The Aquarium on 6th

Kinda dead when we got here but it was early. Fishbowls are always a highlight and the slide is great! Fun music

The Aquarium Fun Bar was a bit of a letdown for me. Their fishbowls tasted awful, and I really don’t think they added much alcohol. The music was decent, but the overall vibe didn’t live up to my expectations. I probably won’t be returning.

Different than the rest of the bars in dirty 6th, The Aquarium stands classy. The great ambiance and a tipsy ride down the unique snake slide calls for a fantastic night!

We stopped here for no longer than 10 minutes because it's not spacious at all. The bar is unique, however, especially since they have a snake slide. It's another bar on another stop along the street of more bars!

Decent bar, but I honestly feel bad for the fish here. They have very minimal fish tanks with no interactive features for their health. Plus the music is blasting & I can just feel like they’re just very unhappy in here ):

It’s ok I thought it would be bigger! It’s located in a shopping plaza and is very small. I was done like in 15 minutes lol! Oh well.....

$17 for 2 coors lights. The slide is cool though

The bouncer spanked my girlfriend on the way in, and then claimed my id was fake and wouldn’t let me inside

Fun bar on 6th street! Super young crowd. Lots of college kids. The fish bowl drink was fun and tastes pretty good. Be careful going down snake slide. It goes really fast lol my friends went down and we're basically catapulted out. It was a hard landing haha I would recommend getting here a little early (10-11pm) if you want a little elbow room lol it gets packed pretty quickly

The Aquarium was a cool spot to chill before midnight. Once midnight hit, it was just packed shoulder to shoulder with college kids. They have a bar on the bottom level and a small bar on the second level. Second level seems super unsteady. Once it was packed, it had the it might collapse feeling. They played good music. They have a large snake slide that you can go down from the second floor. I was going to slide down but after thinking of how many drinks spill in there and how it is probably never cleaned, I did not do it. lol. Jame & Ginger - $10 Fish Bowl - $25

Giving a 4 star review because that slide is faster than you think. Here I am, happy, got me a drink, dancing around in my heels. Then I say "OH COOL! Look at that slide," Like anyone would. I excitingly make my way to the top, drink in hand, smile from ear to ear. Mind you, this slide is short and only one story high-- how fast could I go? As soon as I scoot down to start going down, I instantly knew... I had f*cked up. When I say this is the fastest slide in Texas, I mean it. Not only did I fly down, but I took out two tables and a whole set of chairs when I reached the bottom. Great bar. Fast slide.

I thought this place was really fun. We were attracted by the live musician who we heard when walking by. He was awesome!! One man show who could do everything from guitar, foot drum, and harmonica. He was playing all my favorite songs (yes I like mainstream country-pop, sue me) and everyone seemed to be having a great time dancing and singing along. Drinks were "aquarium themed" with lots of fishbowls good for sharing. Reasonably priced. Took me back to college days with sneaking red bull in there. Lastly, they have a giant slide that's fun whether you're sober or have a few drinks in you. That's the first bar I've seen that has that. Fun times!

This is one of my favorite bars on 6th because it has two floors, a slide, and fish bowls! Lol. The fish bowls are $25 but they give you a lot of alcohol and they taste really good. This seemed to be a go to spot for a lot of the college students. I saw plenty of what seemed to be frat guys and sorority girls here. Also this bar has plenty of room to roam around and the service has always been good. I haven't had any issues or anyone complaining about coming here. I definitely recommend this bar!

This place has some amazing ingenuity. Who would've thought to entertain your evening crowds with a child's playground item. The Aquarium on Sixth did and what a success! Drinks are a bit high, but to our happy surprise and as with most bars/clubs on Sixth, there was no cover charge. I absolutely would go again when returning to Austin and recommend you stop by even if just for one slide and one drink.

One year expired beer. Disgusting. Disgraceful. 0/10 recommend. Made me pay for replacement. Never again.

Bad service, don't come here if you want a nice server. First time in 6th street and they were rude.

Came from Dallas for my birthday weekend and got 2 fish bowls and one drink. Got the receipt and they had added a 20% tip fee automatically. Found this kind of ridiculous considering it said it in very small font and the drink itself was basically well liquor, and didn't even get me buzzed at all. Freshman UT bar. Highly do not recommend.

