by JulieJuli A. on Julia This is a rateclubs for the overall restaurant/bar/lounge/rooftop. It's an all in one spot. What's good about this place is that you can have a late dinner and then head up to the roof top lounge. Just make sure you time it right because the rooftop is not open until midnight. Once you get up there, the crowd is predominantly asian and the bridge and tunnel crowd. But you know, i don't mind and there are nights that I truly enjoy myself and nights that I'm bored to death. SO really, hit or miss for me but def worth a try. There's a bar area up front and the scene is not bad, drinks are decent but it'll cost you like any spot in nyc. The door policy in effect on weekends and it's not too strict. I've been able to get in past the bouncer as a dude no problem. Of course i look right and don't wear sneaks and a cap or anything... Now to the all important feature... Food. First thing is that i enjoy the main room better than the garden. Try to get a booth is it's a party of 2 to a party of 6. The garden has flimsy seats and tables that are way too small to fit the dishes that I'm going to order. But on a nice sunny day for brunch, the garden is the better choice. My must have for this place is the chorizo and mussels in broth. Get extra bread and dip away. This is their one great dish. All other items on the menu pales in comparison. Mushroom fries are ok (just weird to have them so fried), bruschetta is ok, calamari is ok, crab cakes are ok... To me, all the apps are just ok except the chorizo and mussels.... Dinner is usually the steak frites which are ok (actually below average as i ordered it medium and it was not even pink and pretty dry). I've had the salmon before and it's ok. They serve pizzas which are ok. i don't recommend the mushroom burger as it was soggy the last time i had it. The place is def setup nice and I appreciate that especially if you want to hang around as a group or as a couple after dinner. The service hasn't always been the best for me here. the bus boys are excellent, but the waiters always seem too busy.
by Leila T. on Crash Mansion is hott. --Paris Hilton As in sweltering. I saw Old 97's here last week and the bands were fun and I enjoyed the layout of the place. BUT... either the owners are opposed in concept to air conditioning (understandable, I prefer natural air flow when possible) or it was on the fritz during our very own LA heatwave because there was no AC and it was well over 80 degrees inside the venue when we showed up at 8. The temperature indoors continued to increase from there as more and more people filtered in. The smoking patio is indeed large, as we discovered after the sun set when we wandered outside in an attempt to avoid heat stroke. I loved standing upstairs on the balcony looking at the great view of downtown and noticed a number of seating areas downstairs for those who aren't that interested in listening to whatever show is playing indoors. I'm also docking a star because I called to find out when Old 97's would start up and the guy on the phone told me a bogus time. No, they did not play at 8:45. Try 10:15. That is not an acceptable way to make sure there are people around for the opening acts. I'll be back, I'm sure. But I will wait until the temperatures dip below 90 again.
by Velma Batel on Before I went to Suite 181, I read the reviews on Rateclub first. The reviews were terrible, but I choose to see what Suite 181 had to offer. Rewind last year in October I was supposed to have my party here after I had dinner and that didn't work according to plan. We had reservations for VIP and the whole nine. Once we got up to the front of the line, the security was acting very rude. We told him to get the person whom we made the reservations with and they refused, so I left and went elsewhere. They called me the next day saying that they were going to charge my card for $300 for cancellation fees. In the end my card didn't get charged and everyone was happy, but trying to get them to realize that they were at fault wasn't easy. That's one incident. Fast forward to the night when I decided to give them another try and this was about two weeks ago. We placed ourselves on the guest list, expecting to get in for free. NOT!!! They closed it while we were in line and charged us $20 per person. We got inside and we stood at the bar waiting to get our drinks for like 20-30 minutes. The bartenders were working hard, but there were only like two of them and like twenty of us waiting to get our drinks. I ordered a "Tokyo Tea", which consists of rum,vodka, gin, tequila, triple sec, and midori (melon liqueur). One taste and I wanted to start dancing. I went downstairs to dance to a little r&b/rap. I got downstairs and realized that you can't be doing hella much with a drink in one hand, therefore I tried to down it. I was standing with my friends and we were dancing by the door in front of the fan until some drunk ass dude came and took my drink out my hand and began to drink it in front of me. I starting laughing and said, "You can have it. I don't want that back." He was just going around stealing girls drinks getting his drink on. I didn't let that bother me. Two of the girl servers walked up just in time to sell me some shots. They were $3 and they were alright. It was a fruity shot. Well I guess it's time for me to dance now. I moved into the middle of the floor with my friends and we began to show them what we were working with. We just wanted to dance and not have some sweaty ass guy all over us. I know that's why you go to the club, but it was a girl's night out sort to speak. We were dancing and after an hour and a half, my feet starting to hurt from dropping it low too much. I wanted to sit down, but downstairs there aren't any chairs and the chairs that are there are VIP only. I was like damn!!!! I went back upstairs and tried to sit down. I found a rail by the bar and sat on it. Once my feet were feeling better I went back downstairs and danced for another hour and a half. Afterwards I left and while I was outside two lesbians got into a fight. At that point I knew I had better get to my car. Overall the music being played downstairs was cool. The Tokyo Tea was good until I got it stolen right out of my hand. There's really nowhere to sit, so be prepared to stand up for long periods of time unless you pay to sit in the VIP area and pop bottles (2 bottle minimum). The bathrooms were hella crowded. I just went in there to wash my hand. While in there I seen that they had a latin girl that dispenses the soap(bath and body works brand) into the palm of your hand. I wasn't too impressed with that. She didn't look happy and I don't blame her. Those girls in the bathroom were horrible. Their floors were so nasty. They were sticky with beer and everything you could imagine. DON'T TAKE MY WORD FOR IT, GO OUT AND SEE IT FOR YOURSELF.
