Where to drink Guinness in Dublin: beyond the Storehouse
Dublin: Guinness Storehouse entry ticket + perfect pint pub tour
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Where is the best Guinness in Dublin?
Mulligan's on Poolbeg Street and Kehoe's on South Anne Street are cited most often by locals and by Guinness itself in internal rankings. The Long Hall and Doheny & Nesbitt are close behind. Avoid Temple Bar pubs — the beer is the same but you pay €2–3 more per pint for the location.
Everyone who visits Dublin drinks a Guinness at the Storehouse — fewer make the short walk to where locals actually go for the pint that matters. This guide names the specific pubs, explains why the pour differs from bar to bar, and gives you a route that covers the best of them without wasting a day of your trip.
| Top picks | Mulligan’s (Poolbeg St), Kehoe’s (South Anne St) |
| Price | around €6.50–7.50 per pint, €1–2 more in Temple Bar |
| Best time | before 18:00 for a seat at Kehoe’s; any time at Mulligan’s |
| Getting there | all within a 15-minute walk of Trinity College, except The Gravediggers (bus/Luas to Glasnevin) |
| Pair with | the Guinness Storehouse earlier in the day |
What makes a good pint of Guinness
There is a standard Dubliner position on this: the pint of Guinness you drink at the Guinness Storehouse’s Gravity Bar, while the view is genuinely spectacular, is not the best pint in Dublin. The best pint is in a quiet local pub where the bar staff know how to pour it and the barrel moves quickly enough that the beer is always fresh.
Guinness is more sensitive to storage and serve than most beers. The nitrogen-carbon dioxide mix, the temperature of the lines and glass, the length of the pour, the rest, and the top-up all affect what ends up in your glass. A pub that moves a lot of Guinness will have fresh lines and experienced staff; a pub that turns over two barrels a week will not. This is why the locals’ favourites are also the places with the best pints.
The Guinness Storehouse ticket and perfect pint pub tour combines the official Storehouse experience with a guided tour of three or four local pubs and a proper tutored comparison. It is genuinely educational about what you’re drinking and why one pint tastes different from another.
How to read a pub before you order
You do not need to be an expert to spot a good pint before you pay for it. Watch the bar for a minute. If staff pour a pint, let it settle properly, and only then top it up, they are doing the job the way it is meant to be done. If the pub is quiet and nobody around you is drinking Guinness, that is a hint the lines may not be moving much. A steady stream of pints leaving the bar is the best sign you can find.
Look at the glass in the finished pint, too. A creamy, tight head and a dark body that clears from the bottom up are what you want. If you are curious how Guinness compares with other stouts, Guinness versus other stout goes through the differences, and the blog post on a first pint of Guinness at the Storehouse is a good account of what a first-time drinker notices.
Do not be shy about asking the person behind the bar. Most Dublin bar staff are happy to tell you what is popular, and a visitor who says they want a proper pint usually gets a bit of extra care.
The pubs most often cited for the best pint
Mulligan’s — Poolbeg Street
Mulligan’s is the answer you will most consistently receive if you ask any Dubliner over forty where the best Guinness is poured. The bar staff are fast and professional, the cellar management is taken seriously, and the pub’s commitment to not being a tourist venue (no food, no loud music, functional décor) seems connected to the quality of its primary product. Established 1782; on Poolbeg Street between D’Olier Street and the quay.
Kehoe’s — South Anne Street
Frequently cited alongside Mulligan’s. A Victorian pub on a side street off Grafton Street, with intact snugs and a clientele that mixes locals, Trinity students, and visitors who have been advised well. The Guinness here is consistently excellent; the pub is busy enough to keep lines fresh. Get here before 18:00 on a Friday or you won’t get a seat.
The Long Hall — South Great George’s Street
The most visually impressive pub interior in Dublin also pours a very good pint. The Long Hall’s Guinness is consistently above average, and the bar staff are experienced. The combination of beautiful surroundings and excellent beer makes this the obvious choice for a first pint in the city.
Doheny & Nesbitt — Lower Baggot Street
A different neighbourhood — Georgian Dublin’s pub heartland on Baggot Street — and another pub known for its pint. The clientele is older and more professional than the previous suggestions; the atmosphere is quieter. Good for an afternoon pint rather than a crowded evening.
John Kavanagh’s “The Gravediggers” — Glasnevin
The most atmospheric option, requiring a bus journey north to Glasnevin beside the cemetery. Worth the effort: the pub has barely changed since 1833, the Guinness is poured properly, and the combination of history and quality is unmatched. Combine with a morning at Glasnevin Cemetery.
Choosing between them
If this is your first evening in the city, start with whichever pub is closest to where you are staying; the Dublin first-time guide will help you decide which part of town suits you, and where to stay in Dublin explains how far each neighbourhood is from these pubs. The area around Trinity College and Grafton Street puts Kehoe’s and Mulligan’s within an easy stroll of each other. Travelling alone? These pubs are some of the friendliest places to sit at the bar with a pint, as Dublin solo travel explains.
The Guinness Storehouse question
The Gravity Bar pint is included with every Guinness Storehouse ticket, and it is a genuinely pleasant experience — cold stout, 360-degree view of Dublin. The question of whether it is the best pint in the city is answered by most Dubliners with a gentle no, for the reasons above (tourist-level turnover, altitude affects pour, the spectacle is part of the product).
