Howl At The Moon Dueling Piano Bar

This is a delayed review but I won a free party here a while ago which got us free cover before 11 but that was the only perk — huge disappointment. The crowd at the bar was the weirdest group of people — mostly creepy 70 year old men, a bachelorette party for a middle aged woman, and a couple of drunk frat boys. The music was good but it was hard to enjoy it while being creeped on and having beer poured all over you. Despite not being crowded, it took forever to get a drink which was expensive despite the promised drink specials. My friends and I left quickly and I wouldn’t go back.

great live music and fun «buckets of drinks». I bought the bachorlette package and they never called my bride to be up to the stage as they advertise. Our waitress was great, but not any help fixing this.

This is the WORST BAR in Boston. The staff are borderline criminals who sneak drinks on your tab.
On multiple occasions, multiple different bartenders have tried to sneak and even force extra drinks on my tab to run up the bill. In once instance, I asked to close out my tab. At no point did I order more drinks. The bartender hands me 2 more beers with my tab. I corrected him and have me a «what do you want me to do» shrug.
Another time, even worse, I went to close out my bill and saw there was a fish bowl on bill that I never ordered. I explained that there was a mistake. Again the bartender showed little concern for the mistake and told me it would take half an hour to get a manager over to take it off. If you read between the lines, I can either just pay my bill and leave when I want, or stand around for a half hour waiting for them to fix their mistake. Anyway, I took the bill and tracked down a manager in a number of minutes (something a busser or server could do) and the issue was fixed.
As for the crowd and seating, there have been a minimum of 2 bachelorette parties and a couple birthday parties, so seating for any more than 4 is impossible to find. Crowd is friendly enough but the whole place has the feel of a tourist trap.
If you do go, remember to read through the itemized version of your bill.

My cousin «won» a free party here scheduled for last Thursday night, from 9pm-​11pm. The Events Office Assistant sent my cousin an email detailing exactly what the party included. There were only a few main differences between winning a party, and being a normal guest at the club. These differences were: skip the line and cover charge, one free beer coozie for my cousin, and a handful of discounted drink specials. 5 of us arrived at the same time and gained entry, sat down, and ordered drinks. Fifteen or so minutes later, at around 9:30 — 9:45, 2 more of our friends arrived and were denied access. They provided my cousin’s name to the bouncers, but the bouncers insisted they go back to the end of the line, which snaked around the block. The club was NOT at capacity, the bouncers just felt it wouldn’t be fair to have people skipping the line… Skipping the line and cover charge are legit the only compelling reasons to go to this spot in the first place.
At this point, my cousin went up to the bouncers and showed them the email from the Events staff, which said: «not arriving all together? No problem! For the guests arriving separately, have them give your name at the door… NO COVER & NO WAITING in line between 9pm-​11pm.» And yes, the email used caps for the NO WAITING, but the bouncers refused to oblige. My cousin, escorted by a bouncer, came back to our table to tell us it was time to leave, and go elsewhere with our friends who were stuck outside. We hadn’t paid for our drinks yet, so we didn’t follow her immediately. Instead, we watched the bouncer escort her out of the club, while laughing at her, and gesturing at her and cracking jokes and smiles with the other bouncers. We told the bartender what happened, and she sort of shrugged her shoulders and provided us with a check. We paid and left.
After reading other reviews, I can see it wasn’t just a fluke. They have an issue with service and follow-​through. I hoped this free party would introduce me to a spot I’d return to, which I believe is probably the idea of giving a free party in the first place. But I’ll never return. Waste of time and waste of an über trip — not to mention they lied and were so rude and disrespectful to my cousin, who had just spent the past week gathering a crowd of 6+ to come spend money at their bar.

Came here a month ago with some friends. Female bartender ignored all of us even after asking her for drinks. I have been here twice ever and the same bartender gives me and my friends dirty looks. Don’t know how this place is still in business like that.
ALSO, lost a VERY expensive earring here that my boyfriend got me. I called later on that night and the employee on the phone TOLD ME that he had the earring. Came to get it the next day, the guy told me I had to come back when a manager was available. I called back every single day for 1 month, EVEN LEAVING MESSAGES. No one called me back AND I still haven’t gotten my earring. Someone probably pawned it by now. VERY DISAPPOINTED! Probably won’t come back. And if I do, I want my earring.

If you are looking for an unexpected awesome time good here.
I thought I was going to a normal bar but little did I know that downstairs that have a club that was playing hit after hit!
Drink prices aren’t too bad!

Came in with friends who I haven’t seen in so long and we sat at the bar, we were being a little loud and excited but we were also sober. The bartenders gave us a dirty look and no one even came up to offer us drinks. Finally after eye balling the bartenders a gentleman came up to us and he must of been dating the other bartender because she yelled his name when he came over to take care of 3 girls! Made us feel very uncomfortable! Came back for a second time and again bartenders are rude! I’m a bartender myself and I do not treat any customers like that!

Not sure about the negative reviews. My friend also told me he had bad experiences here but my night here was fun. No problem with the bouncers, the female bartender was nice and attentive. The only thing to complain was the ‘mandatory’ filling out their forms upon arrival. Friend of a friend won a table here so we got cheaper drinks (about 5 bucks for a mixed drink) but their food buffet sucked though I didn’t expect anything good. I didn’t hear any open mic karaōke as mentioned here; perhaps the singer was good so I didn’t think songs were sung by drunk kids. At 11 we went to the basement for the club experience. Very dark… It was ok.

