Shiloh Club

Your standard dive bar filled with locals. With Kay’s Lounge about to see it’s last days, I am glad to have found a little haunt close to the new house where we can grab a low key beer. They also sell pizzas cooked in a little one pizza at a time oven behind the bar. They smell just like Kay’s pizzas! Don’t come in here 10 deep and be annoyed that you aren’t getting waited on. Don’t complain to the bartender about the music or whatever. Come in, order a beer, be cool. If you don’t like it, leave. Shiloh Club isn’t the kind of place that’s going to change for you.

As I walk through the threshold of this locals only bar I feel my self start to relax as my eyes adjust to the darkness. A man and women cheers with another couple in a dark corner. It’s obvious they are the last of a wedding party. The bar is full and I see a pool table and darts. Everyone is friendly to me and seems to be on good term with each other. By the time I leave I know everyone around me. Dancing laughter make their appearance late and dance with all the old men. I stumble my way home on foot. I woke up starving and happy with my night at the local.

Best dive bar in Houston as far as I am concerned. A long bar, tiled floors, a few old TV’s, pool tables, good jukebox (with good country, not this new pop crap that is being passed off as such) and a wonderful deck/​patio outside facing Studewood. Not to mention incredibly welcoming bartenders, and one of the most unique cross sections of Heights drinkers you will find.
No tap beers, and nothing but Lone Star and such. Thinking about it, I am not sure if I have asked if they have any other beer but Lone Star here… maybe they do? Honestly, I can only take one or two Lone Stars before looking for something else, or to go elsewhere. Luckily they have a liquor license. Old school Martini’s, Gin & Tonics, or just some whiskey will do.
No pretension here at all, everyone at the bar is called honey, and every patron wants to talk to everyone else. When I come, I am usually reading a book on the deck and am bombarded with questions about what I am reading. It could be from anyone unfamiliar with the particular novel/​book or someone much more knowledgeable than me picking my brain. Not to say this is a literary bar at all, but that everyone is welcome in any conversation… period.
One of the warmest, least pretentious places in Houston. A great place to hang out, drink, and converse. Basically D&T without a kitchen or the 50 beer taps, and instead has a liquor license. Nothing wrong with that.

This little hole in the wall doesn’t have much going for it if you aren’t a regular. The bar has a crappy layout with the only dart board right in the middle of a walk way and a huge empty area to the left of the bar. The regulars use this area to store their bikes to ride home later and just sit and stare at non-​regulars. The obese bar back/​manager likes to pick up shot glasses and drink glasses before you are through with them (and stick his fingers in the glasses in the process), yet leaves empty beer bottles sitting on the table for hours.
Worst of all at one point in the night one of the slack jawed locals must have shit his/​her pants because the place smelled like a hundred dirty diapers had been left to rot then been put into the air conditioner.
The bartender was friendly so that’s the only bright spot.
Stay away if you aren’t a regular who likes to drop a load in his/​her pants around 1am.

Always a bit wary of this place given a few rumours of a less than welcoming atmosphere, we finally took the plunge and enjoyed a solid Wednesday evening of Lone Stars, eclectic music, and one of the most interesting cross-​sections of Heights dwellers.
Good variety of seating, with a long bar adjacent to the very helpful and friendly bartender (I wish I’d gotten her name!), the variety of tables, couches near the TV, and of course the outdoor patio on Studewood.
Compared to a few of the other old-​school Heights taverns and bars, Shiloh surprises with both the availability of hard liquor drinks, and an intriguing selection of beers. No taps, but everything from mainstream icehouse (Lone Star, Miller Light, etc.) to craft beer and Guinness cans.
The welcome fear was completely baseless; in fact, I felt more welcome here than I have in many a [insert one] Creek…
We will be back again for sure.

Granted I’ve only showed up here after midnight, but it does it’s purpose. «Interesting» clientele, full bar, nice deck, good location.
If I want a no-​frills night cap, I go here. If I feel like I want to witness a fight or a possible stabbing, I go here as well.

Shiloh is a great bar. PERIOD. I have looked near and far for the best bar in the heights and this one wins. Pool starts at 330 pm every week day, good players, good folks. Put your name on the board. No quarters on the table.
Stiff drinks. Great jukebox, lotta Willie, Cash etc. Dart night is Thursday night around 7pm. Karaōke is Tuesday night at 9. Steak night is every Monday during football season around 7. Dan is the grill master.
A new (er) tradition is Friday happy hour around 4pm. Venison, wild boar, and beef cheeseburgers grilled up by nate-​dog. Grill is open to anybody. Just bring food and charcoal. Utensils supplied.
The deck is quite nice. Television and sports on the two tubes with controller available on the bar. Mostly dog friendly, order in menus behind the bar. You can find most anything you need at the Shiloh. Take a roll of the dice for a free drink or shot at the pot.
Great neighborhood bar. Good people. No posers. Four stars if you like a mellow, yet fun bar with good good people.

The Heights can be a bit schizophrenic sometimes. You of course have the liberal-​minded cool kids, artists, and hipsters drinking their espressos or PBR’s at coffee shops and indie bars, but you also have the older generation who have lived in their neighborhoods for decades and go to the same local dives after the work whistle blows. Such is the Shiloh Club.
The building has essentially one long interior space, with the bar on one half, and various seating, pool tables, and old big screen TV’s scattered throughout. The deck out front is great when the weather’s nice, and overall the Shiloh Club offers a good spot to grab a couple of casual beers with your friends. The clientele may still be bitter about losing the right to smoke in their favorite… GOOOOOOOOOOOOAL! Elano just played Maicon down in the corner, who bends an unbelievable shot on goal to put Brasil up 1 – 0 against North Korea…
Oh wait, sorry. Listening to the World Cup. Guess I should go back to «work.»

There is never a dull visit at the Shilo Club. There may be dull and depressing moments talking to some of the regulars who will share what kind of day they had. good or bad… but there is always some sort of drama.
They have beer and mixed drinks at a pretty reasonable price. Inside is pretty drab, but the deck is where the excitement happens.
The pinnacle of my Shile Clubbing is the wedding proposal I saw. Wow. Only at the Shilo!
You can count on a steady crowd during the weeknight evenings and it is pretty hit or miss on weekends. Sometimes it will just be the people who I see every time I occasionally visit, other times there will be a rat bike gang having a night.
I agree with the other review that it feels like a bar in Spring or Humble… its pretty Texan working class kinda joint. The average patron there may be extremely drunk (more drunk than at a normal non-​shilo bar), but they’re usually friendly.

My friend and I were looking for somewhere to kill an hour or so in The Heights the other night and, after not being able to agree on where to go, she said she knew the perfect place and drove me here.
This place seems a little out of place in Houston, but in other ways, perfect for The Heights which always reminds me a bit of the suburbs. This is bar is pretty much the exact same bar that I would walk into if I stopped at one of several places I pass on my way home to Spring.
The patrons were mostly your good ol’ boy type with some bikers (well, they were in Harley shirts and chaps, anyway) thrown in for good measure.
The drinks were pretty cheap — $ 6 or so for a pretty decent vodka and cranberry and a beer. There was a jukebox, a pool table, and a large picnic table outside on the deck with benches running all around the decks perimeter.
It was definitely easy to kill an hour or so here without any problems and the drink prices make it pretty attractive. You could do a lot worse than this bar, though that doesn’t mean that I’ll ever head out with this place in mind as my destination.