Ravari Room

We enjoyed our Hound Dog's pizza in the adjacent Ravari Room. You enter through the same door for both. The atmosphere of the Ravari Room is very cool, with almost monastery vibes. There is a lot to look at, our server/bartender was great, drinks were good and the pizza was awesome. Overall, it's a good spot to hang out and have some food and drinks.

Ravari Room is the best bar on north campus. Most people come here because of Hounddog's. Not coincidentally, that's the best pizza on north campus. As for the bar, it's good on it's own. There's often live music and cheap drinks good to pair with a pizza. Bar is unassuming from the outside. Entrance is the same as Hounddog's. You actually have to go through the restaurant to get there. At night there's usually a security guard checking IDs at the point you go between. They also might charge a cover when there's live music. It seems most nights there isn't. That's okay because you can get cheap drinks, which helps with the pizza since that's kind of pricey. Overall it's the best of this cluster of bars. Each bar has it's own sense of cool. The other ones aren't attached to a kickass pizza place though.

Are we sure this isn't just... you know... Hounddogs?Anyways. Whatever it's called, I really like this place. (On a Wednesday with no band, just to be specific.) The service was super nice, the pizza was amazing, they had things I actually want to drink on draft (I'm super picky about beer etc), and the chairs were comfortable and actually invited lingering for a while.The music wasn't even too loud to have a conversation. Well played, This Place, whatever you're called now.

My favorite bars and nightclubs around Columbus are usually favorites because they are really great for a certain type of show. For Ravari Room, this is the place to see metal. How this happened, I'll never know. But I couldn't imagine seeing an acoustic show or pop-punk show here.The place is dark and covered in brick, giving it the feeling of a basement or perhaps a dungeon (hmm, I think I figured out why it's good for metal shows). I love that the bar is in the center of the room, and you can be served from all angles. I usually take a high backed wooden booth with friends, where I can peer through the brick arches to the stage.The atmosphere is relaxed enough for me, even during metal shows (Columbus has the BEST metal crowd ever, I will fight anyone who says otherwise). I can flank the stage if I feel like getting up front, and being the short little girl that I am, I'm never harassed by my taller burly metal heads.My experience is that this is not your neighborhood bar. I've never struck up a friendly conversation with the bartenders. It's all business - "Beer. Thanks" with money exchanged and tip left behind.One of the major perks about going to Ravari Room is that you can enjoy some of the best pizza in Columbus by just walking into the next room. Ravari Room is adjunct to Hound Dogs and you can order your pizza, go back to watching your show and then pick up said pizza 10 minutes later and bring it back into Ravari Room.Shows will sell out at Ravari Room, so if you have the ability to buy tickets ahead of time you should do so. Parking can be a bitch too, so carpool or take a cab.

You come here for the cheap happy hour, the people watching, and its proximity to Hound Dogs. Oh, and Clampdown.The happy hour? Cheap. The clientele? Hipster. American Apparel and Urban outfitters crowd, mixed with a group of guys with beards in that hobo/lumberjack get-up. Clampdown? Crowded, hot sweaty mess of hipsters and drunken emo kids.The acts are all over the place (Fu Manchu was here once, I've seen Anna and the Annadroids here as well, and seen Dave Pajo a few times hanging out) but it's not the best location because the view to the stage is narrow, and outside of a weekday, it's crowded as fuck.I would say it's sole clientele is the local hipster crowd, but I've seen a wide range of people here that constantly surprises me. The great bartenders and awesome people watching always bring me back.

The Ravari Room is at the top of my list of bars that never gets enough attention from my friends and I. Whether it's for a show of the metal/stoner rock variety or a night of pool with surly hesher/biker types, Ravari Room is always a high-caliber place to spend the evening. The layout of the bar is simple and inviting, with a bar in the middle and a handful of seating options located in all directions. The booths on the north end of the bar are great for groups, while the tables on the south end are good for posting up with a friend or two before moving on to another location. There's a few pool tables in the back that always receive a lot of action as well.The crowd here is a mixed bag at all times, but the general vibe I get from this place is that it's a popular watering hole for stoner/dude-rock types and their tattooed girlfriends. The jukebox is stocked accordingly with plenty of Clutch, Fu Manchu (a band that's been known to play a show or two here in their time), High on Fire, Motorhead, The Misfits, and a hundred other bands with similar headbanging tendencies. It may sound scary to some, but they're generally an amicable group of folks that's easy to share the bar with.Live shows here have become increasingly frequent in the past couple of years, and the ones I've seen here were impressive. The sound guy does a superior job at mixing some of the heaviest bands you'll see on such a small stage, and I've never been disappointed by a guitar solo or sludged out riff that's blasted it's way out of the Ravari Room's PA. Drink prices here are average, but the all-day every-day $1.50 PBR draft special is clearly a deciding factor in the popularity of this north campus hangout. I've crawled out of there after having been fed numerous whiskey shots as well, which leads me to believe that some night of the week there involves cheap well shots. If I could remember the details, they'd certainly be here, but I don't even remember how I got home that night, let alone how much the most generous shots I've had in a long time were. Thank you, Ravari Room. You will always be my go-to boozery when I find myself sober and north of Hudson Street.

