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If you’re a fan of the black stuff, you’ll know a pint in Bangkok can vary wildly depending on where you take to a bar stool. Once a rare sign beyond the usual Irish pub circuit, draft Guinness has since crept into some of the city’s cooler bars, suggesting this creamy classic is emerging into the mainstream.
But with popularity comes a price tag – and sometimes a painful one. Thankfully for us all, one Irish gentleman who’s clearly spent one too many baht in pursuit of a decent pint, is here to shed the light on every shamrock foam. His solution? Pints of Bangkok: a no-frills web page that tracks Guinness prices across the city, ranking them by price, and price alone.
‘In Bangkok and around Thailand, a pour of Guinness can be priced very differently,’ he told Time Out. After spending more baht than he’d like to admit chasing a decent pint, he started keeping track of where it’s actually worth ordering. Now it’s turned into a full website – no bias, no reviews, no issues with the bars – just prices. It’s the consumer’s dream.
Open the site and you’ll find a map dotted with creamy pint icons across Bangkok’s many streets and sois – each one identifying where you can get a good pint of Guinness. Scroll down and a ‘price tracker’ lays it all out – cheapest, priciest and best-value happy hours, all ranked and ready.
‘The site doesn’t focus on anything apart from price,’ he adds. ‘I’m not here to rate the quality of the bar, the vibe, location or any reasons behind the pint prices.’ He makes a good point, if you want the cheapest Guinness, you may sacrifice vibe. If you want a rooftop view, expect to spend more. This isn’t about the bars themselves, it’s just great for penny pinchers who miss a taste of home.
As of writing this article, The British Club in Bangrak and The Shamrock in Bangchak both serve the cheapest creamy pour in the city, coming in at B249 a pint. On the flipside, Witch’s Oyster Tavern serves up at B430. No doubt as more bars are added, these rankings will change.
But we had to dig a little deeper. Where did this Irish gent go for his fix of the good stuff? ‘For me, the best pour of Guinness has to be at The Black Swan, or maybe O’Shea’s Irish Pub,’ he shares, citing the good quality of the pour. And who’s not to trust an Irishman when it comes to Guinness?
Only a few weeks old, the list is far from exhaustive (yet), but with a submission form built in, it’s shaping up to be a real crowd-powered community project. Bars can also update him with any new prices, and in the future he plans to make note of any special promotion or ‘split-the-g’ offers that lurk around some of Bangkok’s best.
And who knows, following a recent case in Ireland where a local man utilised AI to call every pub in the country that served Guinness to track the prices (resulting in a price drop across the nation) – we can only hope Bangkok’s bars might start paying attention too.
Still, he’s quick to clarify: this isn’t about calling anyone out. ‘I’m not here to name and shame. I’m just mapping what I find and think it’s worth sharing.’ Here’s the site again, in case you need it, but there’s no socials just yet – he told us he was too busy ‘updating’ the tracker to sort those out.
We’ll drink to that. Corcaigh abú!