Players Sports Restaurant & Lounge

The ambiance is nice — good sports bar, tv around the place, karaōke rooms in the back and lounging areas. The prices of drinks during happy hour were pretty reasonable, I would go back just to have a drink or 2 watching a game. And of course they serve food there so it’s a great place to munch of some tasty items.
Bathrooms however is quite small, I can barely bend down to pee without hitting my head on the door — they need to fix up their restrooms and make it bigger.

Warning: i have noticed korean restaurants do the two things that are unheard of any other places on earth:
1. Giving wrong unitemized bills to customers so they overpay
2. Changing the tip amount after customers leave so overcharging them
Players do the both but I caught them doing the first by charging us 300 dollars for what should have been 100…
Ask these mofos to give you itemized bills when you go here and I apologize for these rude koreans on behalf of all koreans.

Farewell to yet another business that has closed not because of poor business, but because they lost their lease.
Their happy hour specials became progressively worse. They used to have an AYCE option at one point and then had $ 12 pitchers with cheap appetizers. The pitcher prices went up along with the appetizer prices, but it was still one of the better happy hour deals in k-​town, assuming you didn’t want to stuff your face with $ 1 oysters and 25 cent wings across the street one day a week.
This place was not the best or most fun bar/​lounge around, but it was reliable. Service was consistent and prices were fair. If you ever moped around k-​town wondering where to go, you could easily walk in and grab a table or a seat at the bar without worrying about having to wait. Even as the patrons in ktown changed and started to get more sketchy, Players provided a bit of refuge from the shady characters that saw the area as a playground and/​or guys with disgusting Asian fetishes that would stare at the girls on the street all night.
Farewell Players. Thanks for the memories.

To kill time with some moderate apps with some friends? Ok. To come here for anything else? No.
Despite having their own karaōke rooms, there’s nothing special about this bar. I ordered an order of wings with some lichi shots which was pretty good but the lichi was made way too sweet and it became unpleasant after some time.
The best thing about the place is the lounge area is nice and comfortable with their flat couches. It adds some chill to a place that’s mainly a bar.
There is nothing crazy about this place to make you come back but its decent enough for a place to hang out and kill time. But besides that, there are tons of bars around that do the same if not more.

I’ve been to Players several times in the last few years as it is one of our group’s go-​to spots in K-​Town. It’s almost always never packed and you’re basically guaranteed space for a large group (talking 15 – 20) in the middle of their lounge.
Service is pretty much always good here — a few of my friends are even homies with some of the waiters here. They’re always nice and never disrespectful.
Atmosphere is loungey with dark/​clubby lighting. Lots of couches in the middle of the floor, but there are also tables. They offer karaōke, but I’ve never seen the rooms.
Lychee and yogurt soju’s are good here, along with, surprisingly, their little snacks that they gave us for free after buying lots of alcohol. The fries and onion rings were crispy and even their nachos (with just basic cheese sauce) were good… I’ve never seen their food menu so I’m not even sure what food they offer here and if it’s all American or there’s some Korean too.
Music has never been a problem here, but be prepared to yell to the person you’re talking to because it can be loud.

CON: You won’t be able to find your way in. Seriously. It’s impossible.
PRO: It’s like stumbling into some bar from the set of Blade Runner that you’ll be angry someone didn’t tell you about sooner.
If you can find your way inside (and you won’t – it doesn’t look like a bar from the outside, the sign is tiny, and it’ll look like you’re entering an office building lobby with horrible florescent lighting, then you have to go up an industrial elevator and through a labyrinth of curtains that will make you wonder if you’re part of some lab experiment), you’ll feel like you wandered into some alternate universe you might never want to leave. From the crazy, cool-​blue neon lighting, to the slick lounge furniture, to the dark mysterious vibe, to the cheap drinks and bites, it’s a total hidden gem in an ugly part of town.

The stir-​fried kimchi with pork and tofu slices was good, though there was very little pork in it. The sauce was rather spicy.
This is a nice, quiet spot with large screens in which to watch sports games.

