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Ljubljana’s Top 5 Pubs for St Patrick’s Day

As everyone who has read the relevant Wikipedia page knows, Saint Patrick (Latin: Patricius; Irish: Pádraig [ˈpˠaːd̪ˠɾˠəɟ], Old Irish: Cothraige) was a fifth-century Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland. Known as the “Apostle of Ireland”, he is the primary patron saint of Ireland, along with saints Brigit of Kildare and Columba. He is also venerated in the Anglican Communion, the Old Catholic Church and in the Eastern Orthodox Church as equal-to-apostles and the Enlightener of Ireland.

And what better way to pay one’s solemn respect to Ireland and its revered patron saint then drinking to excess and making a bunch of bad decisions? We sure can’t think of any, so here are our Top 5 recommendations for St Patrick’s Day pubs in Ljubljana!

Patrick’s Irish Pub

For obvious reason it’s simply not possible to have a list of the best pubs for St Paddy’s day without eponymous Patrick’s Irish Pub coming in at #1. But semantics aside, Patrick’s is not only Slovenia’s original Irish Pub dating back to 1995, but they also have a huge selection of premium beer, frequent events (including the pub quiz we’ve won more than a few times) and some indulgent pub food, which tastes amazing after a few pints. All in all, one of our favourite watering holes in town!

2. Guinness Pub

We’re honestly not the biggest fans of Guinness, although we did down a fair number of Irish Car Bombs during our student days on a study abroad in Belfast, where we lived in the nurses dormitory at the Royal Victoria Hospital on Falls Road and went out drinking literally every single night. Those nights rarely ended well, but there’s something to be said for nostalgia, ergo, the venerable Guinness Pub comes in at #2 on our list.

3. Pivnica Union

There’s obviously no Irish connection here, but beer in Ljubljana can’t get any fresher than from Union Brewery’s very own in-house pub. The atmosphere here is always lively, the Slovenian pub fare menu is excellent, and they’ve got some special offers and discounts just for St Patrick’s Day. And if there’s one thing we like more than a good beer, it’s a good beer at a discounted price.

4. Sir William’s Pub

Sir William’s is hands down the classiest and most sophisticated pub in Ljubljana, but don’t let that dissuade you from drinking too much and making a complete fool of yourself come St Patrick’s Day! They’ve got arguably the largest selection of beer in town to choose from, including an excellent rotating offer of domestic and international beers on draught. Of course we’re not sure which Sir William this place is named for, but we’re going to go ahead and assume that it’s Sir William Wallace of Braveheart and blue body paint fame.

5. Cutty Sark

If you’ve got yourself kicked out of all the other pubs in town, or they’ve just sadly closed down before you’ve sufficiently honoured dear St Patrick, then there’s only one thing left to do: have some kind soul point you in the direction of Cutty Sark and stumble your way to the late night dance party that is sure to be taking place here come the wee hours. And if anyone asked who sent you, please don’t mention our name – we don’t want any responsibility for the bad decisions you’re inevitably going to make here.

Minister za zdravje opozarja: Prekomerno pitje alkohola škoduje zdravju!

Best Restaurants in Ljubljana 2016

In recent years Ljubljana has truly turned into something of a paradise for food-lovers, with countless features published in the international press (Afar, Epircure&Culture), locally-run food tours and food-walks becoming increasingly favoured, and food-related events such as Restaurant Week and Odprta Kuhna turning into some of the most popular activities for both tourists and locals alike.

Of course here at In Your Pocket we’ve been championing Ljubljana’s and Slovenia’s burgeoning culinary scene almost since our inception, and have been running our Best Restaurant poll in some form or another since all the way back in 2010. For the 2016 edition we’ve kept our main competition categories of Gourmet, Slovenian and Balkan cuisine, brought back some old favourites like Pizza and Business Lunch, and added a few completely new ones such as Take Away and Burgers – the latter being a necessity given the extraordinary burger craze that has swept over the city during the past 18 months or so.

Voting in the 11 categories below took place from 15 March till 15 April, and the results will be published in the May/June 2016 issue of our Ljubljana In Your Pocket guide. Votes can be cast once per week per person (or computer/device)*. Thanks to everyone who voted, and congratulations to all of the winners and top finishers in their respective categories. If you have any questions or comments about the poll, feel free to email us at ljubljana@inyourpocket.com.

[The most popular answer for ‘Other’ in Pizza was Garaža with 5.9%]

*Please don’t cheat in our poll. By cheating we mean using technological means to vote multiple times in the same poll. Individual computers, phones and other devices are allowed to vote once per week for the duration of the competition. Unfortunately, as Angela Merkel can tell you, nothing on the internet is 100% secure. Nevertheless, we take every reasonable precaution to prevent cheating in our polls, and we also reserve the right to not count votes that were obviously cast through illegitimate means, and/or take other necessary action in such circumstances. If you decide to cheat anyway, please don’t get angry and threaten us with legal action when/if we catch you. We are only trying to keep the polls as fair as possible, and we can assure you that we NEVER favour one venue over another. We honestly don’t care who wins any given poll, as long as the votes of our readers are counted fairly and equally. If you’d like further explanation of our rules or have any questions regarding our poll, please feel free to email us at ljubljana@inyourpocket.com.