Catbirds

Not sure who the incredibly rude person is that shooed us away today, but we parked in this strip center in front of this bar to go to the shop next door for ice cream (in an unmarked parking spot). As myself, 2 children AND A BABY IN A CAR SEAT unloaded, someone from this bar came out and told us " I hope you are coming HERE to drink, because those parking spots are reserved for this bar and I'll be sure you're towed". OBVIOUSLY (with two children and a baby) we were not going to the bar. Instead, we were taking a 10 minute ice cream break, at 3:30PM on a Saturday after a day at the museum. Even after explaining that, he rudely shrugged us off and walked away. After a mess trying to street park (and note, pushing a stroller through gravel...!) The owner of the ice cream shop informed us that they did not have a right to reserve any spots per their lease! Look... i get needing to do everything you can to get business through the door, but that's exactly what we were doing for the business next to this bar, and this was a SUPER negative experience to have, especially with little ones in tow. A little bit of kindness goes a long way.

Such an unexpected wonderful find on a Saturday night! Went on a night out trying bars around Houston with a friend, and on our way to Anvil (which of course is uh-mazing) we popped into this little spot because it looked so lovely, friendly and inviting. Guess what? It was! People were chill, kind, chatty. Crowd was a mix of basic conservative Houston (25-35) with some 30-45ish millennial hipster/GenX "alterna" types in the mix. The bartender made a super tasty basil gimlet that was solid. Unpretentious bar that still knows how to make cocktails! Would be a lovely local spot if I lived here. Seems like a spot you could go to to hang with friends, go to before hitting a more packed club later, go on a 3rd date, a 3 year date, or even meet someone to date. Thank you Catbirds!

When you need to visit a bar on Caturday you better make hecka sure that the name involves the word "cat." Catbirds is a Houston institution in that it is one of the last remaining /dive bars/ in the Montrose area where million dollar townhouses and developers fueled by oil money greed and excesses have rubbed out nearly all of the more interesting elements of the creative class enclave over the past several years. You can even buy cigarettes here. There is a lit up Camel sign on the wall leading towards the restrooms and packages of a variety of Camel lines (including Camel Crush) are on the right hand side of the bar. It smells nice and smokey when the door to the patio briefly swings open and close - it reminds me of a kinder and gentler Houston back in the aughts when going out to a bar included coming home smelling nice and smokey regardless of whether or not you had smoked anything. But now Houston is just like Palo Alto where smokers are relegated to the third class of citizenry and the nonsmoker vanguard say smarmy things like "nobody has ever died of second hand heroin" unlike second hand smoke.Catbirds still looks the same as it did when it first opened, or more accurately for a point in time and space when I first moseyed on in new to the Houston scene back in the aughts. It's nice that some things never change. This is like that bar in Cheers except most of the patrons are hipsters with great big bushy beards, tats, and a fuckton of extreme piercings on and around the facial region. It's not the kind of bar you would bring your mother to for a genteel and sophisticated $11 cocktail (like at Stone's Throw across the street) because she would be under the assumption that you live more of an unorthodox hardcore S&M sex dungeon lifestyle than you actually do given your advanced level of Star Wars knowledge. With that being said, it is so /dive bar/ it is an enjoyable experience once you get past all of the negatives. Well drinks are $3.50 on special during a Caturday afternoon so you can have not just "tee many martoonies" in the parlance of Elliot Richards - but three many without even denting your pocketbook.Since it caters to "regulars" in a very cult-like (exclusive) way if the bartender(s) don't know you on a first name basis to discuss which of your mutual friends have been hookin' up lately, then you get prioritized last for your drink order. I learned some new "adult content" from the patrons that I did not need to even look up on urbandictionary on my iPhone, I got the mental picture from their stories. And based on those stories that young lady needs to spend more time in church, just sayin'As a non-regular I am of the opinion that the service is not very good. It took 20 minutes to place the order for our first round of drinks even though there were only seven other people in the bar, with none of them actually needing another drink at the moment besides me and my drinkin' companion. 20 minutes is as incomprehensibly bad as the service at OKRA to glare at a bartender just chatting up their homeys meanwhile I am dying over here in need of a drink. We nearly left to go back across the street to Stone's Throw. It's a tiny bar and it is obvious when two gentlesirs walk in, sit down at the bar, and require sustenance in the form of party liquors because why else would they be sitting there instead of the bar at the TGI Fridays out by the airport?Service is not that great for a bar (dive bar or not) if they make you wait a long time to get your hooch, the place is hella dirty too ... I know it's a dive bar but a good wash behind the ears might be all she needs to turn from the side chick you hesitantly tell your friends about into wifey material that you tell everyone and their mother about.The longer my drinkin' companion and I stayed the more I softened up to the place. In need of a second round of drinks it only took 10 minutes of obvious groaning and complaining before we got to place the order, and then the drinks came out quite expediently. Later on when the popcorn machine was fired up the bartender brought over a styrofoam cup for us. It is unique for such a grimy dive bar to still be standing in Montrose, I will give it that. I think they could vastly improve their star quality on the yelp dot com if they got brothers their hooch more quickly - work first, disgusting sex talk with other patrons later when nobody else inside the bar is trying to order their next round.

