St. Pintricks Day in Kilkenny
Welcome to our St.Pintricks Day guide to the beautiful medieval town of Kilkenny.
We aren’t going to beat around the bush talking trash, let’s get straight down to it. You are either in town or planning to spend your St. Patrick’s day in Kilkenny. So the big questions are
Where do I start my pub crawl in Kilkenny
Best Guinness in Kilkenny
Best pubs in Kilkenny
Pub grub, food and things to do
Well, this guide will work all year round but we are on Paddy’s Day mode so here we go.
Before we get to the best pubs in Kilkenny on St. Patrick’s day. We are going to start off in a sort of centre point in the town.
Since its a St. Patricks Day guide we are starting on The Parade. As you walk down The Parade you have the Left Bank on your left hand side. The left bank was as you might tell from the name, a former bank. It’s a popular enough spot. It dishes up some nice grub during the day and it’s a busy place in the evenings. A good spot for families early doors and the cocktail crew at night.
From here you have an abundance of options in front of you. You can veer off to the left and head down towards Parliament Street. Or hit the pubs pretty much right in front of you before heading over the bridge and down towards John Street.
There are so many good options no matter which way ya head. If you are in Kilkenny for more than a day well that makes this a lot easier. If not, sure we can still help ya cherry-pick the best options for your day crawling the pubs of Kilkenny town.
We are going to start by heading down High Street towards Parliament Street (veering left)
You have the Field on the left and you will encounter The Harp Bar on the right along this route as well as a lot of shops. One of the first little off-streets you will hit on this route is Friary Street. You have two pubs and a belter restaurant to keep you occupied here. Aroi Asian restaurant is the business. The food, service, and pints are solid. You won’t go thirsty either, you can grab yourself a nice crispy pint of Asahi or Tiger to wash down the bit of grub. Across the road, you have Ryans’s pub which doesn’t open Monday to Wednesday (As of Feb 2023), and The Rafters which is a bit of a hotspot for hens and stags.
Back out onto High Street, there are more food options, one of which is Paris Texas. Great bit of grub dished up here and they have a nice bar at the front. Best to access the restaurant part from the side if you just want to get straight into stuffing your beak. Back to the other side of the road and pretty much directly across from Paris Texas, there’s a laneway that will bring you to an absolute belter of a spot. The hole in the wall. A real hidden gem. It’s a tiny little bar but definitely one to visit if you are in town. If you are lucky enough to catch Michael, you are sure to be regaled by many tales of Irish history and other interesting bits and pieces. There is no draught in the bar and we did stump up about 14 quid for two large bottles of Smithwicks when we were in (We may have been ripped off to get rid of us 🙂 )
When you reemerge from the hole in the wall and continue your journey down High street, there’s the Marble City Bar and Tea Rooms a short walk down the road. Before that there’s a little laneway with steps down to Kieran Street. It’s a lovely little back street that houses plenty of cafes, restaurants and some decent independent shops & boutiques. If you are into your tunes, Rollercoaster Records is definitely worth popping your head in to.
Kieran Street is also home to Kytlers Pub. This is a popular tourist spot. We have spent many an evening or day here in the past. What you get with Kytlers is good grub (we recommend the stew) and a great beer garden which used to be a smoking area also but is not anymore. From here we would say you are best off continuing your trek toward Parliament Street instead of heading back up on to the main road. As you continue on, you will find JW Bollards at the end of Kieran Street just as you come back out onto the main thoroughfare.
As we keep ploughing on towards Parliament Street, You will encounter the Smithwicks brewery (more on that later, a definite must visit) We also pass The Italian Connection, a cracking Italian Restaurant well worth visiting. Like Aroi it’s another you should book in advance.
A few more steps and bang you’ve landed. The triple threat, the holy trinity, hat trick hero or whatever in the name of the good lord ya want to call it. These are the spots we would recommend 99 times out of 100
O’Riada’s
The Pumphouse
Cleere’s
All within a stone’s throw of each other, all serving monumentally solid pints of Guinness and all belter pubs in their own right. Daytime, evening time it doesn’t matter. Three pubs we would recommend you slap down on your list straight away.
O’Riadas is a bit of what many call an old mans pub. Great craic in the place and brilliant friendly service. There is a nice little area down the back with a stove, make yourself at home and enjoy some creamy pints of Guinness.
The Pumphouse is the sort of pub you could spend a bit of time checking out all the interesting artifacts and old signage they have hanging up in the place. It’s a really nice looking pub. Again great service, we got a nice welcome when we landed. Friendly staff and customers and just a really cool pub to flake back in and have some pints. Up the steps and down the back there is a pool table and the seating area is made up of church benches. The pints of Guinness being dished up were again, bang on the button.
The final part of this trilogy is John Cleere’s. We absolutely love this place. We have been in during the day and at night. A cracking old world pub with an IMRO award winning venue out the back. They host some solid national and international music, theatre and comedy throughout the week and weekend. Check out their website for listings. The staff can’t do enough for you and the pints are absolutely beautiful.
If you haven’t taken up any of the food options on route to here fear not. Along this street, Brewary Corner serves up some sensational food. It’s a craft bar so if you aren’t mad about craft beer/ale/stout you probably won’t be arsed. To be fair we were a few pints deep when we came to it and popped in to have a gander at the place and to give the grub a crack. I had the one pint of O’Hara’s stout and that was enough for me. I don’t mind craft beer and would neck a bottle or two but when you are mid piss up on the Guinness you kinda have to stick with the Guinness. Anyway i’m pure waffling on, if you do stop in we would recommend the wings which were absolutely sensational. Mrs. Pints was absolutely loving the Vol au Vent. I had an Irish Coffee on my stop off and that hit the spot.
A little further on you had Hacketts which has now relocated to a new landmark location at Sean Byrnes on James’s Street, standing in the shadows of the iconic St. Mary’s Cathedral.
Continue on to page 2 of our guide where we will be heading towards John Street and a few spots in between as well as discussing some things to do (Smithwicks Brewary) and places to eat.
