I had never been here before, and what an amazing surprise. A huge thank you to Damian, the bartender, who made this entire experience unforgettable. His professionalism, kindness, and genuine attention to detail were beyond impressive. He was incredibly welcoming, attentive, and truly went above and beyond. Because of him alone, I will absolutely be coming back. Service like this is rare and deserves to be recognized. Highly recommend. read more

This was a pleasant place to get a quick bite and a well poured Guinness before a play. The patrons seem friendly. The bartenders were attentive. I would definitely return her again. read more

Playwright Tavern & Restaurant - A well poured Guinness, Moscow mule, and a fancy way to give you your check - American Near Me - New York, New York

Always a must stop when in Times Square. Love it when Irish restaurants have actually Irish employees behind the bar. Just sets the tone for a good session. Thank you Peter for the stiff drinks and cheeky banter. Until next time. read more

Met up with friends on a busy Friday night in Times Square. Sat at the table in front of the stairs! When it's crowded you gotta speak louder. Polite staff helping to keep the floor clear. No complaints! read more

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We came here on Derby Day dressed in Derby best. They did turn the channel to the Derby for us. We asked for mint Juleps, they had Woodbridge bourbon but no mint and couldn't make the drink. We stayed for one person in the party to have a drink. They do have a fella who sings Frank Sinatra songs on Saturdays and he chatted with us a bit- but since no juleps we left. The menus looked good, and the ambience was great. If it weren't for the special day and need for the Juleps we would have stayed. read more

Playwright Tavern & Restaurant - Nice bar ambiance - American Near Me - New York, New York

A great experience my last few visits. The staff is friendly, attentive, and efficient. Fresh Guinness, poured properly. The guacamole and chips were fresh (although the guacamole was a tad too spicy for my taste). I highly recommend it! read more

Playwright Tavern & Restaurant - Front door - American Near Me - New York, New York

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We got drunk before we went to see just in time. It's right across the street and was very good drinks. Not the best food options, but overall a good place to get drinks before your show. I'm read more

Was in town for meetings and came to my favorite watering hole! Katie the downstairs day bartender is the best bartender east of the Mississippi! Come in say hi and have an intriguing conversation with her. She is awesome and the drinks are heavy!!! Great ambiance with 80s tunes playing at all hours! read more

Playwright Tavern & Restaurant - Menu - American Near Me - New York, New York

This is an old standby for a pre theater meal with traditional Irish fare and a small menu to meet most tastes. My highlight was the Mac and cheese, which is creamy and cheesy. I also got the truffle parm fries, which had a perfect truffle and cheesy flavor but they were pretty limp and crispy. Service was fine but not anything super special. However, if you are looking for a spot that is quieter, the top floor is a great place to grab a quicker bite. read more

Playwright Tavern & Restaurant - Fries - American Near Me - New York, New York

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May 2025: As a die-hard Boston Red Sox and New England sports fan, I slipped into The Playwright Tavern near Times Square during a Yankees vs. Mets game, keeping it stealthy with no Red Sox gear - takes guts to rep my team quietly in enemy territory! The atmosphere was electric, even if I was flying under the radar. I met Joe, a bartender from San Juan, Puerto Rico, who was pure class. We hit it off, chatting about our kids and youth sports. Joe, a clear Mets fan, took their loss to the Yankees in stride, and I didn't rub it in (too much). He's a hard-working, five-star guy who makes the experience memorable. Ask for Joe when you visit--you won't be disappointed. Great vibe, solid service, and a spot that handles sports rivalries with heart. Lets go Red Sox I whispered (quietly)! read more

Playwright Tavern & Restaurant - American Near Me - New York, New York

A decent Irish pub with typical pub faire. A place to join friends and share goodtimes. Friendly staff and good food. Beer is the best option, simple cocktails are ok. read more

Great service, quick from the kitchen and able to support a quick show time. Spice bag was cooked perfectly with a nice curry dipping sauce. Not too spicy, one could call it mild but perfectly cooked. Good burgers and reasonably priced. Great decorations for the holidays but otherwise it was clean and easy to relax in while watching the bustle on the road. Recommend. read more

Service was friendly and food was okay. Ordered the Asian chicken salad. Presentation was excellent, but some of the chicken had grizzle in it. read more

Playwright Tavern & Restaurant - American Near Me - New York, New York

Very friendly staff; clean inside, and very groovy place - the pub occupies an entire beautiful old townhouse, with lots of old wood & exposed brick. Very good black & tan. Food was also very tasty & prepared with care. I had my standard Caesar salad and wings. However - eight buffalo wings WERE SEVENTEEN DOLLARS! This is not the right price - THIS IS PRICE GOUGING! I left feeling gouged, & still hungry. read more

