Shangri-La

Oh Shangri-​La … you are one of my favorites for sure! You really are a perfect bar in every way. I love your location … it’s a quick getaway from dirty 6^th. Your bartenders are awesome and always make a good drink. I love the new addition of the frozen drinks. As a girl with fancy tastes I am totally into that! You also have one of the best patios in all of Austin. Plenty of tables and trees about to keep you shaded. You also throw the best parties! Remember the Halloween pumpkin smashing thing — a total blast! I always end up at your sxsw parties too! So in conclusion y’all got a good thing going here and I will continue to partake in your booze and activities! Thanks for being great!

Shangri-​La is one of the best bars on the east side hands down. They have a really amazing outdoor sitting area. On a Friday or Saturday night, you’ll never find that place empty. They used to have an East Side King in the back, but that location closed awhile ago. However, if you walk across the street to Waller and 6^th st, there is a food truck mecca. The bartenders are always attentive and incredibly nice. This is a great place to grab a drink with friends and chill.

Great beer, great atmosphere, fun employees, overall, a great experience. I went there on my last visit to Austin with my mates. I had Eastciders all night, and great conversations with a bartender about the Golden Girls! Loved it!

This is the «go to» spot amongst my friends and I. Their outdoor patio is humongous, and inside has several tables and seating options. There’s two pool tables, and I love all the guys that work here. They’re all super friendly and do their jobs well. It’s just a chill, comfortable spot to be at. Drinks are a fair price, and while I can’t deny it’s becoming more and more popular and known (do I say mainstream?) to the newcomers of Austin, I still love coming out to Shangs any night of the week.

Bartenders are slow and snobbish, if they deign to recognize you at all. Seriously, even by Austin standards, these bartenders are hipster douchebags.

I’m never coming back to this place and neither should you.
The bar was pretty full, but I was able to get a spot at the bar to order a drink for myself and my friend. They were pretty busy, so I patiently waited. After some eye contact with the bartender, I assumed I was next, but that never happened. I would make eye contact with the bartenders and I was passed up for the person next to me. Didn’t matter if they just walked up. After about 10 – 15 minutes of waiting I gave up and had my friend try to order. He got our drinks in about 5 minutes.
I’m not sure what it is about me, but I don’t know why I would go back to a bar where I can’t get served.

Cool outdoor seating area and decent selection of cocktails and beer, not too expensive. Don’t recommend the Shangri-​Lada though… tasted a bit like sizzurp.

This place is really cool. Sort of a dive, but cozy, and a great place to stop in when you’re barhopping around 6^th. It’s affordable and bar service is good, and their back patio area is so fun. I really just love this place.

Finally found my perfect divey bar in Austin. Great people, tunes and beverages. Indoor /​outdoor area is very relaxed and prepared with seating and fans for hot nights. Pool tables, even a photo booth if you’re feelin’ fancy! Cheers.

To preface this review, I used to kind of enjoy this place. I’m just choosing to not go back after my most recent experience.
I walked up to the bar and handed the bartender my card to start a tab. The bartender told my girlfriend and I that they’d hold the card for open tabs, we agreed and got our drinks. About 30 minutes later, I walked up to get some more drinks. I told the bartender my last name, and half started to walk away. The bartender that had served us was not there any longer, and the 2 remaining bartenders said they didn’t have my card or a tab with my name on it.
They looked through all of the kept cards at the bar, and checked the computer for any charges under my name. After a couple minutes of looking, the bartender suggested that I was in the wrong bar… and I had used my card at a neighboring bar for drinks. At this point I’m a little bit irritated, but not a big deal… surely someone knows what’s going on. They sent me to the outside bar, the outside bartender (who was not the man who took my card originally) said it was silly of them to send me out there.
I went back to the inside bar to speak with the people there again. After pulling up my bank statement and proving that there was a charge on my card, the bartender explained how charges generally don’t show up that quickly. That’s fine and I’d believe that… IF I WEREN’T LOOKING AT MY BANK STATEMENT. I asked my girlfriend to collaborate my story at this point, because it seemed like the staff didn’t believe me. After about 15 minutes of standing at the bar, the bartender slammed a card holder down with my card in it. He explained to me closed out tabs have their cards left in a holder.
I calmly explained to the staff that I had agreed to keep the tab open, and did not walk my tab. The bartender ended up giving us a few drinks on the house for our trouble, that is the only thing saving this review from a 1 star rating.
I will not go back here again, there are PLENTY of other bars on east 6^th street.
TL;DR — I went to get a 2^nd round of drinks for friends on an open tab, spent 30 minutes trying to find my credit card that the staff had lost.

Shangri-​La is a fantastic divey-​ish bar on E. 6^th, with a good selection of liquor from top to bottom shelf, beers of every caliber, and reasonable prices. The bartenders have always been attentive, and the door guys are friendly given all the shit they put up with.
**Seriously, I have almost never been when there wasn’t a shitfaced couple trying to slur their way in, yet the stoic stewards are never afraid to deny entry. Just keep your mouth shut and try to walk straight.
The jukebox has a good selection of punk which makes me really happy, and they have pool tables that you can usually get on without much trouble.
Pros:
— Fantastic backyard, lots of picnic tables where you can easily make new friends
— Cocktails are on point
— Prices are what you’d expect them to be
— Friendly staff
Cons:
— Pool tables/​cues are kind of shitty, but I’m also real snobby about pool tables.
— Bathroom lines can get real backed up (this only impacts the people who don’t want to, most understandably, use the porta-​potties sp?).
Hell yeah, Shangri-​La.

