Cleopatra's Needle Restaurant & Live Jazz

(212) 769-6969

2485 Broadway (92nd & 93rd Street)
New York, NY 10025 40.79237 -73.97358

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Neighborhoods: Upper West Side, Midtown

cleopatrasneedleny.com

Hours:

Monday and Tuesday 3:30pm-2am Wednesday and Thursday 3:30pm-3am Friday and Saturday 3:30pm-4am Sunday 3pm-2am

Last updated 11.30.11

Category:

Restaurants, Nightclubs, Bars & Clubs, Singles Bars, Bars & Pubs

Payment Methods:

American Express, Visa, Discover, MasterCard

Bar & Pub Special Features:

Bar Menu

Bar & Club Type of Music:

Jazz, Blues

Bar & Club Special Features:

After Work, Live Music

What People Are Saying About Cleopatra's Needle Restaurant & Live Jazz

The Owner

Cleopatra's Needle Restaurant & Live Jazz

Owner

Cleopatra's Needle, named after the famed monument in New York's Central Park, is the world-renowned Upper West Side Jazz nightspot known for serving up food, drinks and hot live jazz to the New York jazz community. Our original cuisine has been featured on TV Food Network's "$40 a day". We have live music every night, featuring the best of New York's jazz scene, and our famous jam sessions have attracted both the up-and-coming and the well-known stars of the jazz world. Admission is free, with only a $10 minimum per person. We also have a big-screen TV, featuring live sports coverage. Come…

Provided by CityGrid

Read more from the owner

Featured Review

Contributor

Contributor

Nightly jazz acts hit the stage at 8pm, and pre-show dinner options include a burger or Meditteranean specialty.

