The Hollow Bar + Kitchen

We’ve been to the Hollow several times for dinner and beers and love the food and set up. When we were deciding on where to have our baby shower we knew we wanted it to be a place with a cool set up over a country club. I couldn’t believe they were able to craft a menu within our budget which was very low as we were price sensitive. They were amazing the entire way along the process. We worked with Dora and Mike. They were flexible on everything and so extremely helpful. They made awesome recommendations I would have never thought of and were not at all pushy– we ended up using 2 of the 3 rooms which was perfect for our group. The paper lanterns were still up from the holidays making the place look even warmer and minimizing the amount of decorations we need. They helped with set up, were there early and quite literally everything was perfect. It was great to do it in a laid back environment where everyone were true professionals. We did a brunch with quiche and salad– the food was fresh and delicious! We also scored our favorite waiter Jory who we knew would be great with our family. I would highly recommend the Hollow Bar and Kitchen for any event. It truly was an easy, stress free and fun environment. I also can’t wait to come back after the baby is born for my favorite Hollow Burger– yum!!!

For the restaurant…
I was there after the kitchen had closed, but they still had the friers on, so I got mozzarella sticks and they were soooo good. Also, the waiter was really nice and attentive and the atmosphere was chill.
But it’s 1 star because of the concert area…
I went to a free show here by Half Moon Run. Everywhere that it was listed online said that it was 18+ but when I got there and showed my ID, the guy said it changed last minute to 21+. There was nothing I found anywhere online saying that, I even looked online while I was there. Also, I met a few people in the same predicament I was that said that other people who were under 21 got in because they kept bugging the people.
When I said to the guy at the front that nothing online says the show is 21+, he just said sorry, but that’s what his boss said and they didn’t have enough room to start letting 18 year olds in.
So basically I was there early, but couldn’t get in because they wanted to free up the area so that they could have more 21 year olds go in and buy alcohol.
I understand if you want a show to be 21+, but say that from the start instead of having everywhere drive there just to find out that we won’t be let in. That’s just ridiculous and unfair.
After all this, I was able to sit outside the concert area and hear the band, even see them a little, but it wasn’t the same as actually being in the concert area to see one of my very favorite bands. Overall, I was very disappointed. I’m just thankful I only drove about a half hour for the show, unlike someone else I’d met who’d driven 3 hours to be told she couldn’t get in.

Stopped in for a bite before a show at the Times Union Center, Thursday at 5 pm and did we have reservations? Of course not.
We were seated by the door, not ideal but we weren’t one of the twelve tables turned away while we ate.
Burgers were good, fries delicious. Chicken Marsala was good according to the boy.
Met our needs, probably won’t be back soon, but if we are, we’ll get reservations…

Really like Hollow. I only come to Albany a couple times a year so I havent tried every place but hollow is definitely my favorite. Everything I have tried (butternut squash bisque, bourbon wings, ahi tuna, & burger) has been delicious. There is also a lot of flare to their food which I often find missing in Albany restaurants. Staff is really nice. Place is large and inviting. I would highly recommend giving this place a shot.

I came here with a few friends back in November and I really liked this place. They have an excellent beer selection and any place that has Founders Breakfast Stout on tap gets points in my book. It’s definitely worth a visit if you’re around Pearl Street and like good beer!

I like The Hollow both as a music venue and bar/​restaurant. I haven’t had much of a chance to explore their menu but I can say that their burgers are good, their sweet potato fries are amazing and their cocktails are great (try the Raspberry Collins).
I mostly go here for the music shows. The back bar and stage/​dancefloor area is really small and sold-​out shows get super crowded and uncomfortable but if you find a decent spot (preferably up front) then it’s an awesome experience to be so close to the band. I’ve seen some of my favorite bands at this place so it holds a lot of good memories for me.

