The Pony Bar

Come here for beer! Definitely come here for the beer. And the atmosphere. And the people. And the bartenders.
Unfortunately I can’t say come here for the food. The gumbo was good but the oyster and bacon sandwich was unforgivable. I don’t know how they did it but they made oysters taste like liver… and I like liver…

Great bar!
So impressed with their beers!
I liked the relaxed atmosphere, very knowledgeable bartenders and great quality of beers.
The only remark I have: would really appreciate smaller pours or samplers. The big pours do not allow trying more than 2 – 3 beers.

Pretty cool bar with a local vibe and a huge variety of craft brews on tap. If you’d rather just have a Budweiser and watch a game, then I’m sorry this place is not for you. The place can get crowded, as you can expect from a good bar, so best to get here a bit earlier, especially on a Friday night.
The bartender was awesome and brought out the drinks out before we could even blink. Holy hell!

Let me preface by saying, I was fully aware of the fact that this place is more of a craft beer place before making my decision to get drinks with friends for a weekday night cap.
I’m not a beer drinker, but sometimes I’m willing to step out of my comfort zone and give a drink a try. Just to be on the safe side, I decided to start off with a drink I knew I’d like and enjoy then work my way into the beers.
We asked the bartender if he had a cocktail list to which he responded. «We’re a craft beer pub and we don’t offer a list. We have a limited selection of liquor». Fair. But considering this place is one of the few bars we could find in Manhattan that stays open past midnight during the week, we were expecting at least a cocktail list. We were all under the assumption that people who are silly enough to get drinks at 2AM on a Tuesday night don’t necessarily want a craft beer and may just want to do some shots or have a mixed drink.
Then we asked him if he could make us what seemed like 3 relatively common mixed drinks. An Alabama Slammer, a Hurricane, and a Royal Flush. Our bartender didn’t know what the first was, didn’t have ingredients for the second (all you need is rum, pineapple juice and grenadine) and didn’t know how to make or have ingredients for the 3^rd.
I wanted to leave at this point but given the fact that we had walked 7 blocks to get to the place we felt obligated to have at least one drink. I got a vodka cranberry. If the bartender had at least had a decent stock of alcohol available I would’ve tried some of the craft beers but I was so fed up we downed all our drinks and left.

Small, low key spot by Hells Kitchen with an extensive craft beer list and decent prices. Another thing I liked was their food menu; I didn’t order any grub but the number of items you can choose from was impressive for a bar. My expectations were low b/​c I was out on a Wednesday night and just wanted a drink. Glad I came here!

Nice draft list. Food was good too. I had the burger and a few beers. Pretty decent deal too. I guess in NY I take for granted the variety of beers we get at our bars. I made the commute out from Brooklyn, but I’ll prob kick it in Brooklyn next time to stay close to home. With that said if you are in the area, hit this nice place up. Good guys behind the bar.

Really cool place and such a great selection of craft beers from all over the country. I ordered a white beer and a cider and they were really great — my friend got a coffee milk stout and an IPA which were also awesome. It’s always really bustling; we arrived and barely found a place to sit but we found a spot pretty quickly and the bartenders are helpful.
The food is around $ 9 – 11 for either shared appetizers or sandwiches with a side of chips or cole slaw. I didn’t personally try any of these but they looked pretty good. Come for the beer — you won’t be disappointed!

The Pony Bar comes with great selection of craft beers. When I visited on a Sunday, most of the craft beers are from the East Coast (around the NY, PA, MA area) with the occasional California one in there. I love how there are a good number of them on tap because I have noticed that many places on the East Coast do not have the tap variety as I am used to, so kudos to The Pony Bar!
The beers come at around $ 6 a pint, so not a bad price for New York.
This place would be a great place to hang out on the weekend or for happy hour. I did not have any food, but the options seem to be solid.

Great for if you want to:
1) Try a wide selection of cross beer from across the country.
2) Unwind with friends or coworkers.
3) Feel like you’re in a homey lodge out in Colorado.

First of all their food is really pretty good. My friend and I shared the calamari in sweet chili sauce and it was delicious. I love traditional calamari with marinara sauce but this was so good I 100%recommend you try it! We also loved their tempura green beans. Delicious and cooked just right. No piece was mushy nor was there too much tempura on them to take away from the green bean flavor. Nice and crisp and extra good with horseradish sauce. Normally I hate horseradish, but here it was a great accompaniment.
The reason I’m giving this place three stars is I don’t like that they don’t have table service! This place is small which means there aren’t a lot of places to sit anyway, but my friend and I were able to share with some friends on the other end. Totally fine with that, but then my friend would go to the bar to place our order and be gone for a while. This place was pretty packed and I’m there to be with my friend, not sit alone while she tries to get the bar tenders attention.
Also my friend and I had been looking for somewhere to go for happy hour. We were exhausted after a long day at comic con and wanted some half price drinks. But this places’ happy hour is like 4 to 5! That’s awful. Who can enjoy that?

