Murrays Bar

This cocktail lounge had been on my ‘to try’ list since it opened a few weeks ago and last week I finally got round to check it out.
It looks really really nice. It’s dark, it’s got lot of corners and comfy seating, I love the ceiling and the bar looks inviting. It’s got a bit of this old NYC to it.
We were here for cocktails and got seated next to the TV in one of the booths. The TV was still on after the opening match of the Euros 2016 and was clashing with the music which was equally loud.
We asked two different waitresses to turn down the TV (the match was well over) but neither knew how.
So we changed seats and eventually ordered cocktails at recommendation from the waitress: mojito and raspberry collins. The raspberry collins arrived in due course but the mojito… it took easily another 20mins after the other cocktails arrived and a few reminders to get it. It was served in a martini glass and was very strong. But nice. Not amazing but nice. Same for the raspberry collins: it was alright but neither of us would hurry back to order them again or a different one of their menu mainly because of the poor service.

BEST customer service experience in my entire life.
I’d like to share a story about a scary experience that was turned on its head thanks to the staff of Murray’s Bar in Dublin. This is going to be a long post, but I promise it’s worth the read.
My friend and I are from the Washington, D.C. area and have been backpacking through Europe the past two weeks. We recently graduated college, and as anyone can imagine, two young girls traveling through foreign cities can be intimidating, at times even dangerous. We have been primarily staying in hostels and air bnb’s. When we arrived in Dublin yesterday morning and our taxi driver cautioned us about the area we were staying in, we started to raise our eyebrows. Still, our air bnb apartment was gated off from the street, and we initially wanted to give both the host and the place the benefit of the doubt.
That afternoon we walked to O’Connell Street, one of the most famous streets in Dublin, and stopped by a tourism center to ask some questions and buy tickets for one of our day trips. After the lady recommended Murray’s Bar to us, we decided to walk over and sit down. The hostess was warm and welcoming, and we felt a positive energy in the restaurant, so we sat at the bar and ordered drinks and food so we could try some of their beers and get more of a feel of Dubliners in general. The owner, Chris, came up to us almost immediately and said Hi, asked us where we were from, and struck up friendly conversation. This was not the typical, forced and sometimes even awkward politeness that some restaurant owners exude, but rather a genuine, down to earth, and easy going person exchanging pleasantries with his patrons. He gave us a couple recommendations of bars and clubs to go to during our visit, and even wrote them down for us. I later reluctantly told him that I did not like beer, because I have an intolerance to any drink that is carbonated (I know, it’s weird), and he said to me «Well you know Guinness isn’t fizzy right?» Ashamed, I said no, and he told me he would fix me something he promised I’d like. It was a Guinness with black currant and it was so, so good! I have never, ever tried a beer that I have been able to enjoy, let alone finish, and let me tell you, I was hooked. I had three more over the course of the night.
For our food, I had the guiness and pie and my friend, Jasmine, had the fish and chips. Both were super tasty. Their dishes are traditional Irish pub fare, but definitely taken a notch up in terms of quality. As we sat and ate, the bartenders would mingle and the owner would come back and check on us here and there.
As we grew more comfortable, we decided to ask them about the place we were staying at, given their local knowledge of the area. The owner came around from behind the bar and helped us pinpoint our apartment on Google maps. He grabbed his bouncer, who I guess is a little more familiar with that direction. Once the bouncer saw that we were staying in Summerhill, he told us we should absolutely stay away from there. He said walking around there at night was unsafe and not to act too touristy, as it would attract attention. Of course, this really freaked us out, and we realized that we should try to find another place to stay for the remainder of our trip. The owner offered to make some phone calls for us to his friends around town that work at hotels, which was especially helpful given that this weekend is extra busy in Dublin because of the Euro Tour.
After we grabbed our things and cancelled our reservations in Summerhill, we went back to Murray’s, with our big backpacks in tow, since we didn’t have enough time to settle on a hotel before leaving the first time, and had nowhere else to go. The owner spotted us, re-​welcomed us, and carried our backpacks around the corner and to the back of the bar. He named all the options that him and his bouncer had come up with during the time we were away, and it took us a while to figure everything out, between calling our parents, cancelling our old reservations, and finding a new place to stay that was affordable; but in the midst of this crisis every single member of the staff was patient and kind and did not once make us feel unwanted there. In fact, we were able to relax once everything got settled, and we stayed so long that we both ordered a second meal and stuck around to enjoy the live music and Irish dancing until around midnight.
Jasmine and I honestly do not know what we would have done if it weren’t for Chris and the staff at Murray’s Bar. What could have been a potentially dangerous situation turned in to a small hiccup that because of them, was smoothly resolved. What they did for us is immeasurable in terms of ratings or comments. We genuinely feel like we have a little piece of home now in the heart of Dublin!