A decent bar and an okay venue, back when they had a decent promoter. The bar has a lot of angles from which you can't see the stage, which kind of sucks. There is also a gigantic island bar that is probably twice as large as it should be. They do serve a good amount of excellent microbrews like Stone's Arrogant Bastard (and Double Bastard when it's available). They used to have an incredible happy hour special for a pie from next door and some beer.They've got some attractive and friendly bartenders, as most bars do or should, and I've got a number of friends who do or have worked there. Oh, one of the co-owners of Circus used to bartend there as well. There are two or three pool tables, a pinball machine, and darts to boot. Karaoke Tuesdays were a big deal for a while. Not sure if it still is. Stupid dance party one Saturday a month too. Don't go, it's full of twats. Not the good kind.The Dwarves on NYE years back was awesome. Black Knots shows were awesome ($400 bar tab? We weren't buying it). Fu Manchu and Valient Thorr, awesome. The shows are gone now though!I haven't really gone back much in a few years...right around the time I broke up with an employee, lost my fifty percent discount, and was sort of banned from returning. lulz.

+ Clampdown. Flailing, sweaty hipster dance party.+ Karaoke. One of the most fun crowds/hosts around town for it.+ Hounddogs. This pizza joint deserves a review of its own from me, but... it needs a mention, because it's part of what makes Ravari awesome.+ Ton o' seating at the bar, booths, tables (though these tend to go quick on the weekends) + a sectioned-off pool table area + $1 domestics and wells during happy hour til 9. Not sure what else is on special, as I've never been here this early.- Questionable prices for craft beer. I was charged $7 for a bottle of Two Hearted last time I was here?!?!- Unsavory bathrooms- Inadequate parking

Ravari Room is the best of both worlds in the system of the Old North bar scene. You can get Hound Dog's pizza and you can get good beer. Shoot some darts while enjoying a hot pizza? Sign me up! We kept it simple on our last trip, hung out at the bar and watched AMC while eating a huge, greasy, all-meat pizza and guzzling CBC pale ale (half the calories if you eat in the dark, right?). Great happy hour until 9pm, too. $1 drafts! If you come here for a show, beware - it is LOUD and the acoustics are brain-jarring. But you're probably into that kind of thing, so no big deal.

As I signed up for Yelp (finally), I knew that my first official review HAD to be for Ravari Room. I honestly cannot tell you how many times I've been to this establishment. During college, my friends and I would come here for their happy hour at least once a week. This was back in the day of the $10 pizza and a pitcher deal, which has disappeared and re-emerged with a higher price in the last few years. It has also cleaned up a bit over the course of time, with better seating and surprisingly, much better service. I never came here for the service- which used to consist of an apathetic attitude so intense that I figured it must be a requirement. I'm digressing. What you need to know about Ravari is this:1. Their happy hour is epic. 3-9PM EVERY DAY with ridiculously cheap pitchers and well drinks. I can't say I have any clue what the draft or bottle list is like here, as I can't pass up the cheap domestic and well prices. 2. The pizza next door is hands-down the BEST in Columbus. I don't care if you think I'm wrong. Also, you can order it at the bar. Remember to ask for the Smokin' Joes crust.3. Unassuming clientele. It doesn't matter who you are or what you look like, you will not feel out of place here. There are dudes in skinny jeans sitting next to aging metalheads. You never know what will play on the jukebox. They offer karaoke, trivia, and the Clampdown dance party. It's also a small music venue, mostly for metal shows. There have been several occasions where I came in early enough to not know that a loud angry band would be starting at 10pm. No biggie, just not really my scene.While Ravari will always hold a place in my heart, it's a helluva great bar on it's own.