Golden Cicada Tavern

Had a good time here. Certainly never seen a bar run by a middle age Asian couple but then again there are probably mess ton of bars with all kinds of bartenders I’ve yet to see. They’re as lively as you’d expect and make the place fun to be for it’s size and location which is away from the popular Newark ave. strip where most of the action is. What’s unique here are one of the beers — called «Tsingtao», didn’t have it myself, but heard it was ok then of course there are the special shots here you take that will reward you with the «Golden Cicada» necklace. The bottle reads «Montai Yhingin». It’s not as hard as some shots you take out there but it’s got some kick. The spot is definitely more of an intimate spot for a few good friends or a small crew rather a huge party. You can do some Karaōke which isn’t actually a Karaōke machine but Youtube on a big screen which is kinda cool, but also kinda choppy since the bartender has to jump from serving drinks to prepping the next song. So it’s not as smooth as you’d expect if you’re really into this.
The food is just alright. I had the empanadas and they were eh, I’m wasn’t expecting Mexican restaurant level empanadas but they were ok — 3 of them, nice and hot. I heard the chicken wings were ok but didn’t have them myself and didn’t look all that special, not very much sauce. So I’d assume all the food all about the same.
Decent bar especially if you want to get away from the huge crowds at the more popular spots and want to do some small time karaōke while getting sloshed make a run over here.

My friends have spoken about this place for a while now and tonight I got a chance to experience it firsthand. It’s a mom and pop establishment run by a man named Terri and his wife. They are very nice people who obviously love what they do. They have some great prices on domestic beers and cheap shots. The favorite shot of most has a interesting flavor in so drinking it earns you a golden cicada necklace as a souvenir. They do offer a few food options such as wings, dumplings, egg rolls, and empanadas. The wings were big and crispy. No sauce on them but good none the less! I’m not sure if there’s karaōke all the time but they had it tonight and the whole bar was really into it. If not for the dbag yuppies who engulfed this place around 10:30 pm, and decided it was ahole time we would of probably stayed there having a grand olé time all night! It’s a little divey but that just adds to its charm. Stop by and say hi to Terry and his wife for me they are two swell cats! !

Local as local can be and love it. The fact that you can snag some cicada bling to commemorate the new chest hairs after taking a strange shot of vanilla caramel goodness is a huge plus. If you go there on an off night you might be the only one there but Terry, the owner, makes some interesting conversation. Overall, love it, for what it is and the swag.

This place is the best dive bar. Any bad reviews are from up tight non-​locals. So don’t trust those. Anyone from Jc knows a Terry is the best, firewater a dare but you get a great necklace, karaōke is hilarious and fun, dumplings are great, and just don’t ask for an Irish car bomb.

Terry is a god! Also free necklaces with the Golden Cicada shots!

The golden Cicada is a must see when in jersey city. Think SuperDive bar out of an old 80s movie. I half expected a shirtless Patrick Swayze to bust through a door swinging. The proprietor is a kindly older gentleman who is very friendly and talkative. The best part about this place is the Chinese Fire water: Take a shot they give you a cicada necklace! If you ask the bartender what it tastes like, he’ll say something along the lines of like a barnyard. It’s pretty true but it’s awesome and completely worth the experience. If I’m ever back in Jersey City, I’ll be sure to bring friends along to share a new memory of this magical place with me!

Fun and friendly hole in the wall joint. The bartenders (elderly Chinese couple who own the place) as well as the customers are welcoming and friendly.

This is the best dive bar you can find in Jersey City. Terry, the owner, is an amazing guy who will offer you drinks for a very decent price. Karaōke is so fun as well…

Never had a bad time… This is our neighborhood go-​to!

Drink Maotai, otherwise known as «Chinese Fire Water» = a Golden Cicada necklace. A quintessential Jersey City divesque bar with a great owner.

Holy Grail of dive bars. Do it for the fire water shot — absolutely disgusting, but you get a bad-​ass necklace out of the deal.

ABSOLUTLEY the best bar in America. If you want to feel loved, come here. If you want to feel like Freddy Mercury, come here.

