Best Happy Hours in NYC

Right now, your safest bets are the bars whose window is basically “we’re open.” John Doe Craft Bar in NoMad runs happy hour 11am–8pm every day, with $1 oysters the entire time. Lily’s in Astoria advertises happy hour all day, every day — doors at noon on weekdays, 10am on weekends. Ray’s in Greenpoint is all day Sunday through Tuesday, then until 8pm Wednesday through Saturday. If it’s already past 8pm, the deal has moved late: Little Rebel in the East Village reopens its happy hour 10pm–2am Monday to Thursday, and Rivercrest on Ditmars does the same. The live board at the top of this page shows what’s running across the city at this exact minute.

4pm to 7pm on weekdays is the default, and most of the city sticks to it. The useful part is the exceptions. Earliest real starts: John Doe in NoMad and Little Rebel in the East Village both open the deal at 11am, and Saar Indian Bistro near Times Square runs 1:30–4:30pm — a lunch deal wearing a happy hour name tag. Latest: Little Rebel and Rivercrest both run a second window 10pm–2am, Monday to Thursday, and Harry’s Side Bar on Stone Street opens a 10–11pm window nightly. We publish the exact window for every venue, because showing up at 7:01 is how a $12 cocktail becomes a $19 one.

For pure value, John Doe Craft Bar (253 5th Ave, NoMad): $1 oysters across a nine-hour window, 11am–8pm, seven days. Nothing else in Manhattan matches that ratio of hours to price. For the steepest cut, Down the Hatch in the West Village takes half off every drink, Mon–Fri 2–7pm, and keeps $5 Michelob Ultra and Tecate going from open until 4am daily. For a room actually worth sitting in, The Rabbit Hole in Astoria: $4 shots, $5 beers, $6 wines, $7 cocktails, Mon–Fri 5–8pm. The verdict: John Doe if you want the most drinking hours per dollar, Down the Hatch if you want the biggest discount, The Rabbit Hole if you want both and don’t mind the N/W.

Astoria, and it isn’t close. The Rabbit Hole on Broadway does $4 shots, $5 beers, $6 wines and $7 cocktails, Mon–Fri 5–8pm. Lily’s on 33rd St runs happy hour all day, every day. Rivercrest on Ditmars pours $6 drafts and $5 Jäger shots, then does it again 10pm–2am. The Ditty does $5 beer and $7 wine. That is four bars under $8 a drink inside a fifteen-minute walk. In Manhattan, the cheapest honest option is a Hell’s Kitchen dive: Rudy’s Bar and Grill pours its house Blonde at $4 and hands you a free hot dog with any purchase, with no time window at all. Skip it: Times Square, where the signs are loudest and the math is worst.

Yes, but fewer than you would expect — most bars treat Saturday as a full-price day because the room fills anyway. The ones that don’t: Lily’s in Astoria (all day, every day, doors 10am both weekend mornings), Ray’s in Greenpoint (all day Sunday, until 8pm Saturday), John Doe in NoMad ($1 oysters, 11am–8pm daily), Down the Hatch in the West Village (half-price wings Sat noon–5pm and Sun noon–6pm), and Boxers in Chelsea (happy hour 1–9pm Sunday, free pool all day). The local move: Sunday beats Saturday on value almost everywhere — see the Sunday happy hour guide and the Saturday guide.

Start with where you are standing, not with a citywide list. We organize every deal by borough and neighborhood — 5 boroughs and more than 50 neighborhood guides — so pick your area from the neighborhood picker at the top of this page and you get the verified windows and prices for bars within walking distance. The honest caveat: the “near me” results Google shows you are ranked by proximity and ad budget, not by whether the deal is any good. A bar four blocks further doing $5 drafts beats the one next door taking $2 off a $19 cocktail.

A short list, and worth knowing by name. Lily’s (Astoria) advertises happy hour all day, every day. Ray’s (Greenpoint) is all day Sunday through Tuesday. Jake’s Dilemma on the Upper West Side takes half off the entire bar on Mondays, 3pm–2am, with $1 wings. Boxers in Chelsea runs an all-night happy hour Mondays from 5pm. Rudy’s in Hell’s Kitchen doesn’t bother with a window — the beer is $4 from the moment it opens. In Manhattan proper, John Doe‘s 11am–8pm is the closest thing to all day.

Monday, counterintuitively. It is the night the city gives up and the good bars fight hardest for you: Roxy Bar in Tribeca runs $2 oysters, $5 drafts and $10 martinis all night; Jake’s Dilemma halves the whole bar 3pm–2am; and Lucky’s in Bed-Stuy pours $7 margaritas all day. Friday is the worst value in the week — the room fills itself, so windows shrink. Full guides by day: Monday · Tuesday · Wednesday · Thursday · Friday.

Four windows worth planning around. Little Rebel (East Village) reopens 10pm–2am Mon–Thu with $10 espresso martinis, $10 old fashioneds, $10 wines and $6 Rebel Lager. Rivercrest (Astoria) matches it 10pm–2am Mon–Thu: $6 drafts, $12 tap cocktails, $5 Jäger. Harry’s Side Bar on Stone Street opens a 10–11pm window nightly with $12 cocktails and half-price snacks. Down the Hatch runs $3 hot dogs from midnight to 4am. Most “late-night happy hour” lists are just bars that close late — these four actually discount after dark.

Dollar oysters are the benchmark, and a handful of places still genuinely charge a dollar: Bar Belly, Grey Lady and The Ten Bells on the Lower East Side (and its Bushwick sibling on Irving Ave, same dollar), Lighthouse BK in Williamsburg, Selune in Bed-Stuy, and John Doe in NoMad through its full 11am–8pm window. Outside oysters, the best food-per-dollar in the city is still Alligator Lounge in Williamsburg: a free personal pizza with every drink, every day. The Queensboro in Jackson Heights does a $2 pizza square with a $5 draft six days a week, and Rudy’s free hot dog remains undefeated. More: the full $1 oyster happy hour guide.

Mostly no — but the exceptions are real, and every one of them is on a side street. Ignore the $5-shot signs on Seventh Ave. Go here instead: The Alderman does $1.50 oysters (six minimum), $10 cocktails and $8 beer daily 3–7pm. The Mean Fiddler pours $5 beer cans and $10 margaritas Mon–Fri noon to 7pm, seven straight hours. Saar Indian Bistro runs $4 beer and $5 margaritas Mon–Fri 1:30–4:30pm. For altitude, Magic Hour actually discounts ($6 beer, $10 mixed drinks) while Bar 54 charges $25 a cocktail and discounts nothing. The honest caveat: five of the bars every other Times Square list recommends will not publish a single price. Full breakdown: Times Square happy hour guide.