The Dan O’Connell Hotel

Had food her ahead of the cinema. It took over an hour for it to come out and the place wasn’t even busy. It took so long we missed the film.
Adding insult to injury, my steak was really crusty in a very bad way. It was like it had been cooked yesterday, left and cooked again today and it wasn’t medium not rare.
What made it worse was that the staff was entirely unapologetic about the food or the delay.
I won’t eat there again…

I really like the Dan! I started coming a while back, with their $ 1 taco nights! Since then there’s been a range of events to keep me coming back, from the wonderful poet community who comes along for their open mic events, performances, trivia, $ 12 pot and Parma night. This place is so close to the city, yet has so much character and soul to it. Other pluses are an incredible selection of booze (tonight they had moo brew on tap), great free parking, bike parking, inside and outside seating, and continuously friendly, down to earth barpeople. If you’re ever feeling low, come in for a drink and a sit, there’s so many beautiful vignettes of life erupting in this place where old-​timers and hipsters seem to co-​exist in relative harmony, you can’t help but have the cockles of your seafaring heart warmed!
Oh and I barely touched on the food — I’ve never been disappointed before! They do a great Parma, tasty selection of burgers and more obscure fare too, such as avocado fries and eggplant-​fennel chips! Must remember to actually pause to take a photo before I inhale it all next time!

I really love this place i have so many fond memories, Most recently my little sister had her 18^th birthday party here.
The staff set the function room up really nicely & were very helpful throughout the night.
They have a large selection of imported & local beers on tap which I like & the menu was mostly Irish meals I had the beef & Guinness Pie it was so nice.

They do these poetry afternoons (I think they call ‘em salons) on weekends and seem to really get involved in the Overload Poetry Festival held in September. Any pub that embraces something as obviously uncool and socially awkward as poetry needs to be applauded.
In reality, some of the poetry readings (recitals?) I’ve caught at the Dan O’Connell have been pretty good. There’s this cross over from hip hop into poetry these days and it kind of takes the edge off of all that musing about tides and seasons. But, there’s still enough of the hippy shit drifting in there to make the experience slightly gag worthy.
Apart from the poetry, you’d have to label this pub as a student type place — given its location, that’s a bit of a no-​brainer. They do generous and reasonably priced food, they do beer from a tap. That is all.

I did it. I switched my regular Wednesday morning coffee catch up with a friend from a perfectly respectable café to the pub. And I liked it.
I’m not sure when it started, but a while back I noticed the Dan O’Connell had posters proclaiming they do coffee from 7am. It makes sense and it doesn’t at the same time. It doesn’t make sense because it’s a pub, and a vaguely Irish themed one at that — what would the people here know about coffee? And why would they be up early enough to make it? But it really does make sense when you look at the location — this spot on Canning Street is a bottleneck for the thousands of cyclists who ride this way each day while they wait to cross Prince Street. A captive market.
Anyway, it just so happens that the Dan is exactly half way between my friend and I, so we gave it a go. Surprisingly, the coffee was completely drinkable. I’ve certainly had better, but for the novelty of ‘drinking’ at a pub by 9am (a new record for me, I think) and enjoying the Dan’s prime position to watch sexy (and not so sexy) peeps cycling to work made it completely worthwhile.

When I lived closer this used to be my Tuesday night. Open mic runs on this night and used to be accompanied by a cheap steak night. I’m happy to say the menu has been fleshed out to more than meat and chips, building into solid quality meals including pasta and desserts.
The PA suits your solo musicians and quiet three pieces, which is what I normally came to find, and one cannot enter the venue without having a look. In the warmer months the seating outside by the street and bike path is magical for a brew, and there is also space out the back for those not wanting to be seem to be leaving.
Pool table and function space to one side, anything and everything can happen here.

My local pub and a secret gem in Carlton, Not located near any other venues the Dan O’Connell is definitely one aimed at the locals.
The small irish pub is a cosy venue with a variety of events on during the week. Tuesdays kick off an ‘open mic night’, Wednesdays can see you picking your brain at ‘Trashbag Trivia’ and (my favourite night) Thursdays can see you testing the limitations of your stomach with $ 1 Tacos.
The staff are friendly and in one instance the lovely bar tender saw discomfort in my face and came over with a glass of water to help me down my 12^th taco. The record stands at 23 tacos, practice makes perfect i say!

I never thought I’d be the kind of girl to say «see you at the local» but once I found Dan’s, I didn’t want to go anywhere else. It’s pretty much a hybrid of everything I love in life — cheap beer, Mexican food and Irish fiddle jam sessions.
First and foremost, the Dan is one of Melbourne’s more famous Irish bars, putting on the famous Party in the Park every St Patrick’s day, and year round it remains a home for Guinness lovers.
But more-​so than just a simple Irish pub, the Dan also puts on an incredible Thursday night…
They have (drum roll please) One Dollar Tacos.
Now, I know what you’re thinking, Mexican food can often be dangerous and it is one instance in which paying more might save you from a painful/​awkward bathroom experience. But I can assure you, you can trust your ol’ mate Jackie in this instance, as these tacos are life changing.
I can do 6 (on a good night) and one day I hope to do 10, but Taco champion ‘Richard the Destroyer’ has done 23 in one sitting and for that, he gets his name up on the board behind the bar.
How many can you do?