So this is a review for the downstairs bar. Upstairs was packed with tourists who seemed to be having a great time having a song along. Downstairs has a vintage look but to me falls flat and has no ‘authenticity’ with no attempt at creating the corresponding atmosphere, there’s even flat screens streaming sports. Firstly, there was no service to speak of. We were waiting ages when we sat down for the waitress despite the bar not being full. There was samba type music playing which was way too loud. When the trad session started upstairs the music downstairs was turned up to the point it became shrill and unbearable. I normally wouldn’t be one to criticise staff too much but honestly the service was appalling. When the waitress eventually arrived and took our order we had to wait ages for the drinks to arrive and one of the drinks wasn’t what we ordered, plus wasn’t even nice! The table beside us seemed to have a similar issues. Also, drinks come with paper straws, bad idea — they just warp and disintegrate. When we wanted to settle our bill then, there was no staff to be found on the floor so I headed to the bar where I was ignored by one barman and the other wouldn’t let me pay due to the waitress apparently mixing up our table number and she had disappeared again so I was told I had to wait until she came back. I said I wasn’t prepared to do that, I had already said what I was paying for and given him the money. The barman relented then but it was all so unnecessary!

We had such an amazing time tonight at this venue! So much food! #Tasty #Yummy — big servings!!! But better than ever — music was amazing @thegypsyband @Thecelticgypsys were amazing! Irish step dancers were absolutely incredible! Servers, musicians, dancers all engaged the clients in such a lovely manner. A #MustNotMiss in @dublin

Went here on a trip to Dublin as it was close to our hotel. The food was great! Got burgers, nothing special but they were very tasty. Hands down the best thing we had was their Bailey’s cheese cake. It was no NY style cheese cake, much more light and airy but it was so good and the presentation was just goregeous. My only complaint was it is hard to get service as wait staff can be difficult to flag down.

The waiting period is terrible, to get service of the seat you. just go the bar your self, don’t ask anyone to get you anything it will take to long! Or they will get it wrong. Gave up trying to order lunch after 30mins waiting for some to come back and take are order or even make eye contact with us. I gave 2 stars at a stretch the décor is lovely and they do serve alcohol.

Murrays is one of the only ²⁄₃ pubs on o connel street itself. It is huge spanning 3 floors and has a great beer garden that links up with fibbers and the living room. I can only assume they are all part of the gate hotel above fibbers.
Where the living room is a more local sports bar/​club spot and fibbers is your rock/​punk bar/​venue, murrays is your touristy irish bar for a pint of guiness and a sunday carvery.
It has an aston villla supporters club as well and always have some form of sport on upstairs or out the back.
The drinks are traditional to what you get in most dublin pubs, and they have a pretty touristy menu.
Well worth a sunday pint.

My friend and I came here on a Wednesday night since our hotel was around the corner. It’s mostly a tourist spot with a few locals so I highly recommend this place if it’s your first in Dublin. It was packed when we got there and were told it’d be a 20 minute wait but we ended up being seated in a few minutes. There was live Irish music and dancing which was awesome. The food and drinks were fantastic (I had the Irish stew and my friend had the beef & guinness pie). Our waiter and waitress were so sweet and welcoming. They talked to us and made us feel right at home. Whenever I come back to Dublin, I’ll definitely stop by Murray’s!!!

Nice pub but too much tourist than real Irish people. Good choice of beers and ⁴⁄₅ TV for sports

Loved loved loved my visit here. Staff was very friendly, Guinness was flowing very nicely. I had the Guinness beef stew… Oh my was I in heaven. Big plop of delicious mashed potatoes in the middle topped with a flaky crust.
To top it all of they had an Irish band who was it only incredible but also hysterical.
Must stop!

Le Murrays c’est un peu le restaurant de touriste mais qui reste correct au final.
Une fois le groupe de musique Irlandais dans la salle l’ambiance est magnifique !
Autrement le personnel n’est pas froid mais on sent que l’atmosphère est trop speed énormément de travail.
Au niveau des plats on né peut pas dire que ce soit la meilleure cuisine qui soit mais il faut dire que comparé à d’autres pub du centre, elle reste vraiment correcte.
Bref pour un local c’est pas la folie mais en tant que touriste c’est un lieu un peu cliché mais où on passé un excellent moment

We went to murrays because of the Unilocal reviews. We sat down at this place and had one Irish coffee and didn’t want to leave. We came for breakfast and then returned for dinner and the dancing later at night.
Food: I had the salmon and eggs for breakfast. The salmon wasn’t fresh and the eggs were ew. However the Irish coffee was ON POINT. For dinner, I had a burger that was not good. They made us all buy a main course for dinner in order to watch the show or else they would charge us 30 euros each.
Atmosphere: The atmosphere was my favorite part of this place. It was lively and fun and the music and dancing were great. A great place to stop in for an Irish coffee.

