Thursty Turtle

I dig this hole in the wall. A Friday isn’t the same without it. Jessica is an amazing bartender and will take care of you.
My only complaint is how expensive the juke box is. $ 1 a song??? That’s dumb.

One of the best neighborhood dive bars in San Antonio! Great bartenders & friendly crowd with come as you are dress code. Definitely give it a shot, you won’t regret it!
Regarding the negative reviews. If you want fancy, go to a wine bar! If your nice to Turtle, Turtle is nice to you!

This is your typical dive bar. They have two pool tables, a juke box, darts, TVs and fluffy chairs. The beer is really cold on tap. The locals seem really nice. I like this place and will defiantly go back. So does that make me a thirsty turtle?

Bad customer service if you’re not a regular don’t count on service in a timely manner. You basically have to yell at the bartender so that they have no choice and will acknowledge you. Good drink specials thought depending on what bartender you have determines how much each drink is. I love a good dive bar but this place doesn’t look like it’s been given a deep clean in awhile.

Hole in the wall, dirty, no customer service skills, if you’re a female trying to get the bartenders attention good luck, I’ve seen the bartender jump on a customer, legs wrapped around him, and there were people waiting for drinks… I guess they figure the only way to get tips is from the male customers smh

You can easily say this is the epitome of a dive bar. The liquor is standard, the draft beer is limited, and the place has that sort of grunge that sticks everywhere.
The good: Seems like a decent little neighborhood bar with a devoted crowd. Pretty competitive liquor prices. Friendly staff.
The bad: Glassware was not clean. The drink my friend had was poorly mixed and had absolutely no character to it. My beer was poured flat and tasted like it came from a keg that sat in a fridge for a VERY long time. Chilled glasses (I say this because beer is best enjoyed around 40 – 60 degrees F). The furniture was like holyshityouactuallyhavethishere cheap/​uncomfortable. Bartender was kind of scatter brained about orders. I do not care for places that hold your card as a form of having a tab.
Over all I would say this place is very hit an miss. Might be cool if you just want to hang back and grab a cheap drink (cheap quality too) and chill with some locals. If you are like me however and prefer a little more class, character, and quality then I suggest passing on this one.

Thirsty Thursdays are back again… so what better place to be than a stop at the Turtle. I have to admit I used to be a frequent flyer here back in the day, so my review will be mixed. Once again, a neighborhood bar= if you come here often enough you will have the time of your life. They have specials all the time and cheap drinks, stick with the liquor because it’s well worth the money. This is also a Clarksbar pub crawl stop.
They have a pool table and the bathrooms are located next to the mop closet, double check before entering. What I do miss about this place was the breathalyzer machine. How fun is that! Probably due to a herpes outbreak or something they discontinued it, I mean do you really know who’s been blowing on that straw? Just kidding they had pre-​wrapped straws, it probably broke.
I will say it’s kind of a pain to get to because if you miss your exit then you have to double back. Only ninjas can get through that neighborhood behind the bar because I have yet to figure out the «back way.» I wouldn’t mind stopping in for a couple of rounds, but I don’t suggest closing it down. It’s borderline to copland and the gas station up the block is primo stakeout location. Also, if you’re using a credit card… minimum of $ 10. charge.

Great little dive on 410 near Harry Wurzbach. I really like this place. Friendly staff and great drink specials. Stop in for a cold one next time you’re near by, I know I will.

Not what I expected when I was talked into checking this place out. I love the fact that it’s in between a store and some other random outlet. It’s a hole in the wall dive.
Great seating, decent prices and a drunks dream.
It was a tad smokey, ok a lot smokey, so we will see if that changes after the ban.
But I will go back, I know I will.

Thirsty turtle is tucked away in an inconspicuous shopping center off the freeway and if not for the large sign you’d never know it was there. I’ve only been to thirsty turtle a few times but every time I had a blast. The place is the epitome of a dive bar but I like those places from time to time. Every now and then we’ll do a sunday funday and dive bars are the bars of my choice. It’s got a cool laid back vibe and the staff is always friendly. The only reasons I didn’t give the turtle a higher rating was the smoke can get to epic levels and they don’t have an internet jukebox which makes for a limited music selection. Other than that I’m a fan of the turtle!

