Trendy Bars, Dublin

Cocoon Bar which is owned by former Formula 1 driver Eddie Irvin.The bar is very trendy with lots of people watching going on and the latest fashion for both men and women. It once was the in place to go and been seen but apparently its full of Chav's. You really need to go yourself to check it out. Live DJ at the weekends. Nice to have something to eat during the day, the food is delicious.

Dress Code: No trainers or runners allowed. Dress code is very strict.

Went with KB & our new found friend the 'Mad Songwriter', to the Dice Bar. We loved this little bar, although we had a bit of a trapse through a not so cheerful area (I was subjected to racial abuse, by some not-so-cool strangers) to get there. (Tip, don't go looking for a cash-point/off licence in that area, have ready cash with you).

The Dice bar (owned by Huey from Fun Lovin' Criminals) was suitably dark ('run yer finger around the glass if you want to see if it's clean in dark bars' we were advised he he ), rather New York in style and played some fantastic music. This bar has the atmosphere a bar should have in my humble opinion, (ie that of a bar, rather than a community center). The décor of the pub is coloured in the dark black and reds of an East Village Bar in Manhattan. With the eclectic music mix and laid back feel, I wish I had this bar around the corner from me at home.

Dice bar people tend to be a cool, chilled out bunch, 20s & 30s age group, but it is the combination of the customers, the music, the decor and the staff, that make this bar fun to be in.

Beers are all on tap.

Highly recommended before progressing to The Voodoo Lounge

(Pic is of B B & New Found Friend - one Mr Egan - Songwriter, Playwrite, Film-maker, Band Manager and Personality Extraordinaire).

Dress Code: Anything goes!

Irelevant Tip - if you wear a hat in summer, expect comments of 'expecting snow' from total strangers ; )

A new stylish bar and restaurant. Ba Mizo has a super restaurant serving seafood try the chowder and crab sandwiches. They also have a la carte menu. When your sitting down for a pint or food, take a look under the table and you will see (through glass panes set in the floor of course) the river poddle - a tributary of the river liffey, flowing underneath you.

Dress Code: Very trendy no trainers or wet gear. Bouncers on the door as in most pubs in Dublin and they can be a law onto their own.

Samsara is a trendy superpub situated on Dawson Street just around the corner from Grafton Street and St Stephens Green. Samsara is the cafe/bar of the La Stampa hotel and continues the hotel's exotic, Oriental style. Samsara has an upstairs bar and balcony where you can check out the crowd below on a weekend night. A DJ provides the music and plays an eclectic mix of dance, ambient and rock music. The clientele of the bar are made of Dublin's most fashionable and trendiest thirtysomethings and is filled with media types and well-known faces.

After a major redo, Café-en-Seine still is one of the poshest places in town to go for a drink - and what a grand place it is!
The vast size and the beautiful decorations evoke the charm of an old-fashioned railway station mixed with belle-époque Parisian grandeur. It's the perfect place for an afternoon coffee or school-night pint. During the weekend the place is filled to the brim with posey types who don't seem to mind the high drink prices. And high they are: the last time I was there a pint of lager set me back EUR5.40, which is on average EUR1.20 more expensive than anywhere else in town!

Dress Code: The bouncer's attitude is somewhat annoying, so dress up to avoid disappointments. The bar staff tends to serve to suits first as they tip best, so be prepared for that too!

... then these are the pubs for you!! All on the Southsoide, strangely enough....

Café en Seine - Dawson St : If you havent got any designer stitches, do not even dream of darkening the doors of this La-Di-Da pub! (I've done it, and I was just too embarrased to stay for more than one drink in my combats & Oktoberfest 98 tshirt) It's lovely inside, but a pity about the clientele! Full of pretentious wankers.

Cocoon - Duke Lane, off Duke St : Full of good-lookers but clientele are too wary of using facial muscles to talk or laugh in case it cracks their make-up or Botox. Guys tend to be more predatory. It's a nice pub, but a shame about the snotty clientele.


SamSara - Dawson St : Gets the creme de la creme of Dublins rich & beautiful. Plenty of C-list celebrities pop in. I actually like it here, they do the most fabulous Toberlone creme cocktail :)

Lillies Bordello - off Grafton St. Again, don't even try unless you are either very rich, or drop-dead gorgeous. Explains why I haven't darkened its doors!! :)

The Octagon Bar, The Clarence Hotel, Temple Bar : Yep, it's the hotel U2 owns. It's a small room full of beautiful scantily clad ladies and predatory lounge lizards.

Dress Code: I dont why, but they're actually very easy to get into, I've never been stopped going in, even though I'm no designer-babe. Maybe it's because I'm blonde :) Carry ID if you plan on going to Lilys, Renards or somewhere equally swanky. Otherwise speak nicely, dont wear trainers or combats and you should be ok. Jeans are generally acceptable once you've got the right label.

For the likes of Lillies Bordello & Renards, it ya know loike rilly rilly helps if you're a stoned air-headed model or boy-band member, roysh?!

The Ocean Bar oozes coolness. It's something of a place you could find in harbor towns like Rotterdam or Hamburg. Just on the hip docklands of Dublin and underneath a new apartment complex the sleek interior and the all-glass surroundings are a welcome change to the more closed-up pubs.

The food is good, if a bit pricey, but the pints are affordable. So in a nutshell: it's new, it's hip, it's trendy, it's off the beaten track.

Dress Code: The usual; casual without the bleached jeans, tracksuits and runners.

A small busy wine bar. I've never been much of a fan of wine bars in Ireland but I enjoyed the atmosphere in here. And the wine :-) And as you look out the window you can see a mural/photograph of Da Vinci's Last Supper posed for by a multiracial, multi-gender crowd of people. It should keep the conspiracy theorists interested for a while spotting the differences between this and the original. I've never read the Da Vinci Code so I just liked it for its novelty value.

Dress Code: Don't think there's a dress code