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Beer of the Week (w/e 27th April 2025) with Thuck Phat
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Detail Pages
The Dolphin, WC1
Kings Cross
WC1
WC1H 9DW
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 5½ of 10) see review guidelines
Bucking Fastard left this review about The Dolphin
Really quite close to St Pancras/King Cross which is just over the road,this street corner Irish pub is a proper old school boozer with a two room layout.The left side is a square public bar with a few high tables,a drinking shelf and flatscreens showing rugby league on my saturday evening visit and lots of room for vertical drinking.Through a door is a larger lounge,still very basic with a small raised section,overbright lighting and besides some Guiness adverts ,some Toon memorabilia.Bench seating with brittania tables yet also lots of room for vertical drinking.
As you might expect no real ale,not everyone on the Guiness and I ordered a half of Neck Oil,a serving size that is not possible in an Irish pub ,so a pint it was at £7.Lots of couples in the lounge ,which soon resulted in the women gossiping at the seats,their men drinking vertically at the bar.
You dont have to be Irish to enjoy this pub,but it is a basic boozer,friendly without the irishness shoved down your throat.Fine for some keg beer ,like Guiness just dont order a half !.
On 13th October 2024
- rating: 6
[User has posted 2936 recommendations about 2936 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Moby Duck left this review about The Dolphin
A two room Irish forward pub, ably described as ever by Pub SignMan. No real ale on when I visited leaving just a standard keg lineup with a couple of craft options of which I chose Salt Jute. A nice enough looking pub but the generaly mundane beer lineup brings the score down.
On 10th July 2023
- rating: 6
[User has posted 2151 recommendations about 2118 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Pub SignMan left this review about The Dolphin
This is a two room backstreet boozer, with a great location, just over the Euston Road from St Pancras station. Entering through the corner door, you find yourself in a small public bar - a rather basic space with bare boards, plain painted walls and the servery to the rear. Seating is limited to a few high tables and stools and a few old boys were perched at various points around the room, watching the live cricket on the TV screens whilst a 60;s and 70;s country music soundtrack played over the top. The bar has a tongue and groove panelled counter and modest bar back with some inlaid gold lettering across the top. A door to the right leads past a staircase that goes down to the toilets, and on into the larger lounge bar. This room is also bare boarded, and has low wood panelled walls with dated floral wallpaper above - the paper looks like it has been here since some of the country tunes that were playing were recorded! Nice curved padded banquettes along two walls make for comfy seating options, whilst to the rear, there’s a drinking ledge with high stools and another around a central pillar. A TV screen in here remained off, with visual distraction instead coming from old photos, whiskey mirrors, Guinness memorabilia, a cabinet full of miniature figures and houses, various random certificates and a map of Ireland. A surprising amount of pavement seating is also available, should the weather permit.
Just two cask options here, and the Greene King IPA was off when I arrived, leaving Sharps Doom bar as the only alternative. I was served a middling pint by a proper old-school landlord who was somewhat short on formalities.
I only visited this pub as a result of a recommendation by the barmaid at the London Welsh Centre, who said I might enjoy the interior. Well, I certainly did, as it has a real timewarp feel about it, especially in the evocative lounge bar, which you can imagine being packed in days gone by, but in which I was the sole customer on this occasion. The lack of decent beer options would be a serious prohibitor for me to return, as much as I like the pub itself, but it seems to serve a few locals well and that might be all they need to keep things ticking along.
On 30th October 2022
- rating: 6
[User has posted 3350 recommendations about 3350 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Delboy 20 left this review about The Dolphin
Nice little pub just off the main drag. Had Whitstable Bay pale ale which was fine. Enjoyed a chat with some Newcastle fans after the football. Well worth a visit.
On 18th March 2022
- no rating submitted
[User has posted 1821 recommendations about 1692 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Just a quick pint, then I'm off left this review about The Dolphin
Quite an attractive, if old-fashioned, side-street Irish pub retaining some interesting historic features. The main entrance on the corner leads into the larger public bar, whereas the less-obvious side door along Hastings Street accesses the lounge bar / 'restaurant'. Both are simply furnished, with basic traditional decor. Just Greene King IPA from one of the pair of handpumps (and adorned with Six Nations tat at that) in the right-hand bar on this visit, but the landlord was as welcoming as usual and we were offered a round of free St Paddy's Day +1 mini-Guinnesses so you can't argue about the hospitality here. So, hardly exciting, but an option for a quiet pint if waiting for a train from the nearby railway termini.
On 24th March 2019
- rating: 6
[User has posted 8679 recommendations about 8678 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Lester Ford left this review about The Dolphin
Many years since I’ve been to the Dolphin, it hasn’t really changed internally and still has 2 different bar areas, an upper and lower area separated by the stairs down to the gents toilets.
St Austall Tribute was the only ale on which I didn't fancy so I went onto bottles of Kippenberger Fruit Cider, fine to start with but after 2 they become rather sweet and sickly, this coupled with the numerous pints I'd consumed all day.
We stopped for several hours, packed with lots of Spurs lads after their semi final defeat, boxing on the tv helped wile the evening away.
A decent evening, I may revisit again when I'm not so under the influence.
On 30th May 2017
- rating: 8
[User has posted 80 recommendations about 78 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Real Ale Ray left this review about The Dolphin
A traditional and basic pub, that looks as though nothing has been altered in a good few years. Greene King IPA and Fullers Pride seem to be the two main stays beer wise, so I went for the Pride, which was in good shape and served from the down to earth and friendly manageress. The bar counter top was unusual in the fact that the bar top was in red leather. This pub satisfied my curiosity for a visit, but nothing adventurous beer wise would draw me back.
On 31st July 2016
- rating: 4
[User has posted 3645 recommendations about 3645 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Tris C left this review about The Dolphin
A first in here for this pub with its Watney Combe Reid roundel and rather fine older Reid's tilling. Very basic certainly but not in an unpleasant way and indeed very Irish but not some awful Oirish-themed dive; rather melodic Irish folk tunes played at a muted level over the gramophone. Actually quite nice, I spied the main bar - the pub is split - and there are vestiges of what I assume to be art-deco stained glass; snooker on the telly. A friendly barmaid, and a perfectly decent half of Fuller's London Pride at £2.15 is about the going rate around here; a second pump, clip reversed, dispensed Greene King's IPA. Rather a quiet place save from an invasion of German tourists, I might be tempted back. Might be...
On 26th April 2016
- rating: 4
[User has posted 2208 recommendations about 2165 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
john gray left this review about The Dolphin
Old style pub tucked away from busy Kings Cross.Bar and small lounge.Bar dominated by a pool table.Nice for a quiet drink if you like Gk -ipa on cask.
On 20th April 2016
- rating: 5
[User has posted 1023 recommendations about 1009 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
hondo . left this review about The Dolphin
Tucked away just off the main drag. A bar and lounge with an old style tiled exterior. 2 real ales and food served. The pub has a dartboard and a pool table.
On 15th August 2014
- no rating submitted
[User has posted 2933 recommendations about 2866 pubs]