Truly so disappointed. One im 32 years old and yes austin is a college town especially on 6th street. I came here months ago and fell in love with this bar. Now for the 5th time visiting .. I'm beyond disappointed. I speak facts the one bartender which idk his name nor do I care.. Came in sober asked for a double Tito's tonic. Than I had to shout over the speaker and say cranberry.. The bartender told me to lose my attitude.... Like what did I do wrong. So he walked away, without completing my order. So a female bartender asked what I wanted and told her in the same tone and voice she got it. Closed out Awsome sauce. I wanted another drink and complained cause I'm irked with the first dude. Mind you I come to austin for weekends it's a 3 hour drive from Houston and sometimes I like to do different things. Mind you I fell in love with this bar from the start. The slide the atmosphere is on point.. bartenders aren't after I been irked asked for a bar mgr. Idk who I dealt with but let's state facts he wants one.. explained the situation had to shout over the music. Explained again and what his response was maybe you shouldn't be at bar with loud music.: that's just disrespect. Hopfully the owner of the bar see's this... it's truly disrespectful.. so we never found a Conclusion. I'll never be back.. there are so many other bars on the Same strip that actually value people. Also for this bar I tip like 8/9 dollars for one drink.. I never been disrespected as of tonight.. If that was a bar mgr he needs to be fired.. & certain bartenders do as well.... Hospitality goes a long way.. Maybe the owner needs to restaff cause if that bar mgr and bartenders expect to get a true major in hospitality. The real world s gong to spit them out.. I'll never be coming back, what a true piece of shit place. Also your bouncers should do a better job on allowing people to come in.. underage people.. cough cough .

This is my favorite bar on the planet. Bar none. I came for the slide and was hit in the face with a fishbowl. Would highly recommend. The prickly pear fish bowl was immacualre.

Stephanie was so welcoming and fun! So glad we met her! Guys go visit her, she made this whole night enjoyable

very great place!!!! awesome fishes bowl!!! frankie sent us!!! what a king!!! woohoo

this is a homophobic establishment. me and my boyfriend were kissing and one of the african american employees kicked us out because he saw us kissing, saying that we shouldn't be there. it was truly a traumatic experience but the fishbowls were good. the bartender on the top floor was superior and he made a really tasty fishbowl. come to this establishment at your own discretion (if you're not gay).

I came to The Aquarium closer to the beginning of the night. This place was pretty spacious with an upstairs area and plenty of standing room on the bar. Pretty typical bar on 6th street, but they have this cool Aquarium lining the wall. Based on the other reviews, the fish aren't always present, but there were plenty of fish to oggle at when I was here. Great bartenders, super nice and they make your drinks cheap and strong. My group got a vegas shot here and it was super yummy. Didn't stick around too long because I wanted to keep moving on down the street, but this bar makes it on top for me.

I always stop here when I'm on a night out at Sixth! The music is bomb af and the slide is cute although a lil dangerous. Nothing wrong with that though! They have a drink option that can be split amongst several people so that's convenient if you have a group. The DJ always gets it right. Usually crowded with college students if that's not your thing, but I am one myself so it's the perfect scene for me. Bar service on point!

This bar sits next to the Library, and has the exact same feel except instead of fake books on the walls there are *drum roll* aquariums. I wouldn't imagine the sea life enjoys the crazy college kids and their loud music.

This is a dirty bar. It gets super crowded at the early hour of 11:00 PM on 6th and becomes very messy very quickly. The degradation is almost exponential if you come back here like we did after 1:00 am ... Either way, the drinks are cheap, the bartenders are fast in fast out kind of so they will get you what you need, and there isn't much fuss to ordering either. I do feel bad for the fish, I am pretty sure they are ... traumatized for life? The DJ is nice though, all the times I've been here the music has been pretty good, but again ... it's a dive bar folks! It's going to be sticky. Don't wear nice shoes and most of all, please WEAR shoes....

Place was nice, slide was cool, fishbowl was pretty good, seemed clean and bartender was nice. I would recommend to friends.

