McCarthy’s Irish Bar

I’ve gone several times, but only for equine related events, when this dark little place explodes with people from the horseracing industry many of whom ARE Irish. These times, the place has been packed, but I’ve been lucky enough to secure a seat at the bar. They’re very supportive of the industry and it’s people, so I’ve given them 3-​Stars for that. Other than these events, I’m not likely to frequent the bar.

This review is based on 3 separate visits. The drinks and food aren’t the basis, it’s the owner and staff.
I was treated rudely, and with disrespect; just because I am not from Lexington, and I could care less how the Cats do in any sport
I had a large drunk kid punch me in the throat, when I demanded they call the police… nope they shuffled the kid out the door (apparently he played football for UK).
I was then asked to leave… I didn’t. I finished my
Guiness and then refused to pay the tab. Knowing that the only recourse they had was to call the police, which is what I wanted, they forgave my tab. I then left, never to return to this DUMP that isn’t even close to an irish pub.

This place is a joke unless your a true Irish and a regular and enjoy rugby. No form of welcoming or feeling welcomed at all. Had a beer and was stared at the whole time. Honestly don’t waste your time

Extremely rude wait staff. Some personal items of mine were picked up with the empty glasses and thrown away. Wait staff refused to acknowledge they threw away my stuff and wouldn’t discuss it with me. I acknowledge this is a college bar and I slightly older than college (27). Will not come back.

I actually didn’t even go here. Me and friends/​buds went somewhere else called like SAMs Hot Dogs I think. But while we were there we could tell, through vibes and astral bodies and such mysticism that this pub wasn’t really up to par.
Also, Irish? Wow. Very original?
Go to SAMs for the milkshakes but beware of

Just a hole in the wall Irish bar. It’s dark and dreary inside and the patio out back is nothing special. Just feels very enclosed and stuffy in the bar. I don’t care for it. You’d be better off going to one of lexington’s many upper scale bars or clubs. This is a typical college bar.

One of my favorite Irish Pubs! The drinks are cheap and the atmosphere is great. My favorite time to head her is for the downtown St. Patrick’s Day festival. The place stays packed and the beer is cold. I need to get my butt here more often when I am in Lexington.

Great little pub in the heart of the town. Gets loud and crowded. Really cheap drinks. What is not to love about that?

Had Green Beer! What else could I need on Sat before St Patrick’s day?

For what’s basically a slightly more upscale dive bar that accepts debit and credit cards, this is great.
The atmosphere indoors is local and generally friendly-​feeling; we are talking Kentucky, after all. I’m not sure if it’s really all that Irish, but hey, they sell Smithwick’s and by God that’s good enough! During warmer weather months, I much prefer sitting out on the brick patio.
Cheap and good drinks, good bartenders and service, and relatively clean restrooms considering it gets packed with drunk UK students.
I docked one star because TWO forms of ID are required upon entry. So, I guess Lexington is now a red alert target city for terrorists and the suspect is some country boy from Corbin going incognito.

This place is pretty awesome. This is a legit Irish bar because there’s actually a group of Irish men with thick Irish accents (with a smidge of Southern twang) that come in and get kicked out daily for being rowdy with each other. Or so I was told. Either way, THAT is a good way to feel like you’re in Dublin without spending a ton of money on a plane ticket.
I dig that the bar is dark. I dig that they have equestrian estate name plates lined along the bar’s surface. I dig the outside patio area a lot. I dig the little troll doors leading to what looks like nowhere or secret dungeons. I dig that this place has the option of torturing Kentucky boys that drink their bourbon straight with Aqua’s «Barbie Girl» for a quarter. That alone is worth the visit. Actually, I got lucky when I went in here because some drunk must have put in a ten dollar bill because I had a ton of credits. Because I’m a bastard and needed entertainment since the Irish guys took their fight outside, I picked every annoying song available on the digital jukebox. Needless to say I don’t think anyone liked me for about an hour, but I DID play Queen’s «Bohemian Rhapsody» as the last of my annoying song list. There’s something strange about that song that unites all walks of life, including the reddest of necks who under normal circumstance would never even say the word «gay» and acknowledge that person that the title may belong to. But hey, sing it, boys. Embrace it.
Also, there’s a bartender there named Devin who’s really cool. He made good suggestions on drinks. He actually gave us strong drinks which made us want to stay longer and buy more booze. He even admitted to thinking my choice of Barbie Girl was funny. WIN.
As a side note, the bathrooms there are creepily warm. Like sauna warm. It’s weird because the front door into the bathroom looks like this really heavy oak door so you push on it and almost fall in because it weighs nothing. Then you get in there and realize you’re sweating bullets when you weren’t just a second before and that’s because the bathrooms are heated. I know bitches complain about being cold a lot, but a bathroom where women are sharing their stinky assholes isn’t a good place to put the women so they can get warm. Sitting on a hot toilet seat is just weird, even weirder than sitting on a warm one from prior usage.

It’s a good place to get super hamms. The back patio is legit with Bourbon Barrels for tables and lots of seating. The bartenders are pretty good and the stereo is always blasting, which I like. It gets wild. The location is perfect as well. Parking kinda sucks but whatever. Gotta walk off the Bourbon anyways.

The bar is really two bars in one. Two on the inside and one in the patio area. An Irish Bar that is actually has some Irish people. All kinds of people to see and meet here. Gets really busy on the weekends, especially at night. Great place to hang with friends.

I love this bar, seriously. During my junior year of college I was a NSF undergrad research fellow at UK and this was where we went to hang out, talk research, and wind down. This place has three indoor bar rooms, and an outdoor bar in the back alley (my favorite spot).
The beer flows freely and the drinks are cheap. I usually would drink a Guinness and occasionally hear an Irish accent or two. The jockeys come by here too (easy to spot as they are my height which is hella short). I even snagged a drunken kiss from one of them.
It gets really packed, but the bouncers, and bartenders know how to handle it. Yeah, not sure what else to put because the McCarthy’s experience cannot be put into words, you have to check it out for yourself.
I can’t wait to revisit it next week!

I love this Irish Pub. It was a regular stop while I went to school at UK (University of Kentucky for my non southern friends). If you’re looking for an Irish pub you can do no better.
I highly recommend it for drinks. Not sure about the food, but pub food in general is sub par. Also the weekend crowd tends to be bro’ish, I prefer it on the weekdays.