The Abbey

07/16/2008 Posted by MitchNY

I get to LA every 2 or 3 months and The Abbey used to be my best place to hang out with friends while Im there on biz from NYC. I was really surprised on my last visit to the bar, on Monday night, and the transformation of what it used to be one of the best bars in West Hollywood was shocking. It feels really different now, annoying show and even people look strange and with a rude behaviour. I asked my friends and they told me the Abbey has new managment or ownership and that might be the reason of all the recent bad changes. Really bad taste guys!!!!, you should do something about it. The only pleasent image remaining there: the charming and cute bartenders who worked since many years ago and make me feel like family. Thumbs up for them!!!! As far as the new improvements with shows and all that, very bad taste I should say. Lets get back to the gentle and great atmosphere the abbey used to have not long ago. Im sure you dont want to be categorized as another West Hollywood bar, you want more than that.

07/15/2008 Posted by RamiLA

I used to go to The Abbey every Monday night with my friends, last night was our last. ... Was a nice place to be, relax, have a dinner and cocktails. Now it become like any other bar Weho, it looks like Rage or Fiesta Cantina. They have the trashiest show. If you can, avoid The Abbey on Mondays night. I think they have a new management …

Pros: Services ok

07/01/2008 Posted by Yo01

For many years the abbey used to be the place to go. Recently a new karaoke concept was introduced on Sundays and is making all loyal clients not to visit again. Please be aware that Karaoke is not for a place of the caliber of The Abbey. This need to stop. Is atracting a very getho class crowd and its becoming unvisitable. What a shame. :( I guess that the money that me and my friends spend there every weekend will be worth it somewhere else.

Pros: Very good service

Cons: Sundays crowd, very low class. Mondays shows (dont think it goes with The Abbey)

06/16/2008 Posted by newflavor

The Abbey was once the IT spot for the gay crowd but no longer. Since SBE took over its management, this place has slowly lost its luster. The straight girls have invaded and the gay boys have moved on to places like Eleven and HERE Lounge. Still fun for a cocktail in the late afternoon but the late night scene isn't cool anymore.

Pros: Nice space and decor

Cons: Uneven service, expensive, terrible crowd at night

05/19/2008 Posted by Blackgirlie

Well, I was totally thrown by my most recent experience at the Abbey while visiting from the very diverse Bay Area! We are in 2008 and I thought being gay was hard enough, but I guess being gay and African American is a problem for the management at the Abbey…..I was told to make sure I stop by the Abbey when I was in LA and to my surprise, I was unwanted! I come from a primarily White American neighborhood and have never been treated the way I was treated there. It goes without saying that I will NEVER patronize this establishment again and neither should you. We live in America…..

03/29/2008 Posted by mhb1954

Went to the Abbey today. Not a bad drink, but for $12, it ought to be good. Service started ok, but ended rather annoyingly. It took way too long for a simple appetizer, which likely neede some prep... ok, it tasted ok, it was the crab and spinach dip. I complained because it was soupy... so we needed more chips for it, for which they charged me another $2... oh, wow.... ok. Then having ordered this appetizer, we had some plates on the table, but the wait staff kept coming by every minute when there wasn't much left and wanted to rip the plates away from us. There were still a few morsels to eat, and still a few drops to drink... But I finally gave up after four intrusions by waitstaff hands in fewer than five minutes... so they finally took our plate, and so did they also take from the tip... NOTE TO MANAGEMENT: THIS IS NOT an appropriate way to manage tables by continually reaching for plates when the customer is not quite done. Then, to top it off, my cash payment of the bill with several $20 bills... and the waiter returned "most" of the change, the paper part, but left of the remaining cents... I guess he assumed that they would be part of his tip. Well, they became part of his "less than 10% tip," which was more like 6%. I am happy to leave 20% whenever I get good service, but when I get assuming and pushy waitstaff, I give as little as possible. The Abbey is a nice place for sure, but its service levels leave something to be desired... it never ceases to amaze me how when some places get so popular, that they mess themselves over by poorly training their waitstaff and making the issue of quickly turning tables a priority over quality of service.

Pros: Atmosphere, but it's becoming somewhat caustic!...