A really fun time upstairs! I’ve always had a blast on the stage and the atmosphere. Downstairs is a different story though which is why this post only gets 4 stars. The club downstairs is clearly filled with drunk idiots. On Halloween weekend my coworker and I headed downstairs to dance pretty early into the night (we’re both in our early 20’s– 23 and 24). As we were letting loose with the groove of the music an undercover cop came up to us and demanded to see our id’s. At this point it was maybe 10:15…excuse me– I had everything pretty together (especially compared to everyone else). It’s the job of the bouncers to take care of all the underage kids who sneak in and not to bother the customers who are actually of age. So that’s why the downstairs sucks.

My friends and I went here on St. Pattys for a bar crawl. Watch out people this place is a scam! We waited in line and once we approached the kiosk inside the place we mentioned that we were part of the bar crawl. They replied, «oh, we aren’t doing that.» …cue confusion…
«Ummmmm, we purchased these bar crawl tickets and you are listed here on the map as one of the options.»
Again the woman looks at me and says, «Yeah we aren’t doing that.» I was unsure if we wanted to stay and said we might leave. She says ok and just stares at us.
Keep in mind this is the first bar we tried off the crawl so I’m extremely sober and not obnoxious at all. My friend wants to stay since we walked quite a bit to check it out. Next, they charge us a cover on top of the tickets we bought.
Once inside, we tried getting a drink. Sloppy college students dropping their beer with green dye all over me. Oh hell no I need a drink big time. My friend got a fish bowl! Oh yeah bring that over to me! Sippy sippy. Oh yeah. That sugar water tastes delicious thank you. I wish I brought nips to add some alcohol to that bowl of sugar water and Swedish fish.
My friend starts dancing, not sure if it’s the sugar spike or what. Anyway we chilled there for a few and left. This place is highly underwhelming. I’m going to buy a kids piano and call it a dueling piano bar woohoo.

We went over the summer. I wasn’t impressed. Drunks were weak. Line was purposely slow. Food was subpar and that’s being generous. The whole reason we went was to see a piano duel. But what we got was to friends politely taking turns with ZERO competition between the 2… False advertising at its finest. Not going back or recommending unless it’s to an older coworker with shitty taste anyway.

What is the point of this place? We went for a friend’s birthday and I was expecting decent live music but it’s more like anyone can get up there and lip sync/​karaōke. The music was not good at all, it was loud but there was no beat. The drinks are too pricey. There were at least 6 bachelorette parties here… with «bitch» written on their crowns. barf. Not to mention frat boys dancing on the stage most of the night. Also there was an employee near the bathrooms who screamed to move out of the way to people in the hallway. I thought he was joking because I’ve never heard anyone more angry in my life. I could not wait to leave!

A manager contacted me and gave me a gift card to try this place again… we went and a manager there tried to say I was using it at the wrong place and tried to decline it. I received it because of a experience with bad service so this was ironic. We went apparently too early in the night… no music. Not impressed with this place AT ALL!

Visiting from NY we went in after dinner around 545 and stayed till alittle after midnight! The bartender was amazing, the music was great and we had a blast!

This place is really weird. lol
The music is okay, but the set up is insane. There’s always soo many people there!
It’s a bit of a maze to get to it, but once you find it, YOU KNOW. It’s the place with the line out and around the place.
The drinks are good, cheap and big.
They walk around with test tube shots and syringes with jello shots in them for like 3 bucks.
It takes forever to get your drinks because it’s so busy, so you’re better off ordering at the bar.
This is a place you need to try at least once!

A bit of everything for everyone.
First time visit in the summer for a birthday event.
After awhile, ‘90s throwback covers get stale and the squad was looking for a change of pace.
Enter the downstairs club: exclusively r&b/EDM/trap.
Fam here — girls here — drinks here — f*ck lets get it then*
*im sorry, I just had to

Will update this since I now know they read their reviews and I had a much better experience last night.
The music doesn’t start until 6 so if you go there for a happy hour, arrive before then if you want to have a conversation.
The drink specials during happy hour are awesome, I had a rum punch, a dirty shirley, and a margarita last night for $ 5 each. I also tried my friend’s $ 5 pizza (also a happy hour special) and it was very tasty.

I do not like how the bouncers were racist and judgmental. The bouncers wouldn’t let us in because they said my friend looked drunk though she wasn’t doing anything. It was my first time at Boston, I thought that my friends and I could have a fun night, Howl at the moon ruined it. The manager was very UNPROFESSIONAL as well because he has no authorization over the bouncers, apparently he will listen to whatever they say to do.
I have been in the restaurant industry for almost 10 years now, and the way the bouncer and the manager were, it’s extremely rude and horrible horrible customer service.
Good luck to all of you.

Went back yet again since my boyfriend was in town and I knew I couldn’t go wrong when bringing him to Howl & BOY I wasn’t disappointed at all. We arrived a little bit past pm and the line was a mile long and it was super super crowded inside. I might just be really lucky but we got seats by the bar as we walked in and as I was enjoying the music and the crown my boyfriend was watching the Red Sox game, I know I know, I wanted to kill him too.
The music was great, the drinks were good and cheap as always the crow was fantastic and yet again they have given me a reason to keep coming back.

I will never understand why this place always has a huge line outside of it. It’s such a weird spot. It’s always crowded with sloppy drunks that just turned 21 or are using fake IDs. And the fact that it’s costs to get in when the only music playing is from those same drunk people singing karaōke. is the last thing I want to hear at a bar. Not sure if they have nights where it isn’t karaōke though.
The downstairs, called down hah, is where you’d go if you want to listen to dancing music. It’s not too bad down there. I much prefer that part. But it also gets overly crowded.
I guess this place is just not my cup of tea and may be others.
But with so many cool spots in Boston, again, I don’t get why there is always a line!