Red Cafe

I’ve bartended at Red Bar from time to time and am sad to hear that it is closing in March. Drink up everybody!

Please don’t close red bar, I will cry and suicide :(
Everything is great here. cheap drinks, nice couches and friendly staff :)

I came here for happy hour and also to end a night of birthday celebrations with friends.
A MUST ORDER – The Tornado! Whiskey, beer and a good ol’ toss of a a wet napkin on the ceiling… sounds gross, but so much fun!
The music is good (eclectic mix) and the bartenders are really nice. The atmosphere is pretty lax. Def a good place for a couple of drinks.

Not bad, not the greatest, but definitely chill I guess? After a Korean BBQ feast in Koreatown on 32^nd, one of my friends suggested we go to Red Café, which was sort of like a Mini Korean Retro-​themed bar. None of us have been there before so we followed her to this little-​known place.
Here are the pros and cons
Pros:
–Cute Korean Waitresses and bartenders that speak fluent English
–Plush Sofas and Simple Decoration
–Not too crowded (if you like crowds, you’ll hate it)
–Reasonably-​priced Drinks
–Pretty mellow atmosphere
–Table service
Cons:
–Can get a bit boring since there isn’t much going on around you.
–Pretty simple, sort of retro themed interior
–Drinks are a bit watered down. I got a Midori Sour (was in the mood for a fruity drink lol) which was $ 10.50 which wasn’t the best but oh well for $ 10.50 I guess not bad.
TIP: If you want a not-​so-​crowded place to drink with a couple of friends after you had BBQ in Koreatown, I would suggest you come here cuz most of the bars in Koreatown are packed with so many people (both Korean and Non-​Korean) on the weekend and it can be difficult to get a seat there.
Maybe I’ll come back here to have a drink with my buddies sometime but I don’t think it’s a place to take your date to.

My friends and I used to come here regularly a few years ago, but then we stopped because we started to hit up another bar down the street. This place isn’t shabby. It’s not a big venue, but its enough to accommodate ppl. I never seen the place overly crowded. They have couches for table service or you can just sit at the bar. They even have a room for private events.
The bartenders are always friendly and talkative.
This place is known for their skittle shots and tornado drink specials.
The plus is that they have tv’s and they usually show sport games so that’s a plus.

TL;DR: Cute asian bartender… unknowledgable waitress… prices were high… BAH i never have to go back there ever.
So I went here for a work Happy Hour, that’s fine. We were greeting by a cute asian girl at the door and another cute asian girl at the bar. Neither of them looked liked they could even walk into the bar none-​the-​less serve drinks. (eh i shouldn’t say anything b/​c i don’t look 21 either).
Hmm…it was a bit gawdy… but the place’s ambiance doesn’t come into play unless i hate it or love it… this place was smack in the middle of «i don’t care»
So happy hour specials… NO BEER SPECIALS?!! What kind of bar are you? So i got a martini and then a few more drinks and don’t remember the rest of the night.
Ok So why a two with cute bartenders? One waitress was clueless on everything alcohol… a what? What’s a Seven and Seven? she mispronounced Merlot from the wine list, and couldn’t tell me how the food was.
The prices also were pretty high outside the happy hour special.

My friend and I are always on the hunt for snazzy happy hours, especially locations close to our X-​press bus. I cam across Red Café on Google and we went there this past Monday. It’s on the second floor of a small building. Once you walk in, everything is dim and pretty much, well– RED. But it’s not a bad thing. There is a bar area and then there are the plush red couches everywhere, which I find to be very comfy. I rather sit on couch than a hard wooden chair. There is also a private section on the left hand side of the bar with what else? MORE PLUSH RED SOFAS. Yay!
They have Happy Hour specials. My friend and I get the Apple Martini and two words– YUM-​MY!!! It’s like drinking Apple Juice and you know those drinks are the most dangerous. But they are sooo good. It’s $ 5 per drink during Happy Hour so we definitiely its wurf it.
We ordered fries yesterday and unfortunately, it took a while. The servers and owner were apologetic and I must admit, VERY NICE and SWEET. But getting back to the fries, it took about 35 – 30 minutes before we saw our fry basket. But you know what? It was sooo yummy. It’s like the McDonald Fries. The skinny shoe string type. Would we get it again? HECK YES!
I think my friend and I have found the spot. It’s not very crowded which we like, and the music selection is decent. It’s top 40 stuff. If you’re in the area, I would give this place a whirl.

