Translation from English

Friday, August 30, 2013

Turtle Bay- neighborhood bar it seems

Looks to me like The Turtle Bay is just an old established neighborhood bar but a lot of people are perfectly happy with places like this

Let's check Yelp--more reviews than usual because I want to give you a good sampling of opinion


Turtle Bay

2.5 star rating
301 reviews Rating Details
987 2nd Ave
(between 53rd St & 52nd St)
New York, NY 10022
Neighborhood: Midtown East
(212) 223-4224
Nearest Transit Station:
Lexington Ave./53 St. (E, M)
51 St. (4, 6, 6X)
59 St. (4, 5, 6, 6X)
Hours:
Mon-Sun 12 pm - 4 am
Good for Kids:
No
Accepts Credit Cards:
Yes
Parking:
Street
Attire:
Casual
Good for Groups:
Yes
Price Range:
$$
Takes Reservations:
Yes
Delivery:
No
Take-out:
Yes
Waiter Service:
Yes
Outdoor Seating:
No
Wi-Fi:
Free
Good For:
Late Night
Music:
DJ
Best Nights:
Thu, Fri, Sat
Happy Hour:
Yes
Alcohol:
Full Bar
Smoking:
No
Coat Check:
Yes
Noise Level:
Very Loud
Good For Dancing:
Yes
Ambience:
Divey, Casual
Has TV:
Yes
Caters:
Yes
Wheelchair Accessible:
Yes

Review Highlights   What's this?

  • "Happy hour rocks, deals are crazy and the mix of people is delightful." In 61 reviews
  • "Anyways, i love this spot and it never fails to have a good time." In 23 reviews
  • "...was so much fun- funny crowd, great music, even better drink specials." In 11 reviews
Rating Distribution | Trend
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301 reviews in English

  • Review from

    • 0 friends
    • 3 reviews
    Brooklyn, NY
    8/20/2013
    Turtle Bay! I first discovered this place when a college friend of mine invited me to come check out the bar scene in the city. If you are looking for a place where you are surrounded by young, college crowd, you have come to the right place!

    I love the scene here! The bartenders always hook you up with the most heavenly drinks! One cocktail and you will find yourself feeling nice and buzz! This is also a great place for post grad students that miss the college scene! All the bartenders are super friendly and attractive. If you want to avoid a cover charge on the weekend, try to make it in there before 11pm! Expect about 15 - 30mins wait on line to get in thou. The first floor is more of a chill scene where you can just relax and have a drink or 2 chatting with a old friend of yours or just a chill out night. But when you feel like you are ready to party, proceed to the 2nd floor and you will find hot bartenders dancing on the tables while the DJ plays some of the best music to get your feet going! Once in awhile, the DJ will throw in a couple of 90s throwback where you can sing along with your friends! On the weekend, this place can get a little too crowded after 12am but if you don't mind that, you will for sure find yourself having one great night!

    Also, if you sign up to be on their email list and it is your birthday, they will send you happy hours special where the birthday boy or girl gets to drink for free till 12am! and all your friends that are on the list can get their drinks for 50% off till 12!

    Overall I LOVE this place and I will for sure coming back again. But if you come here too often, this place can get pretty cliche so I would recommend you coming here once or twice every month and you will find yourself having one great night! May the odd be forever in your favor! Enjoy yourself! :)
  • Review from

    • 1 friend
    • 1 review
    Bushwick, Brooklyn, NY
    8/14/2013
    Oh Turtle Bay... what can't I say about you. I came across this bar about a year ago when a friend invited me to a happy hour special she had won (she drank for free all night and her friends got half off drinks all night). It was... interesting. Very loud music, drinks were VERY mediocre... pathetic actually. But the company i kept made it a great night. The music switched from Journey's "Don't stop believin" to Notorious BIG's "Hypnotize". Kept the crowd totally amped all night. Plus at one point I found myself going Coyote Ugly on the bar! Apparently the bartenders always call "12 sexy ladies" up to dance... hey, why the hell not!

    I went back about a month later with the same group of friends and in what can only be described as multiple personality, Turtle Bay gave me a completely different experience. Drinks were worse (if that was even possible), I swear it was colored water! We got a table since we wanted some appetizers; service was awful!! Waitress came back to our table three times to ask us to repeat the order, when the food arrived, it was awful! Stick to wings and chicken tenders people! The calamari and nachos were by far the worst I've ever had!

    Overall, it's a postgrad atmosphere. Lots of after work recent grads, so you older twenties crowd will be more annoyed than anything. Place is ALWAYS crowded on Th & Fri nights. If you just want to have some (mediocre and cheap) drinks while catching up with old friends then downstairs level is more your vibe. But if you don't mind the "packed like sardines" dance floor on upper level, then go have a blast with those sexy yet clueless bartenders upstairs!
  • Review from

    • 18 friends
    • 17 reviews
    Murrieta, CA
    8/13/2013
    So I went here during their $1 beer Wednesday night. I was initially put off by the $5 cover charge, I will say that, but the overall experience was great.

