The Watering Hole

This is the worst bar in Manhattan. If I could give it ¹⁄₁₀^th of a star that would be too much. Went here because of their «happy hour» specials. After three pitchers of flat Stella and three shots I got a bill for $ 145 whisk included a 25% tip mandatory. These guys are mercenaries, and the place is crappy, with ugly fat waitresses. STAY AWAY! You are much better off going to pete’s, Ainsworth or Old Town.

This is basically a bar, but what makes it stand out is that it’s clean, and the bathrooms are clean, and it isn’t loud or obnoxious, but then again, I wasn’t there for karaōke. I thought service was nice enough here. Happy hour specials were pretty good.

Decent place for HH that runs until 8 pm. $ 5 drafts, $ 2 food (but the portions are really small — $ 2 gets you one slider or small handful of popcorn chicken). The hamburger sliders and popcorn chicken hit the spot. Bartenders are pretty attentive when you sit at the bar — never had to wait longer than a couple minutes after my drink was empty. Place gets packed quickly.

Only reason this place makes it to four stars is because I’m a Falcons fan. This bar is a fantastic place to watch a Falcons game, as they’re a designated fan bar and also have sweetwater on tap. That was the only reason we decided to come here after googling Falcons fan bars in NYC a few Sundays ago. Other than that, the food is objectively not good, like not even good for bar food. The drinks are a bit overpriced, but the service is really good. I would only ever come here for a Falcons game, seriously. And the nice thing about that is they’ve got all the TVs tuned in with a projector on the wall and plenty of seating and standing room.
#RiseUp

Attended for a trivia event, only drank seltzer which cost me 3 $ a pop. Water would have been 5 the server said. Once karaōke started she gave me free waters which was nice. Nothing amazing about this place. Bathrooms are kept up with, staff is friendly and some of the drink specials were decent.

Haiku reviews:
Menus were empty
A subtle hint at my weight?
Uhh, now I feel fat
Twenty buck pitchers
That is simply outrageous
Lets go somewhere else
Waitress seems prissy
Hey gurlllll why so seriouss?
No wi-​fi, much sads
Overcooked taters
Sauron’s aphrodisiac
Why did I come here
Service is slow
I just want to pay my bill
Please just let me leave

Overpriced usual pub fare with the exception of $ 30 pitchers of bud light. If you feel like a real drink (and that means pretty much anything other than low-​tier, mass-​produced piss-​beer), it’s going to cost you. But by god, I love the free karaōke here.
The microphone is open at 10pm, but get your group in early if you want to secure any spots on a weekend. Sunday through Wednesday you’ll have more luck rolling through later in the evening.

My favorite bar. Even with ppl howling out karaōke i still always have a great time. A must for any new yorker

If you are looking for a packed, fast paced bar this is not the place. This is the place where you go, hide and drink until you need an über home. The music blasts everything from the 80’s to the present and most ballads, wtf?! I like the bartenders they are always friendly and have a great vibe. The place is big and usually never packed so it is a great place to bring a large group and take over. The watering hole is just that, a place to «water your hole» — nothing more, nothing less.

Solid happy hour– very pretty interior and low key. Nice place to grab a drink and chat — wouldn’t try to turn up here.

Went here since it was on the st Patrick’s pub crawl on a Friday night. I believe their happy hour specials are $ 5 drinks until 8, and $ 2 sliders until 7pm? We thought the slider special was until 8 also, so that was kinda annoying finding out it didn’t go into dinner hours but oh well. We got the slider special– 1 cheeseburger, 1 buffalo burger, 1 pizza burger for $ 11 each. I honestly couldn’t taste the difference much between the 3, but the pizza burger was my fave if I had to pick one. Drinks were pretty small too. I’d go back but only for the slider/​drink specials.

This bar is great! Wonderful staff great drinks. You can literally ask the bartender anything about any liquor and he knows it all, even history! Love me a bartender who knows his stuff and can feel the he passion in it. The food is amazing, the chef himself comes and hands you the food (when it’s not too busy of course :)). Will be coming again!

Love this place for good bar food and tiered tables in the back for large groups of friends. A small fire broke out above the exit sign in the back last night, and I want to give a shout-​out to the fast-​acting cook who hit it with a fire extinguisher while we all evacuated. That fire could have easily consumed the ceiling. Give that man a raise!

