The best Dublin pubs that have not been ruined by tourists

Look. Every Dublin pub list written in 2026 is going to start with a complaint about tourists, so here is mine, brief: pints are dearer, the songs being requested are worse, and there are too many bachelor parties wearing matching t-shirts on a Wednesday afternoon. We move on.

What is left is still, somehow, the best pub culture in Europe. You just have to know which doors to walk through. This is the list. I have been drinking in most of these for over a decade and I will fight in the snug if you disagree.

How I am ranking

Three things, in order: the pint, the room, the regulars.

The pint because if your Guinness is not right, nothing else matters. There is a real pour, and a not-real pour, and you can tell within ninety seconds.

The room because Dublin pubs at their best are not interchangeable. Each of these has a soul, and that soul comes from the wood, the bar, the back-room, the snug.

The regulars because a pub without regulars is a tourist trap with better lighting. Every place on this list still has people who walk in at 17:30, sit on the same stool, and order without asking.

1. Grogan's

The cathedral. South William Street, all day from opening, paintings on the walls, and a pint that is poured properly because the people doing it have been doing it for years. The toastie is the famous one — ham, cheese, white bread, mustard if you ask — but the regulars are the real reason. You will end up sitting next to a poet, an architect, a retired civil servant, and a woman who knows everyone, and you will not have arranged any of it.

If you only get one pint in Dublin in 2026, get it here. Definately.

2. the Long Hall

The best-looking pub in the city and the staff act like it is normal. Victorian, mahogany, mirrors, the bar runs the length of the room and the people behind it know what they are doing. A pint here before dinner is one of life's small joys.

It does get touristy after 21:00 on the weekends. That is fine. Go on a Tuesday at 18:30 instead and the place is yours.

3. Doheny & Nesbitt

The pub Dublin pretends to be in the tourism ads, except after 22:00 on a Thursday it actually is that pub. Politicians, civil servants, lobbyists pretending not to be lobbyists, and a few regulars who have outlasted everyone. The pints are right, the snug at the back is one of the best in the city, and the conversation is sharper than it has any business being on a weekday.

4. the Stag's Head

The Stag's is touristy at the front, no point pretending otherwise. The Victorian interior is on every "old Dublin pub" list ever written and the photos are not lying. But the back room is a different pub — late doors, regulars in the corner, and the Tuesday quiz is one of the best free events in Dublin.

Two rooms, two pubs, get past the front and you are grand.

5. Mulligan's

The journalists' pub. The writers' pub. Some lads will tell you it has the best Guinness in Dublin and they may even be right — Mulligan's is one of about four places in the city where the pour is so consistent that you would notice if it slipped. The room is dark, the wood is the wood, and the regulars include a few people whose bylines you would recognise.

If Joyce had drunk here once, the entire pub would have been turned into a museum. He did not, so it is still a pub. Recieved blessing.

6. Walsh's, Stoneybatter

The detour. Out in Stoneybatter, a 15-minute bus ride from town, and entirely worth it. Locals' pub. No music, no TV, no tourists, no menu. The snug at the back has been the same snug since long before any of us. The pint is right, the talk is right, and you will be the only people there with phones out unless you put them away, which you should.

The most "actual Dublin pub in 2026" pub on the list, and exactly because it is the hardest to find by accident.

What I am leaving off

The Brazen Head — old, beautiful, ruined. Temple Bar pubs as a category — all of them, all gone, do not write to me. The Cobblestone — sacred, but it is a session pub not a "go for a pint" pub, and that is a different list. McSorley's — fine but it is a Ranelagh local, not a city-centre answer. Kehoe's — was on the list two years ago and would still make it most weeks, just outside the top six this time round.

How to actually do this

If you have one night, do Grogan's then the Long Hall, finish at Doheny & Nesbitt. That is the south-side spine.

If you have two nights, add Mulligan's and the Stag's quiz on a Tuesday.

If you have a week and want to do this properly, take an afternoon and get the bus out to Walsh's, sit in the snug for two hours, and have one of the most peaceful pints of your year.

I will be in Grogan's most weeks at some point on Saturday afternoon. Say hi if you see me — I will be the one looking faintly judgemental of someone else's t-shirt.

If you want to know what else is on in Dublin this week, the Dublin this-week page has gigs, comedy, and the rest of the calendar in one place.