Charles Hanson’s 169 Soul Jazz Oyster Bar

I give this place 3 stars and i am going to tell you why. They obviously have to be doing something right if there is a line every weekend… I just dont know what that is hahah Now let me get i to the details. I was not very impressed with the ambiance and cleanliness of the bar as a whole. But the reason why i give it three stars was the delightful expericance i had with the bouncers and one bartender. The bouncers moved the line by quickly and we had a brief conversation and i was delighted by how nice they were, And when i came outside to make a phone call he politly told me to stand on the other side of the sign and continued to conversate with me and my friends. One of the bartenders was also very nice and served drinks very quickly and politly.

Waited at the bar for 15 minutes until I was acknowledged. Made eye contact several times with the bartender. When he finally asked me what I wanted, I replied «Hellboy Margarita» because I saw it advertised on their website. He said «why don’t you order something simpler» and I said «okay a regular margarita then.» He brings the margarita and it’s DEFINITELY not premium reposado as advertised. It’s EXTREMELY strong and salty — like bath water. When I come to a bar I don’t want to have to settle for a different drink because the bartender doesn’t feel like making otherwise, and I’d like a decent drink. I’m still trying to get his attention so I can get my card back and abandon this drink… Pass.

It is a dive bar, you get what you expect. Service and bouncer have a dive attitude.
But overall a really cool place. cheap drinks for NYC, PBR and shot of rail is 7 bucks or something like that. I have only ever gone on the off nights, never the weekends. It was crowded enough for me, I would not want to go fri or Sat night in nice weather.

If you come here while waiting for a table at Mission Chinese, as I did, you’re doing it wrong. 169 should be the point of your night. I was expecting a generic dive-​bar experience but this is far from it. The mermaid, the dinosaur, the aqua aesthetics… be ready for an over-​the-​top vibe and don’t fight it. You need to get a table and get to texting your (cheap) drink orders and enjoy.

Do not go to this bar!
Inside the bar had that cheap, kind of unclean, yet hip ambience.
However, the staff was horrible. In particular, the bouncers were belligerently drunk, slamming doors, and cursing and screaming at patrons. One of the bouncers was sexually harassing my female friend by demanding she show her breasts as a price for admission. I have never encountered such disgusting and inappropriate behavior by staff.
The total lack of professionalism, rudeness, and sexual harassment will ensure that I never return to this bar. Stay away!

Love love love this place. Some of my favorite dive bars in NYC seem to have taken note from this establishment, as you can’t just have a bar with guests becoming trashy drunk and assume you have a decent dive from it.
No, there’s character, there’s an essence, and it makes an experience palpable.
The bartenders always seem to be pretty damn good, and besides most dives, I trust for them to make a Manhattan or an Old Fashioned properly. (Good for you guys! I thought I was the only one!)
Lost one star cause the bathrooms are typically a mess and could use just a little bit of maintenance every now and then. I feel bad for every girl having to squat and hover for dear life.
Stay with us forever 169 bar!

Cool bar with a jerk for a doorman. So sad because we actually liked the place. The music was good and they had cheap beers. He was lazily smoking a cigar, making people wait on line when the bar was still pretty empty. Then he very rudely told us our time was up at the pool table at the end of the night.
Other than that, drinks were not particularly good but they were strong! They had some good canned beers too. They had some beer options for $ 3 also (pbr, Miller, etc) There is a small pool table in the back.
Despite rudeness, we had a great time. Would return but only if there is no wait to get in. Ridiculous.

It’s hard to describe 169 accurately. Calling it a dive bar doesn’t do justice to the décor, relative cleanliness, cocktails and the fact that they shuck oysters.
Sure, there are still divey elements — like sticky tables, broken beer taps, and gaudy signs on the wall. They try really hard to nail the NOLA experience.
In terms of beers, they don’t charge dive prices ($ 7 for a Six Point can? Come on, guys…). But they also have a cocktail menu. I couldn’t go without trying the «169 Famous Bloody Mary». It was pretty damn good. Never thought pickled okra in a cocktail would make sense, but it does. Ours were missing the rimmed glass though, but can’t place too much fault as the bar was pretty full.
Get there early if you want a seat. Otherwise, there’s awkward standing room only because the area behind the bar stools is pretty tight.
Like I mentioned, there’s an oyster corner listing the day’s specials. Not too bad in terms of prices ($ 20 for a dozen). Went with the Kumamoto’s and the Beau Soleil’s. Not the greatest, but miles better than Blue Points.
I’m told some wild stuff goes on after hours, but what happens in 169…

Ana is the best
She is super friendly and makes the place fun. Mmmmkay.
The rest of the staff if rude but it doesn’t ruin my time, often

Yeah, good enough. The regulars are entertaining and the bartenders are good for doing shots with. Try not to sit in front of the taps; no elbow room.
Never had the food and I generally keep away from the live entertainment; but that’s me.

