Pugg Mahones Irish Pub

Seafood Chowder and Irish Stew with Guiness & treacle bread. Delicious!

Good atmosphere, good selection of beer on tap. Didn’t try the food but for an afternoon beer and footy it’s a good spot in the area. $ 7 – 10 pints.

As a La Trobe Uni student I was always a bit afraid of the ‘Melbourne University Pubs.’ I was certain they could ‘smell’ the La Trobe education on me as I walked in to the doors. Yes. This place is full of students, Melbourne Uni students to be specific, but that doesn’t stop it from being a helluva fun pub.
My last trip to Puggs was only a few weeks ago, I was hesitant due to the fact that I don’t even go to uni anymore. Could they tell how old I was?! Would we be outcasts?! Nope. We sat on barrels, drank $ 5 pints and sang along to Slice of Heaven as they acoustic guitarist entertained us.
A great pub for a few sneaky drinks after work, or if you are keen for a bit of a rowdy night and aren’t sure where to go! This place is always full and it’s hard to have a bad night here. Just don’t tell them you didn’t go to Melbourne Uni…

You can’t contrive an atmosphere.
You know those ‘Irish’ pubs that you thought were so fuckin’ cool when you were at university but then you grew up, found your identity and realised they’re merely a hollow shell of a remnant of an actual culture that vastly differs from your own? Pugg Mahones is one such pub.
The thing with the whole concept of an ‘Irish’ pub in Australia is that Australian’s don’t behave like the Irish in their pubbing ways. Where the Irish actually take the family and socially mix with others (gross generalisation but largely true), Australians remain socially constrained by their immediate circles of friends and family. Therefore, by default, it is impossible for any establishment to create the same ‘feel’ of an Irish pub just by rigging up a keg of Guinness and painting shamrocks and/​or leprechauns (of which Pugg Mahones’ has neither, but I use to illustrate a point) on the exterior.

Pugg Mahones aka ‘Puggs’ is a multifaceted Irish pub. Melbourne uni students will no doubt be aware of this venue as it is an institution when it comes to special student nights and student bar crawls. But to just dismiss Puggs as a student pub would not be doing the place justice.
There aren’t too many Irish pubs on the north side of the city and Puggs is one of the best known. Its clientele spans a huge age spectrum with students, old blokes and everything in between drinking here. On a Sunday night for example you’d struggle to find a cheaper pint of Guinness than the $ 6 pint at Puggs.
It is also a good place to watch sports with a number of big screens around the joint. Southern Hemisphere and Northern Hemisphere sports both get shown here, as you’d imagine.
As for the food, it is pretty good inexpensive pub food. It’s nowhere near the caliber of the Napier, the Standard or the Union Hotel, but for mains at around $ 15 it’s really cheap. The chips and gravy is divine.
I repeat: $ 6 Guinness on a Sunday night. Nuff said. (I just checked their website and the deal is on Wednesdays too!)
PS. You can get your name on their honours board if you drink 100!