What a great little shithole.
The Thirsty Turtle is the embodiment of Moe’s Tavern. It’s inhabited by surly regulars swilling strong poorly mixed drinks at bargain basement prices. There’s disgusting overstuffed chairs, some TVs that are never on the same station, a broken ATM, and a bathroom you’d better be drunk to use. I’d watch your ride in the lot though, there’s cops investigating auto breakins seemingly more often than at other places I frequent.

Ah the Thursty Turtle. The only bar I know of that can leave Halloween decorations up 365 days out of the year and get away with it. Me and my compadres have spent many… Many a night in that wateren hole. Good prices, awsome hosts, and leather sofas… simply magical.

I remember my first time at the Thirsty Turtle like it was yesterday…
It was a group thing. My cousin’s birthday. I was excited to try this new bar all my friends were buzzing about. I had heard it was a hole in the wall, but I’m me so I wore a sundress and heels and even fixed my hair.
My ever-​building bubble of excitement quickly burst as we pulled into a parking lot that held 20 cars at most (of course this bar is in San Antonio so 20 spots for cars amounted to 8 giant trucks filling up the place.) I looked around and didn’t understand where we were. To my left was an alley. Ahead of me was a construction site. Behind me was a strip mall. A strip mall with two tenants. One tenant was a tiny little convenient store. The other was this «amazing» bar I’d been hearing about. So, I resisted slapping the person who had the idea to come here and regretting wasting an hour getting dressed.
I begrudgingly filed in behind my friends. We were met a the door by a giant, very stereotypical bouncer-​type guy checking Id’s. The bar was smokier than my eye makeup. I tried clicking my shoes together a la Dorothy in a feeble attempt to get a magical ride home, but it didn’t work (shock) so we went to the bar and order a round of drinks (shock) and everyone piled into some couches on a far wall. I was feeling like the Grinch and totally confused about why anyone thought a bar like this would be fun for me…
Slowly, though, something changed. Someone started the jukebox and some super fantastic 80’s garbage tunes started spewing out and fellow patrons began dancing. I felt my foot start to tap. I looked around and noticed some darts games. Some of my friends took on a pool game in the other room. I jumped in on a round of trivia and won a round of drinks for my table. The conversation got hilarious and the atmosphere got really fun. People were dancing and laughing. The crowd was diverse but mingling together well. I don’t know how to describe it. It just felt right. I started having… fun? I believe they call it?
So, here’s to you, Thirsty Turtle. I don’t know how you do it. But, you serve up one heck of a great time…

Still a great place to come and have a beer/​drink. A big downside is that they still allow smoking. I can’t believe San Antonio doesn’t have a smoking ban in place. But that’s an argument for a different forum. It still sucks to come out smelling like cigarette butts.
The bartenders are really friendly and make sure you get the best bang for your buck by reminding you when happy hour ends. They still have 3 pool tables available and an electronic dart board and plenty of tvs to watch sporting events.
I guess the biggest problem I had with my last visit is that they started a trivia night right in the middle of Monday Night Football. I don’t know what that was about but they should wait until the game is over or switch it to another night.

If you’re trying to find a hole in the wall bar look no further. The fact that the Thirsty Turtle is located near Harry Wurzbach, a quite neglected street in my opinion, isn’t enough because coming off of 410 you can easily miss it. The Thirsty Turtle is the epitome of a dive bar. I’m not saying that as a bad thing. I have my nights where all I want to do is go to hole in the wall and get a beer. Be prepared for a good amount of people on the weekends. Normally on the weekdays it’s a good place to hang out with your friends without having a ton of people around. They do have a couple of pool tables and some times have live music but for the most part it’s juke box. The thing I love about the turtle is that there are some interesting characters that are always sitting around and are totally willing to have a conversation with anyone. You may be surprised at how much fun you’d have at this «dive bar».

I had a really great time when I came here. I went here when I was visiting my boyfriends family. I think that this is probably one of the best bars we got to go to in San Antonio. I am a huge fan of little hole in the wall places, but the fact that I got to meet all of my bf’s best friends and old acquaintances was super fun!
Also, they have cheap drinks, and I truly feel that people in Texas are waaay nicer and more approachable than they are in MPLS. Keep that up Texas! ha ha

This little hole-​in-​the-​wall joint is exactly what you’d expect from a dive bar– watered down drinks, mismatched décor, inconsistent service, and a musty aroma floating in the air. The music is random and way too loud. It was fun for a night, but not a place to frequent.