The Union Bar

Probably the best place to dance in Iowa City. Drinks here are eh, typical college bar drinks, but the music is usually good enough to make up for it.
The biggest problem I have with this place is that they charge cover even on nights where it’s completely DEAD. Being a girl, I’ve never actually had to pay the cover. If I’m in line with a group of my friends and we find out there’s cover that night, we’ll just step aside and most times just get handed cover passes, especially if it’s dead.
It’s a pretty good place to end a night of drinking.

Always a great place to have fun and still be able to get a drink without waiting 20 minutes and being over charged. The place is always pumping with the best guest djs spinning every weekend!!!

I had a lot of fun at Union when I was younger and single.
Overall this bar is filthy. But keep in mind that it’s a place that caters to young college kids who are just starting to go to bars. Most of the clientele consists of young horny guys and naïve sluts who are all inexperienced drinkers. It’s virtually impossible to run a super classy bar with a customer base like this. The bar plays its role in the drinking culture of Iowa City. Stop all the hate.
You’re not a true Hawkeye unless you’ve been blacked out in Union at least once in your younger years.

I’m just going to start off by saying that the majority of my friends dislike this bar, but if you get pretty tuned up at the end of the night and are ready to double fist 2 bottles of dre and let loose on the dance floor this is the place for you! The bouncers are ridiculous and sometimes charge cover just to pocket the money.

Trashy and gross, and the seemingly low prices are misleading for what you get. Loud music hurt our ears and caused us to have to shout to be heard. The bar was relatively empty around 1130 on a Saturday night, aside from some loud frattish guys and some amusing sluts twerking on the stage.
The misleading prices bothered us the most. Guinness for $ 2? Actually for $ 2 it’s a small plastic cup filled with Guinness — not a whole can, as advertised.
It’s also comical that they charge cover for this place. The security let us through without paying but made some of our friends pay. Wtf?! The place was practically empty and is in Iowa for F’s sake.
Only redeeming quality of the place are the dartboards and the funny sluts. Other than that, ugh.
If I ever find myself back in Iowa city, I want to go to the partially-​outdoor sportsbar across the way. Not returning here.

If you want to go to a bar and catch an STD, go here.
I have been here several times whenever I’m visiting friend in Iowa city! Today the cover was $ 20 for everybody, which is just A LITTLE absurd. There was probably about 5000 people in the bar, it is VERY big.
Keep in mind it was during a game on game day as we all went here cause my friends there didn’t wanna go to the game.
There was a giant room upstairs where Everybody was throwing pitchers of beer on each other whenever a touchdown happened and just random moments. Very trashy and I was not going to be a part of that so I left that part. The other side of the upstairs was better with seats. It was open to downstairs where there is a dance floor and a GIANT screen where the game was being played on.
Overall, this is comparable to jokers in cedar falls. Trashy crowd generally. I had one drink there which was my signature cherry bomb shot, which did not taste as good as usual.
Brothers or Summit would be a better option.

I would advise anyone not to go to this place. Every story you’ve ever heard about The Union is true. It’s a dangerous filthy place with black pools of stagnant booze, and the average occupant makes Waffle House third shift look like Miss America. You’ll drink yourself into black out stupor just so the revelries don’t molest your innate sense of what’s right and wrong. Succubuses prowl the dance floor ready to ensnare you utilizing your own drunken ego to empty your wallet. The bar features drinks that are named after a grenade for Christ’s sake, one of the messiest instruments of war. All in all it’s as close to Sodom as you can probably get with the exception of Vegas or Cancun. I loved it.

Bar staff and bouncers are pretty rude but forgiven because they have to put up with the most ratchet people in town. This is dirtiest dance floor in town and not the good kind of dirty… This is a great place to ruin a pair of shoes, step on broken glass bottles and and have an underage kid vomit on you.
A great bar to go to as a freshman who has never tasted the sweet taste of alcohol before. I was there a few months back myself and had a good ‘ol time watching the place clear out at ten o’clock when it became illegal for minors to be in the bar. I have fond memories of this place from my freshman and sophomore year at the university, but now I dread going here most of the time.
But if you’re looking for a wild bar to hit up during football season this is the place to be. Expect a steep cover and be ready to be soaked in beer and have a good time. It’s one of the craziest places to be on game day no matter how old you are.

This establishment authorizes legitimate physical abuse and the iowa city police allow them to. All i wanted was my credit card back. When i received it my hands were held behind my back and i was escorted out like a common criminal. I will pursue criminal assault charges against this establishment and if the owner should read this i’d like him to explain why someone can spend $ 50 in his bar and be physically removed minutes later. It is illegal and unacceptable and the full weight of the law will be brought against them. I can only assume it was because the male who grabbed me and assaulted me noticed my star of david hanging around my neck. So i shall not only pursue criminal assault charges but federal civil rights violations. The owner can reiterate this situation to his employees who made it a point to tell me to have «a great rest of my night» while i was unnecessarily physically removed for no other reason than trying to retrieve my bank card which I’d previously left there and an up charge had been added. This establishment is a scam. They kick people out and then use threat of force to convince you not to retrieve your form of payment, so they can add drinks to your bill.

1^st time to Iowa City and we ended up at this bar because of their large dance floor. Bathrooms were horrible compared to most dive bars and their security was under staffed and unprofessional when clearing the bar at closing time. Nothing impressive. I would look into other bars when experiencing Iowa City for the 1^st time.

Discrimination against body image is pretty despicable. This place should learn to educate their staff about respecting its customers.
You can read more about it here:

prior to the 21 rule this bar attracted mostly underage drinkers. it is noted to be the largest bar in iowa city; however, after the 21 drinking rule went in to effect, this is the largest empty bar in iowa city.
they now charge cover to compensate for lost revenue from underage drinkers. typical bar scene discriminatory practice by the door guy.
i would not recommend this bar as there are lots of bars on the ped mall with no cover any day of the week, try martinis next door or brothers across.