Red Zone Old City

Ok ok. Just met the new owner. This dude Justin is getting DRAFT BEER in the next week. That’s amazing news because this place is SOLID for football, place is filled with flatscresns and hot ass chicks

Still many fun nights, but, a little nervous to return. I have a feeling I was drugged by either a patron or a bartender. Friends of mine and myself all blacked out when we were wall drinking different amounts and not even the same thing. We woke up at their house hours later with no recollection of what had happened, scraped up & dirty. Also missing some items; nothing valuable thankfully.

Red Zone is trying to do this sports bar + club scene thing. It’s not working. Green and red strobe lights stream across the walls, which host side-​by-​side flat screen TVs encircling the room. A sanctuary of large booths parallels the dance floor (?) to further confuse (provide options for?) attendees.
I’m being harsh. Perhaps it was the 10 minute long remix of the robotic «Satisfaction» that was played ever so enthusiastically by the two DJs (computer-​button-​pressers?) high above the bar. Or maybe it was the fact that the best quality vodka available was Pinnacle.
A good concept in theory to appease bros and dancing queens. If you find yourself switching between these tendencies on a minute-​by-​minute basis, this is your place.

«This is the best bar ever!» — said no one.
You should come here if you want to wait 20 minutes for your first round of beers.
If you thought Philadelphia was trashy, definitely come here to prove yourself right.

I had to laugh when I saw the last review also mentioned the flashing green lights. We came in here to watch some football early Sunday afternoon and were perplexed when those flashing lights came on midway through the second quarter. Very distracting and unpleasant and unnecessary. No one was there to «club» at 1:40 in the afternoon! Very weird but very amusing.
Service was slow but not unfriendly — the beer list was mediocre though they did have a lot of pumpkin flavored beers. I had a pumpkin flavor one and then Miller Lites. Onion rings were pretty decent as were the mozzerella sticks but those are hard to mess up.
My overall thoughts on this place are partly meh and partly amused while thinking about the green strobe lights. Oh, also there was a guy who appeared to be the manager who was stalking about grumpily with a huge scowl on his face. I don’t know what he was so angry about but he was kind of amusing to watch as well.
Ended up leaving early and watching the second half of the 1:00 games somewhere else.

Oh, for the love of God. I’m not sure why I feel the need to test my fellow Unilocalers rating accuracy, but apparently I like to learn the hard way. «Certainly it can’t be that bad,» I told myself. Famous last words. I just wanted to find a place to grab a beer, chill out and watch some college football. Is that too much to ask on a Saturday night? Apparently, yes.
Draft beer? Nope. Bottles only. Err, okay then. Oh, but they do have plenty of big televisions with various games playing above the bar. That’s good. Plus, they have the side doors open to enjoy the comfortable evening air. Alright, this isn’t so bad.
Fast-​forward 15 minutes:
Doors close. WTH?
Earsplitting club music starts blasting from surrounding speakers, causing inadvertent heart palpitations. WTFH?
Green laser lights start zigzagging all over the walls. Oh, FML. I’m outta here!
But wait, I did get my Unilocal Maverick badge as a consolation prize.
Thanks…a lot… really.

What a fraudulent establishment. Went there for the UFC PPV, got charged $ 10 for cover, then when it came time for the PPV, it looked like they were streaming it.
If I wanted to watch the PPV on a crappy Internet feed, I would have stayed home.
Bush-​league, fraudulent establishment. I will not go back.

Went to watch UFC 148. $ 10 cover for guys $ 5 for girls which was what I’d expect. The good news was that they had $ 2 Miller Lites. But everything after that was disappointing.
We ordered french fries and they came out squishy and unseasoned. There were no stools at the bar so a bunch of people had to move them from the tables to the bar throughout the night. 99% of the people there were there to watch the UFC fight but they decided to skimp and stream it through a laptop. Quality of the video was worse than if they had ordered standard def. Considering they had the entire bar filled for UFC, they should have at the very least ordered the fight legitimately. After the main event, they paused their laptop and put music on immediately. To which a flood of people left the bar. Also, the A/​C unit was on the fritz so everyone had a full sweat throughout the fights.

Came here because of the «free beer with facebook check in» offer. Space was freezing cold and kind of shabby looking.
Original Sunday early afternoon bartender was super friendly and attentive, about a half hour into sitting at Red Zone the shift changed. The second bartender was rude, and not attentive. The beer list was boring and uncreative.
I tried over three times to get a refill on my beer and was attempting to order food (a man down the other end of the bar was eating delicious looking nachos). I do not want to fail to mention that the bar was not crowded and there were only about 6 other patrons.
When I finally got the beers I ordered the bartender slammed them down in front of me. After quickly finishing my beer I wanted to settle my tab and leave, all items were correctly billed, but it took an additional 15 minutes to get my check for two beers.
Ridiculous. I didn’t come in hating this place but left super unhappy due to the horrible service.

