Best Pubs & Pints of Guinness in Kilkenny
Welcome to our pub and pint guide for 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 a trip to Kilkenny. So the big questions are
Where do I start my pub crawl in Kilkenny?
Best Guinness in Kilkenny?
Best pubs in Kilkenny?
Who does the best pub grub, where to get a feed?
Let’s get stuck in!
Before we get to the best pubs in Kilkenny and the best Guinness in Kilkenny. We are going to find our starting point for this guide. We will give you our favorite spots on page two.
A handy place to start is The Parade. As you walk down The Parade you have the Left Bank pub 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 family’s 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. You could also just 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 you 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 you cherry-pick the best options for your day crawling the pubs of Kilkenny town. Before we set off we just want to mention the Blue Bar which is a short walk from the Pembroke Hotel. It’s a handy one to pop over to if you are staying there or in The Ormonde. They dish up a decent pint of Guinness.
Anyway, we are going to start by heading down High Street towards Parliament Street (veering left)
You have the Field on the left this is a lively spot in the evenings and they usually have some live music. 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.
On this street, there is plenty to keep you occupied. You will find two pubs and a belter restaurant here. Aroi Asian restaurant is the business. The food and service were top notch. 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 (information correct 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.
Over 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 it is 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, either that or his primary school maths had deserted him 🙂 )
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 into.
Kieran Street is also home to Kytlers Pub, a popular tourist spot. We have spent many a day and evening 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 onto the main road. As you continue, you will find JW Bollards at the end of Kieran Street just as you come back out onto the main thoroughfare. This is a nice spot with a nice area out the front (See pic below)
As we keep plowing 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 checking out. 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
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’Riada is a bit of what many call an old man’s 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 pint in here is definitely in the discussion as one of the best Guinness in Kilkenny.
The Pumphouse is the sort of pub where 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. Check out some pics of The Pumphouse below.
The final part of this trilogy is John Cleere’s. We absolutely love this place. We have dropped in during the day and at night. Cleeres is 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. It is a pub you could easily come in and park up for the day and neck a serious amount of stout. The staff can’t do enough for you and the pints are absolutely beautiful. The stout here is definitely in the conversation for best Guinness in Kilkenny, no doubt. Check out some pics below.
If you haven’t taken up any of the food options on route to here, fear not. Along this street, Brewery 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 so we 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 waffling on, if you do stop in we would recommend the absolutely sensational wings. Mrs. Pints was absolutely loving the Vol au Vent. I had an Irish Coffee on my stop off and that hit the spot. They have an old Nintendo in her if you fancy a game while you are stopping by for a pint.
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 to page 2 of our guide where we will be heading towards John Street and a few spots in between looking for the best pubs and more of the best Guinness in Kilkenny. We will also be discussing some things to do (Smithwicks Brewery) and places to eat.
