Justin’s

What happened to Justin’s? I’ll admit that we haven’t been in a few years and management has changed since, but clearly things have changed. Our first experience back then was lovely — we had an early weekend dinner and sat in the dining room. It looked like a cute little piano bar, I had a memorable prime rib and a beer and our group of four left pretty content.
We went in last night after another favorite place on Lark was a little too loud and crowded for our group. We found ourselves sitting in a nearly empty dining room. I don’t mean without patrons, I mean without furniture. It looked like someone’s college basement that they filled with leftover furniture to create a hangout spot. At one point one of us had to get up and shoo away a menacing spider that was lurking on the wall behind us. When the food came, most of us were pretty dissatisfied. The ground beef on the taco salad was cold and it came out on a stale tortilla bowl without any salsa or sour cream. It was sent back and comped, but the waitress even made a comment that they don’t sell many so maybe the chef didn’t know how to make it. Uh, what?
The jerk chicken sandwich had a small piece of decently seasoned chicken, limp lettuce, unripe tomato and red onion. The highlight were the fries, which I doubt were homemade. The meatloaf mac and cheese was good going down, but had us running for the bathroom when we got home. The veggie quesadilla was soggy. The only person in our group who crushed their meal ordered the Cuban sandwich. Maybe they sell a lot of those so they know how to make them?
We won’t be back. There are plenty of better places to go to on Lark.

Ever walk into a place and then walk out again because you are afraid you might get stabbed? Yeah. That’s the vibe these days.

Definitely don’t use a credit or debit card here. The staff double-​charged me, swiped my credit card but promised me the «authorization» would disappear for a few days. It did, but then came back on my account about a month later. On top of it, management refused to refund me and made up a story about how the charge was from a while back! What are the odds that the amount is exactly the same with food and drinks for two?
In this incident, I also found out from my credit card company that they added a tip to my card!
It’s common knowledge around Lark that they overcharge. people have opened tabs here at night and drinks they never ordered were added onto their bill.

Used to be my home away from home in the 90s-​i miss Tess and Bob and Aluff and the gang! The Ropa Vieja and Seafood chowder was awesome and the drinks nice and stiff.
We hung out for a decade and loved every minute of it, sad to hear people think its has declined. Well anyway, love ya Justin’s thanks for the memories from Kevin, Mike, Jean Claude, Vernon et al

We had a casual brunch at Justin’s, which apparently has been an Albany favorite for decades, according to my mother-​in-​law. Cold and dreary as it was outside, Justin’s hit the spot for a late lunch and a beer.
When you walk in, it looks like a dimly lit pub, but once you reach the end of the bar, it opens up into another narrow room with a stage to host live music and other events. Still, it’s small and intimate.
The food was good, with fresh takes on American staples like omelets, hash browns, pancakes et al – a few taking queues from Italian cuisine.
All in all, a fine spot for an early Sunday meal on Lark street, weather be damned.

I’ve gone there many times and have always loved the food and atmosphere. So when my sister was in town on a Friday, I thought I’d take her there for lunch being the website said Justin’s is open during the week at 11:30. APPARENTLY NOT. It never occurred to me that I’d have to call also to make sure. I ended up bringing her to Mercato’s in Delmar, and we had a much nicer lunch.

We came to Justin’s for brunch on Sunday after a holiday party.
There were four of us and we all tried different dishes. I had the Omelet Improv with several toppings. The dish came with hash browns and toast. The omelet was great, the hash browns a bit too over seasoned but still ok to consume. I also got soup, which was good but not memorable enough to remember which one it was. Hmmm white potato soup? Maybe it was all that wine I drank the night before… anyway, ambiance is good here, it wasn’t overly crowded and the bloody Mary’s are legit.

Homemade hash on point! Nice spot needs some upgrading in the back dining area but food is always good
Chef Lateef Clark

Went in on a Sunday afternoon to take my girlfriend to lunch after we found another local favorite was closed. She had been here once before and had a good experience, so we decided to give it a shot.
Going into the bar, it was obvious that it was a fairly large crowd for that time of day (looked to be about 15 – 20 between the tables and the bar), and somewhat understaffed – only the bartender, one waitress and someone I assume was the manager. The manager seated us in the next room, which is their dining area and performance space. After reading other reviews, I can’t say that there were any unpleasant odors.
What was unpleasant was waiting an hour and a half for our food to arrive. These were not difficult orders – I had a turkey club, she had Eggs Florentine. I had three drinks on an empty stomach by the time we got our food. Only one was comped by our waiter. (As a manager of another establishment, I would have comped all three, to be honest.) While they were cleaning up the rest of the room, I was accidentally bumped into three times in my seat by staff.
That being said, the food was very good, and the menu is well thought-​out. The only thing that really soured the experience was being treated as an afterthought by the staff, and the extremely long service for such a simple order.

I had a fantastic meal with fantastic service. The other patrons were friendly as well. I love this place!

Horrible experience. Nothing is fresh it’s all industrial food. Iced tea from some kind of a chemical tasting mix. Guacamole was 90% chips and the actual guacamole was served in a tiny cup and it wasn’t fresh but frozen. Took almost an hour to get a chicken sandwich and a salad with salmon. Flies inside buzzing around our table. Nice server though who seemed embarrassed to work there.

