Review 1 :- October 2001
This place is very popular with lesbians, especially as it is lesbian owned and run, but is still very welcoming to men. Slightly dated décor, but a fun place. 

By Steve Bustin of Queer Company
 

 Review 2 :- April 2001

When it was announced that "The West End" on William St. West off Dominic Street would become a gay bar I have to admit I thought it was a sad attemt to get a gay crowd to go to a decrepic old man's pub. How wrong I was!

The bar was actually bought by a lesbian couple who genuinely wanted to bring a bit of variety to the Galway Scene. You can't miss the lavender exterior- yuk! It has three floors, the top floor has two pool tables and precious little else, but if you want to avoid the mob and speak in private with someone, this is ideal. There's a pretty amazing view of Dominic St from here aswell!

When it opened in October, the second floor was the main sourse of praise. It had been decorated in a very laid back "couchy-feely" way with interesting lighting and comfy chairs. Sadly if you weren't sipping since 8 o'clock there was no way you'd get your ass on one of those couches! Anyway it's really nice and on weekends it can be standing room only.

Finally the ground floor. This was always Strano's downfall because, given the plushness of the upper floor, the drab and pretty horrible decor downstairs made it difficult to image it as the same bar. It hadn't changed since the days of "The West End" and Strano's popularity suffered. But this March it too has undergone a transformation!! It's been given an entire facelift with bright colours and trendy furniture decorations. It's still like a different bar to the upper level, but now it's an equal.

It's hard to say at this stage what crowd Strano is going to appeal to but, at the minute, everyone seems impressed. There's definetly a younger crowd here on the weekends. Cocktail's I've heard, are pretty expensive and smaller compared to Zulu's but the bar staff are fast and friendly. Strano, much like Zulu's comes to life at the weekends. All in all, an impresive start!

Sent in by Galway Boy

Review 3 - 2000 :-

Stranos is a New gay bar & Lounge on Dominque St/William Street West, Galway.

The name "Stranos" comes from the Italian word for strange -  The 3 storey building is painted in bright Turqoise so there is little chance of passing it by. The bar area is located on the ground floor, the lounge/chill out area is on the 2nd floor complete with comfortable sofa's - making leaving a hard thing to do!

 There is a games room on the funky third floor with two pool tables, the walls have been decorated by a group of art students with spray paint and imagination!!

 The bar will hopefully cater for all tastes young and old alike with each floor has its own unique look and feel.  The official opening went ahead over the October bank holiday weekend with a strange party that lived up to the strange name.