Restaurant Review: Lillie’s Victorian Establishment (Union Square, NYC)

Official site: http://unionsquare.lilliesnyc.com/

Unless I’m going to a bar that has little to no food, I generally judge a place by the food it serves. Unfortunately for Lillie’s, that is how I judged this place.

The first thing your notice here is the interior. It’s pretty awesome and definitely promotes good vibes. The drinks were fine, just had some beers.

The food was just okay. I mean I wasn’t hungry afterwards, but I wouldn’t eat it again for fun. We both ordered Lillie’s burgers. The pickles were insanely tart.

Score: 3.6/10 Good place to drink. Food was just all right. It’s just average bar food. Don’t come here expecting to eat anything awesome.

Restaurant (or Bar) Review: Pegu Club (Houston St., NYC)

Official site: http://www.peguclub.com/flash/

(above site has a really loud flash video play)

Pegu Club is a really comfortable, classy bar on Houston street. I came with a group and all the drinks on the menu. Everything was really good and drink range from around $15 and up. Waitress was really nice.

Score: 7/10 Great place to bring coworkers or a date. It’s a great place to bring anybody actually.

Restaurant Review: Ninth Ward (East Village, NYC)

I’ve been to the Ninth Ward a few times now and it’s a great place to drink.

They have all your standard bar food like fries and burgers. There are some Cajun things like gumbo and Po boys. There’s also poutine, which I don’t see on menus too often. I’ve had the poutine and burger. They were all right.

Drink menu is also short. They have a few specialty cocktails, which are just your average cocktails with some slight twist. It’s not fancy, but it does the job.

Most important is the atmosphere. It’s a fun place with a friendly crowd. There are tables in the back, booths in the middle, and some tables out front if you feel like sitting outside. All pretty comfortable.

Additionally, they do take reservations.

Score: 6/10 Fine place to get a drink and some bar food.

Official site: http://www.ninthwardnyc.com/

Restaurant Review: Tanner Smith’s (55th Street, NYC)

Tanner Smith’s is a relatively new bar that opened this year. I came here for drinks after work.

First is the appearance. It’s a nice looking bar and I really like the classical look.

Like many bars, they have a variety of “special drinks,” which are really just your average drinks with their slightly different twist on them. Had some beers; they have all your standard brands. Also tried the Winona. It’s their twist on the old fashioned and I really liked it. It came in a bottle and there was some instruction on how to drink it. I just emptied the bottle into the iced glass. It had a smoky taste which differentiated it from other old fashioned’s I’ve had before.

Other people ordered dirty martinis and the Mayor Gaynor’s Tippler (their version of a Manhattan). I was told they were both good.

We ordered a lot of food; the Thai deviled eggs on curried toast, house prepared beef jerky, the everything pretzel, the buffalo chicken spring rolls, the chicken wings (Asian sesame sauce), some beef burgers, tacos pequenos and a flat bread pizza.

Everything was really good. The Thai deviled eggs were really small. Tacos were ordinary. The chicken wings with asian sesame sauce were amazing and came with a cucumber salad. Burgers and pizza were fine.

I don’t know if it was because they were new, but the service wasn’t fantastic. People were nice, they just weren’t that reliable.

Score: 7.5/10 Really like this place. It’s got a nice vibe and the people coming here were fun. Drinks were great and I really liked my Winona. Chicken wings were also great. I heard that the Sriracha Honey flavored wings were also good. Looking forward to coming here again.

Official site: http://www.tannersmiths.com/

Resturant Review: McGee’s Restaurant & Pub (55th St., NYC)

McGee’s is the bar that inspired the bar in the show How I Met Your Mother. Came here for drinks after work.

Beer… is beer. Not much to say about that. Someone ordered a martini. They said it was all right.

We ordered some food; the popcorn shrimp, McGee’s Zesty Wings, the pulled pork sandwich, and the shepherd’s pie. It was all less than mediocre. It was barely decent bar food.

I will say that the interior is nice. Surprisingly roomy and with a nice comfortable feeling.

The service was fine.

Score: 5.0/10 I don’t recommend coming here. It’s mainly a bar for tourists who watched How I Met Your Mother. The food was meh. The setting was surprisingly quiet. Maybe come here just to hang out.

Official site: http://mcgeespubny.com/