The Aardvark

This is one of my favourite, late nite places to go. I love the vibe and the bartenders are characters. I reside in Dallas but when Fort Worth comes to mind this place is great. EXCEPT the indoor smoking. There’s also a Fuzzy’s next door which helps alot

Best Bar B Que in Ft. Worth. I always come here before TCU games. This place is my favorite bar

Great food, I don’t even like bbq but the bbq chicken sandwich was really good. The waffle fries were so delicious. Friendly staff, love this place.

On August 21^st I was asked to open for a Josh Weathers Benefit show held at one of Fort Worth best venues. The Aardvark is Quite literally the best staff I have ever dealt with. As a long time musician, and bartender, I hadn’t been back for a show in quite a while. Their stage is amazing to play on, and the professionalism and care put forth by the Venue’s staff to take care of their artists is above and beyond what I am used to at most other venues. Stage sound, stage, barstaff, and pay are all top notch.

The Aardvark is stellar Live Music Venue with a top notch sound system, the friendliest staff in town and featurs the best talent from local and national acts.

The management at the Aardvark turned a fun, musical evening to raise money for charity into a sound nightmare. Josh Weathers was able to save the night, but the mikes, speakers, and sound board were constantly wrong and gave noisy feedback all night. You would think after a couple of songs they could get it together… But no. It actually got worse. My friends and I will never go to another concert there. P. S. Josh Weathers handled the Aardvark’s unprofessionalism like a pro and did his best.

AVOID AT ALL COSTS. Shittiest employees I have ever met. Pay a cover to drink terrible drinks and get yelled at by the staff? No thanks. I will take my business elsewhere. Hope they get shut down and a respectable bar takes its place. FUCK VARK.

Awesome bartenders and bands. I’ve seen a lot of bands there and the sound is always good. The staff is really down to earth and the door guy has changed. Which is a super plus!

This place is cool, the bartenders are nice. And the food is cheap as heck I mean two burgers and a pitcher of beer for $ 10, yes you read that right folks TEN Americano dollars! (*on Thursdays, price is subject to change)…lol No but seriously the food is good and the beer is cheap, just use the restroom elsewhere, they don’t have a toilet.

I don’t necessarily recommend the Aardvark for nightlife. The bouncers are really rude and question your identity, even if you are legitimately of age with a real ID. The bartenders hate you if you order anything other than a beer.
The one thing I will give it are the shows. The stage is great, the bands are normally fun and energetic. Just don’t come on a night when a TCU fraternity is hosting an event and they won’t let you in the door without a special wristband.
What makes the Aardvark so great is its brunch! On Sundays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. they have a $ 12 all you can eat special featuring $ 1 mimosas and $ 4 bloody marys! I’m not talking about a standard brunch buffet. You have waitstaff service and a menu and you can just keep ordering food. They are so accommodating and everyone is so nice and helpful. Not to mention the brunch is awesome! All of your favorites from omelets to french toast to bacon to sausage to waffles. Any breakfast food you could want.
It’s delicious. Don’t go into a state of regret because you never had The Aardvark’s brunch. Go this Sunday!

The worst experience ever. The ENTIRE STAFF was rude, disrespectful, demeaning and completely ignorant to what their jobs are… that’s all I will say. Enter at your own risk, especially if you’re a minority.

WORST PLACE EVER!!! everyone who works there are rude and incredibly pompous! I was there to see a band and they did not start at 7p as scheduled, instead 10p. I tried calling all day to find out the actual time but no one ever picked up. So I get there and order a Stella. They put it in a small plastic cup!!! I asked why it wasn’t in a glass and was given attitude and told they had none when right behind him were rows of glasses. Not only was my precious Stella in a plastic cup, it was also SKUNKED!
Was also told I couldn’t turn off a fluorescent that was over my head just because. First off, who the heck cares and secondly I couldn’t see the stage.
I will never, ever return to this sorry excuse for a business.
Here’s a tip for the owner, fire those «workers» and get people who actually want to serve. I’m available if ya need me! Just kidding! Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if the owner/​manager was just as bad.

I came here to see my friends band play. I was visiting from LA but used to live in TX and loved this place when it was The Hop. My mom even used to hang out here when she was in college, it’s that old. Anyway, this place sucks!
The door man was the biggest a-​hole. I was on the list with the band and he still made me pay, even when it was proved to him that he was wrong. He continued to give us dirty looks all night. The bartender was somewhat nice though. It is way too skanky and run-​down to have this type of attitude.
I was shocked by how dingy it is and rude most of the staff was. I would have expected this from LA or NY but not TX, where men are supposed to be nice and chivalrous.
Besides that, when we went back to our car we got jumped by some coked up gang bangers and they smashed our windows in and it took Ft. Worth PD an hour (!) to send someone out to us. I was bleeding and everything. The cops are sketchy, this part of town is sketchy, the club is sketchy; all in all a very bad scene.
I was so glad to get back to downtown LA where I feel soooooo much safer, LOL! Don’t go to this club, there are way better options in Ft. Worth than this craphole. Heck, even Dallas has better options. IMHO.

