, the wonderful Palace Bar is still all tiles and brass. Popular with journalists and writers (the Irish Times used to be nearby), the walls are lined with cartoons drawn by newspaper illustrators.

A Victorian beaut, the Stag's Head dates from 1770 and was rebuilt in 1895. Theater people from the nearby Olympia and Trinity students gather around the unusual Connemara red-marble bar, study their reflections in the many mirrors, and drink in all the oak carvings. They host live music and comedy downstairs most nights.

Ireland has gone through a craft-beer revolution and this busy spot is the place to sample a huge variety of them. The classy red pool table and selection of board games are perfect for a rainy afternoon. 

A clever and cool addition to the Dublin nightlife scene, an evening at Anti Social can mean some serious dancing to live DJs, or a laid-back gaming session on the old-school arcade machines. 

Reputedly Dublin's oldest pub (the site has been licensed since 1198), the Brazen Head doesn't have much of a time-burnished decor, with one big exception: an enchanting stone courtyard that is intimate, charming, and delightful. The front is a faux one-story castle, complete with flambeaux, while the interior looks modern-day (except for the very low ceilings). People love to jam the place not for its history but for its traditional-music performances and lively sing-along sessions on Sunday evening. On the south side of the Liffey quays, it's a little difficult to find—turn down Lower Bridge Street and make a right onto the old lane.

A happening music venue, the Button mixes top DJs and up-and-coming live acts. The place tends to be on the cutting edge of the Irish dance-music scene.

Once a quality neighborhood pub with a tasty pint of stout, Cassidy's has morphed into an often overcrowded but very popular spot with a young clientele.

An 18th-century wine vault with bare brick walls and vaulted ceilings, this spot at the superstylish Merrion Hotel tends to draw a well-heeled crowd.

A noted pilgrimage stop for Joyceans, Davy Byrnes is where Leopold Bloom stops in for a glass of Burgundy and a Gorgonzola-cheese sandwich in Ulysses (and ruminates before helping a blind man cross the road). The decor—with leather seats and dramatic art on the walls—is more decadent than in Joyce's day ("He entered Davy Byrnes. Moral pub."), but it still serves some fine pub grub.

A traditional spot with snugs, dark wooden furnishings, and smoke-darkened ceilings, Doheny & Nesbitt has hardly changed over the decades.

A cozy pub, Doyle's is a favorite with journalists from the Irish Times and Trinity students.

In its tiny but buzzing upstairs room, the Ha'penny Bridge regularly hosts blues and jazz nights and has good comedy on Thursday.

A huge space on two levels, Hogan's gets jammed most nights with a cool, college crowd. But in the afternoons it's a quieter spot and perfect for people-watching out the large windows.

Popular with Trinity students and local hipsters, Kehoe's has a tiny back room that is nice and cozy, while the upstairs is basically the owner's old living room, open to the public.

A landmark that once attracted boisterous Brendan Behan and other leading writers in the 1950s, McDaid's wild literary reputation still lingers, although the bar has been discreetly modernized and is altogether quieter.

Synonymous in Dublin with a truly perfect pint of Guinness, Mulligan's started life as a shebeen (unlicensed drinking venue) and then, pub lore tells us, was listed as "legal" in 1782. Today, locals and students flock here for a good pint.

With an exotic, Victorian-style interior, Neary's was once the haunt of music-hall artists and a certain literary set, including Brendan Behan. Join the actors from the adjacent Gaiety Theatre for a good pub lunch.

A cheerful, tourist-friendly hangout, O'Donoghue's has impromptu musical performances that often spill out onto the street.

A lively bar that attracts all ages and nationalities, the Oliver St. John Gogarty overflows with patrons in summer. On most nights there's traditional Irish music upstairs.

Originally fronted by the infamous Dublin drag queen Panti and a cultural hot spot for the local LGBT community, this amusingly named gay bar has loud music at night but is pretty chilled-out during the day.

The epitome of the cozy little boozer, Peter's Pub hugs a busy corner where people-watching becomes an art at the outside tables in summer.

This latest incarnation of the bar at the Morrison Hotel is an überhip cocktail joint that is trying (perhaps a little too hard) to attract the cool crowd. Still, the bar staff are inventive with their cocktails, and aficionados of Irish whiskeys will be thrilled with the selection.

Famous for its collection of whiskeys from around the world, the 51 is also a quality sports bar with a beer garden that is always buzzing with activity in fine weather.