Finally, a place in Albany where there are actually and consistently PEOPLE! I hate eating in an empty restaurant and for some reason Albany seems deserted to me, although I do like it. And Hollow is awesomeeee I can go back there every week. I’ve already been there twice in three weeks hehe.
The ambiance is the best part. Love the detailing on the lights with mason jar «lampshades» in one of the dining areas. It has a younger vibe and attracts a cool crowd even on nights when they don’t have live performers (which they do on some nights). A game room sits in the middle of the space flanked by two dining/​bar areas — one more light and open and one more dark and bar-​y.
Food is great! I could eat the gnocchi with shitake mushrooms and arugula every day!!! Drinks are really good; I recommend the margarita and the samplers for beer and wine. Can’t wait to come back! Maybe next week. #worktravel.

My friends and I found this place after work. I love to try the local spots and after reading the reviews, we just had to check it out!
Upon arrival, we were greeted and seated right away. Our drinks were served within minutes and they did not disappoint. I ordered the surf and turf burger with a local beer called Common Roots, a mix of grapefruit and melon. Yes, strange mix. But, the flavors blended perfectly. The burger was warm and juicy. The fries were fried to perfection and seasoned just right.
As for my friends, they both ordered the salmon and would not stop raving about it. But, of course, they also ate my fries! The waiter checked in on us periodically and refilled our water. It was definitely a perfect meal. Can’t wait to be back!

What a nice surprise! Guess I just remember it’s former personas. We shared 3 small plates, each very good. Sliders, eggplant stack & asparagus. After finishing, I was pleased to see who little meat we ate, the vegetable dishes being so tasty. I’d say the eggplant was my favorite.
My Mojito gets a 4 of 5 on my Mojito scale. Fresh mint & lime!
Our server, Jory, was efficient and personable. Very attentive. You can’t ask for more.
There was no live music on the night we were here. It was moderately noisy, but acceptable for those over 55.
We’ll definitely return.
Used a $ 10 off 30 City dining card, which always helps.

Stopped by here on a Wednesday evening, felt it was pretty full (didn’t realize the place extend all the way to the back). Their beer collection is great as is the food. Their quesadillas are one of the best I’ve had. We got the eggplant stack based on the reviews, weren’t really impressed (would have preferred lesser quantity and maybe with some sort of bread). The sandwiches are really good and the fries were excellent. The staff were friendly and took good care of us.
Will definitely repeat and recommend.

The Hollow is still a great place to go for a good selection of drinks and a delicious meal. I chose to have my birthday dinner at the Hollow (which is really saying something!) and I was not disappointed.
My husband and I started with the hummus appetizer, which was fantastic. It is served with naan, as well as arugula, roasted red peppers, and goat cheese, but it is the naan that is the star of the show. The naan, drizzled with olive oil, sprinkled with herbs, and topped liberally with Parmesan cheese, is a must-​order. For my dinner I ordered the special scallop appetizer as well as their butternut squash soup. The scallops were awesome and were just spicy enough (they were served over a sriracha-​dressed ‘slaw). My husband chose the grilled chicken pesto sandwich. We gobbled everything up and then teeter-​tottered, bellies full, off to the Speakeasy for a nightcap. What a rad birthday!

I was working in Albany a couple of days ago and being unfamiliar with the city, I ducked into the first place I came across for a quick drink and early dinner. Fortunately, that place turned out to be the Hollow. What a gem. The lovely redheaded bartender took great care of me and I loved the selection of beers and whiskies.
I usually don’t have high hopes for bar food but the «… + Kitchen» part of their name is not an afterthought. The gnocchi I had was fantastic — to the point where I talked about it for an oddly long time with a big-​name chef friend of mine when I got back to NYC.
Glad to know the Hollow is there– whenever I’m in town, it will definitely be my local.