Much like my last review of Side Bar here too I haven’t been too in about two years. It was my birthday tonight so yea why not bar hop around on a Monday night Bubba! Yea this is sorta a hipster bar and it’s funny to make fun of them but they’re also much better to be around then what hangs around other bars. Everyone here is just here to enjoy cheap drinks with good friends so it’s zen I guess. Bartenders are great, and knowledgeable. I once stole a stuffed monkey off the wall for someone I dated. The back area is huge and relaxing for those cold winter nights and even more amazing on those hot Texas summer nights. Oh and the door guys have always been pleasant here! I think they have trivia nights here too for you trivia freaks. Shang’s is awesome!

Did a whirlwind tour of Austin (East Austin, SoCo, Rainey, 6^th Street)…and this tops my list for fave dive bar. Cheap drinks and winter drink specials (warmed me up after an unseasonably-​cold winter walk). Thumbs up for the bartender who gave me one on the house because they were changing out the special — I am not accustomed to that where I’m from!

This was the 2^nd stop for drinks on East 6^th St on 2÷6÷15. I liked that the drinks were cheap. They weren’t super busy so we were able to sit right at the bar and were served right away. The inside was divey, but the bartenders were friendly. There was a jukebox, but it didn’t have anything that interested me or my friends. Only had one drink here before moving on to the next stop.

Dimly lit artsy dive bar with no offensive odor and a pretty cool back patio. They have a pool table, some video games a photo booth and a jukebox with some jams. I appreciate being able to talk beer with the bartenders and not be rushed or shooed away. as far as beer goes they had some pretty good options available. This place works great for large groups but there are also smaller intimate seating/​tables available. heads up on the patio! mind the steps and also for colder/​warmer weather you just have to decide if you can tough it out or not. either way its a pretty good spot to check out.

Shangri-​La has cleaned up its backyard over the past few years, unfortunately this included the loss of an East Side King food truck. The interior is still pretty divey and the bathrooms are certainly included in that descriptor. The last time I went there wasn’t even a functioning men’s bathroom. I’m pretty sure there’s also only a single woman’s bathroom if you exclude the (likely disgusting) portapotties out back.
The bar is cheap even for downtown Austin and the bartenders are friendly. Facial hair seems to be a prerequisite for employment, which makes total sense given its location. Music selection varies across a wide range from hip-​hop to metal, so don’t be surprised if you encounter music you might not enjoy.

Honestly I don’t have much to say about this little bar, aside from the fact that it’s a cute place to have a couple of drinks. The bartenders are generally swift, if sometimes a little short.
They’re fairly priced and in a great location, so it’s a nice stop if you’re out on the town for the night. I dig the décor and atmosphere; it’s not pretentiously hip, but it’s definitely cultivating an image. The bathroom sitch is a REAL issue, especially during peak hours (there is only one, and to alleviate the problem they’re installed porta-​potties in the back — gross). Generally I’d say start here and leave by the time you need to go to the bathroom.
Overall a decent time, 3.5−4 star experience.

Absolute favorite bar in Austin, well it’s actually tied with Midway Field House. But it’s mainly because the bartenders. When it’s slow, they make a point to have conversation with you, they don’t just stand there and fuck off on their phone.
There’s awesome seating outside. Reminds me of home a little with the trees present. They have pool tables inside if that’s your forte.
CHEAPEST beers on east side, easily.
I love this place and will continue to stop by. Great bar tenders, sweet patio, and cheap beers… What else can you ask for?
One more thing: THEY HAVE PAUL’S BOUTIQUE ON THE JUKEBOX. Beastie Boys to seal the deal. Can I get a f*ck yeah?

Went here on a saturday night for a friends going away party. okay place with a good backyard patio.
Would’ve been a great time except for when a friend got up on a chair for a going away toast, an employee was rude and said «get off the f&^%$inf=g chair» then told him he had to leave. He shouts «you don’t work here, i work here and your’e leaving» then he went out front to smoke a cigarette. Really rude, and this guy is lucky our 20 person party went elsewhere quietly, the guy he insulted is a jiujitsu blackbelt.
MGMT: fire the overweight bar-​back with the attitude problemr. hes spending his hours here insulting patrons and smoking.

I guess it just didn’t have much of a draw for me… I mean, I’d probably actually give it 2.5 stars, because its okay, and has a back ‘patio’ area, but most of East Austin has back patio areas (which are more like former dirt parking lots), so that’s not too much of a determining factor for me.
Basically, If you are really into bare bones dive bars, just looking to drink a Lone Star or something, and really like East Austin and happen to be in the area, then you will probably like it; but you will also find dozens of similar places in a few blocks surrounding it. But if you want to have drinks in a place with a much nicer ambiance, and have a mixologist make you a strong/​unique cocktail or two (or still opt for a beer), try Whistlers or Eastside Showroom a few minute walk away.