I'd totally forgotten I visited the Aquarium until I was scrolling down my Facebook Timeline and saw one of my friends had checked me in here. We came to this bar two weekends ago for a bachelor party. It was one of our many stops along 6th St. This was actually a pretty cool bar. It's located on the second level of the building, so you have to climb some stairs to get in. The bouncer checking IDs was located on the sidewalk outside. The Aquarium had a DJ playing mostly mainstream stuff. The space inside was separated into large sections. We hung out mostly in the back. The bartenders were friendly. The back has some "lounge" type seating as well as standing high-top tables. Surprisingly clean restrooms. It was expectedly packed for a Friday night. Mostly 20-somethings, though we did run into a few good-looking cougars. Lots of attractive women. The best crop we'd seen at the bars all night. We also ran into a bachelorette party. The highlight of our visit was the concupiscent group of girls dancing the night away on the tables at the front. How I miss you, Austin.

Bartenders were friendly, the band playing earlier last night (believe they were called the bar flies) was good, and the slide is a fun little feature. I only had one drink and it wasn't good. What's sad is it was a big cup for only $4 ! Can't get that back home in LA, a small cocktail is $7 or up, a small one. Well I suppose I got what I paid for cos my drink was not good at all. I'd stop by again but having had drinks from somewhere else, come see what band they have playing or slide down the slide. Ahh well.

Absolute worst bar. We came here for my sister in laws bachelorette party. 1) the fish bowl we ordered for $95 tasted like straight fiber root and 2) when my sister in law asked if anyone had returned her hat, one of the bartenders asked if she was retarded. Not only is that the ABSOLUTE wrong verbiage, but that was horribly rude. So if you want rude bartenders and terrible drinks for incredibly expensive prices, come here.

Whats up with the sticky ass carpets upstairs?!? Someone could really hurt themselves on those things especially in heels! Oh, and if you want to dance on the bar ask the bartenders and they will usually let you get up on there.

The name of this bar suits this place because there's something "fishy" going on by that 2nd floor bar area...when I say "fishy", I mean "SHADY"...when I say "SHADY"... I mean don't go there unless you are looking to get "ROBBED" in some way. Great DJ!!...but maybe they should invest in security guards monitoring that shady 2nd floor bar especially... a purse and 2 jackets were stolen late Thursday night. It wasn't even crowded and our items were placed on a stool. A small purse covered by two jackets placed directly in front of the bartender...my group of friends were only a few feet away...so whoever took our stuff...had to be "sneaky" like a hawk catching its prey...bartender must be in on it or too busy on his cell. A few years ago, another friend of mine said he was closing his tab and the 2nd floor bartender couldn't seem to find his card...he later found out it was charged $150 at a gas station not too far away...he didn't file a police report, but I DID...lets see what happens...

Rip off. Got a $45 fish bowl to share with fr here friends (bottom shelf alcohol like I'm talking SVEDKA people and the bowl was itty bitty) we paid for our drink and then got a card statement saying the bill was actually $60 because they added a $15 cover fee FOR THE CHEAP FISHBOWL ITSELF. for a bar called the aquarium I would not expect them to rip off its customers on the main attraction drink. Pathetic.

Beautiful relaxing classy place. Great drinks, awesome music as well. They go over an beyond an big shout out to Rene for making us feel special!!!

I went to this bar one day and tried to go back the next night and I was kicked out for my ID being "fake" when it is in fact NOT. Also, multiple people that were on the trip with us got things stolen (phone/wallet). The floor was so gross that my feet were getting stuck to it. I'd say just go get your picture on the slide and then go somewhere else.

100% do not visit this bar unless you want to get your phone stolen. My friend and I both had our iPhone X's stolen out of our purses within 5 minutes of each other. I went to the bar to ask if my phone had been turned in and without looking, the bartender replied "no" I then asked if she expected me to ask each bartender... she did a quick walk down the bar and returned, "no phones have been turned in." At this time, my friend, approached me and said her phone was gone as well. Both of our phones were "secure" inside our purses with the purse closed. They were both taken close to the base of the slide, we both noticed that the crowd was extremely tight and pushy in this location, with other areas more open and thought it was weird, although never considered it was due to thief's. Within 15 minutes we attempted to locate our phones using "find my iPhone," both phones had already been turned offline. We located security and were told, "yea this happens all the time," we asked to have the cops called over and they said that was up to us to do so. After another 20 minutes the Austin Police Department showed up and also told us "this happens all the time." We both filed a police report although we are both well aware that this will not get our phones back. I am appalled that this is the response when over $2,000 worth of property was stolen out of a bar within 5 minutes. After returning home and searching this situation, we discovered that this is definitely not the first time this has been an issue. One evening it was noted that over 10 phones were stolen in one night. Please do not visit this The Aquarium on Sixth - it is not worth it and they do not care about their patrons.