That said, the Storehouse is worth visiting for the experience and the history. The question is just about where to go for the optimal pint, and the answer is one of the local pubs above.
If you want to understand the technical side — how the two-part pour works, why the glass matters, what nitrogen does to the texture — the Storehouse’s Guinness Academy (included with standard tickets or as an upgrade) is the best available explanation. For the drinking, go local afterwards.
What actually makes the pour different
The classic two-part pour is not theatre. Guinness is a nitrogen-conditioned beer, and the surge-and-settle process — filling the glass to three-quarters, waiting for the cascade to settle, then topping up — is genuinely necessary to achieve the correct texture and head. The standard pour takes about 119.5 seconds according to Guinness’s own specifications.
Temperature matters: the beer should be served at 6–7°C. A glass that is too warm gives a flat, bitter pint. The glass should be either a properly rinsed clean glass or a dedicated Guinness glass — a damp or soapy glass kills the head. A pub that takes its Guinness seriously rinses glasses in clean cold water between pours.
Pub manners that make the pint better
Ordering at the bar is the norm; nobody will bring a drink to your table unless the pub says so. Wait your turn, catch the eye of the bartender, and do not wave money. If you are in a group, buying in rounds is the custom, so the person who orders first usually gets the next one from someone else. A Guinness takes time to pour, so order it first and add other drinks afterwards.
In pubs with live music, keep your voice down while the musicians play. The etiquette is covered in trad session etiquette, and the traditional Irish music in Dublin guide lists what to expect from an evening session.
Building a pint into your day
Most of the pubs above work best as a pause in a day of sightseeing rather than a destination on their own. A morning in the Liberties around the brewery and a pint nearby is one natural pairing; the Guinness Storehouse: is it worth it guide helps you decide how much of your day the visit should take. A self-guided Dublin walk can easily route you past two or three of these doors, and getting around Dublin explains how to reach The Gravediggers without a car.
If whiskey interests you as much as stout, the Dublin whiskey trail is a good companion to an evening of pints. Watching your budget? Dublin on a budget shows where a pint fits in a sensible daily spend.
Weather, seasons and busy nights
Dublin rain is a good reason to be in a pub, and rainy day Dublin has more ideas for filling a wet afternoon around a pint. In winter, a snug and a pint are a fine way to spend the short days; Dublin in winter sets out what else is on. Around 17 March the pubs fill quickly and the usual advice about arriving early matters even more — see St Patrick’s Day in Dublin before you plan a pint that week, and the best time to visit Dublin if you are still choosing dates.
Whatever the season, remember that the best pub is often the one with space at the bar when you walk in.
Matching the pint to your visit
If you’re in the city for three days, here is a practical approach: Mulligan’s on the first evening (near the centre, easy to find), The Long Hall on the second afternoon (in the south city centre, good for Georgian Dublin walking), and The Gravediggers after Glasnevin Cemetery on the third morning. That covers the three most highly regarded pints in the city and three significantly different atmospheres.
For the full picture on Dublin’s pubs and where locals drink, best pubs in Dublin is the guide to read alongside this one. For a structured pint-and-tour combination, the pub tour with Guinness, whiskey and music is a popular guided option that lets someone else worry about which pub to walk into.
To build this into a full Dublin 3-day itinerary, the pubs above are all within reach of the city’s main attractions.
How the five pubs compare
| Pub | Neighbourhood | Best for | Price (approx.) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mulligan’s | South city, near Poolbeg St | No-nonsense pint, purists | around €6.80 |
| Kehoe’s | Off Grafton Street | Victorian snugs, a livelier crowd | around €7.20 |
| The Long Hall | South Great George’s St | First-timers, best interior | around €7.20 |
| Doheny & Nesbitt | Georgian Dublin, Baggot St | A quiet afternoon pint | around €7.00 |
| The Gravediggers | Glasnevin | Atmosphere, history, worth the trip | around €6.50 |
None of these require booking — walk in, and if it’s full, the next one on the list is rarely far away. For a wider view of the city’s pub scene beyond Guinness alone, see the Dublin pub crawl guide and traditional music pubs, since several of the pints above double as good trad-session venues.
Beyond the pint: a pub crawl option
If comparing pints solo sounds like more research than you want to do, the Irish beer tour with Guinness tickets takes in several of the venues above with a guide who knows the pour and the history. It also pairs well with the literary pubs of Dublin if you want to add a literary angle to the crawl, or with a stop in Temple Bar afterwards for the livelier late-night scene — just expect to pay the Temple Bar premium if you stay there.
Budgeting for an evening of pints is one of the bigger variables in a Dublin trip cost — three or four pints across an evening at the pubs above runs to roughly €25–30 per person before food.
A note on tourist-trap pubs
Not every pub with Guinness on the sign is worth your time. Places that rely on foot traffic rather than regulars have less reason to care about the pour. The Dublin tourist traps guide and the honest guide to Temple Bar explain how to tell the difference, and they will help you enjoy the area without paying more than you need to.
Frequently asked questions about Where to drink Guinness in Dublin
Is Guinness more expensive in Temple Bar than elsewhere? Yes, typically €1–2 more per pint than the pubs listed above, for an identical product. The location premium is the only difference.
Do I need to book a table at these pubs? No — none take reservations for casual pints. Kehoe’s and Mulligan’s get busy in the early evening, so arrive before 18:00 on weekdays or expect to stand.
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