James Joyce Irish Pub

James Joyce is a cool Irish spot in Ybor City. I like the authentic pub feel and the selection of food and drink that’s offered.
There are theme and food specials nightly during the week (check Facebook for postings) which are displayed in the back on a blackboard as well as shot specials daily on the chalkboard in the bar area.
The ambiance is nice and mellow and cozy. This is the type of place you can go and feel comfortable in groups or one-​on-​one. Not pretentious and welcoming atmosphere and staff make this a great place. On my visits here the service has been consistently great.
A group of us very much enjoyed our time on trivia night. If this is your scene, grab some friends and/​or family and head out there for some fun. The appetizers are tasty and my friends rave about the burgers. I had he opportunity of visiting when they had the ME lobster special (RIP) which is no longer but they have replaced it with a very southern-​themed crawfish boil.
There is a small parking area on the premises but 2 hour parking on close nearby streets to utilize.

Went for trivia night, lots of fun. Beer selection is great and had a difficult time decided what to eat. Ended up getting the Bistro Chips, very good.
Four stars for playing NBA over COPA USA v Ecuador, sigh…

Great place. Always stop by after parades or other events in Ybor. They have a great beer selection and servers are very good at making recommendations. The burger is one of the best around. Thursday nights they host trivia which is is a blast. If you have 4 or more people and check in on their FB site for the trivia you get a huge appetizer tower.
When you are there be sure to ask for Shaun!

Lovely bar in Ybor with fun specials, a trivia night, pretty good food, friendly service, and some smaller tvs. Fun daily specials.
The nice atmosphere and the camraderie are the star attractions here. I missed the lobster night they used to have so I can’t give five stars. But they have mudbug boils, so if you’re into those, get some when they’re offered.

Best burger in town! Great overall food. Fun atmosphere and convenient location. Had the opportunity to meet the chef, Trey, at the Mac and cheese festival and he is clearly very talented.

James Joyce is one of my favorite stops in Ybor. Food is good, beer is cold, and the atmosphere is fun! They have music, Tvs to watch the big game and a bowling game if you want to have some fun with friends. Everybody’s pretty friendly and the staff is top notch.

Overpriced by a landslide. Good atmosphere, and great wings. We had 3 beers (2 bud light and a local craft), a chicken sandwich plate, a burger, and 6 wings on $.50 wing night and our bill was $ 54. Probably won’t be back anytime soon unless we are going only for wings. The buffalo ground chicken sandwich that they had highlighted on their menu was terrible. Our server was polite. That’s all folks.

Been wanting to come by forever. Finally happened this past Sunday when my wife wanted to go for Mother’s Day. Had a blast thanks to Shaun, Irish Breakfast shots and some damn good food.

Great Irish pub in Ybor City. Extremely friendly, welcoming staff. 50 beers on tap, drink specials all the time! Food’s great too! Several Irish favorites and standard bar & grill fare, all made with care, including their award winning burgers. Events throughout the week, including a great trivia game every Thursday! If you like bars, Irish bars, bar food, or fun — this is where you should be.

Love James Joyce Pub! Always a fun time, great draft selection, great burgers and Sean the server is back! What more can a girl ask for!
Stopped in for a burger, after picking up a friend from the airport, and entered a world of boisterous trivia night! It was so much fun!
JJP is great for all ages and everyone is always super friendly and have lever left dissatisfied.
Small parking lot, outside dog friendly tables and nice menu with done Irish specialties, burgers, sandwiches, soups, and great wings. And, reasonable prices!
We ordered fish and chips (delicious large non-​greasy) and burgers with fries and Guinness gravy-​yum!
Check it out !

Best onion rings I’ve ever had! Seriously. They’re coated in the same batter as the fish in the fish and chips, and they’re super crunchy and delicious. I had a mushroom and Swiss burger, which was okay. The fries were good. Very friendly service. Overall, a nice stop in a really neat neighborhood.

I like their mutual enjoyment for IPAs. Not a strong point in most Irish pubs that I’m aware of but it is Ybor, you never know.
I would say the selling point of our going here was the Irish lady that checked us in at the Le Meridian. She was so nice to us on arrival that we had to stop in this place for a drink after she mentioned it. That may be a weird way to end up in an Irish pub in Ybor, FL but we figured, why not?!
As we walked in the darkness of the bar caught us off guard on the warm sunny day. We were feeling a little under the weather from a fun night out the evening before but this pub brightened our day… or was it the IPA, haha! Watching deep sea fishing on the TV made it feel like we were on the gulf coast and the locals were nice enough to share a conversation. I’d say, yeah, I’m a fan. There’s just so much to choose from in Ybor that I’d probably pass it up next time we’re in town to explore other options.

