Elbow Room

I remember when I first discovered Elbow Room. It was well over 10 years ago and me and a mate sat at the front, in the summer with the windows open watching the world go by. I was about 19 years old and I loved the place.
Sadly, but fortunately, as time has passed my tastes have changed. This is no place for a 30 (cough) year old!
I look back very fondly on my memories of debauched Saturday afternoons in Elbow Room, when pints were £2.50 (in town) and a ‘good bar’ meant getting served and a ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ ratio of girls to boys.
But, having gone back for a drink a couple of weeks ago, it was full of me’s from the past — and I didn’t enjoy the flashback!
If you’re 18 – 22 — get to Elbow Room, have a blast and make some memories. If you’re older than 25, I’d leave your memories as just that!
I wish I could give Elbow room 2 different star ratings based on my two perspectives, but it’s a bang in the middle 3!

Its funny how times have changed. The Elbow Rooms used to be a popular bar for my friends and I during our student days, particularly with the funky pool tables and fantastic cocktails, but I can’t help but agree with the majority of these other reviews.
The people that come here either seem to be a bit odd or think they’re too cool for school — perhaps it is the dark atmosphere that lures these people out of their caves, because it certainly isn’t the unfriendly bar staff.
On the plus side the small room upstairs is available for hire, free of charge, and this place is slightly cooler to sink some balls than the likes of near by Riley’s. As mentioned, the drinks are quite cheap and the cocktails are plentiful and tasty, but this wouldn’t be my first choice for starting a night on Park Street.

The Elbow Room is a very chilled out bar mixed with a large focus on American pool. I have personally only been here a couple of times, and my pool knowledge is severely lacking so perhaps I’m not one talk, but in my opinion this bar is a bit of a dive unless you’re an avid pool fan!
In my experience this bar attracts mainly men — I’m guessing because of the pool — and generally there’s a range of students to locals. If you are a fan of American Pool then it’s probably worth checking out, you can also hire out the pool tables in advance if you want to organize a group of friends for a tournament!
The place itself is pretty basic with modern décor, however it’s pretty dark inside and isn’t the kind of place you’d want to go to on a sunny day. They do however serve reasonably priced food, and the bar offers a range of drinks including some pretty cool cocktails. It’s not really my thing, but by all means check it out and make your own mind up — I will be sticking to Mbargo and the likes instead of this bar though!

The Elbow Rooms is a long established popular stopping point halfway down Park Street’s busy series of bars, restaurants, shops and cafes. It’s a chain bar and it definitely feels like one.
Generic ‘funky’ décor, largely in various shades of purple, it seems to attract a sleazy clientele of Friday night shirts on the pull and girls tottering precariously on high heels. There’s an upper floor as well which can be hired out for private parties.
There are two pool tables and the bar serves decent cocktails along with some good drinks deals, but in my opinion Bristol has many better places to spend an evening in. If you’re after a decent cocktail in a late night bar, resign yourself to a little more uphill walking and nip into The Woods instead.

If it’s a minging and rainy Saturday afternoon and you fancy a game of pool while sinking a few ales then this is a prime spot. It’s not as dark and dank as a pool hall and they open out the front so you can watch the world go by on Park St. The opening hours also mean it becomes a well-​populated night-​spot but, having been to its sister branches in Angel and Shoreditch, I think the Bristol ER lacks a little bit of class late at night and becomes a bit of a stopping off point for people on pub crawls and stag dos. Even when we were in here one afternoon, a young guy in a Borat thong was urged to do press-​ups over our pool game by his stags. Not a great view. But it’s a great pace to while away a lazy, boozy afternoon and the drinks are really cheap so if you dare to enter late at night go ahead!

I was tempted into this place by the cheap cheap cheap Sailor Jerry rum. It’s like £2.50 for a double and a mixer and once you’ve tried Sailor Jerry there really is no going back. The owners of the Elbow Room are clearly cashing in on this, this and their excellent position halfway up Park Street. You can’t fail to miss the massive poster hanging from the open pub front advertising said Sailor Jerry. Sadly, that is the best thing about this place. The crowd is usually pretty lairy and the bouncers are plain right odd, like they while away the time playing jokes on drunk people — pretending the place is shut when it clearly isn’t or staring at you blankly for ages to the point where you think you’re speaking another language (And before you say it, no, I wasn’t wasted and incoherent!). Anyhow, they do have an upstairs room which you can rent out for private functions. It is very dark though, so much better frequented in the winter if at all — who wants to spend summer in a dark room?!

Elbow room has everything going for it; it’s got a well stocked bar, good location and a cool name. But I am really not a fan. Not to sound like a Park Street snob but this bar is usually packed with people who wouldn’t normally enjoy the quirky retro chic of the other bars up and down the hill. On more than one occasion I’ve walked in to find people passed out on the floor or crying in a corner — not a great start to any one’s evening!
I’d recommend coming here during the day when the pool tables are empty and the aforementioned undesireables are yet to come out and play.

