OK... now I'm pissed. Why on earth does a bar/grill in the center of a popular town like Princeton close on Saturdays for lunch?!!!!!!!!!!
The girls and I were looking forward to stopping at the Princeton Sports Bar and Grill for one of their burgers after visiting a college campus for Queenie. After our campus tour, we find a parking spot, and walk to the PSBG, Only to find out it doesn't open until 5PM? WTF!!!!!!!!!!
We walked down the street to the Triumph Brew Pub.... My new favorite hamburger joint in Princeton! I'll write my review for there later.
Bottom line... Great burgers, if they're open. Whenever we go back to Princeton, we won't be looking to go to the PSBG. One thing about critics... they can be fickle.
Pros: Good pizza, lots of TVs to watch a game, great location right off of Nassau Street in Princeton
Cons: Pretty much everything else.
The Princeton Sports Bar and Grill boasts good brick-ovan pizza, a plethora of TVs, over-crowded and stuffy weekend nights, and warm beer. Their prime location is what gets people in the door, but the high-priced, warm beer is what had me walking about. Don't get me wrong, I'm not expecting the finest micro-brews at The PSB, but I do expect at least a fresh keg and cold glasses for my five bucks.
If you're set on going to the Princeton Sports Bar, avoid weekend nights when the bar is packed to the brim, overcrowded, and dominated by below-average DJs. Stop by for a cheapish weekday dinner, meet up with a friend, have a beer, and watch the game.
This place is such a mess on the weekends. Â Pushy bouncers trying to get you to move out of the way....of what? Â The front door? Â Alright, well, I guess I'll just go stand on top of that table over there, or get my ears blown out by the terrible house music in the side room. Â In other words, the standing room here is poor if there's a large crowd. Â Plus, there is only one visible exit (I know there is an additional exit onto Tulane Street). Â Can someone say fire hazard? Â Not to mention the fact that there is NO CELL SERVICE and the owner has done nothing to even try and install a signal booster of some type.
Anyway, this place rivals The Ivy for being Princeton's top dive, but without the seedy charm. Â They have a decent schedule of drink specials, and their food is pretty standard bar food, but I wouldn't spend any more time in here than absolutely necessary.
OK I realize that Princeton students and grads are more comfortable sipping tea at a nice brunch than drinking beer and bloodies at a saloon...but for a cool sports bar on Nassau St. to be empty one hour before the 1pm kickoff when the Big Green are in town...well that's just sad. Â
Stopped in with the family before watching the Indians spank the Tigers today. Fish tacos were the highlight...lightly fried fish with tangy slaw and a spicy kick. Â Chicken fingers very good with a not so good honey mustard. Good pizza...if you're going to go thin crust (which you should) try to make the crust crunchier, not so chewy. That's just me...like I said the pizza was quite good. Â The chili was abyssmal. Flavorless sloppy Joe in a bowl. Â Good beer selection and the bloodies were a slight notch above average. Service was excellent.
I just wish there was a better college gameday ambiance. It takes all kinds...so Princeton can't do gameday ambiance....I'm sure Princeton folks can beat anyone in the fine skill of balancing a teacup on one's knee.
In need of a drink and good conversation after a hike, so we ended up here, when we found my first choice closed mid/late afternoon. The bar is located downstairs in a basement at the corner of Tulane and Nassau, directly across from the University. Great range of craft beers. Typical bar food with a range of tasty burgers (try the skinny burger which comes with Swiss cheese and avocado), appetizing wraps (both the buffalo chicken wrap and the chicken BLT wrap were good), and fries. Although far more casual, better execution on food preparation than either of the two restaurants that preceded the sports bar in this space (Sotto and The Annex). Originally, I hadn't planned to eat since I had a dinner date in a couple of hours, but the aroma was enticing, and we all ended up ordering food after we got our drinks. They do have veggie burgers. Beware! These are vegetarian, not vegan, and come with goat cheese. Vegans seem limited to drinks, salad without dressing, bruschetta, and fries.
