Harlem L Lounge

Pretty small spot. But definitely good vibes.
I went with some classmates for happy hour. The happy hour is right on the money. Our bartender really took care of us and the drinks were good-​mojitos! There is a good amount of seating at the bar and a few couches.
Not really a place for large groups. It’s intimate, kinda dark and swanky. Me like :)

Cool atmosphere with outdoor seating available as well as inside. Drinks are Lil up there in price but I hear there’s an happy hour so be sure look into that. My ny friend says this place is usually popping but it was pretty low key when I arrives around 11 (guess I missed rushed hr) would go again if my buddy wanted but wouldn’t be first in my list.

They have an amazing karaōke on Wednesday nights with Ladies night happy hour all night. Great crowd and a huge book of karaōke options. Wonderfully diverse crowd.

Started our night out here for a few drinks, nice relaxing pretty atmosphere. Loved the lighting. Was able to sit at the bar, since it wasn’t too packed yet on a Sat night. Bartender and his helper were both very personable and fun, and more importantly made a good drink. Music was good and at a good volume to still have a conversation.

Cool spot with drinks at a reasonable price, plus a fun crowd. The bartenders are really nice. Bathrooms are always on point.

This cute spot has great drinks for a great price. And they have great happy hour drinks. The vibe and feel of the place is very tre’ chic. The best day to go is Wednesday.

After reading about the $ 5 happy hour specials, I had to check it out for myself. I came on a Tuesday night with a friend and was not disappointed. When we arrived at around 4:30 the place was pretty empty, with a lot of seats at the bar to choose from. When we left, it was more crowded at the bar, but there were still couches available to sit on.
The atmosphere of this lounge is very relaxing. It is dimly lit, with the bar lit up by lighting that changes colors. Pretty cozy feel to it.
The bartender Dee was very attentive and made great drinks (thanks Dee!). I tried the mango mojito and mango martini and both were great. My friend had the long island and enjoyed it too. For $ 5 drinks, they were made well and pretty strong. I definitely preferred it over the $ 5 rail drinks that some dive bars offer at happy hour.
I look forward to coming back and recommend checking it out, but I recommend bringing a friend or date. I have no problem going to happy hours by myself but because this is a more intimate place, flying solo would not be quite as fun here.

Stopped here to have a drink on Saturday, the happy hour prices are Lit Like BIC! Mojitos, margaritas, and other mixed drinks $ 5 and well made. I recommend the peach mojito and rum punch! Bartender was friendly and cool, no complaints will be back!

This place is very cozy and relaxed but they were also playing a football game with volume so i decided to get a drink here with a friend. The waitress was very nice and even though they had run out of ingredients for drinks that we wanted she did make some powerful drinks for us. Each drink was $ 14 so it is a bit pricey. The vibe is nice in here, I would check it out again if I was in the neighborhood, Apparently there more of a weekend spot.

I had a really nice time here tonight. Drinks were solid and very nicely priced. Crowd was chill. I went with a friend and gave this place another chance and found that the management changed for the much much better and the meanie bartender is gone. Way to go L Lounge! I can see myself coming here regularly.

I wish I could put my finger on why I like this place. I don’t know what it is about it, but I’m a fan. It’s totally different from most bars in the area, which makes it that much more fun to go to. I always feel classy and fancy when I’m here. Something about the nice leather couches, lighting, and drinks just works.
Definitely try out their happy hour. I always go for the $ 5 mojitos, but I think they do most basic cocktails for $ 5 at happy hour. The bartenders are all really friendly and go out of their way to make sure you’re getting good service.
The only thing that’s a little odd about this place is the TV — they have one big flat-​screen TV next to the door that seems a little bit out of place… it’s not really a bar that you’d go to to watch a game, but every time I’ve gone they’ve had basketball playing. It just feels a little weird to me (although I’ll admit, my eyes still wander to watch every now and then, so I guess I can’t complain too much).

I came here on ⁴⁄₁₇ to stop by for a birthday drink. I had seen it in the neighborhood before and thought I would give it a shot. I was with a friend that was visiting and we were on a bit of an uptown bar hop. While at the bar, the bartender (dude with the braids and accent) asked where we were from. When my friend responded that we were from ATL, his eyes lit up. Someone at the bar offered to buy me a shot (which was nice) and my friend ordered his own shot as well. When it came time for my friend to settle up, the bartender told him that it would be $ 16…$ 16 for a single shot of patron???
I was completely annoyed and asked the bartender to produce a receipt which he could not do. It was clear that he tried to take advantage of my friend because he thought that we were both visiting NYC. On top of this, he had several friends sitting in the bar and he was offering them free drinks the entire time. This bartender was tacky and completely unprofessional. As someone that owns a condo in the area and has a vested interest in the neighborhood, I can say that I not be coming back to this place again. There was nothing friendly or «harlem-​esque» about my experience. If the bartender needs to gouge other customers for tips, perhaps he should consider not giving away free drinks to his friends all night!

