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Rónán C.

Dublin

07/07/2009 1 photo

Just a quick one on the Living Room because I can't believe we're 3 reviews in and nobodies pointed out the best bit. Cathal, as a student, I'm disappointed in you.

Now, ladies and gents, if I may. The living room will feed you and your friends for free. How? If you call up in advance and have a big enough group they'll put out a free platter of finger food for you.

It's genius.

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Cathal C.

Dublin

07/07/2009 1 photo

The Living Room used to be called the Sidewalk Café not so long ago, but a few years ago they changed the name but left everything else exactly as it was.

The Living Room is a pub of many facets. It's right across the road from Cathal Brugha St DIT, so there's a lot of students there on weeknights, which means that the pubs pricing scale caters to this market: reasonably priced pints, pitchers, etc. The pub also has a really big TV screen, so a lot of people will come to watch matches there. The Living Room is located very close to the centre of Dublin's large Chinese community, so there are often a fair few Chinese amongst the bar's patrons. They also hold live music there from time to time.

There's also the fact that The Living Room is located in one of the more not-so-pleasant areas of the north inner-city. A while ago now, when I was young and innocent (so a WHILE ago), I went to see a gig in The Living Room. I think that the lad I was going with thought that it was some sort of trad night.

When we got there, it turned out that the gig was the second half of a double bill: The Celtic Supporters Club presents the Old Firm Derby, Followed by Gary Óg and the Sons of Éire.

For those of you unfamiliar with any of the elements above, the Old Firm derby is the means through which the citizens of Glasgow exercise their sectarian hatred for one another, and a quick Google search on Gary Óg or his former band, Éire Óg, will reveal that he is not one of the purveyors of the tourist-friendly trad as played in Temple Bar. In fact, Gary Óg more specialises in the sort of "let's kill the English/the Troubles were generally a positive thing" end of the oeuvre.

While this sounds pretty intimidating (and it really was), once we got into the swing of things, it was actually a really good night. The Living Room has a good sound system, nice smoking area, and for all of their terror-inducing appearance (shaved heads and tattooed forearms being the order of the day), the people there were actually really nice. You'd just have to be careful whose pint you knocked over.

So, in conclusion, The Living Room is good generally, though it can be a mixed bag, so tourists; mind yourself going in there wearing your St George's cross shorts.

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Comment from ross M. of The Living Room 13/09/2009    « Hide

Thank you for your review,                      It must be a… More »

Thank you for your review,
                    It must be a long time scince you visited as the Sidewalk changed to the Living room on 9/11/2002 and has no association with the Celtic supporters club. We now boast the largest beer garden in Dublin, an enormous range of beers and spirits and the largest range of sports live on our big screens. Check out  http://www.thelivingro... for details. Thanks

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Alexandra M.

Dublin

26/06/2009 1 photo

The Living Room has its good and bad points. Let's start with the positive. This pub has a selection of imported beers with you can order by the pint or pitcher. It also offers your typical pub food so you don't have to run out if you're hungry. There's a large seating area in the back that is heated which comes in handy most nights. Finally, there's a pool table.

Now for the bad: I guess my main problem with this pub is the atmosphere. The times that I have been here I found the customers to be slightly suspect. Situated right off the top of O'Connell Street, a lot of weirdos trickle in and out of here. Another not-so-nice thing about this place is the ladies' toilet. The doors don't lock and there's no toilet paper.

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