Daphni
Grand Canal Dock | €€ | music-led cocktail bar, Bolands Mills
Inside the Flour Mill at Bolands Mills, Daphni sits in the same Animal Collective stable as Bonobo, but the two bars feel very different. Although it’s the same team, this one is a little more east-side, a little more considered, chic and cool-girl coded. High ceilings, good music and cocktails that hold up. It tends to get busy from about 10pm on weekends, and the people that show up come specifically for the bar, not because it was nearest. Book a table if you want one; it’s not the sort of place you can reliably walk into on a Friday. Dog friendly, so always the best company.
Flour Mill, Bolands Mills, Grand Canal Dock, Dublin 4
The Big Romance
Parnell Street | €€ | vinyl bar with audiophile-grade sound
The name’s doing a lot of work, and the bar earns it. The Big Romance is built around music in a way that most music bars aren’t: fancy amplifiers, Klipsch speakers, and a record collection you can choose from. Similar to Fidelity but with more of a local crowd, it’s dimly lit, feels warm and aesthetic in a old brick that hasn’t been styled to within an inch of its life kind of way. It’s on Parnell Street, which means it’s easy to make a night of the area. Cocktails are good and you don’t need to arrive early to get comfortable. Sold.
98 Parnell Street, Dublin 1
Hogan’s
South Great George’s Street | € | alternative, dance floor basement, beer garden
Hogan’s has been on South Great George’s Street long enough to be an institution and yet, still doesn’t feel like one. At least, not in the old stuffy way. This is pub, rather than a cool bar, but it’s a pub you go to on purpose. On the cheaper end of this list, it’s not trying to be cool, it just is. The basement dance floor has fun music but gets sardine box busy; Hogan’s is best experienced outside. The beer garden is one of the better ones in Dublin 2 for a girls night.
35–36 South Great George’s Street, Dublin 2
Peruke and Periwig
Dawson Street | €€€ | three-floor Georgian cocktail bar
Peruke & Periwig operates across three floors of a Georgian townhouse on Dawson Street and it feels exquisite. There’s a speakeasy in the basement and a more put-together energy upstairs, different rooms for different moods. Let’s be frank, the speakeasy is not a speakeasy. While it may look like a vintage speakeasy, it’s loud, busy and more likely to be playing a rendition of No Diggity than a jazz soundtrack. The cocktail list are, but are €15 and up, so don’t expect a cheap night. In a Georgian building with good lighting and bartenders who care, it’s to be expected.
31 Dawson Street, Dublin 2
Fidelity
Smithfield | €€ | Whiplash brewery’s music bar
Fidelity on Queen Street has become one of the most beloved places to go for a drink in the city. The music is on par, there’s a great mix of people drinking and dancing, and the decor is so well executed and thought through that it makes you instantly feel like you’ve got an extra ten grand in your bank account just by sitting in the space for five minutes. It’s often described as feeling more like New York or London but I don’t think that quite cuts it, because 99% of the places in New York or London don’t come close. Pre-warning, don’t sit at the big horseshoe booth. It’s across from one huge speaker, and after 20 minutes you won’t be able to hear yourself think.
79 Queen Street, Smithfield, Dublin 7
Bonobo
Smithfield | €€ | rooftop terrace, part of the Animal Collective group
Also part of the Animal Collective stable — same people as Daphni — Bonobo is the Smithfield outpost, and here you’re going for is the rooftop terrace. It’s one of the funner outdoor bar spaces in Dublin: comfy rather than the plastic-furniture-under-a-heater version the city usually offers. They also do an incredible Truffle & Orange pizza (unexpected but SO good), and have board games if your girls’ night needs a good-old game of Jenga. Immaculate vibes, beautiful atmosphere.
119 Upper Church Street, Smithfield, Dublin 7
Little Pyg
Powerscourt Townhouse | €€ | cocktail bar, 2-for-€20 deal, pizza upstairs
Inside Powerscourt Townhouse on William Street South, Little Pyg is is exactly what a cocktail bar inside a Georgian shopping townhouse should be: pretty, a bit tucked away, even better than you expect when you get inside. The 2-for-€20 cocktail deal makes it a smart first stop before you spend money elsewhere. They also are pretty famous for their pizza, which is handy if you don’t want a full sit-down dinner. Book ahead if you’re going in more than a group of four.
Powerscourt Townhouse, William Street South, Dublin 2
Lemon and Duke
Grafton Quarter | €€ | Manhattan-style bar, copper interiors
Not to be confused with the famous Hairy Lemon pub, Lemon & Duke on Duke Lane has the energy of a well-loved New York bar: copper everywhere, wisteria hanging from the ceilings, and so much going on that the room doesn’t die between cocktails. DJs, the odd saxaphonist and an overwhelming temptation to take shots. It’s not trying to be a craft cocktail destination, it’s trying to be a good bar, and it works. It skews young but not in a way that feels student-y. Dublin 2 has fewer places like this than it should.
2 Duke Lane Upper, Dublin 2
El Silencio
Clarendon Market | €€ | secret bar, through the back of Pablo Picante
You get to El Silencio through a door inside Pablo Picante, which is inside Clarendon Market, which you’ll walk past if you don’t know it’s there. The setup is deliberate — small, tequila and mezcal-forward, dark in the good way. The margaritas are the point; order one before you start second-guessing the menu. It’s the kind of bar that feels like a find, because it is. Best suited to a smaller group of four to six rather than a Dublin hen weekend activity.
Pablo Picante, 4 Clarendon Market, Dublin 2
Collins Club
Mount Street | €€€ | members-feeling bar inside The Leinster
Inside The Leinster hotel on Mount Street Lower, Collins Club sits in that sweet spot between hotel bar and private members’ club — it has the feel of somewhere you’re not entirely sure you’re supposed to be in, which is exactly why it works. The crowd is well-dressed, and not in a rush, which makes it a solid landing spot for the part of girls’ night that comes after dinner. Speaking of, if you’re looking for a vibey dinner in Dublin, this one works perfectly. The food is beautiful, and the decor even moreso. Once the DJ starts, you won’t want to leave.
The Leinster, 7 Mount Street Lower, Dublin 2
Glovebox
Dame Lane | €€ | Allta’s art gallery bar, Level 5 of the Trinity Street car park
Glovebox is Allta’s bar — yes, Allta the restaurant — and it lives on the fifth floor of the Trinity Street car park, which tells you everything you need to know. It doubles as an art gallery, changes its exhibition programme regularly, and runs DJ nights that don’t start until the rest of Dame Lane has wound down. The cocktail list reflects the Allta kitchen’s sensibility: considered, a bit unusual, better than the surroundings would suggest. It’s not somewhere you can stumble into, but my god is it somewhere you can stumble out of.
