Smith’s Bar & Restaurant

It was ok. The sandwiches were good. I had the crispy chicken sandwich with sweet potato fries and my friend had the Reuben sandwich. They were both good.

So went to a restaurant with some friends tonight. Friend got up to use the restroom. She saw a woman being attacked in the bathroom. She called 911. The manager yelled at her not to. The cops come. She describes the situation to the police. It turns out the woman being assaulted was transgender. The cops tell her the transgender woman was not a woman, as if that settled the matter… So it’s okay to assault transgender women? This is our world tonight.
Smiths Bar and Restaurant on 44^th and 8^th.
It appears the manager sent the bouncer to rough up the transgender woman. No clue what happened to her. REPEAT the cops rationale was «well she wasn’t a woman». So in essence the RESTAURANT had this person assaulted.

We walked past a dozen places before stopping here. I’m on vacation with my 18 to niece and lots of places don’t let you I after 10p…21 and up only… sigh. We walk in here and not only do they let us take up two tables (the little ones so we can sit side by side), the manager accommodates our request to watch the Lightning Finals game… by putting it on ALL the televisions!!! The chili was great and I’m going to try to recreate the Breeze at home!!! The fries were great too!

Not a bad place to stop for a drink, but it is pretty divey and it seems to be more geared towards «regulars» despite it being in a touristy area. Ironically, I had a conversation with the bartender about Unilocal’ers after bringing up a funny Unilocal review (the worst rum and coke ever) and I hate to be another crazy Unilocal’er, but… My drink wasn’t that great either (way too much bottled lime juice), and the service was pretty slow. When my bartender disappeared for a while, the other bartender (s) completely ignored me, and also ignored another gentleman who was waiting to place his first drink order.
I did appreciate that they put on the game for me when I asked, although I had to remind them that I was watching when another gentleman asked to put his game on instead.
I’m sure this is a great spot for locals and regulars, but it wasn’t the bar for me. I also don’t think I’ve paid that much for a cocktail in a long time, let alone at an empty dive bar.

Good turkey burger, GREAT fries, okay service not bad. Convenient and busy but not packed on a Wednesday night. Good price.

We stopped in for a quick beer and a something small to eat on our way back to Penn Station. Bartender was a bit quirky. We ordered our beer and the chili cheese fries.
There is no mirror behind the bartender, that’s actually another side of the restaurant with more bar seating. The fries came out pretty quick. They were just ok. I’m sure a little more alcohol and they would have been really good.
$ 29 got us 2 Brooklyn beers and the fries… gotta love NYC.
A good spot just for a beer and then move on…

Big disappointment. I thought all these NYC bars and grills were excellent. This is the 1^st time I have been wrong.
All we had were pastrami sandwiches which here in the apple have a great standard. Not so here. The meat was so overcooked that I could barely get my teeth through it.
My jaws are still aching.
With such an abundance of good restaurants. I can’t understand how they survive. DON’T GO THERE!

Chicken tenders were so good that I couldn’t wait to dig in and forgot to take a picture sorry guys!

I felt uncomfortable immediately when walking into this bar. We ordered a drink despite our reservations so we could give it a chance. I couldn’t wait until we finished our drinks so we could leave. The doorman was rude. The bartender was rude. The other patrons were rude. It was an awful experience and we would NEVER return here again.
We were ignored for a few minutes by the bartender so he could flirt with the girl sitting at the bar while her boyfriend was in the bathroom. When her boyfriend returned from the bathroom and spread his peacock wings by essentially pushing my boyfriend out of his way and boxing us out, then we finally got the bartender’s attention. I ordered a Kir Royale and when I asked the bartender if he knew what it was he spoke to me/​looked at me like I was an idiot. The only reason why I asked was because I have been to many places where they’ve never heard of it OR they make it with different liquors than what actually goes in it (aka, they never heard of it but pretended like they did). I will admit that the Kir Royale he made was delicious. That’s the only thing this bar had going for it. It’s still not enough for us to ever want to return. We left within 30 minutes and walked a couple of doors down to Iron Bar where we had a lovely experience.

Came here for some drinks and a quick bite before hitting up Drunk Shakespeare a few blocks over. Highly recommend! It seems to be a pretty popular bar in the area. It was crowded but not uncomfortably, so my two friends and I were able to find seats.
We had about an hour to get some drinks down and order food. The waitress didn’t come over right away but when she did, I explained to her that we had to be at a show in half an hour. She was very friendly and said that window would be fine, so I put in an order of chili cheese fries and they came out within 10 – 15 minutes. They were also AMAZING. Probably the best I’ve ever had — just perfect.
My only complaint about this place are the prices. Drinks are pretty standard (I had a few ciders for $ 7 each) but the food was outrageous. The chili cheese fries were $ 13 (granted it was a pretty large plate) but that’s still very pricey. I remember seeing a cheese quesadilla appetizer for $ 13 as well and a reuben for $ 17! I guess this might be because of the Times Square location, but damn.
Another thing to note is that there is a separate room next to the bar that is solely for dining, if you’re looking to have a more organized meal.

Fun bar, walked in to have a meal and couple drinks. It was a Michigan bar during football season. Food was ok the drinks were good.

Good selection of beers and whiskeys. Sadly unfriendly and not very accommodating staff. If you dare as much as step outside with a glass of water they lock you out in fear of losing their license, while they obviously don’t care about losing, or not retaining (non-​local) clients.

