Nitehawk Cinema — Attraction in New York

I had a great time coming here and will outline my experience using a pros and cons list.

PROS Good selection of food and drinks to order while eating, not just small snacks. Food tasted great. No complains about my beef burger or the tater tots or the french fries. They were really good. The burger even comes with a pickle spear. Tickets are reasonably priced and food is priced similarly to what you might find at a dine-in restaurant. Ordering is easy and not disruptive to the movie. You simply write what you want to order down on a provided piece of paper and pen, and then insert it into a holding slot on the table and the server walks through the aisle and picks it up. No talking involved. A lot of legroom (I want to say roughly 4-5 feet, but I didn't exactly bring a measuring tape). There is a very dim light underneath the table so that you can read the menu after the movie has started which is a very neat addition, but I've found that the light is still too dim and it's better to just use your phone flashlight set on its LOWEST brightness. Maybe that's just me though

CONS Very small tables that you have to share with your seatmate. You can't see what's on your table after the lights are off, like AT ALL. You just have to feel around your plate for a french fry and constantly be wary that you don't knock over your drink or something. I only managed to take a very poor quality picture of my plate using a long exposure on my camera and not moving at all for 6 seconds. No cup holder armrest. This is the easiest, most logical addition they could make to the theaters. As it is now, they give (what appears to be real) glasses of drinks which can easily fall and make a mess given the limited table room. I think this is one of those times where a paper cup with a lid and straw makes perfect sense. They can even get the cup holder portions 3D-printed and attached to fit their existing chairs if it helps save them money. Seats do not recline. In my opinion, this is another missed opportunity. For a theater that has way less seats than a typical movie theater AND ample leg room, not having seats that recline (at least slightly) is sad to see. I'm imagining it has something to do with the existing tables or something, but I'm sure they could work something out. The restrooms could be better maintained/cleaned. They weren't too bad, but not great either. Huge bonus for having paper to wipe your hands and not only the Dyson Airblade. Also, for anyone wondering, as far as I could tell, there was 1 restroom upstairs and 2 restrooms at the ground level.

Overall, I still had a great experience here and I would...

I live on 14th St on the same block and was so excited when this theater finally reopened. The upstairs bar inside is nice with friendly bartenders. The wait staff inside the theater was a mix. We got there 20 minutes before the movie was set to start and were using our phone flashlights to look at the menus. We were told by two separate waiters to not use our flashlights, that there was light underneath the table to use instead. Okay, the light under the table is barely anything, and the previews for coming attractions hadn't even started yet. We weren't shining the flashlights all over the place, we were shining them towards our laps where the menus sat so we could quickly place our food orders before the movie started. It was really just annoying, I understand if someone was shining their flashlight around during the movie but that is not what was happening here. I agree with other reviewers that the popcorn is too greasy. I've had both options and do enjoy butter popcorn but it made me feel sick.

One other thing that has been REALLY bothering me about this location, ya'll need to do a WAY better job at keeping the sidewalks around the theater clean. Like I said, I live on this block, on the same side as the theater and every time I walk under the scaffolding it smells like vomit. There is a toxic sludge puddle on the corner of the sidewalk where the garbage company picks up Nitehawk's garbage. Not to mention the amount of litter around the theater most of the time. It is so disgusting, when the toxic sludge puddle that is there 90% of the time is dried out, it's still disgusting, still smells like hot vomit, AND it's slippery. I've seen many people walk onto that corner and slip. But mainly, it's disgusting and smells awful, I literally don't breathe through my nose when I walk around Nitehawk because it smells so vile outside. Be a good neighbor and clean your sidewalks and that street corner every day. Clean the garbage...

Update: increasing from 2 to 4 stars since Nitehawk contacted everyone who was at the showing informing us of an issue with the projector, with some free tickets for a future showing. Thanks Nitehawk!

I am sad to write this, since I think Nitehawk is charming in a lot of ways. Food and viewing experiences tonight were subpar. Service was good.

After choking down a hardly edible panini during Poor Things earlier this year, this time around we ate dinner before arriving at the theater and planned to only get a snack. We ordered the truffle popcorn. It was absolutely saturated with oil. I felt like I needed to wash my hands having only eaten a single piece in my first bite. My husband and I both have real “finish every bite” baggage from childhood, so we ate most of it. The walk home was… unpleasant. When we got home, he had to run - not walk - to the bathroom.

It was also incredible how dim the screen was. There were scenes where I didn’t realize there was another character on the screen until they had a line. Any scenes not set in broad daylight, I could often not tell when characters’ mouths were moving and sometimes couldn’t even make out facial features. I read online that the movie (Conclave) was supposed to be visually dark as an artistic choice, but it seems insane that this could have been intentional.

For example, there is a scene where about 10 seconds after the scene begins, one character remarks that he didn’t know the pope had turtles. I was paying close attention and the screen was so poorly lit that I had no idea whatsoever that there were turtles on the screen. See attached photo for a screenshot I found online of this scene.

I hope these things can be corrected, I like Nitehawk and would come more often if I had a...