Irish pubs are, broadly speaking, welcoming to all ages during the day and early evening – or, at least, they are more often than not, compared to pubs and pub-adjacent spaces in the UK or US (the never-ending ‘kids in taprooms’ debate there notwithstanding). Dublin has a wealth of pubs that are especially good at catering to families, whether it’s for a meal or just a relaxing pint for the adults and a Coke or Club Orange for the kids.
But it can be a bit confusing for the tourist; many especially family-welcoming spots may also have a ‘strictly over 21s’ sign outside (despite the legal drinking age being 18), which might seem at odds with the high chairs and kids’ meals on offer. In these instances, it’s not *actual children* with their parents who aren’t getting in. Rather, it’s all about The Youths – they can come back in unaccompanied once they’ve developed their frontal cortexes a bit more. Most, though not all, of these pubs tend to operate via a table service model, but you can also just go up to the bar as well.
So, if you’re looking for well-tested spots for the whole family, fear not – we’ve done years of research for you. Whether it’s a special occasion meal or more of a standard chicken-goujons-and-chips evening out, there are pubs that run the full spectrum. Let’s begin.
In the city centre, it might be useful to navigate by proximity to a few tourist attractions. If Temple Bar is on your list, but this is a family trip and not a stag or hen do, The Porterhouse gets you close to the action, albeit without as much messiness – there may even be a daytime trad session. It’s also a handy spot before or after a Vintage Tea Trips excursion, as the buses typically stop just outside. If, for some reason, you have children who desperately wanted to visit the NATIONAL WAX MUSEUM, JR Mahon’s is a useful spot, and it’s a short stroll from there to Trinity College or the National Gallery. Continuing in that direction – and toward the National Museum of Ireland (the archaeology one, with the bog bodies, of course), Doheny and Nesbitt and Kennedy’s are used to catering to families.
Further south – and closer to the Aviva, if you’re here for a match – The Old Spot is one of our favourite ‘special occasion’ pubs, and children are warmly welcomed. The Merry Cobbler is also a family-friendly location, and going all the way out to Dundrum on the Luas you’ll find The Brickyard, which is ideal with kids of all ages – but let’s head back toward the centre of town.
Dublinia is a great museum for kids, and there are quite a few pubs in this part of Dublin that are perfect after an afternoon of sightseeing-with-the-small-folk (and you may need to sit down for a while if they’ve also been marched through the Guinness Storehouse). The Christchurch Inn is one of many spots in The Liberties that work well, but there is also Molly’s Bar – we’ll come back to how handy Galway Bay pubs are for families in a moment – and Dudley’s, which also has a mac & cheese that is picky-kid tested and approved. If Kilmainham Gaol is on your itinerary, the nearby Old Royal Oak does a mean toastie, and you could take various buses from here to The Circular or Rascals – also on our S-tier list.
Going north of the river, Nancy Hands is good for refreshing and dining after a trip to Dublin Zoo, and Stoneybatter is full of great pubs for all. Hynes’ Bar and The Barber’s Bar both have tasty Asian street food options that kids love, if you’ve exhausted the usual burger-or-goujons choices, and L. Mulligan. Grocer is also on our ‘special night out’ list for its fantastic food and warm welcome. If you’re looking for something before or after a film at The Lighthouse or a trip to Collins Barracks, Bonobo’s pizza works, and there are toasties at The King’s Inn – the little snugs are also cosy and can help keep smaller folk contained.
There are restaurants and pubs of all sorts on Capel Street, but we’ll highlight another Galway Bay pub here with The Black Sheep. All Galway Bay pubs have a standard kids’ menu – adding bacon to the mac & cheese is a nice touch – but The Black Sheep is especially nice as they also have board games, and are very close to a number of game and comic shops.
If you’ve brought the family to Croke Park for a game, or perhaps just the excellent museum and tour, you are spoiled for choice in Drumcondra and Phibsborough, presuming you can nudge everyone up or down the easy canal walk, or via the playground in Griffith Park. The Cat & Cage has another well-tested children’s menu, and the mac & cheese suppli are big hits. Fagan’s has the carvery, if that’s your thing, and The Botanic even has weekend brunch with slatherings of Nutella nowadays. The Bald Eagle is a favourite – kids love the action-figure décor as well as the food – and The Back Page’s arcade section is in regular circulation for all-ages parties.
To finish heading back toward the city centre, Urban Brewing is practically on top of EPIC and the Jeanie Johnston, and in case you’re doing some shopping near O’Connell Street, The Morris Bar has a great kids’ pizza as well as excellent grown-up versions, and TP Smith’s is an oasis of calm after hitting The Jervis Centre.
In summary, there’s no shortage of good pubs to go to, even with the kids in tow, but we do have some favourites from the list above. For great pizza, we love Rascals and The Morris Bar. For a chill weekend meal, it’s over to The Cat & Cage or The Bald Eagle, and for cask ale and food after comic book shopping, it’s The Black Sheep. Special occasions are all about L. Mulligan. Grocer or The Old Spot, and it’s worth keeping an eye on the seasonal events at Brickyard for all-ages menu fun (and great beer).
