Gilhooleys Tavern

In the latest twist in the great smaller beer glasses = bigger profits saga, this place has replaced all the standard pint glasses with some ‘trendy’ smaller sized glasses, specifically aimed to fool the innocent punter. The new glasses are 465ml (closer to a schooner) and they charge AUD$ 10 for a standard Aussie mainstream beer. Sorry that is very uncool Gilhooleys. My posses and I won’t be back.

I can’t really say I enjoyed anything about my experience at Gilhooleys. It started with an $ 11 Guinness. Seems steep for beer, no? Then we sat down at the table service area and had the Irish Stew and Chicken Parmigiana for dinner, which were not good at all. The mains just didn’t taste good, the chips and pastry that came on the side tasted like old fryer grease, and the salad came with no dressing on or near it. Add to that the fact that every surface I touched was sticky, and the service was slow to the point of practically being non-​existent, and I have to wonder — who goes here when it’s not St. Patrick’s Day?! There are definitely better places to drink and eat at in the area. I was further unimpressed when the server handed me the credit card terminal to pay and she had turned on the screen that asks for additional gratuities. I’m not sure if they customarily do that at Gilhooleys, but I’ve been to fine dining restaurants in Brisbane with stellar service that don’t even turn on this screen. So honey, if you want to be tipped even when you disappear half way through the meal and someone else has to take over your table for you, you better move to North America.

I attended a group event here in the middle of the week that went very well. The place definitely has a pub feel, yes, that’s what it is. The counter where I ordered the food was sticky so that was unfortunate. But other than that, all was positive. I ordered a pasta dish (chicken pesto linguine) and it was delicious, certainly of much higher quality than what I expected of a place of this sort. Also worth noting is that it didn’t take forever to get it, which can often be the case at a place like this. Overall, I had a positive experience.

One thing that I love about Irish pubs like Gilhooleys is that the you can be dressed in your shadiest get-​up and still feel welcomed. At Gilhooleys it doesn’t matter whether you are coming home from work in your office clothes or dressed in your trackie-​dacks. Gilhooleys is a no-​fuss Irish pub situated in a very convenient spot in the city.
Honestly, Gilhooleys is just you average Irish pub. They offer pub food, beer and your standard bar drinks. It is not fancy but that why would anyone expect an Irish pub to be fancy? It can get a little loud and filled with drunks but I find it fairly tolerable and sometimes it is fun to laugh at the drunkards stumbling over.
I have never had issues with service at Gilhooleys, the bar staff have always been pretty efficient, even on their busiest night– St Patricks day. They will sometimes have live entertainment on their busiest nights– live bands, irish dancers which sets a fun mood in the air.
As far as Irish pubs go, Gilhooleys does a pretty good job. It is in a convenient location in the city and welcomes just about anyone (as long as you are over 18, of course).

Always busy no matter what time of day, Gilhooleys is right at the heart of the Brisbane CBD. While other pubs and clubs have made way for new homes over the years, Gilhooleys has been around since 1995. And its vibe has remained stoically the same over that time.
It looks like an Irish pub, what with all of the heavy polished wooden furniture and fittings and everything, though I had a friend insist that all Brisbane Irish pubs actually look like English pubs. (I have no idea if he’s right.) And it actually feels a bit like a lonely Irish pub during the day, despite its busyness, significant size and bustling location — or maybe I just find old, heavy wooden furniture depressing. However it does seem to me that the daytime crowd at Gilhooleys includes amongst football maniacs and cheap students a few depressed, scattered drunks, drinking their sorrows away alone and off in their own world. Not the most pleasant thing to gaze upon.
On Friday and Saturday nights, Gilhooley’s is always particularly busy. And though it has elements of the sleazy roughness of The Victory Hotel to it, Gilhooley’s crowds are strangely unfriendly. Instead of girls gossiping in the toilets, you can expect a frosty silence. I don’t think I’ve ever seen neighbouring tables interact with each other here, either. It’s like there’s an unwritten code that unless you’re cracking onto someone, you shouldn’t bother with pleasantries at all.
Gilhooleys is a place that many Brisbanites will stop in at on their way to somewhere else, probably nightclubbing in the Valley. Because of its location and late opening hours, the pub manages to retain the night’s drunks. This can make for some interesting incidents, like the time I saw a bouncer throw a guy into the wooden banister on the stairs and it cracked apart.
Given other alternatives, I’d probably not go to Gilhooleys. I’m not a huge beer drinker (certainly a favourite drink here), I’m not cheering for a team and I’m not celebrating the end of my uni exams.
Or maybe I’ve been spoiled by Brisbane’s intake of upmarket clubs.

A wise drunkard once said «charming Irish bars are charming». This is true in terms of Gilhooleys located in the Brisbane CBD.
I had one of my best nights out here, though there were a lot of extrinsic elements working in my favor. My entire university course cohort had just finished our degree and we all descended on Gilhooleys like a mob of drunken drama students… in fact that is exactly what we were. It was decided that we’d head down to Gilhooleys as it was a Friday night and it was known that they have a $ 5 deal on cocktails every Friday. Collectively the throng devoured countless cocktails and boogeyed and shaked to a variety of trashy 90s tunes. As the drinks began to take effect our moves of motive became more lurid. The atmosphere at Gilhooleys towards excitable and unruly behavior was quite relaxed and security just let us go for it, within reason of course.
I have since returned to Gilhooleys on a number of more casual occasions. Conversely I’ve found the atmosphere to be a lot more relaxed and quite mature. I’ll admit at times I felt a bit young being there. It seems to draw an early 30s late 20s crowd. This of course is just the situation and not a rule.
Ultimately, Gilhooleys is an awesome Irish pub, which will be as fun as you make it. I’ll definitely return to Gilhooleys but if I were looking for people my own age and for something a bit more frivolous, I’d definitely head elsewhere.