Fade Street, in what is now known as Dublin’s Cultural Quarter, is home to a handful of good bars and some pretty decent places to grab a bite to eat. The Market Bar is one where you can do both. During Victorian times it used to be the site of an abattoir supplying products to the adjoining market.

Nowadays the market sells cupcakes and retro clothing among other things and the bar itself is one of the city’s more unusual gastro pubs. However it still retains a little of its old charm in that it’s a pretty cavernous space and the grates on the floor once used to dispose of animal waste still remain.

The menu here is tapas focused. And whilst I wouldn’t personally consider the food to be authentic there is no denying that it’s good. The lunch menu is particularly good value with one main and a soup costing €8. There’s a strict no music policy in operation, which is just as well because the noise of the busy crowd’s conversation at weekends can be ear shattering at times. As a result I wouldn’t really visit the Market Bar at weekends but for a great lunch or some midweek drinks in Dublin it would be hard to find more unusual surroundings.

They have recently opened two adjoining sister bars with very different styles to each other so should you choose you can now spend your whole evening in this beautiful old building without braving the city’s famous rain!