Perhaps four stars if you're in your twenties, Three stars if you're in your thirties. Nothing wrong with bar full of young co-eds dancing on the bar top, and everyone dancing to the latest jams - I'm keepin up with the best of y'all but... Son, I'm a decade older than you. If I wasn't so short in my flats (yes no heels for me to fall flat on my face on Dirty Six - that street is GROSS), I'd pat you on your under-aged head and tell you to go home. Just too old for this place. But I wasn't always!

SHOT PONG! The more extreme version of beer pong. Why? Because the drinks here are so cheap! We were here on a Sunday night and they had $3 well specials. What better way to take advantage of this than to play shot pong? This place is not so much for their aquariums which I was a bit disappointed in. If you name your place after something.. it better be significant! They had like.. 3 small fish tanks along the side with very minimal fish inside. I guess it qualifies? They also had super jenga, which instantly became my favorite drunk game. Just try not to lose because it's quite an adventure scooping out the pieces from under the booths.

On my 21st birthday I had my first shot of the night at Paradise...or was it Treasure Island that was next door? One of those fruity named places! Anyways, after leaving here we went directly next door to The Aquarium and from that point up until I graduated I believe any time I went out I started my night of rif-raf at The Aquarium. This place for some reason had almost a euphoric feel to it if you were there at just the right time with the right people. There was never a shortage of good looking girls, cheap (but good!) mixed drinks and beers on tap. The entire staff was cool from the barhands up through the owners...or at least this was the case back in my time on the 40 Acres. I can honestly say that some of the best times I had downtown as a college kid occurred at this place, no doubt. Five stars for certain.

SHORTY GOT A BIG OLE BUTT.... OH YYYEEEEAAAAHHHHH!!!! Oh Dirty Sixth, where do I start? WAIT! I KNOW! I'll start by mentioning that once upon a time when I was very VERY newly single about a year ago I ran into all of the team USA male Olympic swimmers here. Yes, I ran into Nathan Adrian, Matt Grevers, Ricky Berens, Conor Dwyer, and of course RYAN LOCHTE. It was an odd night, filled with going shot for shot with swimmers all 6'4 or taller and screaming "BIG TEN PRIDE HOLLLLAAAAA!!!!" with them (Michael Phelps was not in attendance, but I have stories from college involving him... ask me about them some time). That's also probably why my memories are a bit blurry and disjointed in nature. Oh well, you really only do live once and hey, it's an excellent party story. With that said, it seems like every time I end up at Aquarium, when I'm actually drinking, I make the ill advised drunken decision to dance on top of the bar. Let's just say that this ain't my first rodeo, so when someone mentions Dirty Sixth I always make sure I'm wearing boyshort or hipster underwear because there really isn't anything tackier than dancing on a bar wearing a thong; yes, I said it. This place seems to pick up after midnight like clockwork. Prior to 12AM it's deserted and at the stroke of midnight suddenly there's a monster line to get in. I don't do lines, it's not my thing and as Courtney W will testify, I'm very efficient at picking my way to the front of a line. However it gets ridiculously packed on the first floor. I wonder if this is some sort of fire code violation, but whatever, no one else seems to care. Maybe that's why I dance on the bar.... because there's no room to dance anywhere on the floor. The bathrooms aren't too bad, but then again I'm not inclined to use the facilities at places like this unless absolutely necessary. The last time I was there, a group of girls ambushed me and wouldn't stop touching my hair and exclaiming over my red lipstain; oh to be young and amazed by the world. I totally remember doing that as an 18... errr I mean 21 year old in college. The thing is, my love for crowded bars with cheap and bad shots has faded with age. The last time I was here I got hit on by some questionably 21 year old guy whose pickup line was "Hey cutie, let me holla at you for a second." Errrr no, I am too grown to be dealing with that mess. I feel kind of like the jaded, disenchanted older sibling watching these young kids frolic around when I'm sober. However, lucky for me, I'm Asian and somehow still look 18 years old which of course makes it seem perfectly acceptable when I lose my senses and climb onto the bar. Yeah, unfortunately by the time I moved to Austin, I was already too old for places like the Aquarium and the rest of Dirty Sixth. It's still a fun place for those occasional, trashy drunk nights but it's not a regular haunt for me. However, Dirty Sixth is an Austin icon and hey, if you drop by the Aquarium you too may see an Olympic swimmer.

