The Dubliner Pub

I haven’t signed on to Unilocal in years. I’m only on here now because I feel really compelled to share my experience here. So, basically, no place in 3 years has made me feel the urge to waste my time writing a review. Until now.
I recently moved to the area, and driving by this place, I knew I wanted to go in. I read somewhere also, that Dubliner Pub plays the PPV UFC fights, which is great! Sometimes if I want to watch a fight, and a friend hasn’t ordered it, I just go to a bar and watch, because I tend to like the atmosphere of watching with a bunch of other drunks. I read the reviews of this place, and they seemed pretty good. So, the night before Christmas Eve, I went in alone to grab a drink. It was definitely my type of establishment. It wasn’t overcrowded (I do realize it was an off peak time, but still), it had cool old Irish pub feel, good beers, dart board, lacked pretension. I knew I liked it as soon as I walked in. Then, the bartender changed that.
If you Google Image search «comic book guy simpsons», and put a Bruins shirt on him, you’ll know exactly who I’m referring to.
There were about 9 or 10 people, besides myself, in the entire place. I remember he walked up and could not have acted more inconvenienced by me. I don’t need someone to pretend to be cheery when they’re not happy, but just be a person, not a miserable prick. I asked him a very simple question; not a hard one, just a simple one: «besides Sam Adams, do you have any other seasonal beers?» That was it. This guy seriously acted as though I’d asked him to climb a f’ing mountain. He grumbled, in probably the most annoyed way possible, «mhmgmm», which, by the way he pointed to the list, probably translated to: «just what’s there» or something like that. Then the guy walked away, like I was a f’ing nobody. I can understand getting annoyed by needy customers, people who ask a bunch of dumb things, etc. but i just asked him a simple question, because many times there are options not listed, or maybe one of the listed is that brewer’s seasonal. Whatever. I’m not easily offended or hard to please, and I can hang with anyone, but this guy was hands down the rudest bartender I’ve ever seen (and I’ve seen them all). I just kept thinking: this guy is really bad at his job. I understand people have bad days, and who wants to work a night at an empty bar and make no $ two days before Christmas? But deal with it man.
When I asked about the UFC playing there, he got irritated again, mumbled something pissy about «if you want to hang out with a bunch of Brazillians» or something like that, and walked away. He just really wanted to get back to his crossword puzzle, I guess. He also mentioned, when I asked about how busy it gets and if there’s a cover on fight nights, that he doesn’t work Saturdays, only twice a week. I seriously wish he just SAID what he was trying to tell me, which was basically: «fuck you». I made a comment about how he obviously didn’t own the place. I mentioned it had good reviews on Unilocal,and you’d think that’s the moment I just got there, because he finally spoke. He said: «you don’t really read those reviews do you? You know they’re just extortion», ver-f’ing-batim.
For record, this review is not extortion, and it’s definitely not me taking time out of my schedule just to be a dick and slander a business (even though, technically it isn’t slander if it’s true). And its not me saying this bar sucks. I think this bar is probably awesome. But because of that one guy, my experience here sucked. I was actually really disappointed, because he just made the place something it shouldn’t have been, if that makes sense. I ordered two drinks, my second being a Mad Elf, only because it was 12%abv, and I just wanted to get a buzz and get the f out. The whole time I kept thinking «I’m not tipping this fool».but I still had to. I just had a bad first impression that will keep me from going back to this place or recommending it. Which is too bad.
This review was only supposed to be a couple lines.

Unless you are a loud, drunk dude don’t bother going here. Service terrible (waitstaff more interested in their smartphones than patrons) and food nothing to write home about. Much better options in the area. Only good thing here is a variety of beers on tap.

Do yourself a favor and hit up Toad or Christopher’s.

Friendly, cozy, and welcoming are the best words to describe the Dubliner (formerly Spirit). I have frequented this place in one-​form-​or-​another for a while and it has consistently been a good place to grab a beer and have a good time. Food is two steps above your average pub grub too.
It is evident that this is the type of place where they want to see you again. Take today for example: I went in to watch the Nebraska game with some friends for lunch and due to a staff shortage, our food was taking a bit longer than normal. None of us really noticed because we were cheering on the Huskers, but the manager decided to take one of the meals off the bill to make up for the wait — and we didn’t even ask!
I definitely recommend this place if you’re looking for somewhere to get some soul-​warming fare over some good conversation (while watching the game, of course).