I rarely give one star reviews, but Smith’s was the most disappointing dining experience I’ve had in New York City.
My family and I came to Smith’s on a weekend since we wanted to get away from Times Square to grab a quick bite to eat. Smith’s was very busy, but we decided to sit down anyway since the atmosphere looked clean and welcoming. We squished our party of five into a small booth, were given two menus, and told our waiter would be right with us.
We waited for about 10 minutes before anyone came over to our table. We gave our waiter our food and drink order hoping that we would be able to get our food sooner rather than later. Our waiter then disappeared for another 10 minutes until he returned with two out of our five drinks. We asked him where the three other drinks were and he said he would bring them shortly. Instead he never returned.
One plate of food was brought to our table by a runner/​busboy who we also asked about getting the drinks (all we needed was three glasses of water for goodness sake!). The drinks still never came. The food that was delivered was soggy and that person was forced to eat alone since no other food had arrived.
Finally after another 20 minutes of our waiter avoiding our eyes and never stopping back at our table we went to the hostess stand to pay for what we had eaten /​drank and find another better place to eat where we wouldn’t be ignored.
I understand that the service industry is crazy and restaurants can get busy, but constantly being ignored is unacceptable!

Wow has this place changed I worked here for over 10 years I bring some friends in for a bachelor party small drinks are now 12 $ and shots of Jameson are 9 $ what a shame this was the best bar in Manhatten way to ruin it should be ashamed of yourselves rip smiths should of closed on top sorry pops glad you aren’t here to see this !!

Way too loud music, too many genres
Slow service
Happy Hour with cheap unknown well liquors
Young unexperienced staff

To be avoided at all costs unless you’ve just gotten out of prison, and maybe even then!
The quintessential tourist trap, crappy food, crappy service, «open air» venue with an excellent view of choking traffic, blaring horns and the dregs of humanity walking by in various states of undress.
My lunchtime fare (after a half hour wait) was a fried chicken sandwich (burnt to a crisp and greasy) with side salad drenched in balsamic vinaigrette and a «ginger ale», actually a faux ginger ale, some kind of hideous mix of cola and club soda I think.
In a word: UGH!!!

5:00 PM to 8:00 PM Mon-​Fri
$ 5 for Whiskey Shots
$ 3 for Bottled Beers
$ 5 for Draft Beers
Need I say More.

My friends and i were looking for a place to dine this evening, particularly a place with open windows so we check out smith’s. We walked in and there are two tables with no wait. One close to the window and one in the back.
I asked for the table next to the window and was told no because that waiter is almost overloaded with customers, ok… I can probably understand that but the rest of the place is full and these are the ONLY 2 tables. I don’t see how that would make a difference.
We left, currently next door instead.
I will not return

Some friends and I were going to a concert at Best Buy, and decided to meet up here for some pre-​concert dinner and drinks.
We did show up with a bit of a crowd, but we were gathered around the bar tables. I understand it’s times square area, and I understand it’s a constant flow, but there is still no reason for MIA service. Don’t get me wrong, our server was nice, just super MIA. We ordered our drinks and food together. Three drinks never made it to us, we finally had to ask another server.
The food was delicious. Times Square usually has mediocre, super overpriced food. For Times Square, the prices were normal, but the food was actually really good. But, the waitress did forget two items. We tried to wave her down a couple of times and she walked right by us,. We finally flagged down another server to find out the status of the forgotten items, only then did our server come over and apologize that she forgot to put the items in, but had finally put them in.
I would consider going back the next time we were hitting up Best Buy, unless we were in a hurry.

Apparently I never did a Unilocal for Smith’s Bar and Restaurant and that pains me since not only have I enjoyed its offerings for the past twelve years but it only recently closed its doors after 60 years in business at this location.
My first go at Smith’s was after a bad job interview and the place was a classic dive bar with a meat station and some other offerings from the kitchen like a burger or fries if you wanted them. The beers were cheap and the atmosphere was what you expect in such a location. When I started doing my music journalism this became the official launching point for my friends and I and we would all convene at this space to do a little pregaming before the shows that were taking place at either B.B. King Blues Club and the at the time names Nokia Theatre Times Square. That is now the Best Buy Theater.
There were some times when the service was not 100% the way I would like it but the bar for my friends and I was always a good time. They had solid burgers and a decent enough Happy Hour and for the most cases the staff were friendly and took care of me when I needed them too. Yes there were also times when you wondered what the delay was but its NYC and sometimes you have to find a little patience. There was free WiFi which was helpful for when this kind of thing because something we all crave during our nights out as opposed to conventional conversation and they were good on the buy backs.
As I write this Unilocal,Smith’s has been closed for two days and seeing these words in «print» so to speak sadden me greatly. There are few «regular bars» now up in this area as Hells Kitchen is mostly become trendy restaurants and pubs with high price tags. These are not on my interest level or budget at the end of the day. I guess we shall see a Mega Starbucks or some other trendy bar opening up here and its a shame that the greed of landlords would push out a place that served the area for six decades.
I was glad to have had the times that I did in these walls and lots of fun memories come with the recollection. I am also glad that I got to be there once more and to snag a shirt to memorialize the times for my collection. Goodbye Smith’s, I shall miss you like few other places. You were an important part of my rock and roll lifestyle and that is what hurts at your closure.

Los mejores nachos que he probado en mi vida como entrado es perfecto para dos a cuatro personas, porque si vas solo es mucha comida. El lonche de pastrami era muy rico y muy neoyorquino pero es demasiado para una sola persona, pedimos un cheesecake que sabia delicioso pero era muy poco para dos personas