Bar 23

Just kind of hot in the bar doesn’t feel like a/​c is on, food was great, servers were friendly and talkative. You usually don’t find people who’ll interact with you. Will return

Honestly I think this place is a fun bar that serves some interesting drinks. Let me clarify that I have never eaten here. I have just drank. They also have a happy hour from 4 – 9 everyday where drinks are half off! Anyways lets get back to these interesting drinks. I have drank/​tried the pixi-​stix, pop rock, mango, and pomegranate. Sure this place is a little gimicky but they have good fun starting drinks. They are pretty tasty so give them a chance. My sister loves sweet drinks so this is her type of place… She is also 21.

Bartenders are great, as is the Chicken Parm sandwich! Thursday happy hours is a great night to check it out.

Stopped in here with some friends while visiting in Columbus, seems to be a place a lot of locals go! The staff was very friendly, even changed the TV channels multiple times to keep up with the ballgame from back home. I personally didn’t try the food but my friends got a deep dish pizza and some fries that were good.
A good location and good spot to hang out in while bar hopping or just as your destination in my opinion.

Great happy hour… FOR DRINKS! We went on a Thur night after 7pm for 1 $ domestic bottles and 5 $ martinis. Awesome! Ordered food too. Very disappointing. Burger made my hubby wish he waited to try Stack City next door instead. I had grilled chicken salad. Its was supposed to be on a bed of mixed greens. It came looking more like a boiled breast on a bowl of iceberg and one Roma tomato cut in wedges with huge chunks of red onion. Had to ask for salt, pepper and some bacon (extra 1 $) to doctor it up a bit. A friend had the inside out potato skins. A bogus dumpster fries impression. Maybe at half off they wouldn’t be so bad. Bottom line — Drinks=Great. Food=Bad.

not sure why this place has has poor reviews but I have to say that I did not have the food. We came for happy hour and went for the $ 5 martinins. they had a bunch of fun martinis, i tried the espresso and pomegranate and my friend tried the pom and the mango. we liked all of them but LOVED the mango. great drinks and good prices! will go back again

I visit Bar 23 every week or so. It is located in a convenient area of the short north and is great for people watching. The indoor area is huge with the bar and TV’s. The outdoor patio has lots of space — perfect for hot summer nights. I see the same bartenders and waiters, and they are all fantastic.
The best thing about this bar is the happy hour. It is Monday — Friday until 9 pm. I’m not sure when it starts or everything that is included in it. I do know the cosmopolitans are half price ($ 5) which is a steal.
It really only gets packed after 10. Most of the times I’ve been there, there have only been a few other groups. This is definitely a great place if you just want to have a drink and talk to your friends.

Ample seating on the patio, cigar friendly, drinks are cheap and the atmosphere is perfect for special occasions or just having a casual drink.

Very good relaxed atmosphere with very reasonable menu with great service! Make it a stop along your way!

Friday nights until 9 o’clock they have $ 5 martinis! There are so many different kinds to choose from, and they are good and strong! The food is good too, I got a panini last time ($ 7, comes with fries)! Perfect place to watch people downtown, there is a really nice outside area to sit.

So the bartender tonight told me my tab would b free if I flashed him or let him fondle me lol then he tried to kick me out when I refused to go in the kitchen so he can touch my body parts

Drinks were fine, but the service was terrible when it was time to close our tab. The bartender proceeded to continue to serve drinks (I stopped counting when he served the *15^th* person after I asked to close my tab), forgetting me. A 2^nd bartender wouldn’t even look at me after I asked her for assistance. Relocating down the bar, a 3^rd bartender finally took care of me. Over a half-​hour trying to close a tab is inexcusable.

I absolutely LOVE this bar. We always end up here if we’re in the short north. Thursdays are dollar domestics and they have a great people watching patio. If you’re afraid you’re going to miss the game, no worries… they have plenty of tv’s and the bartenders will always turn it to your preferences. They have a great special every night of the week/​happy hour. Thursday’s are dollar domestics all night long! At night it gets a little trendy, but that’s to be expected in a downtown bar. They also have a great private party room that is definitely worth renting! You get your own private bar!
If you have never been, go! You’re going to find your new favorite short north bar.

I adore this bar! Granted, I’m no longer a trendy twenty something college goer, but the cheapish drinks, good location, and decent electronica makes it one of my favorite bars in the Short North-​Arena District area. Additionally, it has a great patio which makes for excellent people watching during the warmer months. Docking a star for the super dirty bathrooms (after 9 p.m.) and the super sticky floors (also after 9 p.m.).

