Forbidden City

Great happy hour that last until 9pm, and they usually extend it for a drink or two if you arrive a little late.
Drinks are strong, and the décor is nice. not sure about the food, but i wouldn’t expect much since it is a bar afterall.

Went to Forbidden City on a Thursday to see JOHNSON&JONSON (Blu & Mainframe) do a DJ set. I got there at 10:30pm and the bar was pretty empty. I ordered a few drinks to kill time… they were pretty good. I also ordered the pork ribs which tasted really good.
The house DJ had an amazing Hip-​Hop set. He took it back with a couple of joints. The music was definitely above average in comparison to a lot of other places.
The bartender (s) and staff were nice and helpful. Great venue.

Great bar in the East Village area. This is a great option if you want to:
— Walk straight up to the bar to get a drink
— Chat it up with some friendly bartenders
— Have an area to sit and mingle with your friends
— Listen to some old school classic hip hop music
I haven’t tried the food or been to any shows, but its one of my favorite spots for good drinks, no hassle, and no fuss. If you want crazy, meat market madness, NYC has plenty of mega clubs for that. This is your friendly neighborhood bar.

Is insulting customers a way to attract more business or do they really not care?
I met up with couple friends today at Forbidden City. There was an Africa American comedy club performing. The host started entertaining everyone with cursing languages. Then, she follows by racist topics, insulting Chinese and Asian.
I’m very surprised by how a Chinese fusion place like this would hire a group of people to insult their own race. I’m very curious to know what the owner is thinking.

From the outside, Forbidden City doesn’t strike you as a bar/​lounge, but its a good one alright. It’s not really fancy; the interior décor is not striking or memorable; wood tables and chairs, a giant circle bar, and a few dragon or buddha statues here and there that signal the «asianness» of this place.
But really, what makes a spot fun? A bar for all its glitz and glamor sucks if the crowd isn’t exciting or if the music blows. And its the little things here that helped make Forbidden City a chill place to hang. I’m not a dancing kind of guy, but I do enjoy music, and so I enjoy places like this where you can listen to some mixes by a DJ, have solid drinks, and talk with the ladies.
My friend and I got some good manhattans here, definitely on the stiff side, and found three chill girls to talk with at the bar. I’m from the west coast, and it was such a different vibe to talk with ladies from the east coast; I definitely think coastal relations improved that night. Had some conversations with other random people outside the place smoking, and just was a fun vibe all around.
So all in all, Forbidden City is a chill place to hang out for the night.

Honestly after knowing the bouncer here got shot right outside, I was a little deterred to come back here. However, that didn’t seem to stop the crowd. I stepped in only to find a whole room packed with customers.
The DJ was playing 80s, 90s and current hip & hop and pop music. This is more a lounge than a dance club. Nobody was dancing, really. People were just drinking, chatting, and some of them eating. (They serve Asian cuisine)
This is a good venue for birthday parties and they have great Happy Hour daily. I just hope no more gunshots incident!

I’m in love with this place. I go once or twice a month and have brought many different friends. All were impressed. The food is all good. I’ve tried almost the whole menu. Nothing disappointed. Flavors are bold and straightforward. It’s pointless not to ordered shared dishes.
Whoever your with is going to want to try yours and vice versa. Prices are very, very fair. The bar atmosphere feels like a William Gibson novel. Dark, asian, digital. Asahi served in large bottles (16oz?) goes well with everything. The wine list lists a number of bottles which have never been available on any of my visits. They should just reprint the menu without the wine list and save their staff some time.
Service is OK. I’ve had some downright bad service and I’ve had some good, but the food is what I come for at 2:30 in the morning.
Pros: Inexpensive and good., Late night dining

Went here last night again. Haven’t been to this place in ages. It’s still cool, very chill on a Sunday night.
Hidden little gem of info, they have this great salsa band that plays there every Sunday night, apparently. The music is really phenomenal, very very good. I’m a definite beginner at salsa, but the rhythms are infectious…
Had a glass of red. Hit the spot. Great night overall…

I’m givin it 5 stars bc its my regular GO-​TO spot. Ok yeah its a block away from where i live… but there are about 20 other bars that are a block away from where i live and this is the only one i go to on the regular. It’s not your local dive nor it is a trendy chic bar. The DJ is ALWAYS good, sometimes they have live performaces, and on Sundays they have a live latin band and some people dancing. Always a good vibe. Bartenders and manager are really friendly, service is good. Also, kitchen is open all night! Definitely recommend it.

I got introduced to Forbidden back in 07′ and since then, it has easily become one of my favorite watering holes in the city.
The first winning indicator for me: They carry all major Japanese beers on hand! Take your pick: Asahi, Sapporo, or Kirin.
The second, is the music. Live performances starting Thursday nights. Mix of hip-​hop, r&b & japanese folk!
The third, their food. Pretty damn good for «bar food». Order their Shrimp Toast, Salt & Pepper Squid, & Sesame Tofu.
The only thing forbidden here is your herbinous ways.

Go in, small venue, big bar that pretty much takes up over half the space. Very casual, no dress code. Music is pretty good– can rival that of a more upscale lounge. Not many people dance, but we did on our Saturday night.
[newsflash] Yes, this is where that bouncer got shot. [/​newsflash]
The bartenders are friendly; the only downside is that the shots are WEAK. I had over 15 shots (could have been more bc I lost count), and I was still standing and not swaying like the drunk fool that I usually am. HA. HA. HA.
I had a great time, but it isn’t the most happening spot. The upside is, you’re not being trampled on by girls in heels too high walk in.
You can walk here, you can talk here.

