111 Best Bars in San Francisco, California

If you like megaclubs, then you'll dig this industrial-chic two-story club, which doubles as a gallery and performance venue. Live acts have included Mos Def, the Dandy Warhols, and Def Jux artists. The crowd is generally mixed, straight and gay. If the jam-packed dance floor (which can accommodate nearly 1,000 people) overwhelms you, head upstairs to the quietish mezzanine lounges to converse or to ogle the sexy crowd.

One of the Castro's longest-running bars—open since 1971—is popular with the polo-shirt-and-khakis crowd. Giant video screens play the latest music videos as well as episodes of shows like Will & Grace and Queer Eye.

This quintessential neighborhood watering hole outfitted with a pool table and pinball machines has TV screens playing pop videos and music. A giant fish tank sits over the bar, giving shy types a place to rest their gaze while taking a shot of liquid courage. Casually dressed couples and guys with nothing to prove frequent this place, but there's pickup potential, too. Like many smaller dive bars, it's cash only.

This stylish restaurant and trendy bar has an outdoor patio perfect for sunny days with pizzas, burgers, and beers. But, this fan favorite is really all about its proximity to Oracle Park—it's the ballpark area's unofficial gathering place before and after games.

This small, classy, storefront lounge has reasonable tasting flights (around $20) and decent food that looks more impressive than it tastes. No complaints about the wine choices, though, which are consistently excellent. Warm lighting accents modern furnishings, including a signature beehive-shape wine display. On weekends the decibel level rises considerably and space is at a premium.

A cross between a Tim Burton film and an Oingo Boingo album, this funky, cavelike bar makes every day Halloween. Noc Noc's bartenders serve up about 20 or so beers on tap, sake (even unfiltered), and unique twists on traditional drinks, like the Snake Bite, a blend of lager and cider. The house DJ plays acid jazz, industrial, and ambient music.

PCH for short, this neighborhood hangout with a convivial aura and industrial-chic decor hits all the right notes. Plus the well-chosen and unique ingredients mean there’s a little something for everyone, and the glassware is as dazzling as the elixirs inside. The must-try cocktail is the Oh Snap!, a concoction of gin, sugar snap peas, citrus, and absinthe.

Retro tiki kitsch meets tropical sophistication at award-winning PCH, a lively favorite for evening cocktails. As the name suggests, Asia Pacific flavors—shiso, ume, li hing mui, pandan—abound on the booklike cocktail menu, and the talented bartenders make reliable recommendations. Fun theme nights and whimsical mugs are common.

Giving the Tonga Room a run for its money as the most kitschy tiki bar in town, Pagan Idol features a secret back room complete with erupting volcano, giant tikis, and a starry night sky. The folks from Bourbon & Branch are behind this faux pirate ship, so even if the cocktails are served in goofy tiki glasses with paper umbrellas, rest assured they're on the money.

You'll feel like you're in a cabin in the woods as you relax in an Adirondack chair under a heat lamp, enclosed by the greenery of Golden Gate Park. In addition to serving pub food, such as burgers, salads, steaks, and fish-and-chips, the brewery churns out its own beer. On sunny spring and summer weekend days, there's live music on the lawn. The Park Chalet shares a building with the Beach Chalet—but it isn't waterside, so you won't freeze if it's overcast. There's indoor seating too, but the outdoor seating area is the highlight.

One of San Francisco's oldest singles bars still packs 'em in, but it's also a favorite restaurant for all ages. You can dine on great hamburgers (and a stellar Reuben) as well as more substantial fare to pair with local beers and simple cocktails, while gabbing about the 49ers with the well-scrubbed, khaki-clad, baseball-cap-wearing patrons.

Casual and comfortable—yet still hip and cruise-y—this is the type of neighborhood joint you quickly claim as your own. Kick back with a pint on the fantastic year-round patio and enjoy eye candy of the thirtysomething variety (ranging from conservative yuppie guys to Mission emo boys). The Pilsner is technically a sports bar, which means it has a pool table and TVs tuned to local games.

A launch pad for the likes of Robin Williams and Ellen DeGeneres, this medium-sized club books some of the nation's top comedy talents.

This funny house ranks right up there with Bimbo's and the Fillmore on the list of San Francisco's most famous clubs, and people seem to love it or hate it. Regardless, the Onion is a historic, quintessential San Francisco institution that provided an early platform for both folk-music troubadours such as the Kingston Trio and comedic acts like Robin Williams. In addition to stand-up, you can catch sketch comedy, open mike, and improv shows.

