Turtle Bay

I wish I was able to experience this bar more. My boyfriend was so excited to take me here cause it’s one of his favorite bars in the city but it was SO crowded you couldn’t even move. We finally got upstairs and made it half way to the back dance floor and decided to turn around leave because there was no way for us to even get a drink because there were so many people. It looked like a fun place and I hope to come back and have a better experience.

Came here for Santacon and this place sure was packed!
I always hear good things about Turtle Bay from all my friends, so it was about time I checked it out.
By the time I got here, this place was pretty crowded and everyone was having a good time. Being that I was worn out from all the drinking and walking that day, I did not enjoy this place as much as I thought I would.
Anyway, this place had really cheap drinks and great music. TB is also very spacious and it has 3 sections– I was surprised by this, lol. Every section was turnt which made it hard for me to decide where to stay at, lol (that’s a good thing).
One of my favorite things about TB was the vibe– it was a very «college» vibe which only meant everyone there was only trying to have fun.
I definitely look forward to coming here again and updating my review on this place!

This place is hip and cool, but it could be a tad crowded, even by the entrance of the place. That’s suppose to be the point? Well not to the extent where I have to worry about someone bumping the drink out of my hand, or trying to maneuver past the sea of people on the 2^nd floor to get to the other side. Keep in mind on certain nights there is a cover charge, they do have a cool turtle (lol not live turtle) right before steeping into the dance area… great for pictures and catching a breather. Other than that, + good vibes, song selection, bartenders ;), –cover charge, overly crowded, bouncers can be a tad aggressive.

Love this place, 2 floors and good music. The prices aren’t that expensive for a bar in the city and they have a bunch of happy hours you can sign up for. The crowd is also cool it’s very college, I have a great time every time I go definitely one of my favorite bars.

I SHOULDN’T EVEN GIVE ONE STAR. SUCH A BAD BAR. Took my drivers license away from me. I had to go to the police station PRECINCT to get my ACTUAL drivers license back!!! Bouncers are very rude and totally disrespectful! I DO NOT recommend for anyone! Complete garbage!!!

College hang out place. Decent place to go and get cheap drinks and food, though nothing I would recommend a tourist or someone visiting to check out. You can sign up to get their text messages and they will send a text out about once a week to once every two weeks.
Nothing really sticks out to recommend or make notes of. Literally good for cheap drinks and/​or food, and call it a day.

Love!
Only been once and I want to go back. Friendly staff, friendly party-​goers, just friendly.
DJ was awesome, he played all the right tunes at the right time.
Prices for happy hour were great also, can’t complain not one bit about this spot.
Definitely going back.

I realize in the grand scheme of life this review will mean nothing, but seriously the people working were such assholes I just can’t not leave a review.
I mean we’re prob too old for this place, we used to come back in the day (22ish) when we’d win a free happy hour every other week, but I prob haven’t been here in like 6 years.
I was with a bachelorette party, we’d just gone to lips and we’re looking for someplace to go in the area and we jokingly said let’s try turtle bay, but we wound up actually going. I had pregamed earlier in the night at a hotel and had brought a corkscrew and totally forgot it was in my bag. So they searched my bag, found it and took it. Ok props for safety, but when I asked if I could get it back when I left they were assholes and said no. I mean I didn’t understand why I couldn’t get it back. And they were assholes about it. Ok, I go in cause I’m not gonna leave over a corkscrew, but it left a bad taste in my mouth. We go to the second floor and get some beers because you can’t do turtle bay sober at all. Then it’s not too bad. Pretty decent music, but the people there are super trashy. I don’t want to sound too judgement, but they were, sorry. They apparently close down around 3. Who knew, I thought this was NYC where places close at 4. (Just noticed it says closes at 4 here on Unilocal) They did a last call, which I assumed was for drinks but apparently it was for the bathroom too. They was a bathroom upstairs and we tried to go before we left and the guy said it was closed but we could go downstairs. Ok fine, easier than going up anyway, but we get downstairs and they tell us we can’t go to the bathroom. Like seriously we just spent money drinking here and we can’t use the bathroom before going home. Someone who I assume was a manager or something told us they were counting money and they can’t let people in that area. Seriously? Wait till everyone leaves and then count your money. My friends were going to fidi, and they couldn’t use the bathroom. Then everyone working their proceeded to be assholes. One person wasn’t and I wish I knew his name cause he apologize for everyone, but I mean this place sucks. I honestly can’t see myself ever going back here. Like I said I’m sure my review means not much, but just know this place is terrible, go anywhere else.

