Silver Lyan

A few friends met before our dinner reservation upstairs. Depending on which side of the building you enter, it's hard to even know there's a bar in the basement. So if you enter on the restaurant side, walk through to take the stairs or elevators down. You'll enter through a pretty, but simple curtain making it feel like going into a secret speakeasy hidden in plain sight. It kind of gives 'clandestine midweek meetings with someone who isn't your legal spouse' vibes downstairs. The service didn't disappoint. I can't speak much on the drinks because I stuck with the wine I started with upstairs. However, friends RAVED about their gorgeous drinks. Again, our server, whose name escapes me, was attentive and friendly. We were a group of 5 by that time when most other groups were onesies and twosies. But she was on it! I can't speak on the food downstairs because we didn't eat any. Once our reservation time came, our group went upstairs to be seated in the main dining area. I'll review that separately since the upstairs has a different name.

Really cool vibe inside here. Server was nice. The whole place was wide open when I walked in and I wanted a table for 1 person. The hostess looked at their tablet and told me they couldn't sit me at a table, but could sit me at their communal couch. I was in and out in less than 20 minutes, so this was stupid. Anyways, drink was pretty good, but definitely felt pretentious. Don't even think there was 1.5oz worth of total liquid in my glass. The ice cube took up 95% of the glass for around $20. I advise to probably skip this one unless you don't care about spending $100 to get the equivalent of two drinks.

I visited two speakeasy style places while in DC. I highly recommend Silver Lyan.The hotel itself is cool, built into an old bank. The Silver Lyan I think was the vault. It's downstairs and the experience of going from the bright and formal lobby to the intimate and vibey section downstairs sets the tone.I walk in, and they are jamming "when they reminisce over you" by Pete rock and CL smooth. Now that is some speakeasy vibe. Proper underground music in an underground vault. Now we are talking!The obscure music continued. It wasn't all hip hop. Just proper speakeasy underground vibes.The menu had these wonky stories for each drink that were hilarious because they made no sense at all and seemed to have no point! They were just these ridiculous tales. Perfect!I told the bartender by normal mixed drink taste and she whipped up a concoction for me. It was complex, savory, and a bit spicy. It was actually pretty good, but just not my vibe for a drink. She was already prepared for me not to like it but I said it was good. Still, she could sense that I didn't love it and she immediately brought something else. I would have been fine if she charged me for both but they kindly took the first drink off. Second drink was delicious with whisky citrus and bitters if I recall. They were serving a modified menu due to a private party upstairs. I got the Riggs burger. It was fantastic. Just a big ole delicious burger and fries. As the night wore on the music became more upbeat and the crowd poured in. I also had the ceviche and pizza rolls from their normal menu. Rockfish ceviche tacos were mild and delicious. I wish they had home made salsa to go with them is my only complaint. They had bottled hot sauce. The pizza rolls were fine but I'd probably skip them. They were basically cheese sticks with pepperoni. Not sure what I was expecting haha but these weren't bad but nothing exciting either.Service was friendly. They were very busy soIt wasn't chatty chatty but they were friendly and fast. We shared a joke and quip here and there. Crowd was fun friendly and social.Silver Lyan is everything Allegory is trying to be and wishes it was.I came back the next night for drinks and had an equally good time. I highly recommend the Silver Lyan.

The experience is great and the design concept are really cool. You go into a musky hotel walk downstairs to the old Bank vault which is really cool really good playlist of music the whole time. The drinks and food are all based on a storyline or series of different story lines. The bad thing is the drinks are lovely but very low on alcohol content. Ubique concepts drinks the paso flores and the daisy ginger drinks with very little alcohol . The mushroom wraps were nice but disproportionately distributed between the mushroom and mango. The tater tots were good

Super cool speakeasy located at the bottom level of a bank recommended by my DC based friend. We all met up here for post-dinner drinks and had the best time. The lychee martinis were incredible and I loved the little chocolate coin they give you at the end. Such a vibey atmosphere with lots of interesting corners to lounge in and enjoy an evening with friends. Service was super quick and attentive as well. Highly recommend and can't wait to come back next time I visit!

The place was buzzing on a winter, weekday evening, but the host was generous and seated us right away. We had to scoot out in 90 mins so a reservation could have our place- perfect amount of time. Everyone in my party of 4 ordered something different and perfectly to our tastes. Sharp, fruity, dramatic, bitter? Covered. I ordered a Boozeless Lovejoy's Law. Typically, Boozeless (aka virgin) drinks are some form of soda with a splash of additional flavors. They are always carbonated, even if carbonation is also a problem. Not at Silver Lyan. My drink was flavorful, complicated, a really drink, and not at all bubbly. I can't wait to get another. I was also incredibly impressed with how I could hear and be heard in the bar. Definitely a value add from the many loud bars around DC

I present to you, a haiku:Whispers in the vault,Silver Lyan's secrets hum,History pours here.Decent drinks and service. Do not go there with an appetite -- suited for late night noshing. We made an impromptu stop on a Saturday night so there was a bit of a wait. Not a big deal as we were able to hang out at Cafe Riggs (bar upstairs) until they were ready to seat us. Free gumballs :)

Absolutely love this place. There drinks all have stories behind them so it's so fun to pick a drink. Would highly recommend the jello shots. I wish that they still had the variety of fruit jello shots, however we learned that they are always changing the menue so there's always something to come back for!

I love a good speakeasy and I was thrilled to finally try Silver Lyan last week after grabbing a late Sunday dinner at Cafe Riggs. After dinner with some friends we were in the mood to hang for a bit longer and lucky for us there was a speakeasy right underneath us! Our group of 4 went downstairs around 10 pm and were able to get a table right away with no reservation. We walked through some dimly lit 2 person tables to the back where there were couches and bigger tables for groups. Surrounding the tables were cabinets of trophies, pinks booths, mini lamps, and wood paneling. And on the tables were menus with with cool leaflets(?) to make the pages pop and give you that cutesy speakeasy vibe.Our waiter came by right away and brought us waters while we looked through our menus. I must admit the names and descriptions of drinks are rather unique so you may need a little help making a decision. I opted for the drink that included "sunshine" and tequila because you can't go wrong with those! It was very refreshing and a nice wrap to the evening.I believe they did last call around 11 pm, but I'm not sure if that was just for our table based on reservations or when they close. So we went ahead and closed out and dropped off some chocolate silver coins and we were on our way. Truthfully I get the hype and will definitely be back. I'm a fan of Cafe Riggs and will be sure to add this as my "next spot" moving forward!

This is the definition of a instagram TikTok bar done right! There's plenty of fun gimmicks like the ~6ft gum ball machine outside with actual gum balls to take and the decor of trophies. Ok, maybe saying this is TikTok bar is a bit much since it isn't the greatest for photos in the dim lighting but they have an eclectic selection of drinks from Jell-O shots to savory cocktails based on women's rights. Is there a distinct connection to their themes? No, but you're going to have fun trying the drinks and exploring the menu while you're here. For my drink, I couldn't help myself. I had to pull from my university roots and ordered a passion fruit Jell-O shot (which came with a sparkling wine shooter/chaser). I thought this was very good for its price, given that everything is going to be pricey in a hotel bar. If you're here with a large group, you should start off the night with this shot. What's more fun than that? Oh and the wait staff was friendly and no complaints there.