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Colm Guinnesslove Blog

Foley’s, Merrion Row, June ’16 (3/4)

Guinness Time

It was my first time upstairs in this place & being some sort of Victorian bedroom/ hipster-circus hybrid left me in fear that more effort would be going in to the decor than the pintage here. Having just come across the road from O’Donoghue’s, & a couple of serious top-notchers, I was more than a little apprehensive.

The pint was professionally poured, nice wait time, looked decent. The wobble-test proved promising so I tucked in, hitting it for an average sup. To my delight, it wasn’t too bad, bit o’the cream, as it should be, with a decent taste to boot. I was happy with it. I tried a couple more & they were just the same. Consistently grand pints I’d say, more than acceptable & leaving me pleasantly surprised.

Foleys June 16 s
Very black

The Cobblestone, Dublin – Sept ’15 (2/4)

Not Guinness time, not here anyway.

Disappointed does not describe how I feel about the rating I’m giving this establishment’s efforts. I am gutted. This place was once amongst the top-dogs when it came to a tasty pint of the black stuff & as a result I had well talked it up to some mates I was taking here. Jayz, did I overpromise & underdeliver, it was actually embarrassing. Here’s me telling them about how I know good Guinness & how this place has always delivered a 4/4 pint & then bang; brutal pints. The head was a bit of a fluffy one which by halfway through was akin to that scruffy brown foam you see atop water. The taste was definitely not right but for the sake of The Cobblestone, a place that has given me many great nights & quality pints, I soldiered on through to the end. Sadly, the pint ended on a forcing-it-down squinty-wince-face that speaks volumes for the quality of the pint.

I don’t know if it’s the Tripadvisor certificate of excellence & the guaranteed tourist money or the fact that maybe less & less punters go for the pint o’G these days but something has gone seriously wrong here. To go from a 4/4 to a 2/4: seriously gutted for the place; biggest let-down so far on Guinnesslove.com.

Mulligan’s, Dublin – Sept ’15 (4/4)

My goodness! Now that’s Guinness!

Ah yes, this place again. My favourite Guinnessing-hole. If you haven’t already seen them, check out my previous pint-reviews for Mulligans which show top pintability on both occasions. As expected, it was no different time time. A head with perfect consistency that’s pure creamy heaven & that 4/4 for taste right to the final, beautiful gulp. Superb head retention, as evidenced on the glass in the pic below. Excellence in every way; a Guinnesslovers dream.

G-tip: For your final gulp, turn the glass around & get more of that creamy residue. Mmmmmm

Mulligans 12.9.15 3

As I was trying to be good on account of having to go for dinner with company, & having already had a couple in the Gravity bar,  I decided to try a Guinness Mid-strength for my next one. I really, really wanted for this to work, & the pint looked ok, but 2 sups in & I knew I had a G-saster on my hands. It tastes bloody awful. I soldiered on but couldn’t take it any more & so grabbed myself a quick glass of the good stuff &, of course, it was top-quality as ever. Here’s the beauty (that’s my attempt to tackle the pint of mid-strength in the background):

Mulligans 12.9.15 Glass

So, a word of advice; if yer tryin te take it easy, just get a glass of Guinness instead of a pint of Guinness Mid-strength & drink it slower so that you finish up at the same time everyone else finishes their pint. Take it from a Guinnesslover, you will not regret taking course this action.

Gravity Bar, Guinness Storehouse – Sept ’15 (3/4)

Guinness Time

Time for the annual pilgrimage down to the Storehouse. The wander around the factory is interesting enough-ish first time round but I’ve been here a few times now so, now that you have to queue for the taster, which I’m not arsed with, it’s all about the Gravity bar. Straight to the top for the best view with a pint of Guinness in Dublin, maybe even Ireland, maybe even the world. Havin a pint while looking out across the bay & from Meath to the Wicklow mountains is such a wonderful experience but the real question for Guinnesslovers is, of course, what’s the pint like?

This place must serve the most pints of Guinness anywhere in the world. There’s always a rake o’good looking settlers at the bar & the staff fly though them, churning out pints like a Guinness machine gun. The head on my first had decent texture but, being honest, was just a little too big. Nothing to be alarmed at though as the taste was true & the head averagely creamy: worth going again, which I did. You might have expected the home of Guinness to be a nailed on 4/4 but the fact is that it’s just another bar serving nice pints. In fairness, you could sit up here all day enjoying pints with that view but when it comes to the honest assessment, this establishments effort gets a 3/4.

