The Lionheart has its good qualities, pool tables, darts and an excellent beer selection, which is why you should go to Lionheart. Â One can find a quality amount of beers on tap, especially from some smaller breweries and some craft brews as well. Â On the flip side, it can be a rather crowded environment, especially on a weekend, which knocks down the rating for me. Â My suggestion, pick an offpeak time to come to Lionheart and you'll enjoy yourself, but avoid the bar on a Friday night or Saturday night.
Review Source:When I first came to Lionheart, I must have been drunk, because I was very surprised and pleased to find a bar with such good beer selection on Lark. However, on many more sober trips, I could feel myself slipping from my original 4 star feelings. How could this have happened?
Pros (While the lights were out)
+ Look at all those pretty taps!
+ Non-hipster girls on Lark?!
+ Patio!
+ Mmm, popcorn...
Cons (Turn the lights back off!)
- This beer seems expensive...
- Who are all this sororiety and frat kids...
- Fight! Â Duck! Â Watch the beer fool!
- This bathroom seems small and incredibly dirty.
- I'd play pool or darts, but I can't get anywhere near the tables
- What's that burning smell, is that the patio?
With the burnout on frats and expensive drinks, it's just not as fun as it was. Â It's a shame too, since before the crush of people, Lionheart was a cool place. It's just too popular for it's own good. Â Yogi Bera may have put it best, 'nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded'
Dart leagues, free popcorn, Â back bar with not 1 but 2 billiard tables, front outside patio, amazing selection of microbrews and the best happy hour beer special in Albany.
Lionheart Pub is a 5 star drinking establishment that is only hurt when the chill vibe remarkably changes for the worse to a boisterous college bar come Thursday night. Â Not that I complained about this when I was in college; sharing a smoke in the outside alleyway and getting phone numbers or making out with scantily clad female patrons.
Those days are all but over. However, outside of the student weekend binge drinking that takes place here, Lionheart is a very enjoyable and warm place. Â All anxiety and/or stress from work is immediately lifted as a sip a hoppy Dogfish Head 90 minute IPA.
The bartender, during weekday happy hour, is the best in Albany, recommending great beers to sample and cautioning you when you are asking for another Southern Tier "Pumking" ale.
Bartender: Â "I guarantee you are going to have to stumble home. That pint is 9% alcohol and you just had 3. And after that abysmal showing you just had on the dart board, it could all but help your cricket game."
No worries, I have the complimentary popcorn to soak it all up.
Me: "Fill her up again please!"
Bartender: "You bet"
The Lionheart was my initiation into Albany nightlife on my first week in this little city. I met up with a friend and we sat out on the patio, which though it had been raining out, was still quite nice. $4 beers? Sure, why not. $4 for pretty good craft beers? Even better.
It was still relatively low key at around 8 on a Saturday night, although that changed in a couple of hours. A couple of our other friends joined us later on, and we had some fun playing darts (for a $5 deposit). All in all, I ended up having four pretty solid beers. And I spent less than an Andrew Jackson. Not bad! By the time we left, the place was pretty full - full of people and merriment. I could see this bar being a cozy place to go for a drink later on in the winter, although we'll have to see if it ends up being 'just another college joint.'
The staff here are horribly rude, and it's packed with college frat boy idiots. The beer selection is great, but it's not worth it to torture yourself.
Three of my friends and I were recently here early-ish on a Saturday night, and were kicked out. Let's review our infractions, shall we?
1. Asking for Ketel One instead of their regular vodka.
2. Requesting the drink that we had already paid for (the bartender denied ever taking my friend's $20).
How terrible of us, right? I mean, obviously we were being horribly unreasonable. According to the bartenders, that is.
They need to get some new staff, and quickly.
Been here plenty of times. It was nice in the beginning but as the
agony of spending a few saturday nights here progressed, so did the
immaturity of the crowd. The bartenders are nothing but hooligans
lacking manners in such a way even petri dish minutiae aren't
capable of displaying. I will not be treated poorly by low-class slim jim
carnivores who think it righteous to do so merely because they have
sardine-can-sized crowds swarming the place.
If "good times" after a hard day of work means being surrounded by
groups of people who act as though they've been force-fed remnants
of a superfund site, then please reclaim your prize at any point on
the red carpet of vomit that awaits you in the vicinity of Madison Ave.
Crowded front bar area on a Saturday night. Â Head to the back for some breathing room. Â A pretty drunk and rowdy crowd. Â Seemed like the after-party spot for a lot of college folk. Â I felt old here...and I don't think I'm all that old yet. Â The bartenders were friendly enough and not too hard to reach if you didn't mind bumping your way to the front of the bar. Â I'm not sure "Blues Cafe" the right name for this place...maybe just "bar" would be more fitting.
Review Source:While the cider here was excessively drinkable, and the popcorn excessively free and abundant, and the Captain Morgan's girls wearing excessively short skirts giving out free shots, there was something missing.
Not many places to sit, but maybe that's the way these bars are supposed to be. A few pool tables and some darts are clearly obligatory, but...but....
