Kin

The food here is a bit plain, but the goal is the activities. The curtains around the table tennis tables will occasionally leak out balls. Otherwise, the tables are well maintained. The billard tables / shuffle board are decently well used. There's an arcade hidden in the back with card games by the front desk

+1

Vattsa Mehta

Lots of stuff to do and something for everyone. Even on a weeknight you can expect a cover. $5 on weeknight or $10 on weekend. The jazz band is really cool, very low key and chill vibes. Great place to hang and pass time in the area.

Rylan Gordon

This is a cool, low-key jazz spot. The band was great! Including a trumpeter that sings, love that. Go on a weeknight so that the cover charge is $5 instead of $10 on weekends. They have tons of games, but they unfortunately cost $8 per person per hour. Kind of a bummer. Overall, really hip jazz bar. Definitely recommend!

julia safrin

Super cool atmosphere with live jazz, pool tables, shuffle board, and ping pong. Feels like an upgraded dive bar. They were only serving beer and wine when I went, I’m not sure if that’s the way it usually is. The bouncer was also a weirdo which put me off but didn’t dampen my overall experience, it does however make me hesitant to go again.

Jules C.

This is one of the few places in New York where you can enjoy live jazz at affordable prices. The venue is legendary (formerly Fat Cat) and offers plenty of games — pool, board games, and more — to go along with the music. The bands are good, not the very best in New York but quite decent considering the low cover charge. On weekdays, admission is around $5, and on weekends we paid $10 each. The only real downside is the staff — rude, to say the least. I understand they might be used to dealing with young crowds and heavy drinkers, but we were treated poorly both times we went to the bar. They also tend to push the most expensive beer if you’re not specific with your order. I asked for a lager and ended up with one twice the price of their house beer. Overall, it often felt like we weren’t welcome there, and at one point, the lady behind the bar even yelled at me when I politely asked for a replacement drink.

Eric

Came here for a surprise pop up show for MGK. He performed some of his songs and the sound quality was great! But this place was definitely not set up for this type of venue. It was very crowded and tight spaced. Drinks spilt all over the floor, and not really organized at all. Staff and security was very present so that did make it feel more safe. It seems like a chill spot, just not equipped for that type of show

Andrew Kushnirov

Bouncer high as a kite. Best description is “crowded basement of mouth-breathers”. Charged entry fee because of live jazz music, yet they drowned it out by also blasting different music from speakers. As a result, loud so everyone screaming over each other. Go to Game Room for quarters. Long line for ping pong, good luck.

+14

Gabriel Amorim

I'm a tourist in New York, I visited Cellar Dog on a friend's recommendation, but I won't be going back and I don't recommend that any tourist or immigrant visit the place. English is not my first language (nor my second, nor my third), I speak it very poorly (I'm using a translator to write this), but despite that, I understand a lot. A Black man with glasses at the door, when it was my turn, said something ending in "problem," I asked him back "problem?", and he said quite seriously and angrily, staring at me, "ARE YOU DUMB?", I just told him I didn't speak English and ignored him - And he kept staring at me in a horrible way until I paid the entrance fee and left. Is this seriously the kind of treatment an employee gives to a paying customer who is paying and going to consume at the establishment? If you don't know how to treat people well when working with the public, then don't work in customer service. If I could give zero stars, I would.

tricia

The incompetent bouncer was pressing my friend and I about our IDs. When we showed our IDs (we’re both 23), he asked for a second form of ID after glancing at the IDs we just gave him. I told him I didn’t have a second form of ID and asked what was wrong with my ID but he couldn’t give an answer. My friend gave his second form of ID but he kept saying it wasn’t him on the ID (like what, who is that then??) and even asked him for a passport. I asked him if he can scan our IDs or something to verify bc how can he prove our IDs are fake. Again, no answer. Mind you, we already played pool for an hour and were sitting down in the front row to watch the jazz band perform when he came up to us. He finally left us alone but I was obviously upset and he had the audacity to come back to us talking about "why I was making a face" like who wouldn't make a face after the situation you put us in. Bro was rage baiting sooo hard so he can kick us out but it didn't work. ALSO the pool tables are sooo DIRTY. Even if the situation with the bouncer hadn’t occurred, we’re never coming back to this raggedy place again. FYI: I’ve noticed there are several bad reviews about this bouncer. I understand this place is close to NYU hence why they probably get a lot of fakes but why would you inconvenience paying customers instead of investing in some kind of method to actually verify IDs, like HELLO it’s 2026.

Natalie Neshama

(i know the owner is gonna get big mad and bully me in the replies for this one lol) my two friends and i came here after getting dinner just to listen to jazz and vibe. i guess this place is close to where a lot of NYU students are because the bouncer thought that my and my one friend’s IDs were fake. he started doing that thing that bouncers do where they ask you what’s on your ID to see if you’ll screw it up. he wasn’t very nice about it, it’s like bro was itching and scratching to not let us in. dude absolutely destroyed the mood. unfortunately, the bouncer’s tone started making my friend really nervous. he hadn’t ever had his ID questioned before and he hadn’t yet updated it (he had just moved), so when asked for his address, he didn’t give the one that was on the license. the bouncer said it was wrong, then kept rolling his eyes, laughing at him, and began repeating “don’t be scared, don’t be scared” to my friend who was... clearly scared. he then asked my friend for a secondary form of identification which, like... what? the only thing he had on him was his old student ID, which expired like two years ago lol. this finally got the bouncer off of him, thankfully. post-lambasting my friend, the bouncer started asking me the same questions, but my ID is up to date so i answered all of his questions without a hitch. he rolled his eyes and then asked me for another ID, as well. maybe i’m the odd one out here, but who carries a secondary form of ID on them? i also have an enhanced license, which i’m pretty sure is a federal crime to fake, as it is basically a passport. i ended up just showing him my driver’s insurance card, that’s the closest thing i had. at that point, he FINALLY let us in. after all that struggle, the place kinda... sucked. was not even worth the $5 cover. the bartender was rude and the bar barely had any alcohol (at 10 PM on a thursday night with a bunch of college students inside?). it was dark and dingy and NOT in a quirky way. i don’t need a place to be fancy or anything, this was just gross. another friend and i got their “pride” drink which was just pineapple juice and soju. that’s it. the drink was not mixed well, to say the least. the only good part of this place was that they had a phenomenal jazz band playing... but with all the hassling, next time i will go anywhere else. new york city has so much more to offer — skip this one.