If I had a good experience this would be a 4 star review. For what its worth it started out decent.
I’ll start off by saying it’s a nice cosy lounge space in Harlem. Like many lounges in ny its on the small side. The music/​playlist was lacking, to put it nicely. Was only there checking it out the space/​music to see if I wanted to have my birthday get together there. Although I didn’t drink, I was impressed with what the bartender was mixing.
Sat around for 30 minutes and the music was terribly inconsistent. Completely took away my urge to drink.
When I wasn’t buying anything, I was approached by this lady, a manager I’m assuming, who proceeded to tell my friend and I that we are taking up space since we weren’t drinking. (Let me note that THE PLACE BARELY HAD PPL IN IT except one corner with a birthday group of old ppl… and some folks at the bar. Its a cold ass EARLY Saturday night, what do you expect!?) «I want you to buy drinks and spend money, this isn’t a living room, like who does that».
Ppl who just want to vibe in a chill spot do that…
Obviously, club/​lounge etiquette 101, when the place is crowded and seating is in demand, if you aren’t buying you have to raise up out the seat. Clearly. This, however, was not the case… Even after we discussed this with her (if she needed the seats we are more than happy to move/​stand/​whatever) she came at us again with an attitude.
After all that, my friend opted to leave.
In hindsight, its a business and I should have bought a drink, but this ladies attitude seriously turned me off. Will go elsewhere for my bday party… maybe one day, if they have a better playlist, I’ll go back and check them out.

Always in need of a place to have a drink uptown since friend ‘A’ prefers not to go downtown. So we decided to check this place out for the first time on a Thursday night and was pleasantly surprised! Even though we were pretty much the only ones here (about 5) the bartender (can’t remember his name) made an effort to please with his playlist and ability to make a good drink! I’m always skeptical about quality drinks above 110^th street. I asked for something spicy, he said they didn’t have any ingredients for a spicy drink but the NY’er worked out just fine! Well done, Sir!
Great pit stop with some friends or perhaps better place on the weekends.

I really like this place, and if I were rating the space alone it would be a 5. Fun place, everyone in the crowd was friendly. Nice ambiance, good seating drinks were good, though the drink sizes are REALLY small. The bartender is too slow, kind of inattentive and seemed annoyed at having to serve drinks which is a mood killer.

Worst experience ever!
The bartender (guy with glasses) was EXTREMELY RUDE! He gave us a menu to then tell us the prices were outdated but that’s what they had. And tried to charge us $ 14 for a drink that on the menu stated $ 6!!!He then turned off the music to rant about a customer who complained about their drink. But not only did he turn the music off he then called the owner and was complaining on the phone and told him «you hear them everybody in here calling me a mother*******» everyone just wanted the music back on!
The food:
I think their buffalo wings were actually street pigeon cooked in a microwave. They were the most tiniest, tasteless, rubbery little things I’ve had in my ENTIRE LIFE. We tasted one wing and could not continue. But of course there’s no management around so the bartender told us «u ordered them they’re yours so now you pay for them» All I could do was laugh myself to tears.
The music is STILL NOT ON.
I then asked for a GLASS of water with our check. Bartender brings me $ 14 VOSS. Sorry don’t want that not paying for that.
The One Star:
I was forced to give the star.
But through all of this, his drinks were crappy. But the female bartender made us some pretty good lemon drops. I hope she finds a better place to work.

Had a nice time here. They do have friendly staff, tasty drinks, and fun people. It’s a tiny establishment with mellow flavor and mostly normal folks.
Came in with a party so we found limited seating since we arrived too late for our reserved tables… Sadly the only jazz we saw was the ‘band’ closing up their instruments while our ‘band’ entered with its lively music. Yep, we were a force to be reckoned with — God bless the friendly staff for tolerating one of our crazier friends after a long evening out.
There were definitely other strange folks there too, but what was nice is that everyone wanted to be part of the fun in general — even the mellow folks.
No snobbery, just good drinks & nice tunes for random dancing and memories…
Plus the men were thrilled that they had tv.

I was looking forward to trying out this place despite getting lackluster responses from others who had been. Because I am a fan of Londel’s bar uptown I thought the same vibe would translate in the new spot. I was mistaken. The drink options did not excite me at all and the prices for the ingredients they use (Ciroc in everything?) had me walk away disappointed. What sealed the deal was too loud (I’m not that old — I like my music loud) rap they were playing. It didn’t fit the clientele that was in the lounge. It was giving me a headache and seriously stressing me out. I would have loved some nice jazz or at least «lounge» music. As I left they were changing the soundtrack, but by then it was too late. I might give them another shot, but the laminated drink menu and drink choices leave me high and dry.

If you’re at all familiar with Rage Comics or anything from Reddit, you’ve probably seen the one of Obama saying «Not bad.» That’s generally how I felt about The L Lounge.
I’m new to Harlem night life. I used to always ride all the way down to HK to have a drink, but lately Uptown has been fulfilling my needs quite nicely. The L Lounge could stand to be a bit bigger, and should maybe invest in some nice window coverings for those dark and gloomy nights when floor-​to-​ceiling views of the mostly-​empty sidewalk isn’t ideal.
But it’s not bad. It’s cute, the servers are pleasant, and the drinks are great. I’d go back in a heartbeat.

If the L’Lounge and I had a courting conversation I think it would go a little like this:
LL: You wanna come in for a drink?
Me: No. You’re really not my type. Sorry dude.
LL: C’mon. Aren’t you sick of the same type of places?
Me: *giggles* I guess. But you have blue lighting. I stay away from places like you.
LL: Try me for 5 minutes.
Me: Fine.
LL: So what do you think?
Me: You’re kinda cute I guess. Your cocktails are somewhat overpriced and really sweet.
LL: Well you must like something about me because you’ve been here for a few hours.
Me: You’re right. Your friends behind the bar are pretty cool and they let me sample some wine for free. They also let a couple play their anniversary playlist while the rest of us watched them awkwardly do the Lambada. That was really thoughtful.
LL: And my outfit?
Me: It was nice. I like that you had panels of photographs of Harlem back in the day on the ceiling. You’ve got great hygiene too. So clean and polished.
LL: So you think maybe, just maybe we can go out again sometime?
Me: Oh LL. I think so. I really like your swag.