No! No! No! Don't go here!! Unless of course you want to be treated rudely. I'll explain.I was bar hopping around the Montrose area, and I just heard some positive things about this place which has been here for quite some time. It looked nice on the interior. Good spacing, sort of looked like an actual restaurant with a good sized patio. Nice sized bar too, probably holds about 20 people. However, when I requested a Coors light, the bartender asked for my ID. Of course I am only 21 and I look 15, so you know the story. When he talked to his assistant, he said that "he doesn't feel comfortable serving me" even though I am clearly 21 on my ID! I then said "I'm 21 as of last September." He simply told me to go try somewhere else... whatever. I had no idea that this bar was discriminate in people that don't look their age. I guess they literally judged the book by the cover this time. I won't be back. Obviously the people who work here are really rude and won't have the common decency to just serve people who are of age to drink. It's too bad I didn't get to try the good drinks they had... I just wanted to try a good dive bar here, but I guess they just disregard proper ID's. I won't be back for my business, that's for sure. Worst bar experience ever!

This is my favorite little neighborhood dive bar for the montros area. Great music, stiff drinks and they sell local artist artwork. I love that about this place

I've been to Catbirds twice and had a good time each time. This dive bar located in Montrose is a cool place to grab some drinks if you're looking for a casual, and unpretentious, time. Located off of Westheimer, they don't have their own parking lot but you should be able to find street parking close by. They have both an indoor area and a narrow patio. I've sat in both areas. The drinks are reasonably priced. You have a hipster vibe. Sometimes they play music. Check it out.

Great place! Classic "dive bar" but withe really clean restrooms! Also excellent whiskey and tequila selections. Apparently the owner Bobby goes out and visits some places where these delicious liquors are made.

I've been here a few times before and it was always fine. Came by yesterday when we were bar hopping for my 31st birthday. I ordered 11 green tea shots and it took the bartender like 25 min to make it. My friend was watching him make them and he didn't make enough so he filled the last two shots with just sweet and sour. My other friend asked him on the way out how they make them (half of us are in the service industry) and they didn't want to tell her. The other bartender was kinda snarky saying they aren't a shot bar and we basically had no business ordering green tea shots. I love chill dive bars but I didn't appreciate the way everything went down. I regret the tip I gave and probably won't be back.

I don't understand why bars have to have the WORST customer service... and this one is NO DIFFERENT. Terrible customer service. You're in Montrose, go somewhere else 0/10

Great dive bar vibe. Friendly bartenders. The ideal ambiance, this place is exactly what you want a bar called Catbirds to be. Also cool artwork for sale on walls.