Bar review: McSorley’s Ale House in SoHo – Irish sports bar with focus on whiskey, poitín and beer

The vibe: Irish pub meets multiple screen sports bar. There are branches of McSorley’s in Discovery Bay and Macau, but this is a more compact operation, with an open front, and the slightly overloud background music-with-a-mechanical-beat aesthetic of a lot of SoHo watering holes. When I dropped in an Indian buffet was being served, and the aroma of the spices was pleasantly pervasive.

Staff are friendly, the bar furniture is comfortable, and the management seems to be working to establish a clientele of regulars with promotions such as quiz nights and curry evenings.

The drinks: the emphasis is on beer and whisky with, as you would expect, a slant towards Irish whiskey in particular.

The wine list is short and Australian-dominated, but fairly modestly priced for the area, ranging from HK$65 to HK$80 per glass. If you want to bring your own, corkage is advertised at HK$150 per bottle.

The craft beer selection is not extensive by the standards of SoHo’s other specialists, but is respectable, with interesting options from Spain, the UK, New Zealand Austria, Germany and Hong Kong, although the house’s own draught McSorley’s Ale (HK$75) struck me as unremarkable.

The whisky list offers more original choices. As well as 13 Irish whiskeys, and a good Scotch and American selection the bar has India’s Amrut (HK$110), Taiwan’s Kavalan Concertmaster (HK$120) and Japan’s Taketsuru (HK$130).

Irish tipples seemed to be appropriate so I tried a couple from Teeling – Spirit of Dublin Poitín (HK$60) and Small Batch Whiskey (HK$80). Poitín is an unaged spirit in the tradition of illegally home-distilled Irish moonshine, and it packs a considerable punch, but is surprisingly smooth for a spirit that has had no benefit from barrel ageing. It is called poitín rather than whiskey because without three years in a barrel it can’t legally be sold under that name.