My husband, cousin and I made a reservation for dinner on a Friday night since restaurants can be a bit unpredictable on Friday nights.
What we had:
Butternut squash bisque — was a bit thicker than I was expecting, the flavor was okay, and the toasted pumpkin seeds were delicious.
Portabella Sandwich with Sweet Potato Fries — The sandwich was excellent. Most restaurants have some meat alternative portabella mushroom sandwich and all too often its a tasteless mushroom on a roll. This was sliced and seasoned and dressed perfectly with just the right amount of garlic bleu cheese dressing. The sweet potato fries were good, nothing crazy special, but tasty.
The Hollow Burger — Tasty, juicy, and simple, with the added punch up of a fried egg.
Chicken Tenders — large tenders with a good ratio of chicken to breading. Medium sauce had a little kick, but not too hot.
Surf and Turf Burger — excellent, would definitely order again. Lots of flavor.
The service was great, our waitress was just the right balance of attentive and distant. My personal preference is servers who don’t hang out or chat too much, and our server definitely didn’t spend too much time at our table, but I never felt neglected.
Next time I may be a little more adventurous and try one of the tempeh sandwiches. I’ve never had tempeh and I figure I’ll let someone who knows what they’re doing make it for me the first time I try it!

This was a great place to stop in at for dinner on a Friday night! I started by ordering butternut squash soup –this turned out to be one of the most delicious soups I’ve ever had! So creamy and the texture was great. I also ordered a beer but it turned out to be too fruit –our server was kind enough to change it out for a Blue Moon (I should just stick to beers I know!) For entrée, I got the chicken salad board –shredded chicken with flavors of lemon zest and rosemary/​thyme, along with sliced tomatoes and cucumbers and warm naan. The chicken didn’t have mayo so it was drier than what you may expect but super healthy and tasty. All of this for $ 10?! Can’t beat it. Loved it! Great experience here. Look forward to coming back some time.

We picked this place because of the concept: a bar/​restaurant with live music and a variety of food choices, including several vegetarian options in the menu. Not just the usual portobello sandwich type lame options, but also vegetarian protein like tempeh and faux bacon. And also beer. Because beer.
We sat outside and ordered some interesting porters and stouts. I liked that you could order smaller size portions for $ 4 – 5. So far so good.
Beers were great. Menu was encouraging. We ordered the French onion soup (with a beer based broth instead of beef broth, so — vegetarian! And kale!) and the asparagus.
I was pretty stoked to be able to have French onion soup for the first time in probably over a decade. It was good, too, if a little over the top cheesy. The kale was a great addition as it was cooked long past the point of tasting «good for you» and was practically indistinguishable from the onions.
The only problem was, no one brought us silverware or napkins. All we had was the spoon that came with the soup. By the time we flagged down a waiter, the asparagus was cold.
We also ordered a tempeh reuben to split, with a side of sweet potato fries. When it arrived, we took advantage of the rare appearance of our server to order more beer, and didn’t notice until she had left that she had brought a tempeh burger, not a tempeh reuben.
We munched on the fries as cigarette smoke wafted up the street from outside the entrance to the music section of Hollow Bar, where a live band had attracted a good size crowd.
By the time our waitress swung by with our beers we had eaten half the fries and run out of water. She took the tempeh burger away and brought back waters, and pretty quickly after that a tempeh reuben. With our remaining half order of now-​cold fries on the side. That seemed pretty cheap to me but I didn’t say anything.
When our bill came, she had taken $ 6 off, which I thought was fair, but didn’t change the fact that the overall experience did not live up to what the website promised.
Great concept, haphazardly executed.

I’ve begun to expect culinary mediocrity from all the hipsterish pub type restaurants around here, but this place was pleasantly surprising. My husbands hollow burger was perfectly crafted, juicy, and delicious. The chef here knows what’s up when it comes to burgers, and I can’t wait to go back for my own. One star dinged for my friends ahi tuna special that was not ahi in the least, actually extremely well done and charred like a brick, and the strange building smell. Before the crowd showed up (I think around 9pm is when people really started rolling in on a Thursday) it’s all I could smell and it was wildly unappetizing. And if I’d been Chris I would have sent my tuna back because it was nothing as advertised. He’s too nice, but he shouldn’t have had to pay for that monstrosity. I’m sitting here thinking about removing the 4^th star cause of the tuna but I’m leaving it cause the burger deserved it and it’s a menu staple, not just a nightly special gone wrong. I ordered a salad, something weird I’ve started doing up here since my meat orders usually arrive overdone and dried out. The salad was fair enough, it had things I like on it. So to recap Tuna was 1 – 2 stars, salad was 3 stars, burger was 5. I also liked that they had a couple pints under $ 4 since that’s a rarity up here. So yes, with the Albany handicap, 4 stars.
The atmosphere was hipster Pinterest, pretty enough but not overly unique.