I think Red Zone doesn’t get a fair shake from it’s management. This should not be classified as a Sports Bar, more like a Sports Lounge. Good for drinks and sports on a Friday night, but the daylight shines on all of their warts.
Atmosphere — Went during the day, and that was a mistake. Carpets look dirty and worn, I thought they just opened? Lots of neon signs and beer specials posters. Tacky for Olde City, was expecting a bit more. They do have a lot of TV’s which is nice and the bar area seems more classy, I guess because its’ right by the window.
Waitstaff — Our waitress told us it was her first day, uh oh. Had to make at least seven trips for silverware, questions on the menu, and drinks in a ten minute span. Not blaming the waitress, but the management. How do you not let a new server train with someone on their first day? No standard uniforms or anything, so no fun their either.
Food — Not a touchdown, more like a field goal. I had the Buffalo Chicken Dip, which was very good, just came with a literal ‘handful’ of chips. Other diners in my party got the hummus plate, which they said was ‘ok’. For main entrees, we went with the grilled cheese and tomato soup, which was very good as well. Lettuce wraps were decent, but nothing special. I went for the BBQ Brisket sandwich, like the roll, the BBQ was lukewarm. Dissapointing.
Intangibles — The restaurant is owned by two of the Eagles players, but you’d think they’d know more about a bar. This is probably a place for the night crowd, more then the lunch crowd, before going to Mad River, Cuba Libre, or any of the other places downtown. It would be nice if they got rid of the clipboard menus, I don’t want to feel like I’m eating in a locker room.
Overall — I had a gift certificate, which was why we went there. There’s too many places in Olde City that are awesome to go back again, and if I need a sports fix, I can always go to many other awesome places in Philly. The Red Zone underachieves, so if you want to go, then ‘time’s yours’…

Dirty restrooms and sticky floors overshadow the rest. Can’t imagine how dirty the parts are that I can’t see, like the kitchen. Skip this place.

The bar itself is actually pretty nice with plenty of televisions and the food is about average in comparison to other sports bars. The problem is that the managers are very shady and the hosts are, in a word, useless.
Do NOT go here to watch pay per view events. They will not play the sound of the UFC fights and you will wait 45 minutes to get a table when there are clearly booths open. Beware of any drink specials they offer. If you found it on their website or advertised elsewhere they are probably «out of date» or «summer specials». They will offer you some overpriced alternative and then change that midway through the night by saying «that keg ran out». Right… you ran out of miller lite?
In summary go to fox and hound instead.

awesome space, pretty comfy couch, good amount of tv’s, BUT service is SNAIL slow, waitresses are confused, TV’s are placed so high, so they seem small and … WHAT? are we in college? plastic cups and plastic pitchers? And prices … moderate.
We started with the wings in Red Zone sauce, which was hot and a little sour. The chicken fingers has this dark yellow sauce, which I assumed honey mustard since it tasted sweet, but the mustard was bitter. The strips were also dry.

I was here for Philly2night’s VIP club event and I enjoyed trying out their new wing of the week. Every week, Red Zone features a new wing sauce and this week was a honey barbecue. As part of the Philly2night promo, I got my own plate of wings (6) and a pint of craft beer. The pint wasn’t quite the size I thought I would be, though, it was closer to the size of a highball class, but it was all free as part of the VIP prgoram so I can’t complain. I also received more wings than I thought I would, so that’s a plus! Aside from the food, the number of TVs is amazing and I couldn’t have asked for a better night to come watch the Phillies win! It was beautiful outside and the front windows were all wide open so I enjoyed a breeze, a beer and wings — all courtesy of the VIP program and I got to meet a few people too!
After my wings, I also ordered a spinach salad and I thought the dressing was good, but I think it was missing cheese. I wish I had ordered the cheesesteak nachos that I saw a guy eating at the bar, instead!
This was the first time I’ve been to Red Zone and I would go back, particularly because the bartender on Monday nights is super nice. My glass was never empty!

Great happy hour spot in Old City! Went to Red Zone last night and enjoyed $ 9 dollar bucket of 5 coors lights — what a deal! The food is great (as long as you are in the mood for bar food — wings, hummus, fries etc)
Staff gave us some free samples of the signature cocktails which was a nice surprise. Tons of TV’s that included any sporting event you could imagine.
Only con was that the bar was covered with pollen — the large windows were open to the street so part of this is unavoidable but would have liked to see the staff wiping it down more frequently.

