Buskers

okay so i was supposed to write this review like 2 and a half weeks ago, but i’ve been lazy so i’m writing it now. my boyfriend & i went into buskers on a saturday night after sight-​seeing all day. we live in philly and took a megabus into the city for the day, but after a lot of walking and a huge dinner in little italy, we wanted to get drunk before the bus ride home. went into a couple other bars in the area, but nothing was really great. i stopped to smoke a cig outside buskers, and noticed the sign advertising cheap shots & drinks. we decided to give it a try. there was literally like one other person in the whole bar on a saturday night, so immediately we were wondering if it was really shitty or something. turns out, it was awesome! our bartender jackie was super friendly. we basically slapped our credit card down and said ‘we have 20 mins to get drunk before we have to catch a bus’ and she was more than happy to help us with that request. we took advantage of the 2 for $ 11 LIT’s, $ 3 shots, & $ 5 drink/​shot specials — even better than most philly prices. even though she was a patroits fan, jackie was nice and attentive and didn’t let our glasses go dry until we were running out the door to catch a cab. we will definitely be back next time we’re in NYC, & shout out to jackie if you read this — come to philly & we’ll show you a good time! =P

What a weird night! Decent enough bar, but they must have been looping the same four reggaeton songs for about two hours, and at the end there was this dude that looked like a regular dancing on the pool table with this lady while people were trying to play pool underneath. Then they both sort of stopped mid-​song and locked themselves in the bathroom for a while, so I’m taking a star off for not having enough bathrooms for these sorts of situations.
Oh, and a hot tip: if you call the beer a «gobstopper» you get it for like $ 2 a pint, not sure why.

I just saw the riot grrrl doc at IFC so logically I came here after. The place is totally empty except for a weird 60 year old European dude. I had three shots of house whiskey and now me and the bartender are dancing on the pool table to über shitty Ibiza techno.
Help me.

I’ve been here four times and every time has been great. I did a surprise bday party for my wife here and the staff couldn’t be more helpful. They allowed us to set up and were so accommodating. It’s easy to organize events here any day of the week because the place doesn’t get packed until after 10pm. So you can do a surprise bday party earlier and then eat and have drinks.
You can then leave or stay longer, either way the staff will accommodate you. I also organized my high school reunion here and, again, they were very accommodating. I can’t say enough good things about Buskers. Plus, it’s a nice ambience and not a typical trashy dive. It’s well maintained and the manager and staff have been nothing but nice. The other 2 times I went there was on the fly, looking for a quick place to stop at and get and appetizer and have a drink with a friend to talk. The staff was also friendly during those times and Buskers was chill and relaxing. It’s one of my new favorite NYC spots. Love to always go by.

I’m surprised by the amount of low ratings Buskers has received. My friends and I find this bar to be a GREAT place to go for quiet after work drinks. I think the key point here is QUIET. It is very EMPTY in this bar, but that’s a good thing when you just want to chill with a few brews after a long, crappy soul-​sucking day at work and you’re too tired to go to a hard partying spot with people bumping and grinding all up in your face.
Their drink specials are not too bad considering the area. $ 5 for the cocktail of the day, $ 7 for a beer and a shot. There’s also a burger and beer special for $ 10, or $ 7 — my memory is a little fuzzy.
Buskers has a limited food menu, but everything I’ve tried has been good to okay. I’ve ordered a medium rare burger that came medium rare. Calamari that were well seasoned — though a few pieces were a tad chewy. The chicken fingers were kind of boring but not terrible. And yummy carb-​filled fries that are perfect for soaking up alcohol. The staff were also accommodating when we requested to have cheese drenched fries even though it wasn’t on the menu.
There is a pool table in the back with games costing $ 2 each. And you never have to wait to use it because there is hardly ever anyone here. The bartenders have been decent. The one on Wednesday seems like a sweetheart.
Another nice thing about Buskers is that it’s clean with lots of open space, well I guess that’s because it’s so empty.

Crappitty music, bartender was awful and ignored us when were the only other people aside from this other ocouple she doted on (actually this place would’ve been 3 stars but she went way out of her way to be obnoxious and not serve hot drinks) … Oh and it smelled down there… We heard that its prob a front for the mob lol

This place is totally less grungy than it appears from the outside. I like all the signage outside that tells me its a bar, especially on the busy street of Houston.
When we walked inside we were pleasantly surprised with the atmosphere. Its a clean looking bar that serves relatively cheap drinkage. The 7 dollar beer and shot combo works well. I was happy except with the bizarre mix of music from Linkin Park to some Pop song to some Spin doctor song to a techno beat. Not really sure what they’re going for. They have several TVs which weren’t on. They have a pool table which I would have utilized and they were pretty dead on a Saturday night.
Also the restrooms are tiny and located on some perilous twisty steps that are not heel friendly.