Met up with a friend here. It was a super chill environment, and their drinks were pretty good.

I am trying so HARD to like this place. I’ve come back three times since my last visit. The first time was at 3am on a Sunday and I had a blast. I made new friends from Texas, had some great oysters. The second time I came with some tourists from the Netherlands on a Sunday afternoon. The oysters were still great, but it was pretty hard to get the bartenders attention.
The last time I came on a Saturday around 6pm. It was *impossible* to get anyone’s attention. There were two people behind the bar and it was not crowded (like empty seats at the bar not crowded). I’m one of those annoying people whose really friendly to everyone in a bar and just could not get a smile or more than a gruff one word answer out of these guys. Lots of staring into their phones, hanging out at the other end of the bar, chatting with each other. I even managed to make direct eye contact with one of the bartenders multiple times and was still ignored. Ouch.
My friend ordered a bottled beer and it was warm. Two of the taps were out of order. If a certain beer hasn’t had enough time to chill that’s no big, just say so, don’t serve it warm. We were going to order food and after 30 minutes of being ignored we left our beers half finished and went elsewhere.
The music, atmosphere, and retro sci-​fi-​pseudo-​porn on the TV are all on point. I’m not giving up, I’m going to come back at least once more because I want to make this work dammit.

Perfect if you’re in Chinatown and looking to get weird. Or, if you have a 2 hour wait for Mission Chinese next door and want to drown your sorrows, this is your place.
When I was there I heard neither soul nor jazz nor did I order oysters, though I wanted to, because my friends insisted that raw seafood wouldn’t be a good idea at this kind of bar. Probably best to leave the food to the pros in other Chinatown spots and use this bar purely as a place to get sauced.
Whatever a Soul Jazz oyster is, I bet it pairs beautifully with 40s of Old English, which they also serve there. Again, the perfect place to get real weird.

I’ve been dying to try this place, and I finally got to try it during a Lower East Side adventure on Friday! The bouncer at the door was very thorough with ID checking, which is GOOD! I was completely sober when entering this place, and I knew I liked the ambiance, but I was also a little scared and uncomfortable. I felt like everyone knew the secret etiquette of being there and I just wandered around with my bestie until we grabbed a table to sit at. I realize I was at a dive bar, and I now LOVED my experience. But I can’t fail to mention that at first I was unsure. Sticky table and menu, giant dinosaur hanging above my head, B rating on the window. Most of the menu was seafood, and this did not seem like a good place to order seafood… I WAS WRONG.
While the night started out awkward and scary, after finding a table and sipping on half of my drink, we met some new friends and started to have an absolute blast! My favorite part about this place is that you text in your order from the table and it gets delivered to you! Maybe we’re not that clever, it took us about 15 minutes to figure that out, wish someone told us! The number to text is located on the menu. This was so convenient and provided for a stress free time!
We each started with hurricane drinks (not frozen) which were the perfect mix of sweet and strong. One drink was enough to give you a serious buzz, but of course we had a second round (will I ever learn my lesson with Hurricanes?) We also ordered two oyster shooters, our first experience with oyster shooters. They were great! I was so scared, but what made them good was they were tiny oysters and served in a shot of Bloody Mary, instead of straight or flavored vodka. If you’re a bloody Mary fan you would enjoy these, easy to get down and the flavor is great! We ordered coconut shrimp which were great, you could tell they were home made and fresh, they also came with a great sauce. We had char broiled oysters which were AMAZINGGGGG. So so good, I wish we ordered more, very flavorful. There were three flavors to choose from, we got the ala Manhattan and the ala Margerita. Loved them, probably the best oysters I’ve ever had! My favorite part was after this we ordered popcorn and it came right inside the microwavable bag, perfectly popped. Why is this so much fun to me?! I had a blast here and I cannot wait to visit again. I liked sitting at the table and enjoying my food and drinks, the bar here is kind of small so if I were stuck standing, I’m not sure I would enjoy it as much. I will definitely be coming back here again, cannot wait to enjoy my time again. Really colorful, divey, fun, place! Easy to get drunk here! Reasonable prices!