I happened to ease my way into the background of a rather peculiar scene here tonight, and the result was highly entertaining: apparently there are weekly viewings of a discovery channel show that air here, a car tweaking reality show (starring locals) that features folks from around here in the familiar formula — find salvage cars, fix em up, sell em at auction. Predictable, but nevertheless entertaining tv.
And this show, of course, has nothing to do with what The Aardvark is all about, really. For all intents and purposes, we’re talking about a music forward room that intentionally books up and coming acts with chops. The impression I got is that on a perfect day they’d just as soon lean into a terrific live act here and settle in. A great start and prime for a re-​review; can’t wait to stop by again.

ZERO STARS. MUSICIANS STAY CLEAR! Owner is booker and has no clue how to run a venue. Completely disorganized. Showed up at club and nobody knew anything. 200 people there drinking heavily all night and not paid a cent. I’ve played live music for 15 years and never been treated so poorly with such a big crowd. No free food or drinks. Nothing. An embarrassment to the city of Ft. Worth and the planet Earth. This place must stay in business by it proximity to TCU and circle jerking local frat boys. AWFUL! STAY AWAY!!!

I think the Aardvark was taken from Deep Ellum in Dallas and thrown into Ft Worth by some benevolent Texas Twister. Why do I say that you ask? Well the Ft Worth nightlife differs greatly from Dallas: there is ample parking; most of which is free, the crowds are more laid back, and it is generally slight more upscale across the board.
The Aardvark lacks all these things. There is maybe 10 spots in its lot which have been permanently occupied since the Clinton Administration. You can’t park in the open lots of other businesses near by because they have Nazi towing companies that attack out of place cars like a dog on a t-​bone. You are forced to park on a street in a neighborhood and walk half a mile to get there.
The crowd of when I have gone has largely been laid back, but there was an awesome fist-​fight between the doorman and a patron. It was hilarious because the patron got his nose bloodied and his jeans ripped off of him. There literally was a busted faced man, who was pants-​less (no undies either) on the curb outside. People took pictures and laughed, I did too. They probably fought because the $ 8 cover was cash only… once again its 2012 and nothing should be cash only unless its the front for a mob boss.
It definitely wasn’t upscale, there is almost no signage to see from the road and there were just random tables and chairs and one punching game. The drinks were okay at best but the service was surprising fast for how many people were there. I was very generous that night with buying drinks and rang up a $ 70 tab but it was fair for what all I bought.
The positives were that other than the fight, everyone was fun and put up with the drunken childish antics of my friends with a smile and some joined us. The sound was pretty decent and not deafening like most small venues.
Overall: If you want a dive bar in Deep Ellum but that is actually located in Ft Worth, this is your place. If you can get over possibly having the worst TCU has to offer, the parking nightmare, and the fact its a dive-​bar, you can actually have a really good time. Go if a band you like is playing there, but if you want live music and drinks, there are TONS of other better places in Ft Worth.

I won’t give the Aardvark 5 stars cuz it is a dive & they could make some improvements. Also parking is a nightmare, the owners of the surrounding properties won’t share parking lots, whether they are open or not. You will get towed if you park in their lots.
That being said, the food is fresh & always good & the beer is cold. The door guy at night can be a little gruff, but if you were ever in there when a frat party suddenly invades, you’d know why.
As far as music, one night it might be a progressive country band (s), another it might be 2 or 3 local rock bands playing their own music. My son’s band, Krash Rover has played there several times & always treated fairly. A guy in another review had a complaint about the way they pay the bands, pretty common these days for up & coming bands. Gotta do your own promoting. If nobody comes to see ya, you don’t get paid. My son’s band has been doing it for 3 years now & always have a good crowd.
If you like a funky little pop in dive that has COLD beer, good bar-​b-​que & a variety of music, this might be a good fit.

Not a quality establishment at all. Kind of a hole, actually, and very rarely do they have any bands worth the price of admission.

I had been to The Aardvark in the past to see some bands, but I hadn’t paid it any mind recently until I saw a review of their food in the Ft. Worth weekly. My first thought was good food, being served for over a year just a block away from my work and I didn’t know about it?!? Unilocal,I have failed thee!
Once I got that out of my system I knew I had to swing by and give them a try. The place had been renovated since I’d been there and they had all the windows open so, you definitely didn’t feel like you were eating in a dank bar.
Appetizers include a variety of delicious fried things including pickles, portobello mushrooms, corn nuggets, okra, green beans, and jalapeño caps. My lunch companion got the corn nuggets which I am always a huge fan of. They were delicious, sweet, and came with a side of ranch. (Almost anything benefits from a side of ranch — except your aorta).
The main dishes include a variety of BBQ sandwiches, brisket, chicken, chopped beef. Including a brisket taco the chef said was great. They also have burgers and hot dogs (including some concoction called «The Dog» which is a hot dog wrapped in bacon and fried).
I knew I was going to go all out on the fried sides so I eased up on the entrée. I got chicken breast sliders marinated & topped with cole slaw. All entrees are served with two sides so for $ 6.75 it’s a pretty good deal. I intended to order fried green beans and jalapeño caps but they were out of caps. Instead I got baked beans.
The chicken was super moist and delicious and came on sweet hawaiian-​like bun. It was very delicious and didn’t feel too sinful. The fried green beans were amazing — crisp and a beautiful bright green inside and the baked beans were delicious (due to the bacon).
The staff was waaay friendly and super attentive. The cook came out and told us his recommendations. I absolutely loved the food there and I can’t wait to try more.

I saw this awesome band called All to Ashes there and they rocked.
They have a great sound system here and good sound tech on the mixing board.