Playwright Tavern & Restaurant - $17 for 8 wings - American Near Me - New York, New York

This gets a three stars due to good food. However, waiter was inattentive and we were charged a credit card fee and we paid with cash!!! Drinks were not made properly and could not even get with the waiter to have them replaced. read more

Had a great, first time experience here. Came from a long drive down from Buffalo and needed a place to eat and just sit down to take a break from driving. We decided to eat outside to get some fresh air. It was nice. We ordered: - traditional Irish breakfast: Irish sausage, bacon, black & white pudding, eggs any style, grilled tomato, home fries and toast - James Joyce: Irish bacon, cheddar, fries - bottomless mimosas - bloody mary Food was delicious and sitting outside was cozy, despite the NYC noise. The servers were knowledgeable, polite, fast and efficient. read more

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Bangers was like if it was microwave. End burnt and hard as a rock. Not worth the mash it came on. The Guinness seems water down. The 5stars for the attentive servers only, they were great...Crossing this off my often stop eatery... read more

Playwright Tavern & Restaurant - American Near Me - New York, New York

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This is a great place to eat before the theater. Within walking distance to several from the Paramount Hotel. I had my favorite fish and chips. Two large pieces of fish, cooked perfectly. Chips were "crisp" and full of flavor! Almost too much to eat, but I did it! The service was great, friendly wait staff. By 6:00 p.m. the place was full. Very fun and the interior was very "pub Wood". Would go again next time I am in New York. (visiting from Colorado) p.s. nice clean restroom read more

While I wish I could give my waitress and my waitress only, a 5 star review, unfortunately my dining experience was completely ruined by a second waitress, that wasn't even assigned to my table. While in a stress situation to find a quick place to eat with my toddler and husband, this waitress decided she would come over to my table, without saying one single word to us, and take away the sugar packets placed on the table. As my toddler is learning to count, we decided to make use of our time waiting for our meal, and count sugar packets. I could only assume the other waitress felt as though my toddler would make a mess, so she took it upon herself to remove the packets from my table without a single word. Why I'm upset, is simply due to the matter that 1) I have a degree in hospitality management and am WELL versed in table etiquette and 2) my toddler, who had not bothered one single patron in the establishment, now had her "distraction" taken from her for no reason other than, a waitress not wanting a mess to clean up. Had she spoken to me, or made a respectful request, I would have informed her of my hospitality background and assured her, I wouldn't allow my child to make a mess. This one minor issue, left me with a completely disgusted feeling. Little did she know that my table, even with having a toddler, was likely left cleaner than a table of 5 full blown adults. read more

Shepherds pie was delicious! White chocolate martini was good too. Staff was nice and friendly

The server completely ignored me during the entire meal and never came by to check on me. He didn't give me any water either. I complained to the hostess and he finally came by at the end of the meal, then walked away while I was in the middle of talking to him! I notified the manager who didn't respond to me. I've never had service THIS BAD at a restaurant. I would not recommend this place. read more

After a loud bar the night before, we walked to Playwright to enjoy a nightcap. Again, happy to have a nice pint of Guiness and my colleague a glass of red wine. This place was nice a quiet and a conversation was possible. We did order some french fries and the barkeep kept on trying to take it away. Not sure what their rush was then a neighbor at the bar came over and started talking to us about how great he was and started using profanities. Then his friend came and nudged him saying they had to leave because the wifi was not working, and the guy guzzled his entire glass of beer in a milisecond and left, thank goodness. Soon thereafter, the barkeep asked if he can take the french fries again. They turned the lights up so I can only assume that this bar was closing early or something Weird. read more

Love this place. My daughter and I ended up in here after a day of shopping in NYC. The food was delicious and the service was wonderful. We went back a few months later at Christmas time, and wow, were we impressed. The food was still delicious, the service was still wonderful, but now the Playwright was decorated for the holidays. Just gorgeous. They also make the most delicious Holiday drinks. I plan on taking a day off of work this week, just so I can go sit at the Playwright and soak in the holidays. read more