Looking for more Best Pubs For… ideas? WE GOT YOU.
The recent run of warm weather has led to prioritising pubs with lovely 
A recent BlueSky chat was a reminder that unlike the Neighbouring Island, we have few pubs that are a middle ground between Old Man Pubs, with a standard macro lineup (always Guinness, of course, plus Heineken or perhaps Carlsberg) and ‘hipster’ pubs with interesting craft beers…there’s no direct equivalent of a free house with a mix of standard macros, family brewery offerings on cask (sob) and local indies here in Ireland (with a very few exceptions – 
It’s also worth mentioning just how spacious Kodiak is – the main floor has two full bars, each with its own distinct feel (one darker, one brighter) and tap lineup, so for you beer nerds, check out both, and then there’s the large beer garden at the back. Then there’s even more upstairs (shuffleboard!) – hangout spaces that would be ideal for parties, and the well-designed toilets can be reached via lift or stairs. Indeed, simply by moving around different parts of the pub, you can switch up your experience of the place: start off with a chill solo pint in subdued lighting, then grab some sun 
The staircase formerly connected floors in Trinity College, and the beer garden out back can even be heated when necessary (though as with so many of the more interior-feeling beer gardens in Dublin, it can tend toward feeling very smoky). All told, it feels very ‘pubby,’ but what strikes me is the very noticeable vibe shift when the tour groups leave. It took a few visits to realise that it wasn’t just the freeing up of part of the pub that made the real difference; rather, it was the music. When the groups are in, the music is not just trad (there is, after all, plenty of good trad out there), but full-on diddly-eye trad – the sort of music that might have been featured on an American PBS station 40+ years ago. But once they go, there’s a break – either no music, or a change to something a bit more current. Perhaps it’s coincidence, but it’s something we’ve noticed on multiple visits – and it’s no bad thing!
Now, this is not to say that some of the more touristy pubs are doing their customers a disservice in any way; to the contrary, they are doing a great job of catering to multiple demographics, and more power to them. And Nancy Hands also does a great job of supporting local writers – 
Inside, the look is all Old Man Pub, but with a more diverse clientele of all ages, genders and dog breeds. There’s also good support for local independent beer from Rye River, but they also get accolades a-plenty for the Guinness here. On our visit, the hurling was on (ironically, I was trying to get as far from 
It’s that time of year when we begin to get the ‘where should I go before Croke Park?’ question. The answers will depend on whether you’re pre- or post-gaming an actual game (and, of course, which sort of actual game – the occasional rugby crowd isn’t necessarily the same as the more usual GAA crowd) or a concert. Fortunately, as a household within the ‘so close to Croke Park we get free tickets to things* from time to time’ radius, we’ve got some educated opinions on which pubs to hit up before, say, Oasis. (I was going to say ‘before Oasis hit each other,’ but it was too lazy, so it’s parenthetical instead).
There are a few ways to approach the Croke Park Pubs question: proximity, food/drink options and, well, vibes. If wanting to be in the closest possible pub is your key consideration – and on a day when it’s 70,000 plus in attendance, it’s not unreasonable – your best bets are 
If combining food and drink is of paramount importance, casting a wider net can help, but you can still start quite close by. 
But all too often on recent visits, there are multiple taps out of service or perhaps not as fresh as they might be – a real contrast to years gone by when this was a destination for beer nerds for the variety and vibrancy of the beers on offer, both from Galway Bay itself as well as other independent brewers from near and far. And it does seem that Galway Bay are making some especially interesting seasonal, one-off and collaboration beers of late, so it’s a shame that they rarely seem to be highlighted here.
And to be clear, I haven’t had a bad experience here, but the pub does look and feel, well, tired. It’s possibly unfair to compare it to a brand-new Galway Bay pub like 
Although the branding is different, Urban Brewing is an outpost of 
But what I particularly enjoy about Urban Brewing is that each part of the venue feels very different – the outside space is the go-to when the weather is good, but the modern bar in the old building has a lovely look and feel, while the vaults below are great for events – cosy and always beautifully decorated. And as a newer business in an older building, they’ve had the space to get their accessibility figured out in the retrofitting; there are lifts as well as stairs.
This week, it’s another relatively rare visit into the more touristy part of town as we visit 
Kennedy’s is another pub I’ve walked past many times without entering, but I finally had a bit of free time in the area this week, so stopped in for a sneaky daytime glass after visiting the National Gallery. While not nearly as extensive a list of craft beer taps as nearby 
There’s a lovely tiled bar in the basement for live music and events, and this space as well as the terra cotta decoration on the pub’s exterior add unique touches, while the rest of the interior feels a bit more ‘standard Irish pub.’ All told, it’s probably more of a destination for those on literary walking tours than anything else, but it’s nice to find a spot in tourist-land with a few craft beers; it’s not necessarily a given in Dublin.
Sometimes, it really is all about The Socials.
Last week, we asked whether 
The pub has been here since the 1850s, and in the Hedigan family since 1904, and you can’t miss their name in neon, either. Of course, like so many pubs along this route, it’s name-checked in Ulysses, and has a useful write-up 
Well, there have been proposals to