Cons: Lots of people to watch

11/23/2007 Posted by gychii

The Abbey in West Hollywood is a long-running restaurant/bar/club with a consistent crowd. The line gets long on weekends but otherwise, simply walk in and go straight to the counter to the far left. Order some grub, get a drink, then find a table for some great people watching. Alternatively, go to the newer roofed area to the right for a cozy drink by the fireplace. The bartenders tend to be hot, but a little too busy to be friendly -- most of the time. Generally, a good place to meet friends or go out for a fun night of elbow rubbing with Weho's hottest, even the occasional celeb (usually hiding in the back cabanas).

Pros: Strong drinks, Friday evening happy hour

Cons: Very expensive but good martinis

09/24/2007 Posted by njtomiami

The bouncer motioned us to seat down at a filthy table. (hostess service does not exist). The busboy brought over a slop bucket filled with discarded food and proceeded to remove the previous patron's dirty dishes in front of my nose. Now I lost my appetite. We had to find our own menus and napkins to wipe off our table. For 20 minutes, the waiter pasted our table several times and quickly diverted away whenever we made eye contact or tried to get his attention. We were not able to order a drink , let alone a meal to we left and had a great time at the Zagat's Rated sushi restaurant a few doors down. Off the topic , ATTN: CITYSEARCH WEBMASTER everyone is annoyed by the tiny tint font used by Citysearch. It is causing the populous to go blind. Fix it or I am taking my reviews elsewhere.

Pros: large space, I lucked out and found a free parking spot. You can instead visit the conveniently located sushi restaurant 4 doors down the block.

Cons: it is suppose to be gay but I could't find any of "my people", Forget bad service - there is virtually NO service.

0 out of 3 people found this review helpful

09/19/2007 Posted by myfoodcity

Alot of people like this place. Some will even tell you they love it. The drinks are strong enough to knock you on your butt, which may account for said love. Expect to pay about $13.00 for that drink, by the way. Before tip. If you want to do trendy and expensive with aesthetically pleasing surroundings, this is unapologetically the place for you. Velvet rope, $10.00 or more to park(and trust me, you'll want to valet at night or on the weekends), good but expensive cocktails that are served with buzz-kill attitude(though I did manage to find a great bartender here that keeps me coming back) , complete with a bathroom attendant so that you even get the option to pay to relieve yourself. Try these guys for lunch during the week, because the food is actually good. Coffee bar and desserts are also quite impressive, though again, everything is served up by people who look like they'd rather jump off a bridge than wait on you. I'll say again, this place is incredibly popular, and every once in a blue moon, even I'll end up here with a couple of friends. The experience is sometimes pleasant, though rarely friendly.

Pros: People watching, sometimes fun, that one great bartender, lunch, desserts

Cons: service.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful

08/16/2007 Posted by ajgeeslin

My experience started as I began walking up Robertson towards the Abbey. I was immediately overwhelmed by a terrible stench from a steady stream of liquid flowing down the street. I followed the liquid north to a pipe in front of the Abbey door. Great way to start the evening. Then I went in and ordered the usual drink. Since selling out a majority holding in the Abbey in 2006, D. Cooley has lost his beautiful business to corporate greed. Drink prices have continued to continuously rise and the latest greed tactic: $2 up charge for the taller glass. Customer service levels are well below what you expect to find for a coffee shop/bar that touts itself as such a Gay friendly WeHo "destination". I sat with friends and we visited over a few cocktails and later asked for our bill. When we pointed out to the waiter that we had been over-billed we were met with a rude, accusatory and down right mean attitude filled tirade from the waiter who stated that "people do this all the time, trying to rip us off". Well I hardly think the Abbey is being ripped off by it's patrons - Armored cars routinely visit the Abbey now, you figure it out. A manager type came over only to offer an $8 credit rather than remove the $14 worth of overcharges. After much debate and argument - he removed only $11 from our bill. Everyone in our group was astonished. We have been around long enough to watch the Abbey grow from a small shop to large bar and food business. Perhaps too big, too fast. What once was a wonderful, neighborhood oriented, fun, relaxing coffee shop and bar has finally turned into the trendy, pretentious, snobby Hollywood hotspot that belongs more up on the Sunset Strip than down on a side street in West Hollywood. It truly is not your "neighborhood" bar anymore! My and my friends all long for what used to be with less attitude and reasonable drink/food prices. P.S. for what people pay while there, you would think they could fix that sewage thing too!

Pros: Nice during the day outside on the patio - trendier, flashy crowd at night

Cons: Very little self parking close by, weekend nights are very crowded & staff has attitude!