By Emily Hull

Xico

Hidden in plain view, this Mexican themed bar is located on Baggot Street Lower. One of the best meals you’ll get in town, Xico offers a concise Mexican inspired food menu with a house cocktail to match. Night-time brings a free-spirited atmosphere, where you can dance all night ’til the early morn’ with the all the songs you love to dance and get jiggy with to. A great spot for cocktails, food, and a dance.

• Food: chicken wings
• Drink: Jalapeño Business cocktail

Café en Seine

Emphasising the size of this bar to someone who has never entered through its red doors really is a challenge. Three floors on Dawson Street host four bars, a sizeable dance floor and DJ booth – perfect for a night out on the weekend. With excellent table service all night long, and food service until 9.30pm, what can’t you get in the place? Name a cocktail and the bar staff will make it for you, along with some signatures that are worth a try. A large food menu offers anything that you could fancy seven days a week. There’s also a Sunday only brunch menu, complimented by a live jazz band, to help with the fear from Saturday night. The perfect place for a sophisticated lunch, a seductive dinner or a night full of dancing.

• Food: Seafood chowder
• Drink: Lavender Elyx cocktail

House Dublin

Wine on tap and a beer garden you’ll want at your own house, what’s not to love? Located only a stone’s throw away from St Stephen’s Green, The Sugar Club, and The National Concert Hall, this beautiful Georgian townhouse on Leeson Street Lower hosts a secluded sophisticated spot. Here you can enjoy an audacious cocktail of an evening, or an atmospheric lunch on your break from the office. Your choice. Chin chin.

• Food: Farmhouse Chicken sandwich (lunch menu)
• Drink: The Last Word cocktail

 

Dice Bar

Word on the street is that Smithfield is the new IT area of Dublin, and if you’re looking for somewhere to go, look no further than Dice Bar. On the corner of Queen Street and Benburb Street, this is the perfect place if you’re looking for a cool spot to show your friends from out of town; want to watch a match without the crowds of the sports bars; or just want to go for a drink on a Friday after work – or any day of the week for that matter! Unique to Dublin, Dice Bar is known for its black interior – but not for its lack of daylight. Far from a standard dark pub, it’s flooded with light and has a chilled out atmosphere that lets you people-watch out through the huge windows.With its own craft beers, chilled out atmosphere, great DJ’s, and friendly staff, why haven’t you gone here before?!

• Recommended Drink: Augustine Steam Lager

 

Idlewild

Idlewild is one of Dublin’s newest and most secretive bars. Outside, there’s a neon sign that leads you in with the simple word “bar”, but once you’re in you won’t want to leave – trippy boho wallpaper and a giant disco ball will urge you to stay! The bar sits in a small space between Market Bar and a cycle shop on Fade Street. The Spotify playlist will keep you dancing all night and the daily special cocktails will be the fuel to keep you going! Part of me wants to tell you to go here because it is so goddamn cool, the other half wants me to keep this place a secret so I can have it all to myself….

Go there! It’s so cool you’ll love it! But please don’t go here – leave it for me.

•  Food: Classic Toastie
• Drink: Thursday’s special