First time here and let me tell you something ... This place was the shit! The music was hyped as well as the people.

This is the typical college bar... people go in, get hammered and hit on people well outside of their league. You know it, I know it... we all know it. Why Im really writing this review: the restroom. I thought the concept, the first couple of times I was in there, was absolutely fantastic... standing there peeing while you're looking through a two way mirror. Who on earth thought that up? Genius... err.... uhm... well... until the last time I was there. I show up in the facilities next to a guy who could barely stand up... Im not a huge fant of urinal talk (in fact, Im a bit pee shy) - anyhoo. The guy next to me starts talking bout some girl that he was talking to in this muffled slur that was his only means of communication for the remainder of th enight. 10 shots perhaps? Anyhoo, after mumbling a bit of time about who he was chit chatting with and pointing at her with his non-weinner holding hand... we agreed that she was a prize. Then, I start hearing this grunting and muffled breathing.... the guy stopped pissing and started pleasuring himself at the urinal while looking at the chick. Ticket please!! I checked out quickly. Sweet christ... dont yall profile people? Yikes! Needless to say, Ill never be back. Not particularly the bars fault, but this customer has ruined me for 2 way mirrors for quite some time. :|

Can I get 2 shots of Jager? That will be $6. Each? No, together. Holy shit! I love Texas! Fish swimming everywhere. Suh-weet!

Bar full of guys that apparently juice up and work out before hitting the town. Typically a high ratio of meatheads to normal guys. Cheap drinks but the girls are typically cheap as well. Many of them dress as though they are taking tips from Paris and Brit (although I do love my Britney, I don't approve of her latest stunt). The scene is college-ish and people that still wish they were in college plus out of towners that don't know any better. The one star is for the cool fish tank on the wall and the two way mirror in the guy's bathroom Pretty sly.

Yeah, The Aquarium has cheap drinks... but it also has NO AQUARIUM! Well, it has an aquarium, but it's empty. Anyway, it DOES reek of vomit and the people there are typically tacky and rowdy... and look at you funny if you're getting down to the tunes.

One of my favorite drinking stories ever comes from the Aquarium, and I feel compelled to post it here. One night, many moons ago, I was at the Aquarium with a couple of friends who we will call Jeff and Trey. Like everyone else, the full supply of college kids and cheap drinks was the allure that drew us to Sixth Street and thus to the Aquarium. So, standing upstairs next to the wall sized picture of James Dean, Jeff tries to tell the girl he was hitting on that the picture was of the owner of the Aquarium. Sadly, no doubt being born after 1980, she was buying it. The WORST part was that Jeff actually thought what he was saying was true as well, leaving me dumbfounded that there were two people having a conversation who mistook James Dean for the owner of a 6th street hangout. Clearly, they were meant for each other... Anyway, as stated before, the Aquarium is good for mingling with the college crowd, stretching your drinking dollar, and looking at fish. A couple of other notes: the men's bathroom has two-way windows looking out to the bar so you can watch the regular folks while taking care of business. And the building was once the home of the original Steamboat, an Austin icon in live music where I performed oodles of times.

This could have been an ugly review. But I'll give an extra star for the bartenders because they're cool. I had a temporary license and showed it to the bouncer at the door. The bouncer looked at it and shook his head and handed it back to me, not letting me in. Fine that's normal. I took out my old driver's license along with the temp and handed it back to the bouncer, telling him that it was real. What he did next was "so shocking you wouldn't believe it!" (trying to caption it like those facebook articles) The bouncer took my temp, crumbled it up and threw it on the ground. No lie. I was so pissed. A nice stranger picked up my id and handed it back to me. Luckily there was another bouncer so I went to him and he was like "Woah chill man, go ahead. Sorry about that." I went inside, got my shot of Liquid Cocaine, and left. In case you were wondering...I was sober.