Nice set up with widescreen TVs located all around the bar showing various sports (college football, baseball, NASCAR, soccer, etc.). At least one or two TV screens are visible regardless of where you sit. Given the number of TVs, this is probably your best option on game night in downtown Princeton.
Wait staff was friendly and service was quick. I'm sure our waitress wasn't thrilled about splitting the bill eight ways, but she did so without a fuss when we asked. Very impressive!
Late on weekend nights, the crowd tends to be barely legal, given the location, and they use bouncers to check ID. Greater range of customers during the day and earlier in the evening, when it's also less busy.
This place is a bit like a sore thumb compared to the rest of Princeton. The vibe is reminiscent of the good ol college days at Rutgers. It is definitely nicer LOOKING than the bars at RU but I was bit confused by the music...the dj was not very good despite it being a friday night. The unfortunate thing was that when I went on a Tuesday night, it took forever to get a drink even though it was relatively empty. Not sure if this was just a one off thing but I'll definitely go back and try it.
Bottomline: Okay ambience, prices were not too bad. If you dont want to pay the ridiculous cover at Triumph on a Friday/Saturday night, come to this place.
PSB is so much fun on Thursday nights. Â They have karaoke - don't bother thumbing through the binder for songs, write down what ever you want to sing and they'll play it. Â I'm pretty sure everyone singing was just as terrible as I was which is the point of karaoke, in my mind. Â Half of the bar was set up for the karaoke and the other half had tables to sit at. Â Noise level was pretty loud but you could still hear yourself think/chat with your group when you were on the table side. Â
Drinks were cheap, $10 or $15 credit card minimum means you'll be having quite a few $2 brews. Â
Absolutely no cell phone reception in the bar though, so make sure to "check in" before you go in.
Go a Friday night to get the Jersey experience. Nice option to get away from the street with reasonably priced drinks. Was difficult to get a drink at times and the place does get crazy packed/noisy but that's part of its charm. Also been a few times to watch an early afternoon soccer game when it isn't as crowded and did appreciate the bartender concocting PITCHERS of margaritas during a premiership game. Definitely check it out, not as stuffy as A&B or other options in the area.
Review Source:Went for a group lunch today, six people total. Skinny burger was excellent, but a bit overpriced.
The worst thing about this place is that service is slow and not very attentive. Waiting fifty minutes for a burger is not ideal. Other than that, fun place. I recommend it for happy hour!
Even though our CHILDREN are college-aged, we still loved the place. We did go at a very quiet time which worked for us. Great menu of the usual pub-type stuff and lots of good drink and food deals through the week. Â The place is decorated like a great local sports bar with lots of TVs and local jerseys hanging. Owner owns some other local places so he knows his clientele well.
Review Source:The skinny burger I had here was great (turkey burger, cheese, avacado, spread) and the service was good. They have a large menu, and tons of TV's for watching weekend sports.
There are plenty of fans from both Philly and NY, and other randoms as well. They'll play random teams on their TV's from outside the area, but you might have to convince them.
I never particularly liked Sotto, but there were some redeeming qualities about it. Elegant atmosphere, relaxing dining experience, and a couple of dishes that weren't so bad-- as long as someone else was paying. I went on my first date with my current partner so I had fond memories of the place and was a bit disappointed to hear it was becoming the Princeton Sports Bar and Grill, but when I heard it was meant to cater to a recession-aware crowd I was willing to give it a try.
As opposed to Sotto, I find nothing redeeming about this place. The food is just as overpriced as ever, except worse quality than Sotto. It's bar food at high end Italian restaurant prices. The drink specials are hardly "special" if you just discount an outrageously priced drink to normal for the neighborhood. The atmosphere is now also completely off, as most of the decor is the same, with some HD screens slapped in the corners in an attempt to make it a "sports bar". It's awkward and not a place I'd ever come to drink and watch any sporting game.
I really don't know how long this place will last because it's a hot mess. I understand rent prices must be high, but seriously, 11 dollars for a calamari appetizer that's basically the crap you buy frozen in a bag at the grocery store?