ambiance
100.0% positive
  1. First, we love the live jazz which can be enjoyed in a very relaxing atmosphere.
  2. The place is ever so cozy.
  3. That didn't matter though, the music is lovely, with great service and a pleasant atmosphere!
  4. If you want a "romantic evening", eat early, though, because late at night, the place is packed with jazz musicians (sometimes famous muscians drop in), music students, hipsters and locals.
  5. Wonderful experience and nice decor too.
  6. cozy romantic place to take in the sights of Broadway's Upper Westside and enjoy a glass of red wine and quality food and jazz!
  7. They might try to brush you off if you're mean but they are not servants just restaurant workers in a cozy location.
  8. Luckily, though, Cleo's has retained the funky, creative ambiance it always had, and it's a real piece of New York.
  9. It's a cozy, laid-back place.
  10. No cover charge, a cozy seat by the window , live jazz, and enjoying great food and drinks - what could be better!
  11. While I did not care for the classical jazz that played this particular evening (I prefer contemporary), the atmosphere was great.
  12. The atmosphere is perfect for a NYC village type establishment you might recall from the 1970's.
  13. It looked like a great atmosphere with live jazz and good mediterrean dishes.
dessert
100.0% positive
  1. The chocolate martinis are delicious, the food is great (my favorite dishes are the Chicken Marsala and the Moussaka), and the music is excellent.
drinks
57.14000225067139% positive
  1. No cover charge, a cozy seat by the window , live jazz, and enjoying great food and drinks - what could be better!
  2. cozy romantic place to take in the sights of Broadway's Upper Westside and enjoy a glass of red wine and quality food and jazz!
  3. But other than that, it's just an overpriced (i.e. $8 bottled beers) bar with underwhelming service and mediocre middle eastern style food.
  4. The drinks are expensive and while the coffee and martini drinks are $10-$12, the beer and wine are $7-$9 meaning you will have to buy more than one to meet the minimum.
  5. During happy hour, you can get half price cocktails, then the music starts at 8, and you can enjoy some great jazz.
  6. The food, no matter what they market it as, is mediterranean bar food - poor quilty served by inattentive and impersonal staff.
  7. Best jam sessions, live music, great cocktails, good down-to-earth food, funky vibe- recommended for REAL Jazz fans!
food quality
79.00000095367432% positive
  1. The food, no matter what they market it as, is mediterranean bar food - poor quilty served by inattentive and impersonal staff.
  2. No cover charge, a cozy seat by the window , live jazz, and enjoying great food and drinks - what could be better!
  3. It looked like a great atmosphere with live jazz and good mediterrean dishes.
  4. the food is great!
  5. Anyway, the food was very good, we had a seafood platter special, which we liked.
  6. had a very delightful pasta salad plate full of nice slices of tomatoes, carrots, green peppers and meaty fresh mushrooms at such a good price.
  7. The chocolate martinis are delicious, the food is great (my favorite dishes are the Chicken Marsala and the Moussaka), and the music is excellent.
  8. But other than that, it's just an overpriced (i.e. $8 bottled beers) bar with underwhelming service and mediocre middle eastern style food.
  9. We had a great time--the food is tasty too.
  10. It's basic, good food, without any frills.
  11. Second, the food is terrific.
  12. The menu is so authentic!
  13. Best jam sessions, live music, great cocktails, good down-to-earth food, funky vibe- recommended for REAL Jazz fans!
  14. The food is mediocre and the service is horrible.
  15. The Moussaka is my favorite dish, but the seafood and Chicken here is also excellent.
  16. enjoyed my meal, and didn?
  17. The food was good, healthy, hearty and not too spicy.
  18. The food was extremely overpriced and overrated anyway.
  19. The food here is great!
  20. cozy romantic place to take in the sights of Broadway's Upper Westside and enjoy a glass of red wine and quality food and jazz!
menu variety
100.0% positive
  1. The menu is great becuase there are so many choices.
  2. The menu is so authentic!
  3. The music was somewhat okay, but there are other jazz places around with more affordable prices and a better menu.
overall
100.0% positive
  1. There is no cover charge, it's a great, lively hip crowd, and a mellow dimly-lit place for couples.
service
41.66999816894531% positive
  1. would post such odd somewhat rude replies to customers.
  2. Place is nicely clean and all staff is very friendly.
  3. The staff that waited on us was especially attentive ?
  4. As I would expect very little in the way of good customer service from a restaurant that responds so RUDELY to past customers.
  5. Lousy Food and Lousy customer service
  6. But other than that, it's just an overpriced (i.e. $8 bottled beers) bar with underwhelming service and mediocre middle eastern style food.
  7. The food is mediocre and the service is horrible.
  8. Our waiter was a little weird and bumbling, but that was no big deal.
  9. The waitress was helpful, and gave us good suggestions.
  10. That didn't matter though, the music is lovely, with great service and a pleasant atmosphere!
  11. Horrible service
  12. The food, no matter what they market it as, is mediterranean bar food - poor quilty served by inattentive and impersonal staff.
value
47.5% positive
  1. The food was extremely overpriced and overrated anyway.
  2. The drinks are expensive and while the coffee and martini drinks are $10-$12, the beer and wine are $7-$9 meaning you will have to buy more than one to meet the minimum.
  3. But other than that, it's just an overpriced (i.e. $8 bottled beers) bar with underwhelming service and mediocre middle eastern style food.
  4. My Chicken Massala was expensive and (far worse) uneatable.
  5. had a very delightful pasta salad plate full of nice slices of tomatoes, carrots, green peppers and meaty fresh mushrooms at such a good price.
  6. understand that you may sacrifice some quality for good value.
  7. During happy hour, you can get half price cocktails, then the music starts at 8, and you can enjoy some great jazz.
  8. The music was somewhat okay, but there are other jazz places around with more affordable prices and a better menu.
1 Star Rating: Poor

01/05/12

Rudest Most Idiotic Management Ever

by Nyasha at Citysearch

Wost experience ever at a restaurant or so-called jazz club. I went in to patronize the place and see my friend at the open mic session on Wed night. I took a seat by the bar and ordered a Riesling wine as there was a cover. The bartender asked for payment, so I pulled out a $10 bill. The $10 bill turned out to be two bills stuck together. One fell in the bar area as I tried to pull the two bills apart. The bartender saw the bill fall in the bar area and proceeded to look for it for about 15 minutes. When he couldn't find it, he demanded that I pay again. I told him that the Riesling was not worth $20 and asked him to keep searching in his area. A bit later, in the middle of a performance, the manager came up to me (obviously called by the idiotic bartender) and said to me very aggressively "You did not pay for your drink." I explained the situation but the rude, obnoxious manager Mahen insisted that I pay again. Which I did, after complaining loudly to the other guests who did not seem to be surprised, and left the restaurant. I hope that when they find my $10 under the bar, they can use it to invest in some customer service training. Thanks but I don't need the money!

Rude, obnoxious, possibly racist, and unaware of Customer Service 101.

5 Star Rating: Highly Recommended

08/26/11

This is the best restaurant in America

by Alwahsh at Citysearch

I went to have dinner at this ausome restaurant with my family as one of my friends recommended it . They have great Live jazz with no cover charge and their food is great . The service is ausome and everything was OK . I don't think I'll go to any other restaurant after I knew this one but next time , I'll have to catch the happy hour .