Absolutely disgusting. Bad food, bad beer, bad everything. This was the first time I’ve literally puked from a meal so bad, which is a waste since my burger coated near $ 15. I’ve literally had better food at McDonald’s.
Perhaps if you’re crawling 10 pubs and you’re on your 9^th, already hammered, and in Ybor, this might be okay.
It makes you wonder how much Unilocal elites were paid to post a good review.

Not sure how I haven’t reviewed this place, I have been there at least 30 times. Sometimes it is the first place in the Ybor-​rotation, sometimes it is the last stop. Either way it is a lot of fun.
The food there is the real attraction-​the wings, the burgers, the apps, are all outstanding.
The Buffalo chicken sandwich is to die for!
More details later.
Also, 50 taps — awesome!

I used to go to the old location of James Joyce frequently. That location was just a bar, no food. However, This location has great food! My coworkers and I swung by there today and we got in and our in a little less than hour. Since we work nearby, it is a good place to get lunch in a timely fashion. Their burgers are excellent, but today I got the fish tacos. Very good! There are three to an order and they are good sized. Sirracha sauce and cabbage top the fried fish tacos, but it is not really spicy. I could have gone for more spice. Most of my teammates got burgers, but one got the French onion soup and it too looked fabulous!
If you go for lunch, make sure you get the lunch special menu because it has a list of items for around $ 7!
They also have happy hour and other specials so keep an eye on their deals and get on their email list.

Stopped here on a random Sunday after going to church :) I must say this is your typical Irish pub with a flair of it being surrounded by Downtown Ybor. Very similar to nature to a James Joyce I used to frequent when I lived in Durham, NC, which is also a Tobacco town.
Loved the wings here. Ordered some Garlic Parm, Mild and something else I forgot about, but they were on point and great bar wings.
Polished off everything with some Smithwick’s and someone in our party enjoyed their Irish car bombs.
So if you are looking for a no frills, Irish pub bordering on Dive but in a good way, swing on buy and order up some DRANKS!!!
Cheers!

James Joyce Irish Pub is a great place to watch football on Sunday’s with an incredible selection of 50 brews on tap, a 15 foot big screen, NFL package, great burgers, and 50 cent wings! On Monday’s, James Joyce has a great deal on 2lb lobsters for $ 11. On Wednesday’s, James Joyce has an all you can eat crawfish boil. On Thursday’s, James Joyce has trivia nights on Wednesday’s they have pub polls. On Friday and Saturday nights, they have live bands. Located off 8^th street in Ybor City, it is 1 block from the main 7^th street strip so a lot of people don’t know about this bar and it doesn’t get too packed too often. You have to try their pineapple cider ale. It’s pretty good and I’m pretty sure you can’t get it at a lot of other bars. Décor includes a fireplace and bookshelves to give this pub more of a distinguished style. The bartender tells me their bangers and mash, Buffalo Chicken Burger, Jameson BBQ Burger, Scottish egg, and huge 10oz burgers are very popular too. I’ll have to try those on my next visit. Service is typically quick and friendly. Surprisingly, James Joyce Irish Pub serves some delicious margaritas. Street parking is fairly limited. You can park in the Centro Ybor garage for $ 1 per hour. Be careful you don’t mess your car up on the trolley tracks. The bartender tells me cars run over the trolley tracks almost every night right outside this bar. The city really needs to put up more caution signs and make trolley tracks more visible to prevent this from happening so often.

One of our spots in Ybor. Food is great especially the burgers and the buffalo chicken sandwich. There is a reason the buffalo chicken won awards. The sandwich is unique and so good! Like to get it with a salad or onion rings.
Great beer selection and the bartender is genius at helping you figure out what beer strikes your mood. Drink your whole card worth of beer and be a part of the James Joyce Drinking Club (shirt included).
Take the trolley to Ybor and you are practically at James Joyce within 250 feet.
Fun trivia on Thursday nights and pub poll on Wednesdays. Sunday’s they darken the windows for Bucs football and wings are $ 0.50 !
Cheers!

I’ve visited James Joyce a few times, but never realized that they served food. My trips have always been late night during Ybor bar crawls in college. When the Creative Loafing Burger Week menu came out, I heard rave reviews about their offering and decided I had to try it.
We came around lunch time to watch the Buccaneers play the Redskins (bad life choice, I know). There were plenty of empty tables and they have the NFL Sunday Ticket package, so any game is available upon request. There is also a Sunday special (FYI not sure if it’s only during football season) for $ 0.50 boneless or bone-​in wings. I ordered five boneless garlic parmesan and my boyfriend had five of the Jameson BBQ. Both were very good; they were slightly crispy and the flavor was great.
The featured burger was the Jameson BBQ Burger, which is piled high with fried onion strings and jalapeño candied bacon. Being as picky as I am, I opted for a plain burger instead of the normal one which is filled with jalapeño and onion. Unfortunately for my boyfriend, his plate also came plain. We didn’t ask for our burgers sans onion strings, but that’s how they came. I blame myself for that one. sorry dear. The burger was $ 5.00 since it was the special and it came a la carte. I thought it was really good, especially considering I really don’t even like barbecue sauce!
There were a few patrons at the bar and only 2 – 3 people working at the time, but they were on top of things and kept us happy throughout our visit. My only complaint was that it was about $ 3.00 for a small Coke, so I wish we would have just ordered beers for a dollar more. But other than that, I enjoyed the meal and would return for more wings during football season!