We were walking from our hair salon towards the east side when we stumbled across this restaurant. Oddly, Yelp did not show this restaurant as being in the vicinity. So we were happy when we walked past and saw the menu posted outside, which boasted of comfort food. My dining companion was thrilled with her salmon and mashed potatoes with broccoli. I made a mistake in ordering the Cobb salad. Because the Irish are not particularly known for their cobb salads as far as I know. While the salmon was perfect, the chicken in the cob salad was a bit rubbery. When we first arrived, we were placed at the back near the kitchen. Initially, it was fine, but shortly after we were seated, the table right in front of us filled up. So we felt squished and pushed into the corner because of the large table of people. By and far, the highlight of the evening was the young South asian woman who was our server. She was not only attentive, warm, and welcoming, but it was as though we had a family member working at the restaurant whom we were visiting. We will return, but I will be careful what I order. read more

First meal in NY/Manhattan. We had the shrimp scampi and the Guinness beef stew Both were very good. It was a quaint place but loved the vibe of this Celtic pub read more

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So I got a message from Yelp saying that people were complaining about my review. To be fair, I am editing it, but I stand by what I said. It's the only way to explain the HORRENDOUS service. Review or no review, I will never go back and I encourage you all not to as well. Do yourself a favor and don't go here. I even gave them a chance before posting this by emailing them and I got no response. I know better than to expect even 3 star service in a Times Square area bar but this TAKES THE CAKE. Went to meet my bestie at this bar. I feel like we went here in the past and had decent service, so I said okay let's just go here again. We get to the front door and there is a lady hawker and she says (looking at my headband that I created that CLEARLY says ART) "oh is it your birthday???" I was like ughhh ....whatever lady, birthday has a LOT more letters. But it's okay, I don't expect people to understand creativity. We sat down. We asked for a cocktail menu. The lady server was very nice and handed us a menu. This is literally were everything went south. I guess we took a few minutes too long to order. We tried to flag her down but she waved us off and told us to ask the gentleman pictured for service. He was DEEP in conversation with the two people next to us. I got his attention for exactly two seconds and he just stared at me and went back to his chat. Finally the lady bartender asked us what we wanted and served us our drinks. After talking and drinking for a bit, we wanted something to nosh on. We tried again to get the male bartenders attention but he was still completely wrapped up in his conversation and couldn't be bothered with our order. We finally asked the bar back to please kindly put in our order for nachos. He did a good job service wise. The lady bartender served us one more round as the male bartender (who was supposed to be serving us!) continued to ignore us. We got our nachos ( they were decent albeit a bit too spicy) and the bar back was nice and service oriented and got us extra sour cream. Finally we had enough weird lopsided service. I asked the lady bartender for one more drink for me and the check. She said OK and then promptly disappeared. This is where its gets REALLY BAD. While waiting for this non-appearing check, we flagged down the lady who was the hawker outside. We asked for a manager, she asked why, I said we are not liking the service, are you the manager? She says no. I say okay I'd really like to talk to the manager. She's says okay and she also disappears. Then the original female bartender comes by and is like OH WHY DO YOU WANT A MANAGER? And I'm like this service isn't great, are you the manager? Her answer? IM KIND OF A MANAGER IVE BEEN HERE 20 years. I'm like can I please talk to the actual manager? She leaves. We now ask the bar back to PLEASE get us the real manager. After a while some lady comes down who is barely coherent. I think she was in charge of washing the restaurant linens. I told her my grievances. She says (about the two people he was completed occupied by) they just got off shift so they are talking. And then she just pets my arm and says sorry sorry like I'm a cat whose tail got stepped on. And then she went wandering off. CLEARLY this was NOT a manager, in fact I feel like they pulled her randomly from a table. I'm DONE, so I start to pay the check. NOW the original male bartender comes around "Oh I'm sorry was it me? What did I do? Let me make it up to u". This 100% would not have been necessary if he had just provided the bare minimum of service. I paid my bill in cash because I 100% didn't trust them at this point. I told him NO DO NOT WORRY WE WILL NEVER BE BACK. I CAN SPEND MY MONEY IN A MILLION OTHER PLACES. I paid the check, NO TIP. I would not even have paid that check but I didn't want a fight. Do yourself a favor and go to APPLEBEES up the block where the lovely server Melissa works at the bar on the main level with courtesy, promptness and graciousness. read more

Playwright Tavern & Restaurant - Extra rude bartender - American Near Me - New York, New York

So cute! Fun crowd, fun music, great food, we'll be back! It would be such a fun place to have a friends gathering! read more

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The owner is literally so rude. She kicked out me my elder mother and my little brother because we wanted to order an appetizer and drinks. She said she doesn't allow this and that "we know better" to which I had no idea what she was talking about and proceeded to kick us out. Visiting Times Square for the first time DO NOT VISIT THIS RESTAURANT!!! read more

