Paddy’s — Restaurant in Philadelphia

I only came here because I am a huge fan of the FX show It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. It was so worth it!

On my way here, I did not know what to really expect. Questions I had included: Is there really any correlation between this pub and the show? Will the pub look anything like the show? Will the people (employees/owners) be anything like the characters in the show? Will this experience (whether good or bad) change my view on the show?

The pub was smaller than I had anticipated. It did not look anything like the show portrays. It was actually much nicer and cleaner.

The people here were hilarious. I came here for the experience, but I do not drink alcohol. So I ordered a non-alcoholic beverage, the Laguinitas Hoppy Refresher. I was not going to sit at the bar; instead I went outside the pub where there were five patio chairs setup. To continue my experience and the people there, I will just use the initial of their first names because I am not sure what their relation is to the pub.

Two men were already seated outside. T was a veteran and a regular at the pub. T was probably the funniest man I encountered in all of Philadelphia. He did not have a filter, and he expressed his opinions loudly. M was enjoying life with his drink and cigar; he also had a much more fancier lawn chair than the rest. M had said a few times as he smoked his cigar, "life is good". L was really sweet, and she was also really funny. She talked about history for most of the conversation. L also shared with everyone the origin of the f* word as part of her history lesson. C made his entrance known. C was T's antagonist. From the moment C arrived, he was going at it with T; I think it was for entertainment purposes or that was just how they were. Nevertheless, T, M, L, and C all brought their unique personalities and characteristics that made my experience here turn into an over two hour event from what was supposed to be me staying for 20 minutes.

After my visit here, I still very much so appreciate the show. But also, I appreciate the people there at the pub. They made my experience a memorable one. Anytime I travel to Philadelphia, I will have Paddy's Old City Pub as one of my must...

My friend and I were in from out of town, and we we’re looking for some bars to go to, we found that there are many very pleasant bars to go to in the surrounding area, but unfortunately this was not the case for paddy’s pub. Let’s put aside the fact that this dive bar is already very dirty and plagued with cigarette smoke because this seems to be a common theme with bars in philly anyways. As we came in the bartender seemed very swamped and wasn’t very welcoming to begin with, he uttered something that sounded like, I’ll be right with you or something along those lines. We took a seat at the table by the door, given that there were no available seats at the bar. We we’re deciding on what to drink and trying to give the bartender a few minutes before we approached him. After what seemed like 2-5 minutes the bartender cut the music and began yelling at us for our IDs. We we’re stunned by this because if he hadn’t seemed so grumpy and busy, we would have showed our IDs and ordered drinks right away. When we showed our Florida state issued IDs (not damaged or expired, valid, brand new) he took one look at them and actually threw them at us yelling about how he couldn’t accept them. We went to about 20 bars and 2 clubs during our stay and didn’t have a problem at any of those places by the way. We left immediately. Many of the customers seemed very uncomfortable and irritated by this encounter as much as we were. We we’re nothing but nice, never gave him a hard time, and left as soon as he asked us to. It seems that this place should attempt to hire employees with human decency that will handle the situation better. I’ve worked in the service industry since I was 17 years old and have also bartended for 3 years before I found a different line of work, and I’ve never treated people this way. There is simply no excuse, if you hate your job find a different one. I wouldn’t recommend this bar to anybody and wouldn’t return here even if it was the last bar on earth. I would give this place zero stars if I could. Utterly disappointing...

I had an absolutely terrific night here last Wednesday! The quick notes: -Smoker friendly, so if you're not down with second hand smoke this isn't the place for you. -Close to Old City Philly Hostel (