Went in there around 8 – 9 o’clock on a Saturday night. It was empty (which is what I was looking for) yet the bartender forgot our order on two separate occasions. She was nice and offered to put on the sound for the game but forgetting orders is still frustrating.
The food was really bland. It’s certainly cheap ($ 2 mini-​burger) and I had the expectations of typical bar food, but it just wasn’t very good. We had the spinach dip, wings, pork sliders and mini-​burgers. The only one of those I found decent was the pork. Buns on everything were super dry and not toasted.
There are no seats with backs on them. I went to watch a hockey game and was stuck on a cushioned stool with no back support for three hours. That was uncomfortable.
Limited bourbons or top shelf whiskeys. Pretty good choice of beers. Pool table.
Overall, I’d probably find something up the street next time.

Unimpressive. Food menu is boring. Young female bartender has attitude. Next.

Went in last week and had a good conversation with some customers and an awesome young lady who was bar tending she was very pleasant and service was great and so was the food! drink prices were average for the area but they have a lot of specials… I stopped in again the other night and it was empty! there was a older chunky blonde woman behind the bar texting with big attitude!!! I tried to engage in conversation but the woman was just a B**ch and I find out she is the manager wtf? Horrible attitude very rude and awful mannerisms !!! I definitely won’t be stopping in there anymore

I would give a solid 3 stars but i was just kinda surprised at the price of the drinks at what looks like a «dive» bar (no one inside on a Saturday nite, couple flat screens behind the bar). They really should put the price of their cocktails on their menu. Was $ 14 for a whiskey cocktail. Don’t get me wrong, it was good, I just thought it would be cheaper, plus I coulda just gone to Pegu which has a nicer ambiance if I wanted to pay mixology prices.

good, chilled out bar. stopped there on a Friday around 7. nice taps — some stuff from Southern Tier, Brooklyn, Delirium Tremens, etc. — and the bartender was very accommodating and friendly. good vibes here.
only issue is that the bathroom’s cramped — the very sensitive hand dryer is situated right next to the toilet, so be prepared for wind to blow your stream eastward. but that’s my only complaint.
stop by to watch a game, or just hang out.

Was on vacation and didn’t know much about the area, the place looked chill so we came in. The place is nicely decorated and clean, but it was the service that made this place great. We didn’t order food, but the people next to us did, and said it was great. After telling the bartender we were just touring the city she was very helpful, extremely welcoming. Granted it was a Tuesday and the place was not packed, but the bartender and few patrons who were there made the night unforgettable.

So here’s the story of how i found this place:
I was coming out of a liquor tasting on Mercer St and was trying to follow the Knicks game to watch the Linsanity (Jeremy Lin’s rise to stardom on the New York Knicks) and was looking on my phone to see that there were no sports bars within a 3 block walk — so using my Unilocal Phone App — I started in the direction towards where the closest sports bar would be… a good 7 or 8 block walk.
So I’m walking and I hear a guy saying «THAT GUY LOOKS LIKE HE’S GOING TO WATCH THE KNICKS!» Ok… me being an asian guy… wearing a suit and tie… walking in the middle of the street makes me a Knicks fan? Ok fine whatever… they run up behind me and ask me where i’m going — and i said to find a place to watch the Knicks. They apologized for the obvious racist comments/​remarks and continued following me… without asking where I was going. They continued to ask each other «are we really following this guy?» — After about 4 blocks: I arrived at Buskers — only b/​c it was playing the game audio on the speakers outside the bar.
So we enter downstairs a bit and it’s not quite empty. Maybe…6 people tops inside and here i go walking in with these 10 or so wall street looking like guys. Further down — we went in past the bar is a pool table a medium sized TV and a raised area with more tables and seating. It was totally empty, but it looked pretty cool. So we stopped by and hung out there playing pool and watching the Game, ordering drinks and food hanging out.
Beer was $ 5 for a Stella — and i didn’t have any of the food. It was good for watching the game — and nice and quiet so I could cheer without having anyone else annoy me.
It was good for a random find!