The service is awesome :) But their alcohol is water down. Not worth the «happy hour» price special… But if you’re getting the appetizers at 50% off, then no biggie, its cool to hang.
I only gave a low rating for their low rated drinks I had last night.

Wanted to grab a drink after work with a colleague and somehow ended up at this dump. At 6:30 o’clock on a Friday, there were 3 (!) bouncers standing guard outside. That should have been a warning sign. We approached the door and were told we needed to walk around to the empty roped off line area. One bouncer carded us, and then the next bouncer asked me to unbutton my peacoat. Yet another warning sign. He proceeded to give me the MOST ABSURD frisking of my life. I really couldn’t believe it. I think he felt up literally every inch of my body. It was DISGUSTING. Anyway, the groping turned out to be pointless anyway, because it only took about 30 seconds inside to realize we wouldn’t be staying. This place is a joke.
EDIT: I’ve found out the reason for the excessive security. Someone was STABBED here last week. There are literally a million bars in a 1 block radius of this place. Make good decisions, people. Don’t come here.

Really packed during events and your typical bar. There is not much too much to say but to tell of how the place is. Typical pub with drinks and people going crazy with music. The Dj’s that have been there are great and know what to play and get the night going.
Dislike: The tab for card has to be $ 50. Never heard of such a thing ever. Kind of messy and the staff does not keep up with the mess.
The security is active and on guard but really rude. Been to other places where the security has more courtesy.
Other than that cheap drinks and okay place to go just a big mess.

I’ve probably been to Turtle 20+ times at this point. It’s a pretty typical college/​young professional scene with cheap drinks and specials nearly every day or night of the week.
3 floors: the top floor is for people who think they’re in a VIP section, are using the bathroom, or don’t feel like being squeezed into the second floor; the second floor is always packed with people dancing or playing drinking games, usually with EDM, hip hop, or top 40 music; the bottom floor scene always changes — sometimes it’s young professionals drinking dollar beers on Wednesdays, other times its a bachelorette party, and sometimes its even a turtle dancing on the wall seats, who knows.
I’ve never seen Turtle less than crowded Wednesday-​Saturday. I will say that it has been my go-​to St. Patrick’s Day bar for the last few years, and that is always a great time.

I love tis place, society in Wednesday happy hour the it’s almost until 1 in the morning, only 1 $ beer 50¢for a wing 50¢ for a baby Borger.
We go usually a group of friends, and we drink so much, and eat a lot and the bill it’s a joke, it’s amazing the have a place like tis in the area.

If you’re after somewhere to have a cheap drink in the city, this is the place.
From the font, it looks like a hole in the wall, but it opens out in the back and is actually quite big. There are plenty of tvs, so your game will be sure to be showing. Atmosphere it’s a dive, and has a really young crowd. But that adds to its charm.
But, what is does have is extremely cheap drinks. There are specials every night, from $ 3 buds on Tuesday to $ 20 all you can drink on Sundays. Worth checking out!

So many mixed reviews. Your experience here really depends of the day.
I would surely recommend Wednesdays, if you don’t mind bad light beer and just want to have a good time.
There’ll be a cover charge of $ 5, which is not bad because beer is just $ 1.
Yup, I’m serious $ 1 and shots of Jägermeister are $ 5.
The bite sized sliders are $ 1, and smaller than your average slider of course.
The wings are $ 0.50 with a minimum order of 10 wings.
.
So come on wednesdays if you like to chill, and don’t mind the randos drinking piss water in a suit.
There are beer pong tables on the second floor, which is good.
The music is a mix top 40s and 90s old school songs, which is cool by drunk me.
They give away a lot of open bar promotions. There’s always a lady walking around asking you and your friends to sign up. The open bar is for you (on a thurs, I think), and your friends get half off drinks. It is said that if you bring 10+ friends, you’ll get a bottle a champagne which I am yet to see.
As the friend that went there for half off drinks it wasn’t worth it. Shots are not included and mix drinks are $ 4. Jäger bombs also not included in the offer.
It is easier to get your drink at the bar upstairs. The ladies at the bar downstairs don’t seem to care that much, even if you have been standing there for a while.
Overall, a fun place to come on a Wednesday because you will get drunk for sure. Don’t let your drunk self leave before taking a selfie on the turtle that they have upstairs.