Yes, that's mine on the right! Note the manky lookin pint in the background; there's a rake of them up here from the tourists that realise after 1 sup that they hate the black stuff.
Yes, that’s mine on the right! Note the manky lookin pint in the background; there’s a rake of them up here from the tourists that realise after 1 sup that they hate the Black Stuff.

Slattery’s, Beggars Bush, Dublin – Sept ’15 (3/4)

Guinness time

It used to be nigh on impossible to get in the door here on matchday but they’ve since expanded out the back & upstairs & the place is now huge so we’ve made it our matchday watering hole (when not drinking cans while basking in the sunshine on the Beggar’s Bush grassy knoll of course). The match this time round was Ireland – Georgia on a Monday night so the first pints were late afternoon. The pour was exellent, the pint settled just right. Nice bit o’the cream, good taste, decent lastability; very drinkable, as it should be.

Post-match I returned & ordered from the same bar (upstairs) but was served by a different barman &, again, the pour was excellent & the pints just lovely. The decent creaminess & good head retention can be seen in the 2nd pic below: looking good. I must add that on busy match days the pints come in plastic glasses & they’re still fairly decent. I like drinking Guinness here; a high 3/4.

Pre-match / Post-match
Pre-match / Post-match

The Stags Head, Dublin – Aug ’15 (3/4)

Guinness time

The weather was good & it was still warm, even when we arrived at around half ten, so we drank with Al Fresco. Havin a pint out in the laneway makes you feel either European or 15 again. Either way, I love it. Have to say, whenever we’ve been drinking here, the weather has been great (the chicken or the egg?). I would love if this place scored a 4/4 but you can’t just throw top-marks around willy-nilly. The pints here are grand; tasty, bit o’the cream, as they should be. Never a problem drinking a few here here, as always happens.

The Galway Hooker, Heuston Station, Dublin – July 2015 (3/4)

Guinness time

This place is just a stones-throw from Guinnesses (you can see the gates from the outside bar area) so on the right day, at the right time (the time I was here included) you will get the amazing aroma of the roasting hops from across in the brewery on your way in, which will really get the mouth watering for a cool, tasty G. Being a train station you might think they mightn’t give a shite what slop they serve the passing trade but this is not the case. My pint was served by a friendly foreign chap who poured a grand pint from the temporary outside-bar in the main train-station concourse. The pint was all you would expect; bit o’the cream, lovely taste, would deffo go again. Unfortunately our train was due so I could only stay to enjoy the one but would have no qualms about having another here in future.

Heuston July 15

Mulligan’s, Dublin – August 2015 (4/4)

My goodness! Now that’s Guinness!

Followers of this blog will come to see that this is where a Guinnesslover goes to get what they want. The cream rises to the top & Mulligans is the cream when it comes to the best pints around. Hoping for more of the same on this occasion I was joined by a fellow Guinnesslover &, seeing as I was delayed by literally 2 minutes, he went ahead & ordered. This is what awaited me upon arrival:

Mulligans end Aug 2015 small

Mmmmm, creamy. Just look at that little cream-leak dribbling down the side of the cold glass. And there’s such solidity to that head you just know it’s going to give the perfect lip-flop when you make that first move towards your mouth. Watch out though, it’s so good you might over do it. Just a couple of large gulps, put it down & savour that taste. This is why you work hard. This pint had everything what I want from my pints, as did the many that followed. Great work as always Mulligans.

Darcy’s Restaurant, Belfast – July 2015 (2/4)

Not Guinness time, not here anyway.

You’d think I woulda learned from my previous restaurant experience but a Guinnesslover is just that & so can’t resist when he sees a tap. Again, as per the last time I ordered a pint in a restaurant, I asked them how the Guinness was & they advised me not to worry, that it was excellent. Again, this turned out to be false. I guess the people in restaurants that are tasting these are not Guinnesslovers, they are foodies, & therefore can’t actually tell what a quality pint is.

When the pint arrived I shook the glass & the head seems a little watery, which is the first sign that it may not be up to standard. After about 3 sups the head had dissipated into some fluff-froth & that was that. I struggled on through as the were a nice bunch & I didn’t want to upset anyone but another member of my party mentioned it to the waiter when I was in the bog &, fair play to them, they didn’t charge for it (don’t worry, I’m not a bollix, we overtipped to cover the fact that I did drink most of it!). More establishments should take a leaf out of Darcy’s book in this regard.

The food in here is the best I’ve had when eating-out (I gave them a 5/5 on Tripadvisor), just leave the Guinness for somewhere else.