The north mall in the city is not a place you will find too many pubs. However you will find The Franciscan well here. It is a unique pub in that they brew their own beer. It opened its doors back in 1998. It is a little bit of a walk outside the city center but it is certainly worth the trek. It is located up an alleyway and in to the right. As you walk in the door the bar is straight in front of you. There is seating all around you. You will see the brewing equipment and big kegs behind the bar. It is certainly a very different experience to a normal pub. If you walk left and go up a few steps there is another section here with more seating. If you keep walking up you go out a door and you come into their beer garden. This is a great place to hang out during the summer and i’ve been to a few bbq’s there. There are plenty of benches here and they even open an outside bar during the summer. Their beers and stout are great. This is the first mention of beer in these reviews but they deserve mention here. Some of these you will come across are Shandon stout, Blarney Blonde, Rebel red, Purgatory pale ale, Friar weisse and Bellringer winter warmer which is 6.5%. I find the Blarney blond and the Rebel red to be nice but am not too gone on the Shandon stout. The drink is costly enough but you’d expect that.
The well does very good business and can get busy. The toilets are not great and are very small. They are located near the entrance to the beer garden. They have been messy any time i have visited. Overall it’s a great pub and a very interesting place to go if you’ve not ventured there before. For that something different it’s great. Check it out during the summer months when we have some sort of good weather to relax in their beer garden.
Toilet rating: 4/10
Pint rating: 8/10
Overall rating: 8/10
Final comment: The Franciscan well is a super pub and i don’t mean that in terms of size. You are always guaranteed something different with their brews and you should head there just to sample some local Cork drink.
This is one of the WORST BARS I have ever had the displeasure to visit. It has small DIRTY toilets, staff who I found to be rude and ignorant. The beer is of low quality but it is highly priced. The pub is badly positioned down a dank alley on an out of the way street in the city. And I must say I would advise people to pass it by and go elsewhere as there are many other bars in the city much more deserving of your custom.
I have to disagree with Aid. The Well is a great place to go. They’ve done loads to it in the last few months. I highly recommend this place. The beer garden is great, loads of seats and heaters.
As for the staff. They are LOVELY people. The only time I’ve seen them rude or ignorant is when a customer is being rude ignorant or obnoxious to them. I’ve been coming back here for years mostly cos of how well they treat the customers. Be nice to people and they’ll be nice to you…
I will admit that the toilets are quiet small but as i said they’ve made great improvments in the last few months/year and the ladies toilets are Certainly MILES better than they use to be. (Wouldn’t know anything about the boys).
The beer is GREAT and the price is pretty much the same as it is anywhere else in town, if not a little cheaper. I don’t know why people think it’s so expensive.
I agree with Mary. I went there for the beer festival and it was really awesome. We had to queue up a little but the staff (barmen and bouncers included) does its best to please you, usually with a smile. As said, price is the same as anywhere else. As for the toilets, even with so many people, it was still rather clean for a busy evening.
I think the only disadvantage of that pub is that it is a bit far away from the city centre.
Aid must have been in a daze when he went there.This pub is unbelievable id say there isnt another bar in the country with a more comfortable heated beer garden.Staff there are great very friendly.The price of drink is same as everywhere else and the quality is top class
The only problem I saw was the weekends are very busy and its hard to get a seat if you arrive after 9
I do remember a few years back when the toilets were iffy, such as when the toilet seat went missing and wasn’t replaced for bloody ages, and when the hand dryer broke and was left in similar condition for a while. These days though it’s not an issue. The only bad thing in the toilets is the damn taps that have only two settings – Niagra Falls or nothing. People in lightly colored trousers should be pretty careful when using those taps.
The beer’s good, and they have a decent amount of guest beer and bottles for people who don’t fancy the locally brewed stuff. The staff are great, and can give pretty good advice on the beers. I don’t know who Aid spoke to? I’ve known most of the staff there for at least 7 years now, and I’ve never seen them behaving in anything but a friendly fashion.