We came for #CLBurgerWeek & we were not disappointed! The Irish Burger was delicious! The fries were amazing! We also ordered a Scottish Egg, and it was absolutely incredible. The only thing that would’ve made our meal even better would be to sit outside… but, alas, they only have 2 tables on the *patio*. Our server was attentive, and our burgers were perfectly cooked. We’ll definitely be back!

We decided to come here during Burger Week to try their featured $ 5 burger, the Jamison BBQ Burger.
We ordered a couple of ciders while we decided. They were both good, but very expensive ($ 5 & $ 8 per pint). We also ordered cheese fries as a side. The burger and fries came out and looked delicious. I debated getting the BBQ sauce on the side, because I normally don’t like it on a burger. But, this is burger week, and this is not only their featured burger, but also their #1 pick. The burger was really good, but the BBQ sauce was a little overpowering. If I had it to do over again, I would get the BBQ sauce on the side. If you think BBQ sauce sounds good on a burger, I think you’ll enjoy this one.
The cheese fries were thick cut & well seasoned, but topped with fake cheese, like what you’d find in a gas station in a pump. For the price, I was expecting better. The atmosphere was common to a pub, and the service was excellent.
Overall, I give this place 3.5 stars, but round up due to service, and the burger (minus the BBQ sauce).
EOMFD

So they claim to have the best burger… and I have to say, it wasn’t too shabby. Definitely better than many burger joints in the area. It was pretty hearty too. I didn’t end up finishing the whole burger and fries, which were of the thicker variety. The All American burger with cheese tallied up to around $ 14 with tax and tip.
The service is a little cold, you know where the server just seems to be going through the motions and doesn’t want to be there. That’s when no one was there. The other time I went when it was busy, I was ignored so I just walked out.
The décor is nicer than most Ybor bars and they played great music. So it seems to be a fun hangout spot. Nice patio too.

I love the whole feel of Irish bars so I end up here almost every time I go to Ybor Town. It always seems to start or end here at James Joyce. Its a nice medium sized bar with an great beer selection. Love the pinaaple cider (even though they ran out the last time).
Like all bars the atmopshere can get crazy on weekends. Doesn’t get too crazy though, as the most you’ll see is a leprechaun giving a lap dance to two women in the middle of the bar. Seriously, it’s pretty mellow and laid back for the most part. Because it’s a block off 8^th street, it doesn’t get as packed as some other bars get so its pretty easy to walk around.
Overall, James Joyce is a pretty chill bar with a killer draft beer selection. One of my favorite spots to go to in the area.

The bartenders and servers are great at James Joyce and so is the food. We visited this place at least four times a month and almost every time we come to Ybor.
The negatives are the horrible management who has no problem being completely disrespectful and disgusting to people on their Facebook page. There was an incident where this happened in the past over a bicycle and we didn’t pay much attention to it. After losing a local competition on Sunday, Ryan (the owner) was posting on the FB page was out of control as they proceeded to call children mongoloids, people rednecks, mother f**ckers, c*ck suckers, and hicks. He told a guy (the respective redneck) that he among other things he would «…headbutt your f’ing teeth out of the back your f’ing skull mother f’er and butt f*ck your mother…»
After reading these things, I posted the following comment on their page: «We go to James Joyce often, but if we were to judge your place by the way you are representing your company on this post, we would never consider going there at all. So unprofessional. I hope this post doesn’t turn people off as you have a great establishment and usually a welcoming atmosphere.» I thought that was a respectful comment. To which I was told: to go f$ck myself, piss off, eat sh*t, «hope you get ebola and your kids catch cat aids», that I was a self righteous tw*t, a f*cking c#nt, and that I was a self righteous f’ing c$nt burger.
He also said to «Post this on Unilocal.Screen freeze it. and while you are at it, f*ck Unilocal those extortionist f#ckheads that extort small businesses.»
All comments were saved and are posted here as of this posting. Whether Unilocal allows them to stay is yet to be seen as they are extremely vulgar.
On Monday they claimed that their page was hacked, they shut down their reviews on FB, and deleted and blocked anyone who disagreed with them. There’s a pattern of bad owner behavior here and it’s obvious the page wasn’t hacked. If it was, why didn’t the employees who were commenting on the post mention it?