I used to be a previous employee for players, and LET ME TELL YOU. DO NOT EAT OR DRINK HERE. The boss, who quietly sits there hawkeyeing you in the corner is the chef as well. He smokes while cooking your food, doesnt wash his hands after using the bathroom, AND ANYTHING THAT NEEDS TO BE MADE WITH GLOVES, HE USES HIS BARE HANDS WITHOUT WASHING THEM. He uses leftovers from customers to remake new orders, saves leftover soju to make flavored soju from other tables.
I have personally seen the chef drop cream cheese for the sushi roll, he dusted it off and proceeded to make the roll.
Fruitflies normally fly into the draft pipe, so when we pour you a pitcher and turn around or take our time, its cause we remove the fly before we give it to you.
BAD BAD BAD, SUE ME
other than that best servers/​bartenders ask for: James/​bartender John/​server

What is this place? ! Ugh. Not returning. Service? Blah. Food? Horrible. Is it re fried? Drinks? Over priced and so is the food (?) for that matter. I suspect they jacked up the price during the World Cup. Good number of big screens for sports.

UPDATE.
Service sucks. My friends and I ordered food took about an hour to get even tho it wasn’t busy. Takes FOREVER to get a drink. Really? Oh yeah. I ordered Peach Ciroc & Redbull they will always tell me they ran out of Ciroc until I realized myself that they don’t carry Peach Ciroc and the funny this when I ordered Redbull vodka they actually gave me a can of redbull and vodka on the side. Not once but twice. They really need to train their staff. Complete JOKE. Kudos to the chef tho. The food tastes good. Ugh hopefully my friends won’t drag me here anymore.

Players has been one of the establishment we visit quite often over the past few years. I love this place being that it is very spacious, their happy hour (5−9pm) is budget friendly and they have tiny, but clean bathrooms.
I see a lot of reviews about how dead this place is, but I feel that this brings out the personalized service of the staff … They are always very polite and super friendly.
We normally order the $ 9.99 beer as well as the flavored soju including cheery, apple, lemon and pineapple flavor. We always go back to the cheery soju … I like the pineapple soju the least though. If you are not fully satisfied with your soju, you can always ask them to adjusted it to your preference.
Food wise, we like to order the sampler which include fries, wings, nacho chips as well as onion rings. The Dooboo Kimchi with a side of rice, sweet potato fries and on occasion, the whole chicken.
We have also tried the karaōke, but I still prefer other places in K Town for that. I’d say just stick to their happy hour here.
*Update 3/​26/​2014*
Happy Hour:
Sunday 3−12am & Monday 5−12am
Tuesday — Thursday & Saturday 5−9pm
*Update 4/​7/​2014*
Happy Hour:
Sunday — Thursday 5−9pm
Saturday 5−8pm
(The price for happy hour had gone up, sad face)

Players has been a regular bar I frequented in Koreatown over the years. There had been good happy hours when I used to go alot like AYCE and drink on Wednesday for $ 20. They took that out. Their daily happy hour special runs from 5pm to 9pm. There are pitchers of beer for $ 10 and bar snack baskets ranging from $ 6 to $ 10 which include fries, nachos, wings and one order even has a whole chicken. Other than this, if you’re with a group, try out a bottle of infused soju and the best flavors are yogurt or lychee.
I wouldn’t say it’s much of a sports bar because there’s not big TVs everywhere. There’s only a couple behind the bar and they’re not that big. The lounge area is comfortable. Towards the back of there restaurant, there’s tables to get seated away from the bar and any antics happening in the lounge area. I’ve been here on different nights of the week and there’s no consistency on which night is the happening one. Sometimes it might be midweek or others it might be Friday or Saturday.
Overall, it’s a good bar to get a drink after work time, waitresses are friendly, bubbly and talkative.

My friends and I come here to get that awkward ‘90s vibe.
It’s all lit up with blue fluorescent lights.
The music is all over the place (not in a bad way). Last time, it was Goo Goo Dolls.
The clientele looks like wanderers who got lost on the way somewhere else.
Which is probably how I looked, too.
Weekday happy hour is amazing, though: $ 10 for a pitcher of beer.
Good for a meeting point since it’s never busy.

Karaōke ’ old school style. What does that mean? That means, books for songs and you have to type the number in. The videos are off random folks singing or running in the park. That’s what I do not like about these karaōke, I prefer those with new and original MTV.
The sound system were a little off as well. Not my fav karaōke in the area.