Bar is great! The only person taking orders is NOT!
She had a attitude — horrible.
Who ever owns this bar needs to hire friendlier help.
Thank you

Many choices of beer, but none of them seem to be any good. Visited with a large group (15+) and very few people enjoyed their beer.
Beer aside, the atmosphere is nice, but rather small.
One might enjoy this place, but not for me.

This bar has quickly become one of my favorite spots in Hells Kitchen. Just a short walk and you can get away from the midtown congestion.
A digital board behind the bar lists the great craft beers on tap and even some ciders which appeal to me a little more. Haven’t tried any of the food yet as this is usually just a meeting point for us all before dinner or other activities as its small and can get packed pretty tightly.
Definitely worth a stop when you’re in this part of town for a great beer at a reasonable price for NYC.

People you should take here:
1. Your Irish dad visiting from out of town
2. Beer lovers
3. A small group of friends looking to «grab a Beer» (standing)
4. When someone asks «where next? What’s around here?»
5. A first date where being tipsy is appropriate /​not offensive
6. A serious date when you order based on high alcohol content (shown on wall) And get halal food from the truck outside afterwards
7. A self organized beer club
8. When looking for a «straight bar» in Hell’s Kitchen
9. If you like craft beer and a big selection to choose from
10. If you don’t mind small spaces and standing

The Pony Bar isn’t a huge bar, but I haven’t encountered issues with seating. We’ve come here with small parties (4 – 5) as well as big parties (10 – 12) and found seats each time around 9PM. Unfortunately, I’m not a beer fan, but I do know that The Pony Bar is famous on the UES for its NYC craft beers. I do appreciate that there is always at least one cider on the menu. All drinks are $ 7; sizes vary.
It’s not super loud, which is good if you want to talk to friends. The restroom is downstairs, and there are two stalls in the lady’s room. We’ve become regulars because we live in the area, and I think we’ll keep coming back!
Definitely look into getting their beer passport if you will be a frequent visitor. 100 drinks gets you a Pony Bar tshirt!

I think 4.5 stars is about right. This place never fails to disappoint, though good luck finding a seat. I’ve been fairly successful on that front, but despite being so far out of the way, Pony Bar manages to stay quite busy most of the time. Speaks volumes for the establishment.
I’ve been here maybe four or five times and every experience is a bit different, due to what beers are on tap at any given time. This past time, I didn’t see much that suited my fancy — but after trying a couple, I quickly found that I just needed to broaden my horizons (2 clichces in one sentence… give me props for that one). This past trip, I tried a Farmhouse Ale that was unlike anything I had tried up to this point, and it was quite nice. More surprising was that I found a DIPA that I absolutely LOVED. Plugged that ish into my UnTappd immediately. If you happen to have read any of my other beer reviews, you’ll know I don’t typically like IPAs. Like I said, horizons have been broadened, thanks to Pony Bar. Another note about past reviews: you’ll find that I always opt for Belgian beer. They do NOT have that here — fairly certain Pony Bar only serves American beer. Not a bad thing, just stating the facts.
At both Pony Bar locations (I actually prefer the Yorkville location — not sure if it has opened back up yet), they display all beers currently on tap on a digital board, as to facilitate the whole rotating beer process (I assume). So not only does it make it more efficient for Pony Bar employees (a lot of craft beer places will either write the options up on a chalkboard or will just resort to having patrons look at a menu), it makes it far easier for customers to see the selection — especially in a dark place such as this one. I’m a big fan of the system and am somewhat surprised that a place like Cooper’s (also has two locations) doesn’t utilize this tactic. In any case, the name of each beer is displayed along with it’s place of origin, the type of beer, the ABV, and the glass size that the beer will be served in (either 14oz or 8oz). I wrote this about the other Pony Bar location as well, but again, this is a fantastic system to ensure that patrons are both informed about what they’re drinking and safe while they’re doing it. Good craft beer places will always offer different glass sizes — they prefer one to enjoy the beer as opposed to just get incredibly sh*tfaced.
Two straggling notes to finish this off:
–Bartenders are friendly, knowledgeable, just altogether awesome. I find this to be the case at a lot of craft beer places, but I’ve had a particular good experience at this bar. They’ll let you try whatever you’d like (up to an extent… I’ve never tried to abuse this privilege), and they’ll give you recommendations based on your taste. Good things!
–The space itself is smaller than the Yorkville Pony Bar, which is unfortunate because seats come at a premium. The premium being your time, I suppose. But if you wait around long enough, chances are something will open up. While this place is popular, it being on 10^th ave certainly deters some folks from visiting — so it never gets insane.

