River Cafe in Dublin

14/12/2025: Old, cosy traditional pub, with genuinely nice staff (shout out to young dark haired bartender who had the patience of a saint). Great buzzy atmosphere. Will call again!

05/12/2025: The Lord Edward made it onto my “Dublin Pub Crawl” list thanks to a bartender at the Guinness Gravity Bar who swore it had a great pint of Guinness and insisted we check out the upstairs. Unfortunately, when we arrived, the upstairs was closed. Still no idea what is up there or why it was recommended. This is a small pub with a unique bar layout and plenty of age behind it. And by “age,” I mean it has not seen a remodel in a very, very long time. The men’s room is basically just a wall with a drain on the floor (which I found highly amusing), and according to the bartenders, the women’s bathroom used to be a broom closet that was converted once women were allowed into pubs. That alone tells you everything you need to know about how much this place has changed over the years. Very authentic and cool in its own way. We stopped in late on a Thursday night. The crowd was wrapping up, so we managed two rounds before last call. The bartenders signal last call the old school way, by flicking the lights on and off. Gave me a good laugh. As for the pint… it was okay. One bartender knew what he was doing and poured a proper Guinness. The other poured it the way Americans do when they have no idea what they are doing, and he did it consistently. I thoroughly enjoyed our visit to The Lord Edward and got plenty of laughs out of the whole experience. The company was great and the pub absolutely has character. Now, if we can only get that one bartender on board with pouring Guinness correctly… We still want to know what is upstairs.