Two words
Cuban sandwhich
It’s the best $!0 you can spend on food on Lark Street. PERIOD!
Not only does the thing weigh about 2lbs, it tastes delicious!
The pulled pork is juicy and plentiful, the yellow mustard is tangy and the pickles are fresh and add snap to every bite.
You can tell the people that make this sandwich love what they do.
Wash it down with a $ 3 draft beer from 4−7m-f and it’s as good as it gets.

Went here for brunch. No crowd whatsoever, but it smelled clean and we were hungry so we just went with it.
Cornbread with strawberry mint butter was amazing; the bread was moist and delicious and the strawberry mint butter really went well with it even though it sounds weird.
I had steak and eggs, rare and scrambled. It was more of a medium rare but still decent. The eggs were fluffy and buttered. Potatoes were well seasoned.
All in all cheap brunch with standard fare.

I’ve been there several times and have never been disappointed.
The food has always been excellent.
The wait staff is always on the ball and the bartender s make VG drinks.
Very clean and VG jazz/​blues music.

As a Lark Street regular, this used to be my Happy Hour bar go-​to. Unfortunately over the last year or so Justin’s has been on the decline. Usually when a bar goes downhill, it can be attributed to the kind of patron it caters to, but in this case one can clearly see that the responsibility for Justin’s demise is the management. What was once a relaxing, friendly place to meet friends is now a smelly, snobby hole. It’s a shame that the entire bar smells like a UAlbany dorm bathroom because the food used to be decent, however I doubt anyone will want to eat in that stench. Additionally, more than one friend of mine had their credit card charged multiple times here. When it was brought to the bar’s attention, the bar refused to rectify the situation and my friends were forced to dispute the charge with their own bank. The only reason I gave this bar two stars was because of the one or two quality bartenders it employs. Good luck to you two!
Justin’s, with the number of quality bars on Lark on the decline, you’d be smart to redefine just exactly the type of crowd you want to attract. I’m no businesswoman, but I do know there is money to be made on Lark and if your bar doesn’t get its act together you won’t be seeing a penny of it.

Our experience with Justin’s was overall good, with caution.
It needs to be pointed out that there is a lounge/​dining room separate from the bar area. If I hadn’t asked and went on the appearance (and slight vomity/​stale dirty bleach water smell in the bar area), we would’ve left.
The dining area is a nice room, and it’s probably really cool when there’s live music.
I had a mojito which was well prepared (bit sweet, which I like), and we ordered the crab cakes and corn fritters. Even though the crab was canned, the cakes were tasty. The fritters were really melt in your mouth scrumptious.
I ordered the jerk chicken, which was recommended by both bartender and waitress. The chicken was tender, veggies and rice well prepared. HOWEVER, I did not care for the spices (cinnamon???) on the chicken AT ALL. I couldn’t eat more than 3 bites. I have had jerk chicken many times, in restaurants and by Caribbean friends. This was the weirdest version I’ve tried.
I imagine some people enjoy it (I ordered it due to reviews here), but I can presume they never had authentic jerk.
The service was very good, courteous and friendly.
I would go back perhaps but would order something different.

Nice Space, pretty good food, dark and smells bad
The first thing I noticed walking in was the smell — it smells like dirty barmats It really needs a deep cleaning. Classic & classy city restaurant space, though too dark for me, especially at lunch.
Jerk Chicken Sandwich was very good. Sides weren’t worth the calories.

Sunday Brunch at Justin’s is amazing.
The waitress was very courteous and nice, she took care of my company very well.
I would say superb service was given.
The food was great too, I had the salmon frittata from there menu, dishes and ambience were all great. I didn’t expect a bar to have such a great brunch option as well.
Definitely going back for some more great Sunday Brunch.

Justin’s is a shitty ass place to go to because of the kind of ignorant people who goes there. Ignorant prejudice people.
I came in as a paying customer to eat dinner sitting at the bar. The staff there did nothing when my husband and I was harass by their other customers. They were calling us names as if we were in elementary.
They even picked off my plate and ate my food! My husband pushed the plate to them and said, take it since you touched our food. They even made a comment that it was a «white people’s «bar why are there «Chinese» people here?
Funny because the 30 minutes that we were there we spent over 200 then the long hours that those douchbags were there.
I feel sorry for owners who support people like that.
I would NEVER return to this place NOR recommend it to anyone! I would tell EVERYONE I KNOW ABOUT THIS PLACE.
If I can give zero star I would.

This review is based on brunch. Places differ depending on what time and day it is…
I hit up this spot in Albany while visiting friends in my alma mater’s town. I had brunch with one of my bff’s who actually used to work at this spot. Located on Albany’s Lark Street it’s a small, but cozy bar/​restaurant. We had mimosas and brunch while seated at the bar on a Sunday morning. I had the Justin’s 301which consists of two eggs any style (I got mine scrambled), french toast (which I found tasteless, syrup wasn’t provided and I didn’t bother to ask), bacon, and potatoes. It was pretty good overall. Typical breakfast. My friend got Joe’s one-​eyed breakfast burger, a 4 oz. sirloin beef patty with applewood smoked ham, a fried egg, and cheddar cheese served with potatoes and fruit. Fruit being an orange slice. My friend was obsessed with her calorie packed, heart attack inducing breakfast burger and surprisingly finished it despite being a tiny little twig. The drinks were good and made brunch even more enjoyable. I haven’t had dinner there, just drinks, but the servers are sweet… to me b/​c my friend used to work there. Owner also owns two bars across the street, Legends and DeJohns which are cool too. It’s not NYC and can’t be compared, but they’re fun spots if you’re with good people.