This is a really fun place--a solid neighborhood place for a good drink.  The atmosphere is nice and the place itself is pretty clean during less busy times.  If you're interested in how clean the bathrooms are, check out my blog: <a href="/redir?url=http%3A%2F%2Fbestbathroomsnys.wordpress.com%2F&s=0cf5ae0f267af2c0ff81be8cb1b0a97a53cb9ee2824e20baf61ce6e657d620bb" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://bestbathroomsnys.…</a>  (I rate bathrooms in the New York State area on their cleanliness!!!)
Review Source:Food is consistently decent, if not good, for bar food, which is what keeps me coming back.. However, the last couple times I've visited, I've wondered why I didn't remember how terrible the service usually is.. Â The wings are always good: the sauce is thick and the hot is really pretty hot, I've opted for the more comfortable mild ever since getting the hot once. Â The buffalo burger is a delicious mess to eat, with your choice of wing sauce and blue cheese. Â You can sub onion rings for fries for no extra cost, which I like. Â I've had some pretty tasty pizza there too. Â
So, last visit there were a handful of people at the bar and maybe one or two other small groups eating at tables. Â Sat down, had to ask for menus. Â Ordered drinks, said we'd like a minute to look for food. Â Decided on pizza and some mozz sticks and garlic parm chicken tenders. Â Placed order. Â Five minutes later, "waiter" comes out and says pizza oven is down. Â Isn't this the kind of thing they would know/should have told me before I ordered? I would have liked to go somewhere else for pizza had I known this. Â So all three of us decide to order burgers. Â Forty minutes later the burgers come out. Â One is missing the cheese that had been ordered and is over-cooked. Â Send it back, annoyed and have forgotten about the appetizers. Â Burger returns with cheese on it, and appetizers are brought out at the same time. Â So the appetizers really would have been brought out after the entrees. Â After 40+ minutes. Â Come on. Â The garlic parm tenders were pretty awesome but really didn't make up for how annoyed I was.
Used to love this place when I lived on delaware ave...years ago. Â Now...not so much. The staff seemed nice enough and the wings were good if not just above average for the area.
But my wife and I were so out of place as customers we couldn't wait to leave. Very young, thug-like individuals with a nasty attitude about our presence there. Sorry but I wear my pants around my waist...thats why its called a waistband...everyone else had the "pants hanging off the ass look" ..
Sorry , won't be going back. Ever
I followed the advice of fellow yelpers and ordered 12 medium wings. Â I thought the wings were average at best and the sauce was just poured on with no sense of true cooking. Â The bar had a nice selection of draft beer and the service and personality of the bartenders (Steve and an attractive girl in training) saved the rating. Â It is clearly a local bar and filled with all locals. Â At first I thought it would be a little too shady off of the beaten path but it turned out to be a solid choice since my hotel was across the street. Â Would I go back, eh. Â It was convenient. Â Food service stopped around midnight on a Monday.
Review Source:As far as the bar food goes, this place has pretty good bar food. The quesadillas here are bettter than any Mexican restaurant in Albany. The burgers and sandwiches are pretty good too.
This bar has bands some nights and trivia on Thrusday. It's a good neighborhood bar to go to but sometimes it can get sketch and the location is not that great so just keep that in mind.
Top tier wings, on par with the best of anything I've ever had. First we started with garlic parmesan wings. Mainly because I rarely see it, and I WANTED it. They were pretty awesome. Later, we got hot wings. They were at an optimal heat for me. A thick sauce. Hot but not too hot. There is a killer option too - that probably has some respectable heat.
Best potato skins. They strangely cut them in half lengthwise, with a depth of about 1/4" on the sides, then drench them in butter and bake them. A layer of bacon gets stuffed in and then a good amount of cheese is put in there to fill the potato. My favorite potato skin.
Bartenders are extremely friendly. This dude was like 6'4 and jacked. Superhero jacked. My friends girlfriend was mystified by how we stared at this guy's muscles. We all thought he was as sweet as anything, so whatever.
Lots of room. They have foosball, pool, and electronic darts (ehhh, I prefer realism). Went on Saturday night and it surprisingly, thankfully did not have the college crowd. There weren't many people at all.
I found everything I hoped for here in my trip to Albany. The food is great and I would go here every day if my heart let me. The sandwiches are rumored to be tremendous as well. Next time.
By the way, the name "Elbo Room" --- That is a play on words that just spins my mind. Kudos.
Is it a dive bar? A neighborhood bar? Well, I guess it's both. And it manages to attract a far more diverse crowd than most area bars.
The boy and I went here last week because there were just two bars in Albany showing the latest UFC action and Jillian's was posting a ten dollar cover. Oh, also we could walk here.