I visited Bar 23 on a recent Saturday night during the Short North Gallery Hop. Actually, we were sucked in by their patio along the Cap on N. High Street — since there’s nothing better during Gallery Hop than sitting and «people watching». My 1^st observation — this is definitely a BAR that serves food and not a restaurant that serves drinks. My 2^nd observation is that while the patio is very nice — the interior is very stark, dark and bar-​like.
Those observations aside. The 4:00 — 7:00 Happy Hour makes Bar 23 worth a visit. My wife had 1 of their ½ price martini’s (the chocolate one) and said it was excellent — even though it was a bit on the strong side. It’s hard to beat a $ 5 martini on the patio but the full price of $ 10 does seem a bit high for a bar on High Street. In the food department, I had the buffalo chicken sandwich with fries and would give it a 4 star rating. My wife had the Turkey/​Peach panini and said it was good but not exceptional and is something she probably wouldn’t order again. Her sandwich came with house-​made potato chips that were excellent. Her overall rating on food was a 2.5 to 3 star.
SO — if you’re looking for a nice patio and cheap ($ 5) martini — Bar 23 is a great choice, The foods good but not exceptional /​the service on Saturday night was very efficient without being overly intrusive.

I’ve come here multiple Saturday nights to escape the «typical» arena district bar hop… I guess this is more Short North, but ah well.
I love it! They’re always playing music that’s good enough to dance to, but the atmosphere allows you to just sit back and chill if you want. Always a different crowd too, at least in my experience.
The bartenders are attentive. though not always happy seeming… I guess I should stop by for happy hour or something when it’s not so loud.
There’s not much to the place though. a few TV’s and a ton of seating is it… nothing unique or special to really make it «pop»

Nice spot. Good tunes.
But WHY were only 10% of the people there dancing? (Myself included in that percent)
The drinks had no business being $ 10. It’s Columbus, OH. Really Family Ties? Really?!
Let’s reassess this place and make it more appropriate for where and what it is: A Midwestern bar with weak, tasty drinks with strong dance floor potential.
I still had a hell of a time. Truly enjoyed myself with my crew :)

I’ve been here a few times — it’s a great location, and the food is OK, but man… the drinks are crap.
The happy hour martini special list thingy contains oversugared, under-​boozed trendy cocktails. Except, they’re trendy from 1994. Today’s popular cocktails are liquor-​forward, old-​timey drinks. These are the opposite. And they’re $ 9. Gimme a break…

Like Brothers and Bernard’s, Bar 23 only received a couple of visits due to me being dragged here. What’s with all of these awful bars starting with a «B»? Perhaps it’s an ominous sign… the best I can think of off the top of my head is Bar Louie which isn’t much of a step up (but it’s enough to make difference). The interior, seemingly copied straight from the first series of The Sims, is the least of your problems if you’re not black-​out drunk, which is the only way I can explain reviews three stars and up: the two star reviews are a result of Midwestern politeness.
Horribly loud top 40, which is bad enough on its own, is taken to a whole other level when it’s permanently damaging your hearing and then it can get extremely crowded (with douchebags, who else?) and you can’t even converse with your friends (how did we all get dragged here again?) to try to pretend you’re not here. I actually *had* to get out of there. I’m not sure, but I think it was bad enough to induce a panic attack, which I’ve never had before and can’t say with 100% certainty that is what I experienced, but Bar 23 managed to give me at the very least the closest sensation of having one than I ever did. On the upside, it’s unique in that it sits on the middle of a highway bridge, which thankfully isn’t easily jump-​able, because in the short term it might seem like the easiest escape.
*update* (and I didn’t even post this yet!) Barrel 44 is pretty sweet and starts with a B, so there’s already a hole in my theory.

2.5 stars, rounding down. I stopped by here with a non-​drinking companion from OSU, who was admitted despite having only a Chinese government-​issued ID to indicate that she’s 21 – that is, it was entirely written in Chinese characters. So I guess I should appreciate that the bouncers (more like «bro-​bouncers») were pretty sympathetic.
If I recall correctly, I ordered a tall cold glass of Yuengling. The bartenders were okay and «nice enough,» sort of reminiscent of that «beautiful» crowd in high school to which I never belonged. I was happy that I was able to catch some of the NBA on the screens above the bar, but of course I practically had to scream at my buddy over the blaring Top 40 in order to explain to her who Kosta Koufos is.
I significantly reduce my star rating to reflect my thoughts on the type of patrons I encountered here; after all, they helped to create my experience, no matter what. Generally, they reminded me of the very sort of people I avoid at similar establishments back home: under-​dressed females and over-​dressed (cologne-​DRENCHED) males. Some overdone-​looking girl with an exposed tramp stamp kept unknowingly nudging me as she ground her pelvis against some guy (her boyfriend?), and it annoyed me to the max. So yeah, no matter how far along I was with my beer, I felt awfully out of place and a little unwelcome.