Pirates Club is the Joburg sports bar that wears its age with pride, and on a big match day it rewards the supporter who arrives early with the cheapest cold beer for kilometres.
Published Dec 16, 2025 · By Daniel Okafor
Last reviewed Jan 5, 2026 · How we pick bars
Pirates Club sits at 25 Braeside Road in Greenside, off the 4th Avenue strip that locals know for easy weekend drinking. Founded in 1888, it is the oldest sports club in Gauteng, and the clubhouse bar carries that history without trading on it. In Your Pocket notes the club likes to claim it is the greatest in the city, and on the question of value that boast holds up.
The clubhouse runs as a proper members and sports club, with bowls greens, gym, and playing fields wrapped around a restaurant and bar that the wider public is welcome to enjoy. The bar itself is the draw for match days: plenty of screens inside, a comfortable and highly social room, and a price list that few northern-suburbs venues come close to matching.
This is a watcher's bar rather than a destination for food tourism, though the kitchen turns out reliable clubhouse fare to soak up the afternoon. The point is the beer, which is genuinely cheap, and the company, which is generous and knows its sport. If you are chasing bargains rather than craft, you will hardly find better in the area.
Manage your expectations on space. Seating inside the bar is limited, and the club takes no bookings on the biggest match days, so the early supporter wins the best table. Google reviewers give it 4.1 across roughly 80 reviews, and a separate tally shows 92 percent of visitors recommend it. For the wider field of where to watch, see our guide to the best sports bars in Johannesburg.
Go early on derby weekends and aim for an inside seat before kickoff, because the screens get claimed quickly and the room is small. A quieter weekday visit shows the social, neighbourhood-club side of the place, with the bar open daily from 9:30am to 11pm. For the run of major fixtures, our roundup of where to watch the 2026 World Cup in Johannesburg is the companion read.
The clubhouse feels exactly its age in the best way. Wood, trophies, and the easy hum of a members' bar give it a character no franchise can buy, and the screens sit where the regulars never miss a beat. Seating is tight, so the room rewards the supporter who commits to a spot and holds it.
What members and visitors agree on is value. The beer price is the headline, the welcome runs warmer than the limited seating suggests, and the sporting calendar reaches deep across bowls, cricket, and the bar's screens. The recurring caution is space: on a derby day, latecomers stand.
The crowd is a true Greenside mix, club members alongside neighbourhood drinkers who came for the bargain and stayed for the company. It is a watcher's room rather than a scene, and it makes no apology for that. The clubhouse setting also means there is space outside the bar to spill into when the cricket or bowls calendar overlaps with a big screen fixture.
Pirates Club pairs well with the louder rooms a short drive away. When the clubhouse fills, Benchwarmers in Rosebank brings the volume, while Hogshead in Illovo screens several matches at once. All three sit inside the broader Johannesburg sports bar scene.
Sources: Pirates Club official site, piratesclub.co.za (2026); In Your Pocket Johannesburg; JHB Live venue listing; Pirates Club Greenside official Facebook page.