The Narrows — Restaurant in New York

really didn’t want to write this, but… what an unpleasant experience.

Came here with a friend on a Wednesday night. The bar was completely empty—not a single person sitting there except us. You’d think in a quiet setting like that, the service would be at least decent. Nope.

The bartender clearly wasn’t in the mood to be there. He looked either extremely tired or just mad at the world. Not a smile, not a greeting, no “hey, what can I get you?”—just a very cold, unwelcoming vibe from the start. We ordered a couple of appetizers and cocktails, finished our drinks, and were sitting there waiting to catch his attention. Mind you, the bar is EMPTY. He kept passing by us like we were invisible.

Eventually I had to ask for another round. Again—no warmth, no energy, just dead eyes and attitude. We got another appetizer, finished the drinks again… and yet again, had to wait forever for him to notice we were done. Like, what else is he doing? Polishing his resentment?

When I asked for the check, he casually dropped, “Oh, it’s cash only.” No heads-up beforehand, nothing. So we scraped together whatever cash we had—enough to cover the bill and leave whatever small tip we could. We weren’t being stingy, we literally just didn’t have more on us. We were there for barely an hour and asked for the bare minimum.

And THEN—this man actually brings the change, watches us get ready to leave, and suddenly finds his voice to count the cash out loud in front of us and go, “Is this it?” Like… excuse me?

We were honestly stunned. He saw exactly how we paid and that we gave everything we had left. His passive-aggressive attitude was totally uncalled for. It left such a bitter taste after what should’ve been a chill midweek drink. Comparing this night to the other time I came here—wow, what a difference. That night was fun and full of good vibes. This? Zero energy, zero hospitality.

It’s frustrating that there’s no contact info for the manager, because this definitely deserved to be addressed. But hey—unless I come back on a Wednesday just to relive this mess and confront the bartender (kidding… mostly), I’m never spending another dollar here.

Do better. Empty bars don’t give you an excuse for empty service… P.S. still willing to address my concerns to the manager, because I want to enjoy the service at the bar where I was planning to...

Long time customer here—never encountered such a rude bartender in my decade of frequenting.

I was with a group of 6 friends, we had about $225 worth of drinks that we were ordering at the bar and busing to our table ourselves. When I paid the bill I left a 15% tip but the bartender felt the need to call me out publicly for undertipping in front of other customers.

It was embarrassing and had to explain I felt 15% was plenty fair granted we did everything ourselves save for making the actual drinks. He pushed back and complained and made it an overall uncomfortable experience that was totally unjustified and unprofessional.

Also notably this place is cash only and I took out the amount of money from the ATM that included a fair tip so I don’t understand what he was expecting me to do beyond the scene he was making.

This is generally such a chill and friendly establishment so was really thrown off by this bartender. Fortunately, there are many other places nearby to get the...

There's a back room tucked away with a floor-to-ceiling world map. Which makes The Narrows the perfect place to play a giant game of RISK, on the wall. But no, really, we are eyeing to come back to that big back room for drinks with a large group. It's one long table with benches on either side so it could also work for speed dating.

We did not sit at this long table, but at one of the many cozy booths, which are perfectly sized for 1.5 people per side.

Wonderful classic cocktails--like the off-menu De La Louisiane, and a champagne+bitters cocktail which tasted like smoky sweet gingerbread. All cocktails were $9-11.

Booth service was a little slow (we were sitting for 30 minutes before getting out drinks and water...) but we chose this over sitting at the bar for our particular night so we were okay with the privacy. The place started to heat up around 10pm Thursday night--every booth and the bar was full, but we were still able to converse comfortably.

Really...