Why KQ Bar Has the Best Guinness in Pattaya

When Only the Real Thing Will Do

You've tried the alternatives. The canned version that tastes like metal and disappointment. The bottled stuff that's been sitting in someone's warm storeroom for who knows how long. That one bar in Bangkok that claimed to have draft but poured something brown and flat that bore no resemblance to what you remember from Dublin.

Thailand is wonderful for many things. Finding a proper pint of Guinness is not one of them.

Until you walk into KQ Bar.

The Moment You Know

It starts with the tap. You see it behind the bar – the real thing, the official Guinness branded handle, connected to lines that someone actually maintains. This alone sets the place apart from ninety percent of the bars in Pattaya.

Then you watch the pour. The bartender tilts the glass to forty-five degrees. The dark liquid cascades in, filling three-quarters of the glass before she sets it down. She walks away. She's not being rude – she's doing it right. The surge needs time. The cream needs to settle. Rushing this would be a sin.

One hundred nineteen and a half seconds. That's how long a proper Guinness pour takes. Most bars don't have the patience. This one does.

The top-up comes next – straight pour, domed head, the color of fresh cream against the darkness below. She slides it across the bar. The glass sweats in your hand. The first sip is everything you remembered.

Why Here, Why Anywhere

There's a man from Cork who flies into Pattaya twice a year. He told me once that KQ Bar pours a better pint than half the pubs in Dublin these days. I thought he was exaggerating until I drank here myself.

The difference isn't magic. It's maintenance. Clean lines. Proper temperature. Fresh kegs because the turnover is high. Bartenders who were taught the pour and who care enough to do it right. Basic stuff that most bars skip because tourists don't know the difference and won't complain.

The Irish know. The British know. The expats who've been in Pattaya long enough to find the good spots – they all end up at KQ Bar eventually, telling the same story: "I didn't expect to find proper Guinness here."

The Full Picture

So you're sitting stage-side with a perfect pint. The band is playing something from the eighties – Dire Straits, maybe, or Fleetwood Mac. The air conditioning is doing its job; this is the coldest bar in the complex, which matters when you're drinking stout in the tropics. The foam leaves rings down the inside of your glass as you work through it.

You could be in an Irish pub. Except the ceiling is open to the night sky, and there's a live band instead of a TV showing football, and outside it's thirty degrees and humid and you're in Thailand.

That contrast is part of the appeal. Guinness was meant for grey weather and coal fires, and here you are drinking it under palm trees while a Filipina singer belts out "Landslide." Shouldn't work. Does anyway.

The Rest of the Menu

We should mention – the bar does more than Guinness. The cocktails are properly made. The shot selection runs deep and weird in the best way. The imported beers are actually imported, not local knockoffs with foreign labels. The Thai beers are cold.

But if you're reading an article about Guinness, you probably came for the Guinness. And on that front, there's no competition in Pattaya. This is the place.

Getting There

Walk through Las Vegas Beer Garden, past the first few bars, toward the stage at the back. When you're close enough to feel the bass, look right. Black and gold sign. Draft taps behind the bar. Usually a few people sitting with dark pints in front of them, looking satisfied.

Order one. Wait for the pour. Take your time with the first sip.

Then order another, because you've finally found it.

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KQ Bar at Las Vegas Beer Garden, Soi Diana, Pattaya. Open 6 PM – 3 AM, seven nights a week. The only draft Guinness in the complex. For more Guinness options around town, read our guide to where to find Guinness in Pattaya.