Came here several times before and it’s not that good. Their service is really poor and drinks don’t even taste right. Furniture is really old and seats are very uncomfortable. I don’t see why anyone would come here unless you are some creepy white dude who wants to hit on Asian girls. Just kidding: D

Despite the not so great reviews I’ve decided to give this place a try and it turned out to exceed my expectation.
Red Café is a cozy bar located on the second floor right next to karaōke duet. They have a pretty decent happy hour if you like mixed drinks or beer that is. Their HH is from 5−8pm consisting of $ 2 soco lime shots, $ 3 jello shots, $ 6 margaritas with a couple of flavors to choose from along with other sweet fruity mix drinks. My friend had the apple and I had the lychee. I felt the alcohol consistency was just right not too strong, not too sweet. My second drink disappointed me a bit since I felt the kamikaze I ordered was wayy to sour for my taste.
Our waitress was very friendly and attentive, she even offered my friend a free drink upon overhearing that we were celebrating his birthday, extra credit for that.
They had plush red comfy sofas which was great for groups to sit and chat if you can get a table by the window (the back tables were close to the overhead speakers which blasted insanely loud music). There were a couple of groups there but it was not too crowded. I would definitely go back.

* Very nice experience with my peer group.
* Good treatment by the staff to everyone of us.
* We toasted on champagne, beer, shots, some buffalo wings etc.
* There was another Korean group of guys, and both our groups mingled and had gr8 fun together. It was India-​Korea brotherhood at its best :)

2.5 stars…
Red Café/​Bar is a 2^nd floor Korean bar a couple blocks from Herald Square. I’d say its an interesting combination of a bar and a lounge (where all the seats besides the bar stools are comfortable red couches).
Red Bar kinda falls short of your expectations though, the food is just ok but pretty over priced ($ 14 for a dozen tiny fried chicken wings) and the drinks are completely over priced. $ 7.50 for a Stella bottle (or $ 6.50 for a Bud bottle) are you kidding me? They also have this concoction served in a mini pitcher which consists of vodka, a sugary fruit flavoring (they have a couple options) and some 7up I believe, they charge $ 20 for this cocktail, if you like sugar this is up your alley, I found it to be pretty weak and WAY too sweet. They also have some interesting shots here like a whiskey/​espresso.
I found the place to be pretty clean and the waitresses to be nice but there was nothing spectacular enough to make me come back here for a $ 7.50 beer or one of their sugary weak drinks.

I have to say I’m a fan of Red Bar. I don’t really know what people are talking about when they say the waitress was weird or the drinks or weak but this place makes it’s own flavored vodka which is absolutely delicious, the waitresses often do shots with you and try to get you to dance — and will dance with you. It’s overall a fun atmosphere.
Not only is their homemade flavored vodka amazing, but they have a special drink called the tornado involving whiskey, beer, and throwing a wet napkin at the ceiling for it to stick.
I would say it’s a plush dive bar and never gets too crowded. It’s more of a start to the night or end of the night place for drinks and the pricing is quite reasonable.

My friends have been here before, it’s nice place to relax and get some drinks, I was told and it doesn’t get to crowded. We headed upstairs and was greeted by a cute and friendly young lady with a ponytail who later became our waitresss. The upstairs area was accented with plush red couches which I liked a lot.
We tried the tornado and skittles specials, which were pretty good. The music suited the atmosphere of the place with a good mix of house and mainstream sounds.
All in all, if you are looking for a comfortable place to unwind and if you are into the korean bar/​lounge scene.