I remember when this place used to be pretty good place to hang. But something happened and it’s always empty even on the weekends. I think you might need a little bit of restaurant makeover. Robert Irvine does that on Food Network. Do you want me to call him?
In the mean time, please train your workers to serve the customers. They don’t even know the basics of customer service and how to manage the bar.
— When you take away the empty drink glasses then ask if your customer wants something else; I might actually need another beer or two or three.
— And at least every 10 minutes, check to see if your customer needs anything instead of being busy talking with each other and your friends.
I just don’t get it. There were only 3 sets of customers and 3 bartenders working. I could not wait for my check and got up out of my seat and walked over to the end of the bar to get the attention of one bartender who was busy chatting it up with his friend.
Update (⁸⁄₂₃):
I want to thank the bar staff who made my follow up trip more pleasant and interesting. It only takes one night and it can change everything. I hope you guys keep up the recent changes in the staff attitude and continue to provide good service.

Players. Who are these mysterious group of people? There have been many studies researching their eating, drinking, sleeping and mating habits and the only conclusion so far is that we know nothing about them. Enter Players Sports Restaurant & Lounge, a experimental lab that attempts to benefit mankind by having players congregate in one place so scientists can observe their curious habits.
As a player, you get to sit around in this lounge, order half bottles of scotch for $ 100, eat from huge fruit bowls, watch sports on their crappy TVs or just stare mindlessly at the huge «Players» sign where the «a» is facing the wrong way. From where I was sitting, it looked like the players also have the option to sing inside one of those dingy and not-​too-​private karaōke rooms. This, mind you, is a rare sighting at PSR&L. The crooning player is an endangered species. If you have seen one, I hope you took a photo.
The service provided to these players seemed very good. However, no amount of good service could make up for a place that’s about as exciting as a hernia. Still, I can see the benefit of having a place like this. One could round up a good group of players and take advantage of their excellent happy hour deal. For my part, I left after having one drink. My lychee soju was weak and not worth ordering again. Guess I’m not a real player after all.

I stopped by this tucked away bar for a drink with some friends and was pleasantly surprised with the super cheap happy hour specials. Happy hour also lasted until quite late.
It was pretty chill when we went but not dead. They also kindly charged my phone for me. I’m not sure if I’d ever go here without a Korean friend in tow, but I had a nice time.

For Eric’s birthday, we wanted to show him a good time without breaking the bank. We also didn’t want to get too crazy because it was a weeknight. Luckily for us, Players Sports Restaurant & Lounge has a great Happy Hour special for soju cocktails. We already separately ate before meeting up in Ktown, so this meet up was strictly for getting our drink on for his birthday.
Although the soju isn’t that strong, Players makes up for that with having real fruit in the soju. We ordered a lychee soju and when it came, it was filled with real soju in the bittle to add that extra little something to our shots. We also tried the pineapple, which had slices of pineapple in it. Delicious!
It was my first time here and I really liked it. The servers are chill. There are tvs everywhere so you can catch a game, and the seating is pretty spacious. Needless to say, we were pretty happy with our choices and the three of us had a great time celebrating Eric’s birthday. I look forward to coming back and trying out other things here!

I guess the last time I was here I must of missed the HH deals because they were charging regular prices.
Good place to watch sports, they have a couple projection screens and a really tiny tv at the bar. During the week its a pretty low key place.
I remember I used to come here when I didnt know too many other places around ktown, I feel over the years they have lost a bit of their faithful patrons to other bars doing similar and better deals in the area.
Still ok though, comfy tables and plush sofas on the bottom floor then tables and seating additional.
Good place to stop in for a drink or two, their food is whatever, eat somewhere else is my reccomendation.
Their bartenders arnt the best at what they are being paid for them to do. Last time I was there I sat at the bar for at least 15 min and they were too absorbed in their own world to ask if I wanted a drink. Bartenders who have a bad personality and exude a feeling of not wanting to be there really drives down the mood. Just an FYI.

Happy hour here is awesome … $ 10 pitchers, cheap food options and BOGO mixed drinks.
If you like spicy stuff, try the spicy wings for $ 10. Make sure to have your drink close though! The whole chicken roasted or fried is also really good.
Happy hour is 5 till 9pm most nights.
And it’s a short walk from the herald square PATH station and subway lines. Will definitely be back for some karaōke once the PATH starts running the normal schedule.