First off the service is horrible and the food is not far behind. My fiance and I are new to the area from Center City so we've been looking for a fun bar spot to watch the Phillies and other sports. We had a great view of the TV's but sat for about ten minutes before someone even came to greet us. Once we finally ordered our beers and food, we waited another 15 minutes for our drinks. Food came out and it was OK, nothing to write home about at all, and we felt like our waiter forgot about us one too many times. I decided to try one more time and order dessert, so I got the Tirimisu. After waiting 20 minutes (no joke), it came out hard as a rock. I asked the waiter to take it back and maybe defrost it a bit but he shook his head and left me with no option but to ask him to bring the check. Very disappointed. If we go back, it'll be for the atmosphere, and to watch sports and eat normal bar food, but definitely not when we're craving a decent dinner.
Review Source:one of the few places in princeton that actually reminds me of college bars with the specials. They have good oven baked pizzas that are made on the spot. Â Great apps here!!! they have fried mac and cheese, good onion rings, big salads, and burgers! They have karaoke on thursday and drink specials every day!
Review Source:Came here for a late dinner the other night. After descending down the stairs, couldn't even get through the door without the doorman demanding my ID. to eat? really? ok. got it out, then SO asked for a table for two and he said 'sit wherever you want'. errr. ok.
went to sit down and were given menus by one of the busboys instead one of the regular servers. Our server came over shortly after and introduced himself.
I put in a drink order with our server and got my beer fairly quickly. We then ordered, and  I opted for the skinny burger which was the turkey burger served with fries. SO got the plain pizza, which was to come with a salad. He also put in a drink order for the Harpoon IPA and our server left.
SO didn't get his beer until we got our food, which was pretty quick, but we saw his beer sitting on one of the bars shortly after our server put it in. The food was good, but SO never got his salad with his pizza, whatevs. My burger was fine, the fries were little cold, but everything was good, bar kind of food. SO's pizza was pretty good- I had heard that the people who own PSB&G also own the new artisnal pizza place in Kingston, so that made sense that the pizza is made in a wood-burning stove, etc. The pizza was made a few feet from us too and he got it fresh out of the oven.
The places seems to function more of a nightclub, but at ten pm the bar room area was dimly lit and starting to fill up with people looking to drink and dance (?) or sing loudly to the steady stream of 90s music (I must admit, the play list was nice. gin blossoms and blink 182? my youth!). The only problem was that the bar area was about 90% guys, kind of standing around in big groups, looking super awkward.
We used to go here when it was Sotto for drinks and their happy hour bar menu, so I'm a bit disappointed to what happened to the place or why the owners decided to change over Sotto to this weirdo pub bar kind of place.
THE Princeton Sports Bar and Grill offers nothing new to the imagination for sports fans. The setting of this damp idea is the failed business, Sotto, an Italian Restaurant buried under a back ally of Princeton's mid-town. The PSB&G (as they call it), is the same gimmick as it was two weeks before their "renovation". The happy hour specials are the same, the menu has been dumbed down, and the service is no longer the "elite" restaurant servers it once was. PSB&G's hook: cheap pints of beer. For the poor college student, this place may seem like Mecca, but for Joe Average this place is simply a low brow attempt on what a Sports Bar should be; this is no more than a poor attempt at cornering the last market in Princeton that hasn't been taken by name. For your time, and your money, you are better off enjoying the beer and food specials at Winberi's in Palmer Square, or The Ivy Inn just a few blocks north.
Review Source:This was my first time here. I came here for lunch on business. The establishment is downstairs in the basement. Upon entering, it has a nice decor with  tv's everywhere. The food is pretty good, i had a jadwin pizza. Most of their italian food is pretty good as they used to offer primarily italian food. Their rueben sandwich and bicker burger is also pretty good. Their food service is a tad slower than I was expecting but the waitress Nicole was very nice and prompt with our drinks and waiting on us.  I would definitely want to come back and try out more things on their menu. :)  I'm wondering if having wireless speakers on the tables would be feasible so customers can listen to whats being displayed on the tv screens all round the establishment....
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