It's dirty, it's a little stinky but there's no cover and the head bartender is a hunky bald-headed guy. We spent an amusing time here watching this one very drunk and creepy man attempt to "mack it" to a tranny and a blonde woman at the same time. Seriously, the dude kept switching back and forth. Incidentally, his attempt to "mack it" consisted primarily of  singing along to whatever hit song was on the juke box and giving the lyrics his own personalized spin by singing them directly to whichever "lady" he was courting at that moment. As the night went on, he went from adding dramatic hand gestures to what was very nearly full-on interpretative choreography. In short, this guy was pretty much my hero for the night. And when he increased his wannabe harem to include two more ladies sitting at the bar, well, I was just even more impressed.
I was here back in July for an Unofficial Yelp Event (UYE), the second Albany Wing Crawl with a small group of Albany Yelpers. The Elbo Room was the first stop of our wing crawl. We ordered some Hot Wings and Honey BBQ Wings (I chose them because I don't care for hot wings and I want to enjoy the flavors). The wings came with carrot & celery sticks and bleu cheese dip. The wings however didn't have much meat on them, but the outside of the wings were crispy and coated with ample sauce.
I enjoyed the flavors of the BBQ wings. The hot wings were pretty hot and didn't burn my mouth. The nice BIG bartender checked up on us offering us reorders on drinks and extra napkins. I got my needed refill on Diet Coke to wash down the aftertaste of the wings. Overall, The Elbo Room is a decent bar for wings and drinks with its own off-street parking lot.
Respectfully, I submit the name of this establishment is actually, "Elbo Room". Â
Officially, Elbo was the first stop on the first and second unofficial yelp wing crawl. Â And of the hot wings that I tried (Elbo, Hill Street, Fountain & Graney's) these were the best. Â
Granted, we tried the "insanity" or "absurdly hot" or "steroid" or whatever level of hot was hotter than hot. Â But the sauce had a great combination of flavor and heat. Â It was thick enough to really coat the wings well, without being too gloppy. Â And as a result of ordering the wings crispy, we were treated to a serious crust on each wing. Â
Good show.
Granted, with the extra crisp coating, the interior of the wing suffered slightly, and wasn't as juicy as some of the other wings we sampled that day. Â
Some in the group complained about skimpy wings.
1) They are WINGS! Â Not BREASTS or chicken strips. Â Wings aren't about meatiness in my book, they are about skin and fat and butter sauce. Â But we can agree to disagree on this.
2) Mine seemed perfectly fine, and at the risk of not getting invited back to a third wing crawl, perhaps I picked the meatiest wings?
Please note. Â My glowing review has nothing to do with the hulking bartender (who was really very nice, if a bit intimidating) threatening violence in response to a second place review.
I am very much looking forward to going back and trying just the regular hot wings. Â Not that the insane wings were too hot, mind you, but I'm curious if it's the same basic sauce with less heat, or a whole different animal.
Maybe before the next bout of yelp trivia at Susie's.
you know, this place always surprises me. we wanted a quick snack before trivia last night and this was close and fell under the 'providers of quick snacks' category. Â robert and i shared a dozen hot wings that were yummy and messy and rox had a wrap that she seemed to enjoy (i was a bit too busy with my wings to completely notice.)
the bartender was Super friendly and was great about the perfect martini's (which she made quite well being that they were her first.) rox laughed at us for ordering such drinks at a place such as this. but they were good and the service excellent.
the crowd is always a mix. old timers at the bar, young laughing people at booths, a few old 80's rock star wannabees and some tough looking characters. once i saw a hair band play here even. it was hysterical to watch people bang their heads to music at the elbow room.
oh, and it is nice and close by with a large parking lot (i know. seems like bars simply shouldn't encourage the whole driving thing.)
Under previous ownership, this place wasn't so much fun... You'd walk in and immediately feel you'd entered a confrontational environment, but you'd stay because the Buffalo wings were the best in the immediate area, rivaled only by Hill Street's.
With the new owners, you feel much more welcome, there's a lot less turnover of staff (always a good barometer of a bar's health) and most importantly, the Buffalo wings are still good, along with the rest of the standard pub menu. There's darts, a pool table, an ATM, a very cozy fireplace, and dozens of flat screen TVs. I've even seen a couple of them tuned into C-Span, which I'd consider pretty good for a place that's half sports bar.
My only complaint, and it's one applicable to the vast majority of local businesses in this area, is that there's a haphazardness and inattentiveness to the decor working to the detriment of the place. I guess a lack of style could be thought of as its own anti-esthetic, though.
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