They took the sign ‘SPIRIT BAR” down and put one up that said «THE DUBLINER» and literally changed nothing else about the place. It’s the same ersatz-​Irish bar covered with kitsch, with TVs for football and awkwardly placed dartboards. The food is good, the tap selection and booze choices are excellent, but the price of everything is high. Food and drink value for the money here is very low.
Service is about the same level of efficiency as it was at Spirit, which is to say, medium-​low.
They host Geeks Who Drink trivia, which is a step up from the Stump! chumps, and they have a money dart night for drop-​ins who don’t want the commitment of a regular dart league. They have beer and wing specials for football Sundays (4 domestic bottled beers and a plate of wings for 20 dollars, hooray)
Saturdays I know they show very specific college football games, though I have only a passing knowledge of college ball.
It’s a nice enough place, but with so many other great choices in the area, you can see why they really go out of their way to have events — unless there’s a thing you’re going to here, it’s hard to know why you’d ever say «Hmm, you know, let’s go to the Dubliner.»

I tried out The Dubliner for the first time tonight. I just had to take the time to give this pub a positive review for intentionally having a good vegan option. I ordered the «Dubliner Vegetarian Plate» which is a salad plus a bun-​less, in-​house recipe veggie burger. Not only was it vegan and delicious, it was healthy, too.
I generally don’t associate pub food with healthy vegan food, so kudos to The Dubliner for giving us health-​conscious plant-​eaters an option!

What’s in a name? The old Spirit still haunts this space — in the most corporeal form, as it’s practically the same bar. Taps a plenty, TVs as far as the quickly-​blinding eye can see and an oh so similar, fry focused menu. Don’t fear the Ghost-​Chili Insanity wings — they’re flavorful and far from deadly.
I went with a pint of Troegs Hopback Amber and a shaved cheese steak sub ($ 11), and was pleasantly surprised. The caliber of the kitchen has kicked up notch since its past life, and I’ll gladly reap those rewards. Still expensive for what you get, it’s proper grub du pub in a quantity that tiptoes past comfortable. Also opted for a side of their curry dip for the hand cut fries — watery, with no real curry punch. I’d pass on the app order, and sample for yourself as accoutrement to any plate with a side of chips.
The atmosphere is great to watch the game, engage in a rousing round of darts, ideal for pub trivia (Monday, it’s Stump; Thursdays are for Geeks Who Drink) and, if the fever strikes, suitable for a pint and mighty fine cheesesteak.
Suggestion to management: 25c wing nights? The public demands it!

If all you want is a bar, this’ll do. Other than that, nothing special at all.

Used to be Spirit, they have always been good with our NC State group in showing our sporting events with sounds. Great beer selection. Lagunitas IPA on tap is my regular choice.
Good and varied selection of food, especially chicken wings.
Highly recommended.

Great pub, has a good feel to it and enjoyable decorations. Can’t really go wrong!
(haven’t tried their food though).

Mmmm’kay. Not really a decision I feel great about BUT! Went to The Dubliner Pub on a whim and wasn’t really all that thrilled with my whimsy. My girlfriend and I got the black and blue burger and the beef short ribs, and neither was really anything to speak about. The burger was just your run of the mill, made anywhere burger with not a hellova lot of black or blue to justify its name. The short ribs were small, overly sauced, and somewhat stringy.
These items aren’t the hardest things to make, truth be told. I mean a burger should be awesome no matter where you go. Its a burger. They are good like that. But making something so basic under par for an american staple is like killing a unicorn. There I said it.
Coupled on that the place was JAMMED on a wednesday night and really didn’t lend to anything pleasant for atmosphere or ambiance. This is a generic irish sports bar. Use it accordingly.

These people. Do not get me started. I used to like this place when it was Spirit. And how can a good sports fan hate a place with such an abundance of large-​screen TVs?
Well, my friends and I went in there at 7:30 on a Saturday night. Prime time for a pub, right? Three people, no extreme demands. We sat down at a table, and we waited. We thought someone from the wait staff would arrive and get our drinks. We saw people with «Dubliner Pub» T-​shirts walking back and forth. I counted three different people passing by.
We sat at our table for 25 minutes, and no one acknowledged us, not once. No menus, no one asking us what we would like to drink. We were understanding after 10 minutes because it looked busy in there, but no one on the wait staff even acknowledged us after 25 minutes.
After that, we walked out. And we won’t be back. The food isn’t that great, and there are plenty of other bars in the area where we will watch our sports games.

