Al J’s Lounge at the Conservatory

I have been here many, many times over the years and I wish I could give this place a better review. I really want to love this place, even like it, but the service is so bad that it’s impossible to like AL J’s. The Galt House is really missing out by not staffing this bar appropriately and by not having a half way decent food menu.
The idea behind this place is great. The views are stellar, the location is prime for events at the Yum Center and the Ky Center, and the have great holiday décor and a festive feel.
AL J’s grossly understaffed. 10 minutes to get the bartenders attention if you’re lucky and there is no basketball game or concert going on at the Yum. Expect 20 min. On average to get your beverage.
They offer a simple bar food menu which lacks imagination or a Ky feel. The food quality is average and rarely arrives hot. Expect aprox. A 45 min wait for sandwich to arrive. If you’d like a condiment, better bring it with you. It took 3 different people to get us some ketchup on this visit.
There’s really no excuse for a hotel of this caliber to have a bar/​café that suffers so much. I want the Galt House to do better with this space! I want to come here for a beer and a bite before a UofL game, I want to hang out here after a concert, I want to enjoy this space with my children during the holiday season for lunch before a Nutcracker matinée or dinner before A Christmas Carol. I want to meet friends here for a drink anytime of year.
The poor service, lame menu and subpar wine and cocktail selections make AL J’s a poor choice for any of these.
This review is based on many visits over the years, not just today’s. I could go on with the negative comments.
I won’t even go into the experience I had here last March when the company I work for booked 300 rooms at the Galt House and AL J’s, unsurprisingly, failed to meet our standards.
Bottom line, until Galt House gets its act together, avoid AL J’s.
It makes me sad to give this review.

Just such a cool bar. I mean there are fish under my drink here. I mean it’s hard to explain. But the bar is under water. Not under water it’s on water. This does not make sense. I really like Bulleit 10 now it may be better than Jack Single Barrel but if I order Jack Daniels around here they look at me like I have 3 eyeballs anyway so what’s the point? I’m pretty sure there are still only two. Nice view. The river it’s right there I mean. Across the street. Bit cold though. They say it’s dirty and don’t eat the fish. I had not planned on eating those fish. Or the ones under the bar. Yonder. Really. I heard that word. Yonder. Like Jethro. Nice hotel. Lotta geezers. Galt House. Geezer House. No actually it’s a cool place lots of oddball little rooms and bars and gimmicks to discover. I’m coming here Christmas Day. I hope they don’t expect me to wear a tie. I hope they don’t try to feed us those river fish.
I like this place but to be honest I find the Kaleidoscope thing kind of creepy. Sorry fish I bet it’s cold in that river. Don’t worry I won’t come back to eat any of you. Or you guys under the bar. All you fish are safe around me. Ok. Go Cards. Go Cats. Go Gators! Go away buddy. Everybody here hates the Gators. Why? What did we do?
Forgive me Galt House. Forgive me Louisville. I am not much of a basketball fan, I’ve never had a Hot Brown or a Derby Pie. Hell I’ve never been to the Derby. I’m a Gator for goodness sakes and everybody here hates me. Nah. They’re OK just give me a hard time. But I sure like horses, God knows how much I love what they distill around here and I sure do dig this town, this state, even these people here. Even if they hate Gators!

This is a nice, casual setting. I really liked the aquarium bar top, and the big bird cage. Unique touches!

Great view of the river, comfortable chairs outside the main bar area, decent service. Hotel/​downtown pricing for drinks, a bottled domestic beer will set you back $ 4.50−5.50 but really, it’s the location that counts. Right downtown, great if you are staying at the Galt House, and worked out just right as a place to run to when a storm came whipping down the waterfront last weekend. Nice of them to let us linger a bit after drinks to wait out the storm.
Service was good to bring drinks and waters but very lacking at the time to pay once they were really busy. To the point that if we were not honest people, it would have been easy to just walk away.
Basically, this is your average hotel bar with a good view. That isn’t a bad thing per se, but it isn’t really a destination spot either.

Connecting all good times!
This bar/​restaurant is located on the bridge intersection that connects the East and West Galt House Hotels.
This is not the bar on the official Urban Bourbon Trail, but there are some signature Bourbon cocktails available. Jockey and Silks is located on the same floor but in the West Hotel with Rivue (hope I am getting my directions right).
The bar area does offer some decent pub food, but the coolest part is that the bar top is an actually aquarium. My boyfriend and I snagged a Groupon to grab a couple cocktails before a Yum Center game. We both got very distracted by all the awesome fish swimming about under our drinks. I still feel there is some irony in the whole situation.
Even though this is a pretty average watering hole you should visit Al J’s at least once for the unique view. Sure you have your fishes, but this bar is surrounded by a fantastic view of the city since the windows are floor to ceiling. You can see down fourth street to our infamous Fourth Street Live or check out the view of the Ohio review.

My visit here was brief, but I’d love to return as it was a pleasant one!
This bar connects the two towers of the Galt House, with views down 4^th street from the bridge that spans between the two. The best part of the whole place is the fish tank bar with real goldfish swimming around under your martini glass. I sat mesmerized for several minutes as I watched the fish and munched on the goldfish crackers provided at the bar. The bartenders were awesome, very personable, and poured drinks perfectly — not too strong, and never so little that you felt like you were getting gypped for the price.
I’m going to include Al J’s in my next trip to 4^th street and recommend that you do so too!

This was the main hotel bar at the Galt House, where I spent the weekend recently meeting up with my mom.
It’s located on the third floor atrium bridge between hotel towers, along with a deli counter and a large bird cage.
The bar has a great view of the river and is bright and sunny during the day due to all the glass. At night, the city view is impressive from all chairs or from the bar.
The main bar feature is that it is an aquarium. You put your drinks down on top of fish swimming hither and thither. That was adorable at first. Very cool. Then you watch the fish for longer and you realize there’s something quite off about many of them. Some have grown too large for the tank depth and swim at a slant so their fins don’t hit the top. Some don’t move really at all. Some move only half their body and one fin, like they’ve had fish strokes. Some just tweak non-​stop, swimming back and forth, fast and twitchy. All of a sudden, the fish bar doesn’t seem so cool. These fish are damaged and possibly deranged. You can’t look away, but you start thinking about fishy liberation schemes.
Perhaps you could let that go, but the drinks weren’t super and the bartender seemed somewhat limited in her knowledge on our visit.
So maybe skip it.
Or paint your face half goldfish orange, run in screaming «Freedom!» and let those fishies go.

It does have a great view. Only issue for me is the price you pay for a low quality premix drink that I can buy from the grocery store. I would expect some fresh juices and at least mid grade well drinks for $ 8 a drink. Food is okay as well just not impressed with quality vs price.

Knock off early from work? Great place to have a quiet cocktail and people watch in the afternoon.

Seriously, how am I the first to review this place?! It has a 30 foot aquarium as a bar counter.
This bar is located on the 3^rd floor conservatory that spans and connects the 2 towers of Galt House Hotel.
It’s open till 1:00 AM, (last call at 12:45) and they pour a great dirty martini. Everything can be charged directly to your room.
Fish snacks (cheddar or pretzel) in bowls for your munching pleasure!
Next time I’m in town for business, I’m staying at the Galt House again… because of Al J’s.