The Pony Bar used to be one of my favorite bars in the entire city. Amazing craft beer selection, awesome bar food, friendly staff, cool spot, etc. I guess like any long term relationship the excitement wore off over time. It started when they opened the location on the East side. Then they changed their menu board from a cool printed one, to a TV screen. Then they increased their prices from $ 5 to $ 6 to $ 7. We used to keep track of all the beers we drank on pieces of paper kept in the bar, and then they got an app. I think Pony Bar got too popular too fast. Now I don’t really see what makes Pony Bar so special. Sure it’s still got a great beer selection and delicious bar food, but now it’s like just about any other craft beer bar in the city with comparable prices.
Don’t get me wrong, Pony Bar is still a great place. It’s just don’t get those happy tingly feelings anymore when thinking about drinking there.

What a great bar this is to just come in and relax. I am sure there are plenty of fine establishments in this ginormous city of all cities, but none like this. Lets see this is probably one of the best thing to come out of Hells Kitchen, besides DareDevil and maybe Gordon Ramsay.
What makes The Pony Bar stand out from the rest is their dedication to that fine craft. The are big time supporters of the hometown breweries, nothing imported from Europe where they have some amazing heavy hitters.
Hey if you’re looking for something of a German or Belgium influence go somewhere else in Manhattan. I do enjoy European style crafts, so lets not get that twisted. Strictly American influences breweries on tap with a constant rotation of 20 plus crafts, but from what I’ve seen it was all NYC baby.
The Pony Bar does themes where they concentrate on certain parts of this fine region. The time I was in there it was all NY breweries ! I have no issues with this being all NY seeing it is not expensive for a pint
You just read that correctly, a tavern in Manhattan that has some very reasonable prices for some quality crafts on tap. It did bring a tear to my eyes my friends, or maybe it was an allergy, but what ever it was, it is pretty friggin sweet deal.
They also have some descent liquor selections if you’re not into the whole «lets kick this keg» mode. The décor is pretty cool with huge barrels in the middle of the floor acting somewhat like high tables. I haven’t had an opportunity to try their food, so I can’t comment on that. I will say this from what I did see, the food did look great.
This is pretty much an amazing bar with great drafts on tap. Is it a tourist trap? Probably, but its a damn good one if you ask me. I know I’ll be back even if I did give a little «Go Birds baby!» saying as I was exiting.

If you’re down for some craft beer, The Pony Bar is worth checking out. The establishment is square-​shaped, with approximately a dozen stools at the bar on one side and several low tables along the other side of the bar. The middle has a couple high tables to stand at however open enough where most of the crowd gathers. It’s a great place to grab a drink and a small bite, but don’t expect to lounge around here. All ordering is done at the bar, so if you grab a table, someone will have to go to the bar to put in the food orders and get the drinks. Rest at ease, as the food is brought out by the busboys to your table. Beyond cleaning the table, there is no table service so don’t make the mistake of sitting at the table and waiting for a waiter to come by.
Their draft beers rotate to keep things fresh and lively. On my visit, all beers were from Maine. To check out what beers are currently on tap, you can visit their website:
. All beers are $ 7, however take note that the higher the % ABV, the smaller the size of the pour. The lower the % ABV, the larger size of the pour. All of that is explained on their LCD screens that list the current beers on tap, along with the % ABV and size pours. Hard liquor is also available for those few friends that don’t like beer.
Their food is also pretty good, ranging from small bites ($ 4 to $ 11) to sandwiches ($ 10 to $ 11). I tried their Fried Oyster and Bacon Sandwich ($ 11.00) which includes lettuce and spicy tartar sauce on a toasted Pullman bread. Simplicity is what makes this sandwich so darn scrumptious. The fried oyster was perfectly fried to crispness on the outside and extra tender on the inside. No signs of overdoneness nor greasiness. It’s well seasoned and packs some flavor from their spicy tartar sauce accentuated with some salty and crunchy bacon. Yum! Served on the side is an abundance of chips, so much so, that my jaw started getting tired from so much chewing.
All in all, The Pony Bar is a pretty cool place to check out. Craft beer prices are reasonable as well as their sandwiches. A few other Unilocalers commented that there is a happy hour, however all beers were still $ 7 on a Thursday evening around 6 PM. I believe their happy hour with discounts on their beer is actually earlier (4:20 PM — 5:20 PM).

Love this place. Come all the time as my buddy lives down the street. Great beers on tap ALWAYS. Like really great beers. Sometimes rare beers top.
Good service every time I come. Have to admit I’ve never had a full meal but from the snacks I’ve had everythings good. Great atmosphere and crowd. Cool people that live in the area. Decent place to watch sports.
If you get a chance try their house made potato chips with malt vinegar.
If your looking for a quieter experience and some gourmet food go next door to Kiabaca which is a stone hearth pizza place owned by the same guy. Equally as good beer. Totally different setting.