Opened in 1933, this lounge at the Clift Hotel is a San Francisco icon. The art-deco bar itself and the wood-paneled room are constructed from a single old redwood tree, giving a distinct only-in-California sense of place. Cocktails are a mix of high-quality classics and slightly creative newcomers.

An after-work FiDi crowd fills this brick-walled and dimly lit, speakeasy-ish drinking spot, revered for its extensive whiskey menu and curated list of seasonal cocktails.

A Mission tradition, this classy and casual charmer is like a cabaret club in an aging mobster's garage—it's almost hard to believe you're in 2020s San Francisco. Quirky lounge singers and other musicians entertain most nights. A small menu of affordable sandwiches and Italian food beats your average bar fare.

If you weren't of legal drinking age during the '80s, now's your chance to experience the era's ambience. The Romper Room, bubbling over with neon pink and leopard print, is a funky little bar and quasi-dance club located in the city's somewhat cookie-cutter and label-driven Union Square district. The cocktail menu is small and simple, but they guarantee you won't have to wait longer than 90 seconds to get one.

This cozy wine bar is in a little alley (in the shadow of the Transamerica Pyramid), and the location is part of the appeal, but the wines (with an emphasis on flights) and small plates make it truly worthwhile. A jumble of velvet chairs and love seats fills the space, and the bocce court outside is popular.

This spacious indoor-outdoor leather bar is a holdover from the days before SoMa's gentrification. The Sunday afternoon "Beer Busts" remain a high point of the leather set's week, Mondays are for karaoke, and there are DJs and live music generally Thursday and Friday. This remains a welcoming place for people from all walks of life.

During Prohibition, one of the city's more notorious speakeasies was accessible only via a secret-wall passage and a 15-foot slide that whisked patrons into the basement "restaurant" known as Coffee Dan's (it wasn't really a restaurant). That space has been reclaimed, restored, and aptly renamed Slide. A swanky, modern version of its former self, the place still has a slide, though stairs are also available. On the weekends, DJs spin a mix of hip-hop, downtempo, and Rat Pack–era hits from a 1920s baby grand piano that has been converted to a DJ booth. Like similar-themed bars within the city, the facility is completely unmarked.

National touring acts—mostly along the pop-punk and hard- and alt-rock lines but including metal and bluegrass—are the main draws at this venue, one of SoMa's most popular nightclubs. Co-owner Boz Scaggs helps bring in the crowds and famous headliners like Dressy Bessy and Dead Meadow.

If you're into bohemian dive bars, you can groove on this hidden hangout for artists, poets, and heavy-drinking old-timers. Specs' bar is a women-owned and  -run institution and a beloved fixture. It's one of the few remaining old-fashioned watering holes in North Beach that still smack of the Beat years and the 1960s. Though it's just off a busy street, Specs' is strangely immune to the hustle and bustle outside.

With swing jazz on the soundtrack, bartenders in white jackets, and an immaculately detailed art-deco interior, it's always a trip back to the Bing Crosby–Ella Fitzgerald era at this charming Lower Nob Hill cocktail bar.

This dark-wood, low-lit space has a certain swagger that's at once charming and classy. It serves full meals but is also a good choice for cocktails and small plates—the polenta fries, Scotch egg, and seasonal salad are all winners.

The groovy 1960s are the inspiration for the gorgeous setting of this cocktail destination with a busy bar up front and a more relaxed, lounge-style atmosphere in the back. However, the cocktails are straight-up modern excellence, always mixing a superb balance of high-quality spirits and homemade ingredients. The glassware and garnishes are gorgeous.

Barely seven stools fit in San Francisco’s smallest bar. There are just as many bottled beers (served from a bathtub!) as seats, and be sure to bring some cash since credit cards aren't accepted. It's as bare-bones as it gets, but there's sports on TV, a fun dice game, and most important, a neighborhood camaraderie that is increasingly hard to find.

If you've been looking for a bar where you can watch football and get a decent martini, this is it. Not your typical sports pub, this small lounge has as many female patrons as male, and it's not super loud and raucous. Due to its size, the Boardroom has only four plasma-screen TVs, which are just as likely to be broadcasting snowboarding as the usual baseball-football-basketball trifecta. The food is better than your average pub grub.

This Wild West–motif neighborhood gay bar has pinball machines, pool tables, a smoking patio, and several theme nights and drag shows on the schedule. The Cinch is not the least bit trendy, which is part of the charm for regulars of this landmark 1970s bar.