This place is too popular, filled with the excessively preppy frat crowd. By the time we left, the front portion was so crowded, we could barely get out. Someone poured beer all over my friend's sweater. And the floor was nast. The bathrooms also proved problematico. Exceptionally small, with saloon-style foldy doors. Two stalls, but no standing room for waiters. Not a good sitch to find yourself in.
I'm sure I will find my way back here sometime, though. We had fun desipite the crowd and stuff....
My observation:
Lark Tavern is where the fun, 25+ crowd goes
Lionheart Pub is where the drunk, 22 and under crowd goes
Filled with frat boys and scantily clad "ladies", this pub is a college drinking hole with the decoration of a classy drinking bar. The bartenders adore themselves; case in point--when my boyfriend asked if they had Blue Light, the bartender snorts out "we don't serve any *%$#ing Canadian *&%$!!" I threw a "get over yourself" tip his way at the end of the night by paying only for my beer and walking over to Lark.
Stick around long enough, though, and someone in the back is willing to let you get first dips at the popcorn, or will play you in darts or pool. And you can let THEM handle the bartenders when you get your winner's drink.
I wish I could give this 3.5 stars. Â I can't give it 4, as this place turns into something I kind of hate after 10pm on Fridays and Saturdays. Â It's not much better after 10pm on Thursdays, but at least on those evenings the meat market is mostly graduate and/or law students, as opposed to undergrads.
For happy hour, however, it's one of my favorites. Â If they served food, it would be even better (popcorn alone simply doesn't cut it on most evenings). Â You know, however, that you're a regular when the bartender cards your friend, but won't look at you're ID - "Oh, I know YOU'RE okay, you're in here all the time!" - at that point, it had been some time since I had been in for a pint.
I like that Tuesdays feature $2 pints (as opposed to $3), which makes for a nice midweek happy hour, if we're feeling up to it. Â And, with summer fast approaching, I imagine we will. Â I note, too - summers are quiet and lazy at this pub, which makes it all the better.
I have a love-hate relationship with the Lionheart.
I hate it on a Saturday night when it's filled with obnoxious college students and it feels like a total meat market.
However, on a lazy Sunday afternoon when the weather's warm, the Lionheart is my favorite place to sit outside on the patio with the dog after a few hours in the dog park. The bartenders are really nice guys and they always offer water for the dogs that stop by with their owners.
It's also great to come here after work (and after the dog park) for happy hour, which features great specials. Â That's pretty astounding. The bartenders know me by my order - and some by name - at this point and it's come to a point where sometimes I don't even have to order before they have my regular poured for me. Â Now that's the kind of service I like.
I'm allergic to beer (tell me about it) but like to at least feel like I'm drinking a pint by drinking hard cider. Lionheart has hard cicer on tap, which makes me really happy.
I wish the place still had music and open mikes though like it used to when it was over where Bombers now is. And it could definitely use a little updating. The free popcorn is an appreciated, perk.
Yeah, about this place. So I've only really been on weekend nights, especially during the holiday come back to Albany season, and its quite the horrid sight yet I was there solely to see old friends, which is always a good time.
couple things: There are too many golf/company-logo polos and pleated khakis here from the over 30 crowd. Throw in a few town racists and desperate local girls seeking a better night away from Jillian's and that whole debacle of a strip, its lots of drinking with smoking in the alleyway, pool in the back, and just not a lot of overall intelligence. Across the street is a much better place to have a drink, the Lark Tavern. Oh there's a gas station next door. Not that that matters.
The beer selection at the Lionheart is reason enough to stop in for a pint. Â With 32 drafts, a number of bottles and a fully stocked bar, this is a great happy hour location. Â The bartenders are attentive, friendly and helpful and free popcorn is an added bonus. Â The bar is a great hangout location, boasting 2 jukeboxes, dart boards and 2 pool tables in the big back room. Â My main complaint with the Lionheart is always that the music seems to be too loud, especially on the weekends and during happy hour. Â It can also get pretty crowded inside, during peak bar-going times.
Review Source:i love this place during the week. they have a great jukebox and the bartenders are friendly and definitely treat the regular customers well. the friday night crowd has changed significantly and is now a pretty annoying mix of younger kids who are all dressed up alike and just want to get drunk. the beer selection is great and the bartenders are also great at suggesting new beers to try from their extensive collection based on what you already know you like. i say- hit it up on a tuesday for a beer with friends, or for happy hour when the weather is nice and you can sit outside and people watch.
Review Source:The listing for "Lionheart Blues Cafe" is a puzzle to me. Â Because in truth, the Lionheart Blues Cafe is the Lionheart Pub located at 448 Madison Avenue and it's anything but a "Blues Cafe". Â While not the worst bar in the world, you can't help but be overcome by the powerful urinal cake aroma and stale beer stench wafting through the bar. Â It does offer a pretty wide variety of beers and they aren't too expensive, but a lot of the bar staff leaves much to be desired in the friendly service department and the layout makes it a bit crowded at times. Â All in all not a terrible place, but if you aren't dead set on it, go to Lark Tavern or Bombers instead.
Review Source:A classy bar with some great blues to be heard. In the afterwork hours, this place is populated with working professional types, mostly older or middle age. A civilized, sophisticated spot for a drink and live music. Excellent location; I loved getting an outside table and being right across from the park!
Review Source:
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