I finally convinced my husband to try this place again. He was hesitant… But then I roped him into it with the rave reviews on the burger.
I really, really wanted to love his place, but it wasn’t in the cards for the Hollow and I…
Don’t get me wrong, it’s certainly a step (leap actually) up from its Bayou days (#flashbackfriday!) but I think it definitely swings more toward a Bar than a Kitchen. By the end of the meal, I came to the realization that maybe we should stick to the pub fare (which isn’t a bad thing!).
The staff was exceptionally friendly and I would come back just for the service. However, we waited for our table at the bar and the acoustics were such that it was incredibly loud all around. But as my husband pointed out– it is after all, a bar.
This was our second time here since the Hollow K&B façade debuted a couple of years back. I had the classic gnocchi which boasted truffle oil, shiitake mushrooms, arugula and Asiago. All a few of my favorite things! I was in for an incredible let down! I can’t quite put my finger on it but there was a certain «je né sais quoi» that made this dish taste terrible. Fortunately, I ordered the smaller $ 15 dish. I have it the benefit of the doubt a couple of times so I took some intermissions, ate some of my husband’s chicken fingers and sweet potato fries to cleanse my palate… And nothing, still tasted horrible.
On the bright side, the sweet potato fries were delicious! And the chicken tenders were fried chicken– lover approved! We started out with the hummus plate which my husband loved but I thought was just ok.
In summary: nice little outdoor are which makes for some very entertaining people watching in downtown Albs, cute new décor inside, super friendly staff, and good pub fare.

The food is delicious and the service is great. My date and I often share a meal and the staff is totally thoughtful about it. Everyone is really friendly and the beer selection is good. What more could I ask for?
As a bonus, it has a great aesthetic. I just wish they were open earlier on Saturdays!

Stopped in at The Hollow to grab some lunch before our walk to Ninepin Cider. It’s a small, cozy bar with a bit of a hipster vibe to it. The menu echoes this, with your standard pub fare options, as well as some good choices for vegetarians. There is also a selection of more elaborate food, if that’s what you’re looking for.
Some restaurants, I like being able to see into the kitchen – it gives the place a sense of intimacy and you leave feeling like you have been a part of a meal experience. This, not so much. It’s a couple dudes in the back drinking and hanging out, occasionally pausing to make your food. It’s cramped and cluttered, so in this case I wish they would put a door there. The bartender was really friendly, and took good care of us.
The food was good, though the bean chili on my nachos was more of a bean salad (and therefore was a bit of a strange addition). The nachos were well made, but I had to spit out one of them because it was completely covered (and I mean COVERED) in salt. I found another couple that would have been salt bombs, but I was able to avoid them.
However, the hubs had the chicken fingers tossed in buffalo. which were really delicious. Their buffalo sauce is really well balanced – not too oily, but with a great heat and flavor.

This place is excellent. The décor is trendy, upscale bar. The staff is friendly and chatty.
I ordered a burger with fried egg (pictured). The burger was well seasoned and the fries were good too. The meal came with spicy ketchup which was a nice addition on both the burger and fries.
My boyfriend ordered the chicken salad because we hardly ever see it made without mayo (we hate the stuff). It was also delicious.
The best part was the coffee which was french press. We’ll be coming back here many times in the future.

Very good food at very good price! their salad is delicious and their sandwiches are the best. This little gem is hidden in historic Albany, across the street from the Hampton Inn. I’ll return for sure.