1 Star Rating: Poor

05/29/11

NEVER AGAIN!

by Zazou at Citysearch

Never again! I have never written a food review before, but I have to share what has just happened at Cleopatra's Needle to warn unsuspecting potential patrons.

I moved around the corner about 6 months ago and was curious to try it, so I went in with my visiting mum and a friend of hers this evening.

When the time came to order, I made sure to specify I wanted the moussaka with meat. After the server brought our food and we started digging in, I quickly realized that the horribly over-cooked piece on my plate was the vegetarian version of it (with mushrooms and cabbage, which are not in the meat version, and no meat). I decided to stick with it, but I called our server to let him know of the situation and to ask him to charge me for the vegetarian moussaka only (about $3 cheaper).

Once I had finished my plate, he came back and told me that the chef had stated that today the meat moussaka had mushrooms in it and that the meat was under, which was complete bull. I can tell when I eat meat or not, and there was not a speck of it in the piece I got.

The rest of our meal was mediocre (chicken marsala was completely dry, the vegetables were straight from the freezer as was the cheesecake, which was as compact as a brick. And since when does béchamel sauce have tomato in it?!).

They still charged me for the meat moussaka, at which point I just paid for it and barely left a tip. Looking around, we eventually realized that there were way many more people drinking at the bar than eating at the tables, and now we know why.

The jazz was OK, but that's beside the point. The food was a total disaster, the service non-existent and the attitude when confronted with their mistake despicable. There are enough very good restaurants on the UWS to be able to say to Cleopatra's Needle: Never again.

4 Star Rating: Recommended

09/26/10

Food is good, drinks are great.

by johnrod7 at Citysearch

Nice place to spend an evening listening to great jazz

5 Star Rating: Highly Recommended

11/16/09

Best atmosphere, music, Martinis, value.

by marstodd at Citysearch

Great BeBop at times. The atmosphere is perfect for a NYC village type establishment you might recall from the 1970's. Very relaxing so don't be uptight. If you are prudish or very fussy it might irritate you with it's homey feel. Place is nicely clean and all staff is very friendly. They might try to brush you off if you're mean but they are not servants just restaurant workers in a cozy location. Good selection of Martinis and Wine. Sit in the window and watch the street in the snow. Wonderful experience and nice decor too. I am a sometimes regular customer only.

  • Pros: great live music and NYC atmosphere
  • Cons: Musicians sometimes are a bit amateur but no problem

The Details on Cleopatra's Needle Restaurant & Live Jazz

Place Categories:

  • great downtoearth food
  • cozy romantic mellow dimlylit place
  • love live jazz
  • horrible customer service
  • nice live music
  • great atmosphere
  • mediocre middle eastern style food
  • worst experience
  • best jam sessions
  • affordable better menu
  • especially attentive staff
  • favorite dish
  • great drinks
  • uneatable my chicken massala
  • affordable price
  • bumbling waiter
  • very talented piano trio
  • enjoy glass
  • good value
  • cozy seat
  • bad place
  • very delightful plate
  • sometimes famous muscians drop
  • creative ambiance
  • cozy location

Message from Cleopatra's Needle Restaurant & Live Jazz

  • Live Jazz EVERY NIGHT 8PM
  • Authenti Mediterranean Cuisine
  • Daily H.H. WITH BIG SCREEN TV

Cleopatra's Needle, named after the famed monument in New York's Central Park, is the world-renowned Upper West Side Jazz nightspot known for serving up food, drinks and hot live jazz to the New York jazz community. Our original cuisine has been featured on TV Food Network's "$40 a day".

We have live music every night, featuring the best of New York's jazz scene, and our famous jam sessions have attracted both the up-and-coming and the well-known stars of the jazz world.

Admission is free, with only a $10 minimum per person. We also have a big-screen TV, featuring live sports coverage. Come by and enjoy our great food and music!

The daily music schedule is as follows; Mon & Tues 8pm -1am, Wed & Thurs 7pm-3am, Fri & Sat 8pm-3am and Sun 4pm-4am.

bigapplejazz.com

wbgo.org

allaboutjazz.com

maher@cleopatrasneedleny.com

NO COVER

Cleopatra's Needle Restaurant & Live Jazz

Happy Hour

Happy Hour is every day 3:30pm-7;30pm. 1/2 price in all cocktails, wine by glass and all other drinks are reduced.

Cleopatra's Needle Restaurant & Live Jazz - 2485 BroadwayNew York, NY10025 - (212) 769-6969

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