When you have a hankering for arguably the best pint of Guinness in the world, be sure to first check if there’s an All-Irish Hurling Championship that day. Otherwise, you might be left jostling for room amidst 200 or more drunken Cork fans just for a cold pint of suds.
Having read about Mulligan’s storied reputation for serving the freshest, coolest pints of Guinness in all of Dublin, I took the short stroll over from nearby Trinity College early on a Sunday evening, only to find the moderately sized two-room bar was full to capacity, forcing the crowd to spill out into the street. Worried of sticking out like a sore thumb without a red-and-white Cork jersey or flag draped over my body, I decided to return when the scene was far less frantic.
What a difference a day can make.
At around 5pm on Monday, I found ample seating and a small after-work crowd quietly commiserating over tall glasses of Dublin’s famous draught beer (yes, everyone was drinking Guinness as far as I could tell.) There isn’t much in the way of décor—a few wooden tables and chairs, bar stools perched near stain-glassed windows, and a print hung on the wall here and there—but you don’t come to Mulligan’s for the ambience... it’s all about the Guinness.
The staff adheres to the unspoken rule of letting the beer settle for at least 7 minutes before handing it over, and my oh my, the wait is worth it. I won’t pretend to be a Guinness expert, but ever since those pints at Mulligan’s, it just hasn’t tasted the same back here in the States. After ordering up a pint out of curiosity at one of my favorite watering holes in New York, The Library Bar, I couldn’t help but scoff at the flat-tasting imposter I reluctantly choked down. Now I have to deal with being called a "beer snob." Ah, but if only my friend knew...
Of course, claims of serving anything that’s "the world’s best" rarely come without debate, and this one is no different. Just across the street from the Guinness Brewery, Ryan’s pub provides stiff competition for the best pint in Dublin, and has more than its fair share of ardent supporters. After all, there’s far less distance (a mile or so in reality) for the delivery trucks to travel to Ryan’s than to Mulligan’s, so the Guinness must be better, right? Well, I made the long trek over to Ryan’s, downed a pint of their offering, and, if you ask me, it’s a tie. However, because of its primo location in the heart of downtown Dublin, I have to give a slight overall edge to Mulligan’s.
Temple Bar is just a hop, skip, and a stagger down the street... but why bother? For the best Guinness in town—at a mere 3,95 euro a pint, nonetheless—Mulligan’s is the place to be.