Though Astana is far from being a party town, or even a fun town, there are some decent pubs to spend the night out. Now when I say night out do understand that I mean spending a few hours sitting at a watering hole… Given my schedule and the often-unfavourable weather outside, I have very little desire to drink until 4am at some mediocre spot, then wait for my taxi to arrive when there is a snowstorm outside. Long drinking sessions should be carried out at home, or in summertime in venues that specialize in such services. In any case, if you just want to have a few pints of beer and some snacks, here are some of the best places in town for just that.
Pinta – https://nur.pinta.kz
Calling this a best place for anything is going a tad too much. Pinta is more like a fast-food chain but for pubs. The food is simply not very good, but the service is okay, and prices are on the cheaper side. You can drink a lot of beer and leave with your wallet intact, which is certainly something to praise. You will find it in a few spots around town, so you might as well go on in to take a look yourself.
LineBrew – https://go.2gis.com/y7q6b
Linebrew is much like Pinta, but perhaps a bit better. I say perhaps, and I would be very cautious with this assessment, because I just had some beer there. It was good, since they brew their own stuff, but there was not much for me to eat on the menu, as they seem to focus almost solely on meat and animal products. They do have a much cooler interior design than Pinta though, so that alone could be a gamechanger for some.
Fuller’s – https://go.2gis.com/pkbx3
I had such high hopes for Fuller’s, but the fish and chips I had there ended up ruining their image for me from the get-go. Despite having a decent menu, a good selection of beers, good service, and relatively cheap prices, their fish and chips was some of the worst I had in a long time. Now, to be fair, chips were alright, and so was the salad, and even the so-called tartar sauce, which was not authentic, but tasted fine. The issue was the fish. As you can see below, it came in many small pieces, the coating was so thin you could barely see it, and there was no juice on the inside, nor crisp on the outside. It was just, bad. We were assured the fish were bought fresh, but that is very hard to believe… In any case, I suppose the atmosphere inside was quite decent, and so was the music. You can give it a shot, just, get something other than fish and chips.
Harat’s – https://go.2gis.com/pfxgu
Harat’s is definitely one of the better pubs in town, perhaps the best one. Though it being considered an Irish pub is an exaggeration to say the least, they do offer a lot of beer on tap, which is a rarity here. They also have a huge menu, and their fish and chips actually taste fine, though it is nowhere near the authentic stuff. They seem to have live music at night quite frequently, and they do have hardworking servers that make sure you have your cup filled with beer at all times. Certainly worth a visit.
Üide – https://go.2gis.com/udv2r
This was, by far, the best pub in town, let me explain. It was a dream come true for those who actually want to enjoy their night out. People here are great, both the staff and their frequent patrons, the menu is short and sweet and features some amazing peculiarities like baursak filled with cheese and a mayo-based sauce that includes kurt. They had the best beer selection in town, likely in the region. Some of their brews were so sweet you will assume you are drinking a lemonade, some others were so stout, you think you are in an Irish pub. Unfortunately, all of this seems to have changed. There is a trend in Astana, where anything really good has a very little chance of surviving the market, for some weird reason… In my next visits, I was welcomed by a very little number of brews on the tap. None were anything special. Prices rose significantly. The best brews we had before were now in cans, cans that you can buy and drink at home anyways. What would be the point of paying 2-3 times the price to enjoy them in an otherwise small and insignificant pub, with no live music and so on? They still have their unique dishes and snacks, they still have some nice staff, and they still have a very unique and lively atmosphere for Astana, but without all those excellent brews that made them what they are, unfortunately, they are not anything all that special anymore. If things do change for the better, I will update this part, hopefully…
The Hop Craft Beer – https://go.2gis.com/18c0g
For those who just want to drink beer, but good beer, I can certainly recommend the Hop Craft Beer. Unfortunately, they barely sell any snacks to go alongside their rich selection of wheat juice, and you can forget about anything that can be considered as actual food. This is sad, because this place could easily become the best pub in town with their long list of rare beers on tap and in bottled form, alas, it remains mostly a watering hole for now.