Snobby bartender, med-​rare steak and chicken cordon took a half hour. Only three tables there at the time. I asked how long they had been open figuring they must have been new because of how disorganized they were. She said they had been open 8 months and that they were owned by Gatsby’s and some other place I hadn’t heard of and she scoffed at me that I didn’t know those two places. LOL.
Steak was dry, cool and medium by the time it got to me. Friend said his cordon bleu was good when bartender asked. But told me after that the ham and breading were pathetic. All in all, steak and fries not worth $ 21 and definitely not worth the attitude of the staff.

Hooked us with the outside drink specials. Limited vegetarian menu, barely anyone there. We walked in on a Saturday evening around six, the bar was basically empty along with the rest of the room. We sat at the bar, our bartender seemed pleasant, little did we know, she had limited knowledge of the menus, we asked if we could substitute the French fries for something else, she said they didn’t do that. We ordered our dinners, we were not provided with silverware or napkins, until we had finished our meals. Two out of the four dishes came out, the other two came out 10 minutes later after the first two finished. Food was pretty gross and cold We asked for separate checks, we all had cards, and they weren’t busy, she came back with all of the drinks on one check and food on the other, we asked for the one couples bill and the other two separate, she came back with 4 separate checks, and someone else’s credit card. She had told us that they needed a credit card hold out check when we walked in, I thought it was because we were at the bar, but I heard a server asking another table for one as well. We left disappointed, annoyed, and disgusted. 7 see valance cameras were a bit excessive. The room looks really nice, maybe they need different owners.

This place outstandingly quiet on a Friday night!
Cos the previous one my friend took me to is way too noisy, Buskers caught my interest immediately — less people, moderate music.
I only ordered ordinary Guinness, later I learnt this is an Irish brand… not bad at all! Maybe cos it’s new, there wasn’t quite many people there. And at the end, it was only me, my friend and bar tender.
The bartender is a friendly Irish person, I like the exotic accent and the decent service.
If you need quiet place to chat with your friend for a while, on a exciting Friday night, this place is perfect.

This bar just opened 2 weeks ago around the time Dominick checked it out. It does seem they have yet to gain a neighborhood fan club but i’m certainly one. Perfect place to play pool, 1 nice new table and enough space to play. If you need a place to take friends you know isn’t going to be overcrowded, this is the secret but just like D was saying about the bottle service, they’re ready for the popularity they’re going to get.
It’s a great place to chill with swanky interior and a welcoming staff eager to know their local patrons. I had a great time chatting with the manager and beautiful bulgarian bartender.
It’s also adaptable as a good place to watch sports, good flat screen placement at the bar, in front of the pool table and up in the back loft. They’re happy to put on whatever game you want to watch.
Hope to visit them again soon !

Much like that forehead pimple you woke up with, this place magically appeared in my neighborhood without warning.
I popped in here quickly last night to check it out. Other than a couple sitting at the bar, I was the only customer… which isn’t the greatest of signs for a brand new venue.
I can’t quite figure out what this place is/​wants to be… and in fairness I think Buskers deserves some time to figure it out and evolve accordingly.
But I did get a «square peg/​round hole» kind of feeling about a few things:
— This place is a bar/​lounge in a very casual part of town, yet they have a «bottle service menu»
— Right next to the $ 300 bottle of Grey Goose is a downscale limited bar menu with wraps/​sandwhiches/​salads for $ 6-​$ 10 (my guess is all pre-​made), and bagged potato chips for $ 1.50
I ordered an $ 11 Sapphire and Tonic, and a $ 5.95 Turkey and Brie wrap (which came out so quickly it must’ve been pre-made…and it tasted that way).
Beyond the front/​main room is a small area with a pool table and a TV overhead. Beyond the pool table is a short set of stairs up to a cool-​looking lofted area that has about 3 – 4 tables and could fit about 15 people.
Apparently there’s also a little patio space that can be accessed via the lofted indoor area… which they will be opening during nicer weather.
No TVs behind the bar… but I think I counted 6 security cameras staring back at me. I think there’s only 1 – 2 TVs in this place, so Buskers is clearly going for more of a lounge than a bar feel.
I can’t make a verdict on this place just yet, since its so new. The layout of the place is sleek and cool… but I wasn’t getting great vibes from the lack of customers and the pretentiousness of having a «bottle service» menu.
My suggestion is that Buskers positions itself as a semi-​upscale and welcoming neighborhood lounge (sorely needed in this part of G Village) where you can go with a date or a small group of friends.