Grogan's Castle Lounge in Dublin

22/05/2025: Six minute walk from Temple Bar area, traditional Irish pub, friendly atmosphere, good food, nice pints, traditional music after 7 PM…highly recommend.

09/05/2025: Wanted to hear some trad music so my fiance and I figured we'd arrive super early (1.5 hrs early) have some food, some beers and wait for the music to but When we show up music was already playing and the place was already crowded. No big deal. A waiter that greeted us at the door and told us if we wanted to sit down we had to go to the beer garden. Fine. But there was a side room with a bunch of open tables inside. I didn't want to be the pushy tourist and ask about it so We go sit outside to have our food and our first round. Out there we notice several people being ushered in by the staff and they were acting all hush hush about it. We'll we go back inside after eating and discover they had sat all these people at the extra tables! The beef I have is, we weren't told about any table wait list and their website said they didn't take reservations so I'm wondering how these people were so special they weren't told to just sit outside like us and we're waived inside for a table. I was even super patient and took my order to the bar to get my food outside. Whatever... we finished our food and went Inside got another round an just stood by the bar to listen to the music. Anyways, place was great but massively packed and busy. The music was great. The Guinness and food was great. The only issue was the service. Maybe I needed to slip them 20 euros when I walked in to be on the special secret list if that's a thing. I have no idea. Maybe we were just being disrespected as we are American tourists with the current political atmosphere. Regardless. I'd might try to go back on a future visit if I was in the area