Before you decide to come here ask yourself, what kind of experience am I looking for?
If you want classy and amazing food, this is not the place.
If you want cheap happy hour and a young crowd, then proceed.
I used to come here a lot in my early-​mid 20s and I always had blast and always woke up the next day with a hangover lol. With that said, I cannot see myself coming here on a regular basis (grandma status lol).
I recently went there for a happy hour and this is my review:
Ambience: Very post-​college vibe; most people are in the early-​mid 20s. We even encountered a guy who was 20 years old and got in with a fake ID. The crowd is pretty racially diverse.
Service: Bartenders on the first floor bar were super friendly, Denis was amazing. Bathrooms need a makeover and like others mention, there is no need for a bathroom attendant. All they do is take up space. I really think they are just there to be on the look-​out for overly drunk people puking in the bathroom.
Food: We did have the Buffalo wings and artichoke spinach dip. The wings were ehh; the dip wasn’t bad. But again, do not go there for a culinary experience.
Drinks: For $ 5 you can get the Half-​off happy hour special. Check their IG because sometimes they have deals to wave the $ 5 fee. The drinks are usually $ 8 – 12 so you could be paying $ 4 – 6 per drink during the happy hour (6−9pm); not a bad deal at all.
Music: They play mostly top 40 with some 90s music here and there. At one point they had some of the female bartenders get on top of the bar to do a little dance, it was cute and I am sure the guys enjoyed it.
This is one of those bars that you should go at least once just for the heck of it… With that said, if you are over 35 you might be asking yourself, why am I here? lol

«Should’ve checked their Unilocal rating» is what I told myself when I left. I know better than to wander in and «see what it’s like». Since when am I that spontaneous?
I digress.
My sad turkey burger was soo bland, lackluster, lame, boring. It def wasn’t made fresh and I doubt it was real turkey meat. The bartender was super nice but the drinks were watered down.
Boooo.

If someone could please explain to me why there is a bathroom attendant at this «party bar,» I would really appreciate it. The only reason anyone would need them to hand over a paper towel is because they are standing in the way of the paper towel dispenser. They are always just on the phone and the bathrooms are way too small to have someone standing/​sitting on the phone in there that isn’t actually using the bathroom. Not pleasant when they bark at you to shut the door behind you as well.
Other than that, this is literally just a party bar. The happy hour deals are great. Worth it for that I guess!

This is the first bad review I’ll give and I’ll tell you why. This kind of bar can be found at any college bar location. The only advantage this bar has is the open bar deal… which is very deceiving in itself.
Let me just explain my experience.
At 10 oclock, where I thought I was late, I purchased the «top shelf» open bar for a friend’s bday. We were the first ones there so we ce in and on the top shelf weakness was there… McCallans 12… but… BUT… top shelf is actually all the bottles on the bottom shelf… so I had jack and coke all night… not even jameson.
The first floor was good. The staff was friendly even when they knew I had open bar and was tipping them only one to two dollar per drink.
The second floor was fun I the beginning when it wasn’t crowded. We were dancing having fun until it got very busy. Then it got very crowded. Oh by the way the coat check on the second floor is very cute and cool.
It was fun until it got very crowded. Also when I went to the bathroom, the doorman was very friendly but every time I wanted to take a second o the third floor to take a pic of the dancefloor… a bouncer would flash his flashlight at me to move… I didn’t even get a chance to take a pic… I didn’t want to be kicked out… yeah so that sucked. The only cool pic I got that night was with the turtle.
I honestly had a good time. But I always have a good time. My friends did not. Honestly if I had to compare it to a bar, it would be like black bear in hoboken. Don’t get me wrong though, I love black bear in hoboken but this is a nyc bar that is in an area where it does not belong.
But still I would come back. Hopefully the experience in general would be better. Did I mention that a mascot of Michaelangelo comes out… that’s actually pretty awesome.

I can’t believe it has come to this point, but I have actually reached the low point of reviewing Turtle Bay. I used to come here when I was in college and would have a blast dancing upstairs on the sticky, dirty, sardine-​packed dance floor, dancing on the bar, taking shots from little chemistry tube things… not much has changed since then.
Downstairs is a regular bar/​restaurant and upstairs is the dancing and more drinking. I’ll admit, the music playlist is great but other than that… not so much. They even stop serving food before 11pm! Um HELLO, drunkies love fries. Serve-​em!
In all seriousness though, my most recent visit was for a fundraiser for a friend of mine offering half-​price drinks, so it’s pretty cool they offer packages like that. Yes, they’re really accommodating (except to maybe the person craving fries at 1am), and the bartenders are friendly, but it’s packed with such a sloppy college crowd that perhaps I don’t understand the scene anymore. Getting old over here…