Elbow Room is located half way up Park Street and is fundamentally a place to play pool as it has two American style pool tables just in front of the bar area. Not being a fan of the American styled pool table (the pockets are far too big and therefore far too easy for the incompetent pool player to look good) I don’t go that often.
The other reason I’m not keen on this place is despite being on Park Street and therefore a fair distance away from the pikey’s on Corn Street and the water front, it does seem to attract more than it’s fair share of undesirables on occasion.
It is very dark inside even during the day. I’m not saying this as a bad thing as it certainly has a distinct atmosphere, but it’s even dark around the pool tables. The last time I played there on a Tuesday afternoon, I couldn’t see my poor positional play in all it’s glory.

This is a funny old place; both times I’ve been here have been odd for one reason or another. The first time, I went here for an after work drink around 2am on a Saturday night; not the most chilled place to be. The dance floor upstairs was sparsely populated with unusual looking scenesters rocking out and downstairs small groups slumped themselves around tables. I was one of the latter.
The second time, we sat in the window, with a great view of that nights episode of the Park Street Soap Opera (usually consists of a drunken man chasing after his girlfriends cab after they’ve had a row whilst drunken zombie-​like youngsters slope down the hill in waves. Unsurprisingly I have quite weird associations with this club… I’m sure it’s great if you’re truly up for the Park Street mash up.

I don’t like this place. It’s halfway up Park Street and gets rammed with a slightly ‘Trevory’ crowd. It’s half bar, half pool hall, but the bar part isn’t big or unique enough to keep you interested and the pool tables are those big American ones and are expensive to hire (you pay at the bar for a certain amount of time, not by the game). Also, despite the name, it’s not really big enough, which is pretty ironic, though considering the Stateside focus of this unspectacular place, they probably wouldn’t understand this.
The only time I’ve vaguely enjoyed this place is on a Sunday afternoon watching the footie, as it’s less crowded then and they have some cheap drinks offers.

Snappily named, this bar is a staple on any traipse down Park Street. It’s unique feature are it’s front windows, which fold away. This makes for lovely drinking on a summers evening (especially Sunday when there isn’t too much traffic). There are pool tables where you’ll probably find yourself constantly asking people to shift; I think the place is a bit too small for the two of them.
There are bouncers on the doors most evenings, and these are necessary as it can get very busy. With that said, I’ve never had to wait too long at the bar, and it’s too small for there to be any risk of losing your friends. The bouncers generally manage to keep anyone really rowdy out, which is definitely a plus given the location of the place. Go to the Elbow Rooms for a party, but where there isn’t too much risk that someone’s going to knock over your drink.

Love this place — cool music, cool décor, cool bar staff and American style pool tables where you pay £10 deposit and then £3 every 15 minutes. I wish Cardiff had a pub where you could book the pool tables like thi instead of £1 a game (although we did stay on the table for around an hour and it cost us £12 in total, when we usually spend around £6 playing in Cardiff). We played eight ball then pool, then eight ball, then pool and I even managed to win a game or two!
Quite a find, I thought.

It’s hard to find a place with a decent area for pool and a great bar too, and I think you have it in the Elbow room. Could stay for hours here, though my pool generally gets worse as the evening progresses. Great drinks offers on a lot of the time too.

The Elbow Rooms are halfway up the famous Park Street. They have a couple of pool tables and a room upstairs for functions. The problem with the bar is that it is ridiculously overpriced and the students can sometimes get out of control. It is usually pretty loud in there too which can be annoying.

The Elbow Room on Park Street is really cool. It’s got music and bars stretched across two floors, the DJs and a dancefloor upstairs and pool tables and Nintendo Wii downstairs. Attracts the cool kids from in and around the Clifton area, as well as many others. It’s a nice place to chill and have some food or a cocktail on a sunny day when they have the front open onto the street, and also dark and dingy enough to spend your whole night it. It’s a late bar so now worries for those who don’t want to go to bed. Come and check it out

When I moved down from Leeds to Bristol I was happy to see there was an Elbow Room here, as there’s one in Leeds that I love. The one in Leeds is far better though– it’s much bigger with far more pool tables. The Bristol one has only two pool tables (stretching the whole concept of it being a pool bar, isn’t it?). During the daytime it feels a bit too badly lit to be a bar, but it’s not bad.
However like in Leeds they have a good selection of DJs rocking the upstairs bar most nights of the week, which is the main reason to check out the Elbow Room.

The Elbow Room is situated right in the middle of studentville– in the middle of Park Street. It’s a good place to go an play a few games of pool and chill out during the day as it’s got an open front. It’s quite a ‘trendy’ place to be so beware of the high drinks prices. Park street is a bit of a mix– places with expensive drinks like the Elbow Room and the Bristol Ram then places with cheap drinks like the Berkely and All Bar One. Elbow Room is quite good in that it’s a bar/​club with a good sized dance floor and it’s got a late opening license.

A great addition to Park Street, the elbow room has been a popular bar since its opening. The stylish interior and large American sized pool tables are enough to keep most drinkers happy; live music and private parties also help this to be one of the busiest and crowded bars on park street over the weekend.
In summer the removal of the windows affords the punter a front row seat to the ensuing park street madness. Tramps, beggars and kids trying to kill themselves on skateboards all fly past the window whilst you enjoy the sun and expensive, but extremely tasty, cocktails.