Lantern's Keep

Wildly expensive, delicious cocktails. The bartender is taciturn but polite and the atmosphere is lovely.

What a cozy nostalgic speak easy. We stopped in before a show. It's in back of the hotel. The entrance is big unmarked blue doors. When you enter it feels as if you stepped back in time. The cocktail selection was great. The food was delicious. Homemade onion dip, charcuterie, pigs in blankets. The waiter was super helpful, and attentive.

Loved the ambiance. Service is friendly and kind. It's a really small bar located inside a small hotel. Decor is speakeasy. Drinks are good and it's not loud eventhough it's packed. You take people here that you like - and with whom conversation is invigorating, interesting. Everyone here looked so engrossed in their conversations... Clean and comfortable bathrooms - not to be taken likely. Not good for large groups. We stopped in before going to the Gershwin Theater for a show. It was conveniently located. We got drinks and appetizers. I would definitely stop in again if I'm in that area.

Swanky intimate hotel bar that had delicious cocktails. I walked in around 6:30 PM mid week and had no issue getting a table for 2 for drinks.

Stopped by Lantern's Keep to meet some friends for a drink prior to a show. It's located inside the the Iroquois hotel so it's a little harder to find (this is a good thing). We got there when it opened and easily got a booth, but it filled up quickly. The drinks/wine were good and reasonably priced for the area. The biggest problem was there was only one person working in the entire place. He did an incredible job given the number of people, but the drinks took a little long to come. That being said, I would definitely stop here for a drink prior to catching a show!

Awesome as the first time I was invited here. Fabulous drinks, competent attentive , nice staff, sexy atmosphere! Intimate, moody, crushed blue velvet seating, bar and tables available and a love seat. Great selection of top shelf alcohol. Bar eats were tasty too! I had The Brown Citrus - refreshing, light , used knobbs creek bourbon. Devils on horseback - dates wrapped in bacon - yumm. The music here is also terrific!

For shame.This became a small institution of a bar that could truly make you a"hell of one"That has ceased.If you do the former "keepers choice" when asked of known drinks by a versed bartender. ( forget the nonsense twisty fools named mixologist) your return might be beyond sub par.Perhaps just part with the name because this I know now, it's Lanterns Queef.

On a Saturday night, one person working. Why would management think this is OK? On a weeknight, service is also slow, and the vibe is just strange. Pre-COVID, this was the best cocktail bar in Midtown.

Revising my previous positive review. The service is horrible. I recommend avoiding until service improves.

As others have explained post-COVID Lantern's Keep has no relationship or similarity to pre-COVID Lantern's Keep. Pre-COVID, as recently as 2019, it still held onto much of what had put it at the top of multiple "best bar" listings. Skilled bartenders making excellent craft cocktails, a curated small bites menu. This is not that. When I last visited, the bartender was an older man who appeared to either be new to bartending, or at least a novice at anything other than 2-ingredient well drinks. When I was in, it relatively soon after opening for the evening. I was at the bar; there were two men seated at a table nearby. I asked for a drink off the new menu, which appeared to be a standard "hotel bar program" menu, not the one that had existed before. The dude pulled out a menu book and dithered over it before slowly making the drink. I ordered some food, and was told it was out of stock. Tried other things -- also out of stock. Ended up having hummus and carrot sticks, because it was pretty much the only thing they had available. It took about 15 minutes for me to get my drink in a nearly empty bar. I then watched the guy take the other folks order, and slowlllllly make the two drinks, one at a time -- not in parallel. I hear him deliver them, and heard them complain that the drinks were not what they ordered/not what they would expect of pretty straightforward classic cocktail orders. Meanwhile, another woman came and sat at the bar, and waited, and waited, and waited. Probably 10 minutes before she was acknowledged, and another 15 before she got a drink. I closed out my tab and left, after warning her she might want to find another bar. I don't know what happened here. As far as I can tell, the unique bar program originally helmed by Meagan Dorman was dismantled/discarded before the pandemic. What they have now loooooks like a remote bar program created by some corporate hotel folks, meant to be put together by folks who have no craft bartending skill, but are just making the menu drinks to spec. If they've gotten better at making those, well, I guess that's great -- but this is not a good cocktail bar any more. Go to "Nothing Really Matters" on 50th. Go to the Raines Law Room. Either will get you a great cocktail for less money.