Definitely a younger crowd, chill upstairs area and the fish tank that runs across is a cool piece. Drinks are average price for the area and the clientele is rowdy but fun.

This bar, like most of the 6th street bars, is loud and filled with college students. I don't think too many people realize this, but the upstairs is much more spacious and you don't have to yell as loud to speak to the person 6 inches from your face. I recently went and I was upstairs, looking down on the people below (no pun intented) and two girls got on the bar. One girl was on her knees and the other stood in front. Then a bartender pulls out a tray and reveals... a dildo. A rather life-like one too. The girls did a pose with it (I will not go in detail) and many pics were taken and then that was that. I wonder what that was all about! My friend made a good observation... where has that dildo been? Btw, it's called the Aquarium because there's a "huge," but really just long, aquarium against the wall. Also, if you don't know this, there's a glassy mirror at the far end of the bar that is aligned with the stair case. If you're a guy and you've been to the restroom, then you know what it is. It is basically a one-way mirror that is right about the urinals, so when the guy is doing is business, he stares out at everyone. It's kinda weird.

So this place is probably closer to 2.5 stars, but it isn't to bad. One HUGE plus is the cheap drinks. Now so far everywhere in Austin has cheap drinks to me (I was paying $7 per beer last year in NYC), but this place seems to be very cheap. The layout of the place is nice. A little crowded downstairs, but more opened up on the second level. Plus you can look down to the lower level from upstairs (can be a positive unless some creepy old dude is checking you out from above I guess). The down sides to this place are that it is a very mainstream college type bar. Not that, that is bad if that is what you are looking for, but there is also nothing that makes this place stand out either. The bartenders are okay overall. At least during my visit they take your order very quickly, but seem easily distracted. In my case easily distracted from the order of the drink to the delivery. That being said in certain areas of the bar, workers (cute ones at in fact) walk around making sure that you are okay for drinks and if not they are ready to help. Overall not a great must go to bar, but not bad either. While on 6th street you could definitely do a whole lot worse than the Aquarium. So if for nothing else check it out for the CHEAP drinks.

So the scene was different than what was portrayed on their site. First off, apparently their signature drink, the Hummer doesn't exist. Then why is it on the website? In this day and age it's not hard to update a website. None of the bar tenders had any idea about it. However Red Bull vodka was 4.50 a piece, which isn't bad. The aquarium was a bit overrated. It was nice, but not as grand as many reviews made it seem. The upstairs was nice, with old leather couches as well as a pool table and second bar. Nice place, however we went in a 2 different times on Saturday and neither time was it exceptionally jumping even that crowded.

4 stars for the hot bartender http://www.787xx.com/main.php?g2_itemId=2386

We were visiting from out of state and were all denied at the door for our IDs being "fake" when they were in fact real and we're all actually 25....??? Not sure how they can claim they are fake when they didn't even scan it / put it under a light to check. Pretty ridiculous. Also wouldn't recommend your employees treating people they way they treated us tonight.

One of the most common things I've heard when I've been to The Aquarium and talked to people from out of town is that the drinks are incredibly cheap. Guys from all over the place flock to The Aquarium to buy cheap drinks and girls flock to reap the (cheap) rewards. Another fantastic thing about it is the giant fish tank on the wall. If you ever get stuck talking to some guy who just bought you a $1.50 vodka tonic, make sure you angle your line of sight so you can watch the aquarium. At least if you have to nod your head and go "Uh huh," you can watch the fish swim around in circles too. The Aquarium is a bit symbolic - we're all just circling around, drinking like fish.

Not a bad place for your bar hop along Dirty 6th. Music was solid and the bartop is always available for girls to dance on! Drinks were not price gauged either.

Greatest Bar in the history of the world! My friend Travis suggested I go there when I was in town so on a whim I decided to check it out....Lets just say this....I got there at 6:30PM and some stuff happened and then woke up the next morning with two new "friends" in my bed and a midget making omelets in my kitchen! ...The omelets were fantastic by the way...but your results may vary

pros: cheap drinks for a college budget, bartenders are awesome, music is pretty good cons: the poor fish dealing with drunk people, loud music and being too packed in like sardines on crazy eventful nights