The Empire Lobby Bar

On my first trip to NYC, This was the first stop after touching down at the airport., My gf booked it, and I was meeting her there. First thing I noticed was how close it is to Lincoln Centre. It is also walking distance to Times Square and Hell’s Kitchen. So definite points for location. Sadly, it wasn’t all I had hoped it would be. It was very dim inside. From the Hotel lobby, to the hallways. The elevators were small, old, slow and rickety. Room was super small, and very hot ( it was in August ) no air conditioning. The bathroom was also small, and the shower was built weird, so water got out at the bottom and soaked the floors. I’m talking at least an inch! The pool was on the rooftop, but it was very small. I laughed at the “Warning ! No life guard on duty sign. There was also a rooftop bar, and the drink was actually very good. The downside came when it started to rain, and it was over ran with many screeching children. I had to leave. The best thing about the stay was they gave us a super late check out, without charge. Lots of options for hotels in NYC- this one I would not revisit.

I am a native New Yorker and will keep to the directness of how we are known to be :) Food: Good. It's an upscale version of bar food classics. I highly recommend the sliders. Drinks: Excellent. Great wine selection. Space: This is a very elegant and sleek hotel bar. This is a great place to bring a date or impress your significant other before going to your performance at Lincoln Center. Scene: People watching. Romantic. Date night. Pickup scene. Trendy. Crowd: 30-50s Mostly locals, professionals and corporate types. Theater goers and tourists. Service: Excellent, very courteous & professional.

Drinks are sufficiently well mixed and the service polite and responsive. Nice cocktail-lounge atmosphere, (fake) candlelight, sofa-style seating. The important thing to note is how quiet it is. Conversation and drinks sre complementary and nyc bars are normally filled with drunken youths and would-be youths at fever pitch. Not so the Empire Lobby Lounge!

The Lobby Bar is usually poorly attended, has expensive drinks that are not noteworthy in any capacity, and food that is just OK, although it desperately ties to be more than it is. I walked in intending to go to the Rooftop Bar, and was let in no problem. My Caucasian guest was told that the Rooftop Bar was only for guests of the hotel. $$$ out of $$$$$ . The Lobby Bar is clean, but I would not recommend it if you'd like to go to a busy, or well - attended place. Go here if you're looking to sink into a large chair, and meet up with an undercover agent, secret lover, socially phobic friend or parent, or you'd like to carry on a conversation at whisper level.

The service of this hotel is terrible. I had to request two times to change the rooms. The first one was a cage and I totally rejected to stay in that room, the other one on the first floor the bathroom and sink did not work properly. The third one on the 11th floor was ok but at the time to sleep the curtains did not go down, we requested help and they got the curtains down but the next day in the morning we wanted to be able to enjoy the view and the curtains did not go up. We requested help and they say they will fix it while we were out, during the day. By the end of our day, 10 pm, no curtains were fixed whatsoever. They told us they will do it the next day, I was furious, I went down and demanded to fix my curtains because I did not want a dark morning anymore, I had only one more day in NY and I wanted to enjoy everything! Finally a very nice gentleman, a handyman fixed the curtains in 20 minutes. People at the front desk never apologized, never try to do anything to make me feel better. We traveled together with a friend from university that had not seen each other for about 5 years, we were planing this vacation for more than three months. This hotel ruined part of my staying in NY. Please do not make the mistake of staying here. The hotel is outdated and the service is horrible.

All I have to say is, Empire Hotel Lobby Bar has been my safe haven since I touched down in NYC over 6 years ago. Not only is Mike, the main bartender, a great fixture of Empire, the overall atmosphere can make a hard day at work chill out. I highly recommend this over the roof top bar, which can get a little too crazy when it gets warm.