While perhaps rather less traditional-looking than many pubs, this week’s destination is one that is surrounded by many classic Victorian pubs, and so perhaps serves as something of a palate-cleanser: Bar Rua.
Just steps away from well-trodden spots that often appear in tourist must-visit lists, including The Long Hall, Neary’s and The Hairy Lemon, Bar Rua looks, at first glance, more like a late 1980s/early 1990s hype restaurant – think a little bit like Spago-on-the-Liffey. The modern red-and-glass exterior does have, in the local parlance, ‘a bang of the Celtic Tiger on it,’ but it’s a softer impression inside. While still clean and modern, the photos of Irish celebrities lining the walls do add a more ‘pubby’ feel, and there’s something reassuring about Brendan Gleeson casting a watchful eye over the premises.
Another unusual feature of this pub is that there are guestrooms above it, so again, despite its non-traditional look, it does hearken back, in some ways, to the functions of an inn. As a sidebar, we also discovered that you can also stay above The Beer Temple – this was news to us! There are a variety of spaces spread across the building, so private events are common, with bars in multiple locations. One slight oddity on our visit was that the Full Sail – one of Galway Bay Brewing’s flagship beers, and always a solid option – was not available anywhere despite its tap handle popping up in different parts of the pub, but that was made up for by an excellent guest beer from Belfast’s Boundary instead. Is Bar Rua, indeed, still officially a Galway Bay pub? The property was sold a few years ago, and it certainly still has a fair few Galway Bay beers and their food menu, although it doesn’t show up under ‘our bars’ on their website…but it’s there if you do a bit of digging. Granted, this much more ‘inside baseball’ that the average punter likely cares about, but hey, we’re curious.
In any event, the food, drink selection (minus the absent Full Sail, on this occasion) and service are all on point; we’re still disappointed with recent visits to The Brew Dock, which is still very much in the Galway Bay stable, but all of those elements were in fine shape at Bar Rua. And with so much choice in the area, pubs here need to be on top of their game; it’s easy enough to walk a few doors down if something doesn’t suit or seems ‘off’ on the day, or if you’re simply seeking a change of pace.
And we confess it had been some time since we’d last popped in to Bar Rua – possibly not since the 2024 Women’s Mini Marathon, when they were offering very welcome free glasses* of any flagship beer to finishers. Our party was certainly on brand on that occasion, with red faces from the effort (‘rua’ being an Irish word for ‘red,’ though at least in the smaller offspring’s school, they prefer ‘dearg’ for a ‘red’ red) – perhaps we need to stop in again after this year’s event…though a race medal is certainly not required to enter the pub.
We had a lovely visit on a recent chill Sunday afternoon – it’s not always easy to achieve calm in Dublin city centre on a weekend, but Bar Rua kept us cosy, well-fed and well-watered: a very relaxed spot indeed.
Where: 32 Clarendon St, Dublin 2, D02 HX66
Access from the city centre: You are there
Food: Standard Galway Bay menu, plus a cheese plate
Sport: All the usual big games & sport are on
TVs: Many all around the pub
Music: Fairly MOR tunes in the background
Family-friendliness: As with all Galway Bay spots, very welcoming
Pub-crawl-ability: High – Neary’s, The Hairy Lemon, Caribou, Sheehan’s, The Long Hall, Grogan’s, Peter’s Pub, Sinnott’s Bar and more are all nearby
Local sites of note: Gaiety Theatre, Craft Central, Little Museum of Dublin, George’s Street Arcade, St Stephen’s Green, Grafton Street
Haunted: Celtic Tiger ghosts?
Other notes: Many levels and upstairs toilets, so not especially accessible, despite being a modern building
Socials: Facebook, Instagram
*For the visitor, a ‘glass’ in Ireland is a half-pint.
Welcome to 2026!
Staying on 
Inside, it can be absolutely packed at this time of year, both with decorations (similar to 
But The Hole in the Wall is a pub for life, not just for Christmas – there are also running and cycling clubs based here, and it’s a handy spot if you happen to be on this side of the Phoenix Park (though you’d have 
We’ve not always been fair to 
The first point in its favour – for us, anyway – is its support for local independent beer: there are multiple 
While it’s true that when in this general direction we are more often to be found at 
While 
And it is, perhaps, fitting that Neary’s is a pub that attracts this kind of lore; its beautifully-maintained interior hearkens back to the 1880s – well, at least in the main bar downstairs – while upstairs, it’s a slightly more updated restaurant feel, but still elegantly understated. The 
As regular readers know, we are always on the lookout for 
While the ‘since 1793’ date is a little shaky, given the current building’s construction 
So, ghosts aside, what is the pub like? Well…most definitely not creepy. If anything, it’s a bit too polished to feel at all like a liminal space. There are several very different sections of the pub with their own character, but none are especially dark or gloomy. The front is much more ‘pubby’ and the rear more of a restaurant or hotel bar vibe (the many large TV screens are part of what gives that impression), though it’s worth knowing that the back bar is where the sole local-craft-beer representative is; there’s a Rye River tap if you know where to look. Indeed, the food was very good – a step up from a lot of pub food, though the enormous portions are perhaps created more for tourists than locals. There’s also the usual Guinness – and Murphy’s – plus some Warsteiner.
There’s a covered outdoor space too, more 
The 1884 is so called after 
And like many pubs in the more suburban parts of Dublin, it’s absolutely enormous inside – indeed, somewhat barn-like. But it’s all very tidy, and there’s plenty of space to spread out. There are much-appreciated coat hooks under the bar, which really should be standard everywhere, but here we are. Only a few years ago, this pub was known as Grainger’s, and it had, well, a 
And while the beer selection is mostly the usual Guinness-and-Heineken-and-so-so-much-Rockshore (despite being listed as a stockist of Hope, brewed just a bit further north), there is also the lesser-spotted Kilkenny, which has been popping up here and there of late, and it’s a nice alternative. The real hidden gem of The 1884, though, is the enormous 
While it does have a theoretically reasonably interesting drinks lineup, like its fellow Bodytonic-managed bar, 
It is, of course, entirely possible that it’s simply aiming for a younger/cooler demographic, which is fair enough…though it does beg the question as to why there’s a mural of Peter Fonda on one side of the building…it’s not something that resonates with GenXers like us…are the younger Millennials into Easy Rider? We’ve been told it’s a ‘no’ from Gen Z: ‘…it’s no Taxi Driver.’
We know that we tend to be biased toward pubs on the north side of the Liffey, but this week, we travel (relatively) far into south Dublin – all the way to Blackrock and . Once a quiet fishing village with a sideline in 
And while the 
There are some lovely little snugs and the pub also has a bit of a nautical bent – the seafront is right here, after all – but it’s very welcoming to all; the standard Guinness (and Beamish!) is on offer, and there is good support for independent offerings like Hope and Wicklow Wolf, as well as 
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.
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,
Going north of the river, 
If you’ve brought the family