Let me start out by saying I’m a huge Atlanta Falcons fan. I had made a pit stop here since it was deemed the NYC Falcons bar for the 2^nd half of a game in October. There was a good crowd and the wait for a beer wasn’t bad so I thought I’d do it again.
November roles and the Falcons and Panthers are set to play. My girlfriend is a Panthers fan so we call around looking for a bar that will play the game over the speakers so we can hear the action. We preferred a neutral bar, but The Watering Hole was the only option we had. So she threw on her Panthers shirt and I put on my Falcons jersey. We were set for a fun day.
When we arrived there were around 10 folks in the bar, all Falcons fans. The few people in the bar realized my girlfriend was a Panthers fan. There were a few friendly jabs thrown her way, but nothing we (she) weren’t prepared for. We chatted up the few fans at the bar and the bartender all while having a good time.
The Falcons were in the lead most of the game and everyone was in good spirits. Then the Panthers came back and took the lead in the 4^th quarter. The crowd had grown to about 40 people and there were a few more jabs thrown my girlfriends way. Again nothing she couldn’t shake off.
Next the bartender decided he was going to turn on us and he started yelling at my girlfriend. This came as a total shock to us. He shouted «Honey do you know where you are!!! This is a Falcons bar!!!» then he encouraged the newcomers to start harassing my girlfriend. We both called him out for his awful actions and acknowledge we’ve been here the entire game and she’s been a good sport (Note: She did not have to be a friendly fan, she could have cheered as loud as she wanted). The conversation became extremely heated and we became afraid he would physically attack us or encourage others to attack us. We ended up watching the last 10 minutes of the game in an uncomfortable situation. Then we closed our tab and got the hell out of there.
No bartender should ever pick on someone else. They should be the mediator of all events in the bar. It was an awful feeling knowing we had no support. I would encourage everyone to stay away and find somewhere else to watch the game.
PS — The nachos were meh.
PPS — The place smells moldy.
PPPS — Still a Falcons fan for life!

Food: 3.5
Service: ⁵⁄₅
Atmosphere: ⁵⁄₅

Watering Hole’s a great place to have a few drinks after work near Union Square. I’ve been here with coworkers many times for their Happy Hour specials and we’ve always had a great time. It has a spacious seating area in the back for food and the place doesn’t get crowded to the point it’s uncomfortable. The bartenders are really nice and strike up a conversation with you when it’s slow, and the waitstaff walk around and take orders from you when it’s busy. Whether you’re here with a friend or two and want to sneak a glimpse of the World Cup game during lunch, or here with a large group for an event, Watering Hole will find a way to accommodate you. Dark and dim, without fancy décor and flashy TVs, it has a bit of a dive feel which for some people is perfect.

My friend hosted a birthday happy hour event at The Watering Hole a few weeks ago. We came on a Friday night, quite crowded and poor air circulation. It was hot, warm, and sticky here.
Our group was seated in the back section of the bar, but the space was tight — not much room to move or walk. My boyfriend had a draft of a Mexican beer (forgot the name), but he didn’t like it too much. I had the rum and coke which was well-​made and light. I was getting hangry (hungry + angry), so we ordered a side of sweet potato fries which weren’t too great.
I wouldn’t mind coming back here if any friends host a happy hour here next time but I probably won’t be getting the sweet potato fries and hope that there will be better air circulation.

Stopped in here after swim practice with a few teammates for some drinks and karaōke. I’m a horrible singer but some friends convinced me to do some singing/​rapping and surprisingly I got pretty into it. Never hurts to try new things!
The staff here was great and attentive with getting us drink refills.
Large space is great for a sizable group + decent drink prices = a happy Elyssa.

The Watering Hole is a pretty decent size bar that didn’t get too crowded on the Friday night I was here. I came here for a friend’s birthday celebration and we were pretty much the life of the entire bar from 7pm-​1am. We had about 30 people in our group during parts of the night while the rest of the bar in the front had people flow in and out, but was mostly at 10 – 15 people max.
When you enter you’ll encounter the bar immediately and once you walk by that, there are seats and tables towards the back. It’s definitely a chill spot to hang out with some friends and catch a game since they have numerous TVs lined on the walls and 1 big projector TV at the back.
Apparently, Friday nights are Karaōke night, so for anyone who LOVES karaōke well this is a great spot for you. If you want to embarrass yourself in front of the bar, then this is an excellent spot because there’s less people to embarrass yourself in front of.
As for the drinks, they weren’t extremely expensive ($ 7 for a Stella), but the lack of some drinks didn’t go well with a few friends (i.e. they did not have Malibu rum). Other than that there weren’t many hiccups and the waitresses were very attentive always coming by to see if we needed drinks.

A pretty awesome coworker of mine has been coming here since 2003. To him this is a second home and the standby /​go to spot by that never fails. Kirsten and Netta are awesome behind the bar! Some of the group ordered food and it looked great — they also told me they enjoyed it very much.
The bar has a very warm and trendy feel; hard to explain. The bar is immediate as you walk and and extends a long way into the place. Beyond that there is seating areas. The staff was extremely friendly and even went as far to introduce themselves with smiles just to be friendly. The drinks were sized good and tasted great. I hope to stop in here again the entire experience was really great!