It’s hard to explain this place. From the outside, it looks like nothing. Inside, it still kind of looks like nothing but when you go here, you’re going to have a great time. It’s popular, well known, and loved locally, yet often near empty. All that summed up, if you get the chance, just come here.
Terry is the owner and one of the most knowledgeable and interesting people I’ve been lucky enough to have a conversation with. I always go with strictly Tsingtao and Maotai while here (which is usually just referred to as firewater). The maotai is a different type of liquor than most people here are used to, and if you take a shot of it you’ll earn yourself a Golden Cicada necklace. Is it weird that I like it?
Terry has been talking about closing for a while, often showing the future plans for the spot as they’re hung on the wall, so get here soon or you may miss it — and trust me, you don’t want to.

The Golden Cicada is an institution in Jersey City.
First off, it’s not a hipster trendy place. It doesn’t have great food. It’s outdoor patio area is an alley. And the most vile drink known to man can be imbibed here.
The Chinese Firewater can best be described as drinking the sweat off of a donkey’s ass. For which you get the rare and prized Golden Cicada necklace (seriously).
The Golden Cicada is a hole-​in-​the-​wall dive in the best tradition of hole-​in-​the-​walls. The owner (Terry) is friendly and funny and very easy going. The crowd tends to be the local JC hipsters and the occasional lost office worker.
Go here with a fun loving bunch at the end of the night, and rock out to some YouTube Karaōke … a great and silly way to cap off an evening.
But go soon … word is Terry is closing at the end of the year (boo!).

I grew up hanging out in JC neighborhood dive bars since I can remember. Thanks Dad!
This is truly the Holy Grail if you are on a quest for finding the «diviest» bar in downtown JC. Really really small. Wallpaper peeling of the wall and the drop ceiling is on the verge of dropping. Seriously.
Limited selection of beers. Almost all bottles. Ok prices but a bit more than I would have thought for a dive bar of this stature. Basically only serve dumplings and empanadas. Dumplings were good; the empanadas were not.
Owners very friendly and pretty cool older couple.
I heard they are closing for renovations. I suggest a can of gasoline and a match. :)
Have Fun

Great owners. Cheap divey JerZ bar. Chill vibe. Cicada necklaces.
The kind of place that from the outside it looks like a shady strip club. No windows to really see inside and a solid door. Had to check the Unilocal ap a few times to make sure this was the right spot for Jersey CM Stephanie Y’s going away party.
When entering I was greated by the crowd of Unilocalers that had gathered here this night. Very old school. No beers on tap. Just bottled domestics and some imports. Nice and cold. Plenty of liquor to make cocktails. They even serve dumplings here that I saw some others munching on. Tiny space with a few tables and chairs, and stools around the bar. Chinese lantern lights on the ceiling. A bit bare-​boned but just right as it’s cozy inside.
Not even a jukebox on the premises. The owner has a small laptop behind the bar hooked up to some speakers that he finds YouTube videos to play. He even let Steph act as DJ for a bit, and the tunes were mad cool.
Drink the nasty firewater shot and get a cicada necklace to wear in pride. Oh yeah, I got mine. Love how the owner/​bartender also bangs a gong when people do the shot.
It’s a small sketchy place that everyone should go to at least once with some friends and experience what an awesome suburban dive bar should be.

Please apply the quote «Don’t judge a book by its cover» when you physically see the Golden Cicada. When you open the book and turn the pages you’ll really get into the story!
My friend and I came here for Steph Y’s going away party. (We miss you so much already!!) The building itself looked mad shady. I was waiting for a ratchet hooker to take my money or something lol. But anyways, we went inside and the atmosphere was on fire. People were laughing and smiling. It looked like everyone was having an amazing time.
We quickly approached the bar to TURN UP on a Thursdayyy *dancing now* and an elderly asian man made our drinks.
1. Rum and Coke.
2. Jameson and Ginger
3. Firewater shot to get Cicada necklace
Drinks were strong and did its job. Liquid courage. But that shot doe. Oh my gawd. What did I swallow? As a fellow Chinese man I really had no good words for it LOL. But it earned me a cicada necklace and I wore it like a bo$$, rick ro$$ style. Stay flossin’ …bought a Tsingtao beer to represent my Chinese people. And then I went home and slept like a baby haha. Love this place, love the prices, love the atmosphere. Come one. Come all. :)

This is my favorite bar in Jersey City. It’s run by what seems like a family that enjoys making cocktails and karaōke. Tsingtao is the beer of choice here and you have to do the disgusting house shot in order to earn the cicada necklace.
It’s my favorite bar because all different walks of life are here, you can submit requests for songs to be played on the laptop (the owner always finds the video with the lyrics), and everyone is super nice. It’s a total dive bar so don’t expect world class excellence or service, but you will have a great time.