Such a fun place! The drinks are pretty good but it’s the ambiance that gives 169 its edge.
This place is very funky and random. As people have noted, it’s got palm trees, Christmas lights, and a cheetah print pool table. And around midnight there are go go dancers! What more could you want?
Oh, and you must order the Mac and cheese! It’s got bacon and pulled pork and barbecue sauce and… Love.
Great for friends or a weird (but sexy) date!

Oh you never cease to amaze me 169 bar!
What a hipster gas station hat wearing/​weekend burlesque dancers/​Chinatown border meets gentrification/​1950s meets 1990s Nick at Night throwback hidden gem! Yes. That was a lot of memories brought back in one place. If Kurt Cobain was still alive he would probably come here. Pretty rad dude!
— you can send your order through text (pretty cool considering the slightly hole in the wall type of feel)
— there is an abundance of sriracha sauce and soy/​vinegar sauce for your $ 3 locally made dumplings to feed a small village
–a great place to bring a funky date, your mom, your roommate or solo monster
–overall great old school music and drinks!
Thank you for letting me transform into another time warp.

I can’t believe it took me so long to finally come to this amazing little Nawlins themed dive off of the East Broadway F stop!
Two of my fave co workers has their last day on Friday and they wanted to drink somewhere cheap. This place was just perfection for groups and cheap drinking. PBR’s were only $ 2 and $ 3 for a shot and a beer. And there’s was still plenty of cheap beers to pick from so everyone could find their favorites.
And there’s a variety of food from veggie dumplings to microwave popcorn and even fried chicken and corn! Everyone could just text their order and presto food arrived. As I continued to look around I loved the random décor, strange bald heads in aquariums, dinosaurs, leopard pool tables and naked ship figurehead maidens! But my favorite is the various movie clips from black and white cartoons to Josephine Baker and horror films. Love, love, love! I know all my friends would be smitten here.
FYI — Pool is $ 10 an hour. Sounded pricey but I guess some people can play more than 7 – 10 games in an hour. And at least no one will try to play doubles or put their quarters down.
Oh and I can’t forget the bartenders! I met Dakota the first night I was in and he was a guy who loves his metal. And then there was Johnny. Who told hilarious stories and also got weak at the knees for Slayer! It was cool to be at a bar, where the bartenders aren’t hipster assholes who think their doing you a favor for taking your order. No… not here. These guys were rad!
Needless to day… Bar 169. meet your new regular!

I didn’t realize that this joint was owned by Charles Hanson, nor that it was a «soul jazz oyster» bar, until I looked it up on Unilocal.Now, I’m a little bit curious where they’ve been hiding all the other soul jazz oyster bars, as they all seem to be a good time.*
It’s difficult to characterize an evening at 169 Bar, as every one I’ve spent here has been different. If my experiences have been any indication, yours will be:
Colorful.
Bizarre.
Drunken.
Also, there will be picklebacks. Basically, if you find yourself in Chinatown, there’s no reason not to stop by.
Oh, and FYI: the sriracha bottle in the bathroom is filled with soap. Don’t put it on your dumplings. I realize that if you’re pouring something you found in a dive bar bathroom onto your food, you have other issues… but I don’t know you, and to be honest, you don’t look that bright.
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*Why isn’t this a category on Unilocal?!Someone get on that.

This is a fun dive bar with a kitchen that opens late. The menu is pretty extensive and you can text your food/​drink order from your table, how cool is that! The drinks are cheap — cheap even if it wasn’t in NYC.
Don’t expect lounge or swanky, it’s still a dive bar after all. The décor is part pirate, part tropics, part NOLA, haha. From what I can tell it’s populated by students and locals so it’s extra cool if you’re a visitor. But, you will also see suits and hipsters so the bar doesn’t just cater to one type of customer.
It’s definitely nice to know locals wherever you’re going. Good times, and I’d return.

stopped in randomly the other night, and were so glad we did! we were already on a bit of a bender, so the special $ 3 for a beer & a shot was so exciting to us! The bartender was super friendly, and the crowd in the bar was lively & fun!
the interior is a little grimpy & dingy, but it’s got character, and I can’t wait to go again!
also, you can text your order to the bartender and they’ll bring it to you?! amazing.
(I’m considering getting out of my pajamas and running over for a beer right now, actually.)