I dined at Red Zone with some friends a few months back when the location had just opened up. All three of us enjoy going to sports bars and were pretty excited to see another one pop up in Old City since we all live in the neighborhood.
The menu looks great at first glance, however the food is terrible. I ordered the buffalo chicken mac and cheese which was our servers «favorite thing». My friends had the short-​rib flat bread and the shrimp po boy sandwich. The only positive was that the portions were larger than expected. The mac and cheese tasted like buttered noodles with a sprinkle of parmesan (which i could have made better at home), the short rib flat bread was like eating an entire tub of heinz barbecue sauce (overpowered any other flavor) and the po boy sandwhich was some frozen popcorn shrimp on a roll.
On top of the flavorless meal, the service was the worst I have EVER experienced. Our server appeared to be under the influence of something and could not remember anything. I’ll summarize with numeric bullets:
1) She couldn’t remember who ordered which beer (she had one other table)
2) After we ordered food she had to come back and have us order again because she forgot (she was writing it down on a pad of paper the first time)
3) She came by after ringing our food in to ask if we wanted to order food or if we were just drinking.
4) She told us we needed to hurry because the UFC fight was on and all of the tables were reserved (which was occuring two and a half hours after we arrived)
5) She took at least 15 minutes to get our check
Unfortunately, I had to attend a birthday party at Red Zone one month later and it took almost 15 minutes to get a drink at the bar. I will never go back. Buffalo Billiards is right around the corner folks! Choose wisely.

If I could give Red Zone 0 stars, I would. This place has HORRIBLE service, the food is DISGUSTING, and there is nothing consistent about this bar at all. Pretty sad actually.
On a busy saturday night, with the bar packed, a waitress actually had the audacity to tell my friends and I that we couldn’t stand between the tables becuase we were in her way. Um, the bar was so packed you couldn’t move anywhere!
Two words — don’t go.

I was very excited about the idea of a sports bar in Old city, as I like the vibe of the area, but like to have the option of hanging out and watching some games. Went here early on a Saturday afternoon to catch a little baseball, soccer and end-​of-​season hockey. The décor has a sports-​y enough vibe, and there are LOADS of televisions.
First off, the service was terrible. The server didn’t know the menu (she confused the «hummus and flatbread» appetizer with the «flatbread» section of the menu and wanted to know if we wanted «hummus and pita and a flatbread») and couldn’t tell us a single beer on draft or in bottles (there’s no written beer list to be found) — but she did point us to the cocktail menu. Once we found out what beers were in house (actually a pretty decent selection, hooray!), it took 15 minutes to get our first round, because they only had one behind the bar. And that one, she walked back and forth with in her hand … I was surprised it wasn’t body temperature by the time we’d gotten it.
Second, we ordered three appetizers. They didn’t come out together or in anything resembling a timely manner. The «golden garden» was brought to us without the dip. The «grilled cheese bites and tomato soup» tasted like Kraft singles and Campbell’s. I don’t expect too much from bar fare, but I do expect an Old City joint to be a cut above.
Finally, not one of the three servers in the 80%-empty restaurant knew how to operate the remotes for the televisions. They had to pull the cook out of the kitchen to change the channels. By the time they’d actually gotten him out and found Fox Soccer Channel (we were doing play-​by-​play of the scrolling through the Direct TV menu), the Premiership football was long since over — because we’d been there an hour-​and-​a-​half at that point. Oh, and this was great: Red Zone doesn’t have the NHL television package. It’s a sports bar. That doesn’t show hockey. Brilliant plan, that.
Despite a promising beer list and a tantalizing number of televisions, Red Zone doesn’t deliver on any key points. You’re much better off with pretty much any other Old City bar.

This place is only like 3 months old but by the shape of the joint you’d swear that it’s been open a decade. Even for a sports bar it’s almost as if Red Zone has too many TV’s for the space. The food here, however, is surprisingly good and the price is just right.
Come here when it’s dark so you don’t have to see how gross the floor is. Avoid the bathroom. In fact, just piss in the alley outside because I think it’s cleaner.

I went to Red Zone on their opening night. It was okay, but they’ve got several kinks to work out before I’d go back.
Maybe they haven’t purchased all of their glassware yet, or maybe they couldn’t keep up with the dishwashing, but drinks at the bar closer to the front of the building were coming out in tiny highball glasses, while the same drinks at the back bar were coming out in medium-​sized glasses and plastic cups, all for the same price. I’d have been annoyed if I had ordered my drink from the front bar.
There were a million TVs lining the walls, but there were only two different channels up, and none of them had closed captioning. They should definitely keep this in mind on a night when there are several big games on.
The mix of music was okay. I didn’t hate it or get excited by the tunes that were chosen.
Other than that, I don’t have much to say. Red Zone doesn’t offer up anything different or more interesting than every other bar in Olde City. If anything, it’s got less character, and there are a lot of places I’d choose to go instead.