My group (my gf and 2 friends) stumbled upon this place entirely by accident. We were actually on our way from one poor bar experience and walking towards Katwalk. We saw a sign with drink specials on the side of the road and stopped to read it. While outside, a group of people yelled over to us and told us to go in and that the place was great. We decided to stop upstairs to see what the place was about.
The space was a decent size — not a huge lounge/​bar by any means, but the place was very empty when we got there, so there was more then enough space. Their advertised specials were pretty absurd: $ 2 kamikaze, soco lime, lemon drop shots, $ 5 cosmo and kamikaze drinks, and 2 for 1 tornados (coors light and a shot of jack).
We were pretty excited about the specials, but unfortunately most of the shots were really light. mostly fruit juice and not nearly enough liquor. Still, at $ 2 you can’t really go wrong. even if you have to take 2 of them to equal one shot, it’s still only $ 4.
Music was mostly techno. which i enjoyed. The ambiance was nice enough. it was dark with a few lights projected on the wall, and candles on the tables. The bartenders were overly friendly, to the point where my gf got scared (lol). However, I’d prefer friendly people over d-​bags any day.
I didn’t ask for the prices on any other drinks or beers. I do plan on going back the next time I’m in the city. if they can serve decently priced beers and learn to water down their shots less, I can see this being a good spot to start off a night in the city.
Pros:
no cover
good location (near 33^rd st PATH, and other clubs/​lounges)
very cheap shot specials
friendly bartenders
cons:
weak shots
very empty the night i went (saturday night); not much of a crowd at all

Saw the sign outside with the all-​night happy hour specials and figured it would be worth a try.
So I see a posting above the bar for «buy 2, get 1 free skittlebomb». Having never even heard of this concoction, I said «sure, I’ll have one». Note the key word: one.
I ended up being brought 3 of these shots, and was charged for 2. Was something lost in translation? We’ll never know. Wait, the conversation was completely in English… In retrospect, I should have asked the waitress to return the extra shots when they were brought to me, but at that point they were already prepared. Hmm. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t…
My friends ordered drinks that took forever to come.
The menu seemed kinda costly, but there were some specials which balanced out that fail.
The setup seemed nice, like a lounge, but the music was too loud. Wait, I’m 24 and listen to metal and I am complaining about music being loud? I have problems.
We finished our one round of drinks and then hustled on out. I might be willing to give it another try sometime.

I went here for karaōke and drinks. It was rather overpriced to reserve the room despite the karaōke room being unoccupied and the bar as a whole pretty quiet. The jello shots were weak, beer list limited, and the waitress unattentive – it took her a long time to ask us for drinks, turn on the karaōke machine, and return. They kept making us order drinks saying we hadn’t spent enough, but I think it was bollocks since we were a group of more than 15 (where most everyone had a least one drink, most had 2).
As far as the karaōke selection: they were missing a lot of famous English-​language karaōke songs (pretty devoid of songs in English as a whole too). And the video was the same for every song – it looked like unused footage from a resort movie production company.

AWFUL.
DIRTY.
UNDER-​AGED ASIAN THUGS with SPIKEY HAIR
I slummed it that night cause this bar was über HOOD. I was here for a birthday party and noticed how ghetto everything is on the inside. From the ghetto wads of spit balls on the ceiling, straight down to the cheap reupholstered velvet furniture. I guess of all the ktown-​type bars, this place would definitely be a «divey» bar to korean cultural standards, but definitely not at dive bar prices.
They had these «skittle» bombs (a mixed shot of every fruity flavor of stoli vodka and a glass of redbull.) They also add a skittle candy into your shot. For the love of god, It was buy 2 get 1 free… I just couldn’t resist. I actually asked for there to be no skittle cause when bombing, I’m afraid from the the quick upward force the little skittle might jam down my wind pipe. The bartendar refused to do it because she thinks thats the best part of the drink. She even made me eat it afterwards when I left it in my shot. Thanks, but at this point I’m really ready to peg her with all the skittles in the world.
If I could put this place in the negatives… I would.