Terrible service and food! One word: MOLD. Found a nickel sized spot of blue mold on our English muffin and when we showed the waitress she didn’t apologize, offer to take it off the bill, or even remove it from the table. Went for brunch and despite the restaurant being rather empty, the waitress walked passed our table several times before acknowledging us. The brunch menu looks good but the food was a huge disappointment. The spinach on the eggs Benedict tasted frozen & microwaved, the eggs were cold, and the «home fries» were undercooked and tasteless. For a place that offers Irish food they should be ashamed of how their potatoes are prepared — they were utterly inedible. Went to Christopher’s down the street afterward and it was fantastic. Skip The Dubliner, eat at Christopher’s instead!

Excellent, attentive, and friendly service. Great wings. I don’t remember too well what it looked like prior to recent renovations (as the Spirit Bar) and renaming to the Dubliner, but it looks great now. I will be back and will recommend to friends.

The bar changed it’s name from «The Spirit Bar» to «The Dubliner».
I was so pleased with the menu and the service. The food was absolutely outstanding. I recommend the corned beef and swiss. My friend had the shepherds pie… amazing. I have to say, it was the best menu I’ve seen in a long time. I will definitely be back and recommend this.

So not fair. Read my review of Spirit. Except now you can’t play darts anymore, so awful.
Good wings and great array of televisions and close to porter sq.

We were so excited to eat brunch here while visiting friends from out of town since they reopened and redesigned the menu, etc., but were greeted with «sorry, we usually serve brunch but our chef just quit»…NOT what I want to here on a Sunday morning :-/​
Womp womp… hope they get a new chef soon or the old one comes back… the place looks like it could be great!

The Dubliner Pub was formerly Spirit bar but it has made some serious changes. We stopped going to spirit because it had gone downhill fast with the quality of people in there. The only redeeming quality was that they had darts. Big changes have gone on recently though.
I went there this past Friday night when a few friends told me to meet there there. I had no idea where it was because I had never head of it since it had just recently opened back up. When I arrived at what use to be Spirit I was not happy because I knew what the place had turned into. However once I got inside the place looked very different. It was brighter, cleaner, more inviting, and the clientele had improved greatly. They did some construction and added some different booths and there are TV’s all over.
Before I even finished my first beer, which was ice cold and delicious, a guy came over with a tray full of lemon drop shots and said he was the owner and thanks for stopping in these are on the house. We had a group of about 12 people so that’s a huge sign of generosity on his part. He said that they had shut down to renovate and improve the quality of the bar and from what I saw it worked. They have all new kitchen equipment but I did not get to try any food because we had just come from dinner. They also installed new pumps and equipment for the kegs and taps. All of the beers we had were ice cold and didn’t have that «dirty tap» taste at all.
Another huge seller about this place is when a game is on, such as the Bruins, they don’t play shitty background music they play the actual game sound so you can hear the announcers and get into the game. This may sound minor to most but this is huge for me.
Overall I would say that if you have been here when it was Spirit and maybe had a bad experience give this place another shot. It is a whole new atmosphere and you wont be disappointed.

We went here all the time when it was called the Spirit Bar and have been a few times now that they are called the Dubliner. There have been a few changes with the new name and décor, but most of the menu and staff have remained.
Tons of TVs to catch whatever sporting event you are looking for and lots of draft and bottle beer selections. Since the conversion to the Irish pub, they have an extensive selection of Irish Whiskeys to choose from. The food is great bar/​pub food. My go-to’s are always the wings (18 flavors!) and the Hangover Helper Burger.
Even with the change, this place is still great and we will continue to come back for the friendly service, great food and environment!

I have lived in Porter Sq for a few months and just found my favorite bar. Been going every weekend for the last month. Great atmosphere, great food, friendly bartenders and plenty of friendly folks to share a drink with. There is a decent beer selection and the prices are very fair. There is an abundance of flatscreens making this place ideal for a gameday. Head in on a Friday night and there’s a good chance I’ll buy you a beer.

The Spirit Bar is now called Dubliner Pub. We were there on their first Saturday and it was fantastic. Perhaps the best veggie burger I have ever had!
We had a Groupon but will definitely go back! Definitely!

What a great new Pub! The Dubliner Pub, formerly Spirit Bar just opened in Porter Square. This cozy pub is a great place to watch the game, not a bad seat in the house for any of their 15 flat screen tvs showing every sport you can think of!
And just when I thought it couldn’t get any better with an enormous selection of beer, from local, micro brews and the «big guys», the food is amazing. I had the smoked cod and chips, never had it before, and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to have «regular» fish n chips again. The flavor was incredible. I can’t wait to try brunch!
The service was great. The place was packed and the servers were able to keep up and do it with a smile. The owner was on hand to greet everyone and make sure everything was to our liking. I can’t say enough good things about this place.