The food was delicious! The servers were super fast and polite. The Shepherds pie is definitely a recommended dish to try. Absolutely amazing! read more

We happened in here looking for a place to get out of the rain and have a midday snack. It was pretty slow, so no problems just walking in. Service was decent- because it was so slow I think sometimes they forgot about us. We got the truffle fries and burrata appetizer. Both were solidly good. The truffle fries were nice and crispy. We would probably come here again if we were in the area but wouldn't necessarily make a special trip over. read more

Grabbed dinner here before a show and had a good time. The restaurant is at the top of a narrow staircase, but luckily it's reasonably spacious once you get up there :) We told the server / host (I think she was serving both roles, and doing an excellent job!) that we had a show at 7 PM, and she told us "Everyone has a show at 7 PM" with a smile on her face. Fair enough! It definitely reassured us that we would be able to eat our food and still get to the show in time. I ordered the shepherd's pie and my wife ordered the mushroom ravioli. The food came reasonably quickly, and my shepherd's pie was decent. Nothing too amazing but it was a hearty portion and wasn't too horribly overpriced (considering the proximity to the theatre, I was expecting worse). My wife really enjoyed her mushroom ravioli - I sampled a piece and thought it was pretty tasty, especially the sauce! As promised, we got in and out quickly and managed to catch our show. I'm not sure I would come here if I wasn't seeing a show at the nearby theatre, but if you're in a situation where you need a decent meal quickly, this place definitely hits the spot. read more

Great service and good food. Felt more like a neighborhood bar than a big city elite scene. I actually enjoyed that the most about it. Truffle fries were cooked perfect and came out piping hot and the wings were cooked perfect. I had low expectations for the wings but wound up being very surprised. I think this was actually my second time here except my first upstairs. Next time we are in town we will probably make this a regular stop. read more

Great spot for either lunch or dinner if you're in the area. Plenty of traditional pub fair options including fish & chips, Guinness stew, and your typical selection of burgers and sandwiches. Guinness runs $10/pint, but I guess to be expected in the area around Broadway and so many shows! Staff was very friendly and quick with our order, so I'd come back here for a drink or quick bite on the way to a nearby venue. read more

Food was great as was the service! Enjoyed the music and sitting by the window watching the city.

Couldn't Even get in :/ We are from out of state and were staying right down the street from this place so we thought we could swing by and grab a drink, wrong. We walk up to the door and a man is sitting on a bar stool with headphones in (I didn't even know if he worked there or not) but he starts demanding for our id's. So my boyfriend who was walking in first pulls his wallet out to show him but says he needs to take the whole id out, so he does. Then he hands his id to the man and the man says I'm not taking that get out and starts yelling at us and honestly just scared me so bad I'm pulling on my boyfriend begging him to leave because he's screaming at the both of us. Btw my boyfriend is about to turn 26 so it's not like we're fresh to the scene. Very disappointed, scared, and confused. We were really looking forward to going there. read more

We have eaten at this location many times and it's always been a good choice. Today, the fish and chips - as they said their signature dish as an Irish pub was less than stellar. The breading was doughy and very thick. I shared this assessment with the server who completely agreed. I was told to let the manager know but it was 20 minutes before I saw her so I proceeded to eat the fish without the breading. When she finally came to our table (because I stopped her) she agreed that it didn't look right. She said I should have let someone know. When I said I had done so, it made no impact. We paid full price for a meal that was, at best, one quarter eaten and I was made to feel that it was my fault. The bartender, while we paid, asked what the manager had said and apologized for that but we still were offered no real apology and definitely any feeling that it would be different in the future. read more

Workers were rude and disrespectful. We came here hoping for a nice, chill vibe and ended up with horrible service and felt rushed to get out. read more

Cute little Irish tavern. You walk in down stairs and THERES a little bar, as you walk up the stairs, there's the sit down restaurant section. Walk around the corner and there's the live music bar. The only thing is the drinks came out super slow as we waited about 10 min To get our four drinks. We weren't able to order at the bar since we took a table. Still a super cute quint place read more

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This place was cute! A few different stories with the top one having live music. The band at the time was really good, playing some good throwbacks. We just went for a few drinks, but each drink we had was delicious. A couple beers and cocktails. read more

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The Playwright is a quick and easy place to get food and drinks near Times Square. The have outdoor seating even during the winter (it's heated no worries). It's mostly Irish food with some other options sprinkled in. I ordered the chicken pot pie which was delicious! read more

Playwright Tavern & Restaurant - Chicken pot pie - American Near Me - New York, New York