I went to The Premier Tavern yesterday for lunch. Apart from appallingly slow service, (Only customer was me, typhoon and all that), the Guiness was dreadful.
Where can one procure a decent drop of the black stuff?
Dear Mr. Hill,
As this is a Guinness thread, I’ll venture into it. We sell Guinness and if I may be so bold as to say so, with esteeemed moderator Sandman’s permission, he has never had a problem with it. We are open in about 30 minutes or so and a full a la carte menu is available. Our completely homemade steak and kidney pies are IMO, excellent and the Liver & Onions is equally good. Have a look at the Carnegie’s Food & Service Thread (ignore the bits about the occasional glitches, which happen from time to time - ta) for others’ opinions on the food.
The address is below. You won’t need to make a reservation for lunch today methinks.
Best Regards,
Bob Marshall
General Manager
TpeBob,
I had lunch at the Landis today, too late for Carnegie’s. We may venture out for dinner tonight, but i will certainly be in one night later in the week. Cheers.
Tom.
Hi Tom,
We have both Guinness and Kilkenny draft at our modest little Irish pub.
Our grub isn’t too bad either, so I hear!
Happy hour prices are $150 per pint + 10% service charge.
Swing by and have a pint or two, we are open all day most days. Address is below.
Regards,
Dazz
He is right. I have not had a problem with Carnegie’s Guinness, apart from motorcycle steering difficulties. Likewise with the liver & onions, although I can’t speak for the steak & kidney pie (yet). Which reminds me, Bob, your Guinness sux azz. Give me a free steak & kidney pie. 
Having had both the liver&onions and, on a separate occasion, the steak&kidney pie at Carnegie’s, I would say that the only problem is that they are too large. I realize that Carnegie’s prides itself on such items as “The Big One” (apologies if I got the name wrong), the breakfast that no normal human can finish, but I am enjoying losing weight on the Taipei Diet.
“Guinness”, two "n"s.
It’s very acceptable in Carnegies. Only by sheer chance would you get a better pint of Guinness in Taipei, and Bob stands by the quality of his booze, which is more than can be said for nearly every other establishment here.
The best draft Guinness I’ve had in Asia has been in, surprisingly, the China Fleet Club in HK (US Navy), and the Long Bar in the Portman Hotel in Shanghai (dancing girls). But things have changed since then (1989 and 1998) I’m sure.
Only trouble is you will never get a really good pint of guinness anywhere in Asia. Hexuan will probably back me up on this, but all guinness now sold in this region is made in Malaysia, and it is NOT the same as that made on the banks of the Liffy.
With all respect to the likes of Bob and other landlords, proper keeping etc can only keep the beer a to the standard at which it arrives, they cannot improve on a second rate product.
Traveller’s right. It’s just not sharp enough. Too sweet or something. I can’t believe we can’t get Export any more. However there is a stout from New York which I had at Tigerman’s the other day which tastes very very good, and is what I remember bottled Guinness tasted like in the days it was bottled locally around Ireland. The stout I think is from Brooklyn. I’ll check it and get back.
Indeed, Guinness sold in five places in Taipei is all from Malaysia (mentioend that under another topic about beer last week) and tastes in all outlets the same as per my experience! Goes for NT$200 at the Tavern-Premier during regular hours and 2 for one during happy hour daily from 6-8! We have approached the owner of Guinness (Diageo) with the proposal to bring in Guinness from Ireland and that we would accept a higher price for it but there was no interest at all from their side!
Any bar pub hotel owner etc in Asia knows that their Guinness is from Malasia and that it is crap. In no way does it compare with the real thing.Why people pay over the odds to drink it is beyond me.
Bit like instant cofee if you can’t get the real thing. Sort of reminds you what it should taste like. But I agree. Why pay massive money for an inferior product when there are a lot of good ales available now that do taste the way they’re supposed to.
BTW, tins of “draught” brewed-and-canned-in-Ireland Guinness (with the widget, which Guinness invented) were US$10 a tin in the pub Hanoi when I was there last year. Perfectly good Hanoi Beer was US$1. Which one do you reckon I went for ?
Also, it’s worth mentioning that plenty of punters haven’t a scoob how real Guinness should taste anyway.
We are pretty well ‘over a barrel’ when it comes to Guinness here. Yes, it is brewed in Malaysia but I can assure you that we are all paying through the ass to get it here regardless of its point of origin. We, like Tavern Captain, have approached the distributor with the same request. Since they have the monopoly on the market they don’t give a rats ass about us. Im sure most other publicans will agree that there isn’t a great margin on Guinness, and give or take a few cents we charge pretty much the same.
FYI we stock a great Australian stout from the Cooper’s Brewery in Adelaide, South Australia. It is bottle fermented and has no additives so It is as fresh as it can be. I have tested it on staunch Guinness afficionado’s and the overall response is pretty damn good.
It is 6.3%, which says a lot in terms of value for money ($160 per bottle)
IMHO, it is worth a try.
Cheers,
Darren
Captain Shannon, i accept that all the bars pay basically the same price for it, but your claim that all sell it at basically the same price is far from the truth. If i remember correctly your establishment is charging the highest price, and by some margin.
Price in Shannon 230 + 10% = 253NT
Price in Tavern 200 + 0% = 200NT
A difference of over 25%, so please say who is conning who here.
Taveller, I can answer this! The Rent for the Tavern Premier is lower than that of the Shannon! Cheers!
Thanks Michel,
You saved me the explanation.
BTW, how did you know how much rent we pay???
Cheers,
Dazz
[quote=“Captain Shannon”]Thanks Michel,
You saved me the explanation.
BTW, how did you know how much rent we pay???
Cheers,
Dazz[/quote]
Not only that, but is it such a good idea to post it in a public forum… ?
I hit Carnegie’s about once a week for a few pints and tequila shots. :loco: The Guinness is always consistently good and the service isn’t that bad considering the mass of humanity in the place. Where to buy Guinness buy the keg seems to be a closely guarded secret. Come on you bar owners it’s my favorite anyone wanna let me know?
Thanks for the positive comment Ray. I’ll PM you the supplier details for Guinness in the spirit of neighbourliness and on the condition that you continue to help me with my cash flow ‘about once a week’ A word of warning though: you will baulk at the price they give you, if they give you a quote at all. 
I’ll make no bones about it; the local distributor (not the brand owner) is not the easiest company to deal with and there are often consistency of supply problems.
Cheers,
Bob
[quote=“Traveller”]Only trouble is you will never get a really good pint of guinness anywhere in Asia. Hexuan will probably back me up on this, but all guinness now sold in this region is made in Malaysia, and it is NOT the same as that made on the banks of the Liffy.
With all respect to the likes of Bob and other landlords, proper keeping etc can only keep the beer a to the standard at which it arrives, they cannot improve on a second rate product.[/quote]
I was in HK last week and stopped in at Delaney’s and The Dublin Jack (the bartender at DJ knew TpeBob) and the Globe (which now has a very nice selection of English ales, for those of you interested). The bartender at TDJ informed me that very soon Delaney’s and The Dublin Jack would be importing Guinness from Ireland.