An Irish Pub in Venice.

An Irish Pub in Venice; weird right?  Nonetheless, there it was; the Devil’s Forest Pub, and it looked authentic.  We walked inside and found Harp, Strongbow and Guinness on tap and the ambience was decently Irish for Venice with quaint sayings on the walls, pictures of wild Irish landscapes and the odd mounted animal head.  The Devil’s Forest Pub claims to be the oldest pub in Venice and, although we haven’t covered every inch of the city, we think it might be the only one left.

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There wasn’t much of a crowd since it was only noon; too early for lunch but the bartender spoke English and was friendly.  Unfortunately, he wasn’t Irish; he was a true Venetian living only a few blocks away.  The owners were Venetian as well but the beer (and the cider) was excellent and the food wasn’t bad; it just wasn’t Irish.

The menu was a little disappointing starting with spaghetti and continuing on the Italian theme throughout.  We had a small snack; a panini or something, and while it was pretty good, it wasn’t what you look for in a pub like this.  Although the incomplete Irish pub set-up disappointed us a little we won’t hesitate to drop in again for a wee drop after a busy day of sight-seeing.

Devil’s Forest Pub is awarded 2 points for ambience; they almost got it right.  Although this particular pub strikes out and receives 0 points for the friendly but not Irish bartender we must award the maximum of 3 points for the taps which included Harp, Guinness, Strongbow and Kilkenny.  We also award 1 point for the food quality and another for entertainment value because the television had the appropriate sporting events on and the bartenders were enjoyable to talk to. 

The total for Devil’s Forest Pub is 7 points which ranks it in third place behind Hannigan’s and O’Reilley’s all of which are worth stopping by if and when you’re in the neighborhood.