What’s up with the gobs of toilet paper on the ceiling? Yes, masses of wet toilet paper thrown onto the ceiling passes for «décor» in Red Bar.
Everybody is correct when they say that it is not as crowded as most K-​Town places. The fact that it’s on 35^th Street instead of 32^nd Street may have something to do with it. But if a place is good, it’s worth walking to, isn’t it?
The place itself is quite something to look at, and that’s putting it mildly. When you walk in, there’s a nice little lounge area on the left, where you can sit on plush couches while looking out the window onto 35^th Street. You can definitely have a lot of private time with that special someone here.
On the right is a more populated lounge area and the bar. And when I say «more populated» I mean about 15 people can fit into the couch areas, while about 15 more people can sit at the bar. And of course what bar isn’t complete with a beautiful hostess showing you to your seat, wearing clothes so tight you wonder how she can breathe.
My problem is that for a lounge, they were playing the wrong kind of music. You expect low-​key, Smooth Jazz 101.9 type music, not Madonna remixes amped up to 150 beats per minute. And the volume wasn’t exactly soft either.
But what really got my goat was the pricing. Maybe I’m just getting cheap in my old age, but still: $ 5.00 for a can of ginger ale and a glass of ice to pour it in? $ 8.00 for a bottle of Stella Artois? «Wow» was all I could say when I looked at the drink menu. At least they have a Happy Hour before 9pm, thank god.
Again, it’s a cool place to go to when you want to hang out for hours on end, and not feel crowded in. And yes, they do have a Happy Hour so get there before 9pm.

Where to start…
I would sum up redbar in one word: paradoxical.
After locating the place (it’s a bit hard to find), one walks up the non-​descript stairs and is greeted by a pretty cool little cozy bar area. To your left is a largish private room, filled with plush red couches, tables and floor to ceiling windows with a great view of the street below.
The plush couches are inviting, and the decoration is simple, yet warm and non-​pretentious. It’s like visiting an IKEA… it’s nice looking, but of little substance and nothing too flashy. And thus, the first paradox — closer inspection of the bar and seating area reveals significant wear and tear on the furniture and bar. I imagine at one time, the furniture was brand spanking new, but frequent use and abuse has left it a little worse for wear. Redbar, the Raggedy Anne doll of midtown bars.
The next paradox are the bartenders and servers. These girls, simply put, are awesome. Each of them are cute as a button, generous with their pours, and genuinely nice. Therein lies the core issue/​paradox with redbar. It attracts the elderly, the lonely and the creepy asian fetish guys. Whenever I visit here, the usually meager crowd is made up of middle aged dudes, shitting themselves over the cute Korean bartenders. I feel like this slightly alienates the younger Korean crowd that would otherwise patronize this place.
Overall, there is a lot to love about this place. The reasonable prices, the laid back atmosphere, the cute bartenders and the lack of a huge crowd. It’s a great place for a few happy hour brews before hitting up the K-​town dining scene… but just steer clear of the creepy old guys.
PS — After googling for the real definition of paradox, I realize that none of these examples are actually paradoxes, but I just really like that word.

Red Bar & Lounge is a tucked away little place in Korea Town. Observe:
I was tired. So tired I couldn’t think straight when I made a left on 35^th street. Amy S. told me instructed me to look for a sign that said simply «Red» climb the stairs and get ready for booze. I was prepped, both mentally and physically.
When I found the sign, after some squinting and guessing it directed me up to a hallway that looked more like the entrance to a YMCA than a secret lounge in New York City. I opened the glass door and stepped into a sea of varying shades of (wait for it …) red.
That might have made the place sexy. Maybe even relaxing. But when I entered the lights were on full burn and the ambiance was nowhere to be found. I took a look at the bar: Modern, slick, vaugely European, cute bartender, cute waitress. The ingredients were there, but no one had put them together yet. If I made a suggestion, would it go over well?
I turned the corner and found Amy S. chilling in a lounge area chock full of red couches. I took my place, introduced myself to her drinking companion and searched out the whiskey menu.
It was elaborately put together, but the more prestigious bottle was a Glinlivit which didn’t really shock me, considering how unimaginative the rest of the place was. The waitress, cute as a kitten wrapped in pie, took my order. Jameson, neat. Also known as the drink of kings.
She brought back a shot of Jameson. No problem, we said. Just bring me one neat on the next round.
«Do you think this place would be more interesting if you felt like some dirty shit went on on these couches at night?»
«Maybe, but I doubt it would help much.»
«They’re pretty clean. So why are the walls so dirty.»
«Needs a paint job.»
«At least the waitress has a nice ass. She’s cute as a kitten, wrapped in pie.»
The lounge area looks out onto 35^th street. A street like any other. Store fronts that have been dipped in years of soot, rain and air conditioner drip. People walking around like they own the concrete. Red Bar & Lounge is just as unremarkable.