Surprisingly I’m actually a big fan. I’ve known this place exist for a while and from what I heard I wasn’t too sure it was my type of place.
recently grabbed few drinks with some friends. turned out it was very cool bar. live band is always a plus. only if you want to have a real conversation. you might want to sit away from the band.
Drinks were decent. it wasn’t super packed which is always a good thing. I enjoyed the relax vibe while I was there.
I will be back for sure

I recommended this place to a friend who wanted to do a happy hour for her birthday. This was the first time I’ve been here on a weekday AND before 11 p.m. Out of the 12 of us, 10 people ordered food. Of course I was one of them. The glutton in me was tempted to order the dumpling sampler, but in the end I got the shrimp & pork shumai and the unadon. The shumai were large and juicy. The unadon wasn’t up to par; I’ve definitely had better at Japanese restaurants.
The place didn’t get overcrowded so we had plenty of room to breathe, talk, and act out. The happy hour prices and food prices were more than reasonable. We also brought in a birthday cake and the restaurant didn’t charge us an extra fee to serve it like some places do.
The only problem I had was the slow service and waiter with ADHD. When he took our food order, he skipped over one person and walked away even as we were waving him back. My friend had to get up and walk over to him. Then he brought out the main entrées WITH the appetizers. When I asked him to bring out the cake, it took him forever and a couple of people in our group couldn’t stay and wait. When I went into the back to find out what was taking so long, it turned out he was stuck trying to place the 26 candles on the cake. I took over (and yes, there was enough room for 26 candles) while he took a few extra minutes to look for matches. At least he didn’t ruin the surprise and the cake did finally make its way out.

Pros
+ live salsa on Sundays
Cons
— dirty
— watered down drinks
— ugly part of town

We went on a rainy Friday night. It was nice because we went right after work, so it wasn’t packed.
The food was delicious especially the Shrimp Toast. I would definitely go back.

This place is amazingly chic for a tiny spot, its not a huge bar but good enough that when it gets crowded your not sitting on top of people or saing «excuse me that was or used to be my big toe, prior to you stomping the sh*t outta it» It has a very asian feel to it which is understandable since its owned and managed by a group of Asian peeps…
Very dim lighting so don;t expect to be able to clearly see the person next to you, but great if your kinda ugly and need dim lighting to mask imperfections on a 1^st date… or if your feeling kinda laid back and just want a place to hang out… on a weekday from mon-​wed its a pretty laid back place to be… greatfood…esp. the shortribs (seasoned just right, not too sweet, not too stickty, just perfect amts of both to make your tummy happy) thurs-​sat this place is CROWDED and LOUD!!! Awesome to meeet people, cuz it becomes kinda a melting pot of people, and a maven for guys/​girls who want to meet those of us who r of the asian persuasion…
The drinks are not über expensivo but not cheap either so be prepared to pay anywhere from 11 – 18 for a drink… the bartenders are friendly and are not cheap with the booze, so no worries that you will be paying mad money for bad drinks… The DJ is also very very good so the music is always on point… dancing room is non-​existant though due to the volume of ppl that are there on weekends.
All in all Forbidden is the type of place you go to before you party to pregame or after a party to unwind… ppl you will meet there varies on the night… on weekends it will be the young, trendy, asian crowd with a good measure of non-​asians, weekdays, kinda a LES crowd…

W

This place used to be the shit, but I don’t think there’s much activity going on there anymore. At least, not the several times I’ve been there in the last couple of months. I’ve never tried their food before but there always seem to be people eating in the restaurant area in the back.
But the sole reasons why I always stop by this place are:
1. Fond memories
2. Lychee Martinis
3. Green Tea Martini
It’s worth checking out if you’re in the area.

Great Birthday Spot!
I had my 30^th Bday party here in Dec. It was between Forbidden City and another asian influenced rest/​lounge venue. The reason I chose FC, and so glad I did, was for 2 reasons:
1. Cost — dinner and many drinks, $ 60 pp
2. Managers — Ron
As most of you are aware, birthday dinners get expensive. Not just the dinner, but primarily the drinking. And at most of these venues with fun cocktails the cocktails are $ 10 a pop or more… FC not withstanding… BUT… Ron (night mgr) worked with me on a HAPPY HOUR RATE on the cocktails for a few hours — $ 7 Stoli cocktails rather than $ 10!!! He was very accomodating and just reassured me that we would have a great time. And we did!
Plus the food was inexpensive and delish and the perfect food for a bday party that was going to continue all night since they have mostly light dishes and a great selection of dumplings & apps. MUST GET THE CALAMARI!
The venue itself is more restaurant/​bar then restaurant/​lounge with a casual fun asian décor and bar nightlife. They allowed us to have fun without being all pretenious and stuffy like I knew the other more upscale venue would be.
So that is why I’m SOOO GLAD we went with FC and I had the BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!

Tony L: I’m going to Forbidden City for a birthday. You wanna come?
Slightly drunken me: Forbidden City?! Is that a STRIP CLUB?!
Tony L: No. It’s a bar in the E. Village.
Slightly drunken me: It’s NOT a strip club? *pout*
Tony L: …
So I hopped on over to Forbidden City with Tony L and Rob Y. I am not impressed with this place at all. It is just like any other bar, this place just so happens to have A LOT of Asians. I don’t even remember what kind of music they were playing. Is this place even a restaurant? They serve food? Hmm… Seemed more like a bar to me.
Oh, and why do they only serve the huge bottle of Asahi? They don’t have the regular size. I felt so dumb. I mean, we all know that I like to drink, but I like to be deceiving and drink many SMALL drinks. Not walk around all gangsta with my 30oz Asahi.