This was the only place that I found open on Christmas Day they were open from 12pm to 8pm. The food is pretty good and decently priced, also they bring your food pretty fast so there isn’t a lot of waiting around.

Food was ok and reasonably priced. Went for two nights in a row –Xmas eve and Xmas day, one of the very few places open on Xmas day, they have an Xmas menu choice of a three course meal (€ 50) or just main course and Xmas pudding (€ 30). First night got the Guinness beef pie which had too much sauce and was salty and the «vegetables» it comes with are mainly over cooked cabbage and carrots, was only able to eat about less than half of my meal and it doesn’t come inside a pie as I thought. The second night I had the Irish chicken pie which also didn’t come in a pie but was very good!

I wish I could have stayed in Dublin longer so I could go back to Murray’s. There were mostly tourists there but also some locals. Nice atmosphere, bit crowded. The music starts at 9, my family and I enjoyed it. I only wish the bar would sell the CDs of the bands that play there. The bands sell their own CDs but I didn’t buy it when they were there and then regretted it.

After an event in the Plaza Academy Hotel around the corner we (a group of around 30) ended up in Murrays Bar. As most of us first sat where later that night performances took place they arranged nicely for us to sit together somewhere else.
The music started at around 9pm and from 10pm to 10.30pm there was Irish Dancing. Afterwards music again. This is their programme every night and I have to say it was excellent. I’m usually sceptic about the quality when a pub has a show on every night but at least in this case I shouldn’t be.
As Murrays is around the corner of the Living Room the building forms a lovely and big outside area. Obviously for smoker but also with big screens in case of any matches. And lots of seating with tables is available.
I can’t review their food as I had dinner elsewhere but from others I heard it was very good.

This fills a void in my life. You know what I mean: that aching hole left behind by not being able to watch college football. I guess I’m saying that Murray’s has filled my aching hole.
I sat all the way at the top level, which is very much a sports bar. I think the menu is not as complete as below, or perhaps cooked in a different kitchen. Anyway, the burger was waaaaaay too well done. I mean, it was cooked well and THEN forgotten about, then rewarmed to seal out any juices. I jest, but damn, the burger was dry.
Then there was the small platter, with chicken goujons (tenders to Americans), fries, buffalo wings, onion rings, mini bangers, and a couple sauces (sweet & sour and garlic mayo). The small platter was actually pretty good. Everything was nice and crispy, and the sauce on the wings was really nice. In today’s age of modified foods, some might complain about the wings being chicken-​sized instead of ginormo monster chicken sized, but they really tasted nice.
The selection of beers is sports appropriate and runs from Guinness to Smithwick’s Red to O’Hara’s Pale Ale with a couple fill-​in-​the-​blanks in between.
They have approximately 6 screens up here, all either big screen or projector. There were enough screens that I could watch college football without disturbing those who wanted to watch rugby, soccer, soccer, rugby, or rugby or soccer, which is nice.
I took off the one star because of the super dried out burger and because the feed to the screen kept cutting out. Our barman was an absolute hero in doing his best to get the game back up, but it certainly was an annoyance. Notwithstanding, I plan on coming here again.

Breakfast is served until 11h30 by friendly staff. Wide choice from draft beers. Free wifi. The place also have a huge beer garden at the back.

Guiness was good here but the lamb stew left a lot to be desired. It was very soupy, not a thick stew, and was primarily potatoes and carrots. There were only three small bites of stringy, boiled lamb in the dish. Would not recommend this place for dinner.

IRISH DANCING!!! My favorite pub experience during my 9 day Ireland vacay!
I doubt its every night, but that Saturday night they had a small crew of pro Irish dancers do a 30−45min exhibition between the 2-​man band musical acts. We got a front table so we saw all the talent up close. The lead male dancer looked just like Theon Greyjoy from Game of Thrones.
Crowd was mostly tourists… maybe a some locals… but the entertainment was so good we didn’t care. Pints are the Dublin standard at 5 – 6 euro each. One of the barmen was a nice Asian with an Irish accent; being Asian myself I found it fascinating!

Upstairs great drinks, full bar, at least 6 tv’s all sports on. Could order food. Burgers & fries were ok. Not a bad place would come back.
Around 10 PM went downstairs. It is more of a restaurant downstairs. They had Irish music and Irish dancing. Very lively crowd.

der beste pub fuer deutsche fussballspiele

Si te gusta el fútbol, es tu bar. Consta de 2 plantas.
La planta de arriba, con una terraza cutre donde salir a fumar, es sobre todo para fans del deporte, en especial fútbol y/​o rugby. El ambiente no es muy bonito y la higiene, a simple vista, tampoco.
La planta de abajo mejora un poco, también dan comidas.
No es el mejor pub ni bar de Dublín.
Tiene una cosa buena, si juega tu equipo y tienes un grupo de gente con quien ir a ver el partido, es el mejor lugar sin duda donde ir a ver el partido.