    We got tired of ordering a ton of mini beers, so we started getting pitchers instead. At one point in the night, I was double fisting pitchers of Bud while watching a midget in a Superman costume feed shots to women while standing on the bar. Definitely a highlight. We didn't even realize there was an upstairs until we were each 3 pitchers deep, so that was a surprise. Great music upstairs with some Ruit. Ended up leaving at 3:30 in the morning.

    This is definitely a bro-ey bar, so don't come in and expect anything fancy. However, if you're into that kinda thing, I'll see you on Wednesday.
  • Review from

    • 0 friends
    • 3 reviews
    East Harlem, Manhattan, NY
    8/23/2013 1 check-in here
    Love this place
  • Review from

    • 0 friends
    • 3 reviews
    Manhattan, NY
    8/19/2013
    So pretty much if you win a free happy hour and your friends get 50% off don't be surprised if the WHOLE ENTIRE bar has won the happy hour also!!!! haha

    I have been to Turtle Bay twice.  The first experience better than the second.  They need to hire more bartenders on weekends! and really need to get someone to train the servers or maybe get more servers so people aren't just bombarding the bar! It would be an amazing bar if it was organized!

    I suggest pre-gaming before hand and prepared to be patient! But def look hot cause there are definitely some hotties who go there!
  • Review from

    • 13 friends
    • 28 reviews
    New York, NY
    8/1/2013
    This place should be shut down. I understand it's a venue for vulnerable early twenty-somethings to let loose during happy hour...

    When I ordered a Jameson on the rocks, they 100% gave me a low-shelf well whiskey and charged me regular price.

    Please investigate.
  • Review from

    • 0 friends
    • 38 reviews
    FLUSHING, NY
    7/28/2013
    2. Maybe 2.5.

    I came here once, and never had any desire to go back. I came here on a Wednesday night (or Friday night...my memory is generally very good but I think it was Wednesday) when the bar was doing $1 Coors light or $1 Bud light special. It's a 2 floored bar and was very crowded (that's why I'm reluctant to say Wednesday, felt like a weekend night).

    The beers are HEAVILY watered down. It doesn't even tastes like beer when you order the dollar cup of beer. I hated it. Crowded. A lot of cute girls you can talk to but that's not enough to compensate for watering down the beer heavily.

    I don't recommend this place.
  • Review from

    • 2 friends
    • 2 reviews
    Brooklyn, NY
    7/24/2013
    So i went there for my friends birthday party. It was pretty packed which was good, very loud which was also good. We had drinks on special and those were obviously bad as in any other place. it was an ok place. I wouldn't go there again because there are a lot more better spots. tried to go dance upstairs and it was just too packed.
    Its a place where you go when you just want to party. Given that i do not know how the place looks like after 4pm.

    overall. meh. it wasn't bad.
  • Review from

    New York, NY
    7/6/2013 1 check-in here
    I think Turtle Bay has dual personalities. After reading all of the reviews of people who came here on a late night ready to party, I hesitated to come here during happy hour but ultimately some friends convinced me to go and I'm very glad I did.

    I went on a Monday night when there were plenty of other patrons but by no means was it empty. I enjoyed the $3 mixed drinks happy hour special, some delicious baked potato cubes, and Trivia (or Quizzo as Philadelphians call it). We had a nice and friendly service, we're able to form a friendly bond with the table of Trivia players next to us (because there were some rounds where you work with other teams), and we left happy. We were (and still are) happy with our experience, we've thought about making Turtle Bay a regular thing for Trivia on Mondays.
  • Review from

    Plainview, NY
    7/2/2013
    Hey....not sure why everyone hates this place but my friends and I had a great time last night after work. Happy hour was a good time!

    Really everything for me was pretty positive. The drinks were cheap but did not taste as cheap as we paid. We all got drunk off of 3 drinks, which equals $9. The place was not that busy, so maybe that is why we enjoyed it all so much.

    We ordered about $35 worth of food for the table, which was all pretty good. The only thing that we thought was amazing was the mac and cheese! So awesome here. Everything else was either really really good or just good. Nothing to complain about!

    We also stayed for trivia night which we really enjoyed, and made friends with some other teams. Our waitress was so nice to us as well. Since we were there so long, my friend wanted to grab cupcakes from a place down the street and bring them in the bar. The waitress told us it was totally fine to do that.

    So I mean... we just had a really nice night out and we spent almost 5 hours there. We will totally go back again on a weekday Happy hour.

    Can not really think of anything to complain about.

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