There is a sixth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as the cosmos and as timeless as eternity. It is the middle ground between bottled beer and the coasters they stand upon, between tipsy and buzzed, and it lies between the pit of man’s sobriety, and the summit of his alcoholism.
This is the dimension of ingenuity. It is an area which we call… Golden Cicada.
I came here three Saturday’s in a row. I am a man of science… or, at least I was… and to test a hypothesis, you must repeat the experiment multiple times before it can butterfly into a law.
—Journal Entry 0001—
Saturday, December 26^th 2014
Twas’ the night after Christmas, and all through the bar, not a creature was stirring… just kidding, they sure are.
Before entering the edifice on the corner of Marin and Grand I took a moment to reflect: When did I hear of this place? This Golden Cicada? I had passed it several times in my years of traversing the grounds of Jersey City. Aha! The bartender at Lucky 7 Tavern… she said they had very good _​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​. I’m drawing a blank.
This was many moons prior.
But I digress… a bartender recommending another bar to her patrons… must see!
My friend Frank and I got to the door… a very uninviting door. However, karaōke could be heard leaking through the cracks at a very high volume. We walked into a small bar that was filled with about 6 people. Maybe less. They were singing karaōke in a very rudimentary fashion. And by that I mean they were using Youtube videos of songs with the lyrics scrolling on the screen.
I got a firewater shot for myself and a Heineken for my friend. We then took a seat. The owner came to our table and gave me a cicada necklace for downing the shot that took my soul away.
At some point later on, the mic made its way to my friend and I… big mistake… because we get loud.
More and more people showed up and the place became packed. We had had the microphone for a very long time. My friend would narrate everything that was going on when the music was playing and the bartender was busy. Very ominous. We closed out with ‘Closing Time’ and looked forward to coming back in 7 days. See you next year.
—Journal Entry 0002—
Saturday, January 2^nd 2015
Pouring rain.
My friend Nik and I decided to meet up with Frank at Golden Cicada after we left Lucky 7. You never know what you’ll walk in on since there are no windows at all. There was also no music. We found Frank at the bar looking weathered. 3 other men were there, two of them obviously drunk. They were quite older. And drunk.
Did I mention that already? They fell on the floor and crashed into tables.
The two of them left after taking an hour (15 minutes) to get up.
Good. Because the really drunk guy kept talking about musicians we didn’t know about.
The third guy asked where the two drunk guys (brothers BTW) went off to.
We saw him put a bottle in his jacket and leave in their direction.
—Journal Entry 0003—
Saturday, January 10^th 2015
Much better.
Save for the cliché songs people were singing.
1 AM and there were at least twenty people. No seats. A crowd that looked like they belonged in Hoboken walked in and turned around immediately then left,
They returned 15 minutes later and the place was packed.
Yuengling is $ 4.
The fact that you never know what you’re going to get when you walk into here?
Priceless.

So Surf City decided I wasn’t cool enough to get in since I was wearing timbs. (God I hate that place)
I ended up letting my group do their own thing while me and my cigar went for a drunken stumble. The Golden Cicada was the nearest place besides the Tilted Kilt. Everyone was singing karaōke inside. It smelled funny. And I was not in the best mood.
Unilocal had mentioned dumplings. I was somewhat hungry. I ordered dumplings and pork buns from the nice, old, Chinese bartender. The pork buns were ok, but the dumplings were surprisingly good. I cheered up a bit and ordered a drink. The bartender asked me if I wanted to ring the gong. Hell yeah I wanna ring the gong.
So now I’m pretty happy. After ringing the gong, all eyes are on me, and they all cheer for shots. But I didn’t really feel like drinking more, until the bartender shows me the Golden Cicada necklace, which I definitely wanted.
I do a shot of their Chinese Firewater, which is among the worst liquors I have ever swallowed. Turns out, it’s baiju, the most popular drink in China. The bar cheers and the bartender put the necklace on me like I won a medal.
Besides all that, the bartender and his patrons put a smile on my face and that’s enough to give the Golden Cicada 5 stars.