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Gabin - CLOSED
Categories: Nightlife Adult Entertainment Nightlife Bars Nightlife Karaoke Adult Entertainment, Bars, Karaoke [Edit]
1775 Fulton St(between Central Ave & Masonic Ave)
San Francisco, CA 94117
Neighborhood: Western Addition/NOPA
- Parking:
- Street
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Best Nights:
- Fri, Sat
17 reviews for Gabin
17 reviews in English
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Review from Cheryl D.
5/16/2008
In a crazy underworld of some sort of (insert Asian group here) Mafia they all meet in kareoke rooms and screw the waitresses like some Rush Hour part 4 crap and transfer money and drugs and weapons and song books because the gangsters hate it when they get the wrong language book or when are looking for English songs.
Just kidding - but not about the books.
When I first experienced private room kareoke I thought it was shady. But then I saw how friends who wont sing in front of strangers will drink and not let go of the mic. And you can pick from a ton of songs in different languages and stop the songs and cancel... its just preference. Some people are egged on by other people, a crowd or some people like just being with friends.
I have had drinks here and sang before partying at Poleng a few times and there's nothing more shady than what usually happens at private room kareoke. They have a all-night room rate too in case you and the crew are drunken songbirds. Come with a group if you wanna try it. -
Review from Pete J.
San Francisco, CA
5/16/2007
DO YOU REALIZE that something is not right.
DO YOU REALIZE that the back's got ladies of the night
DO YOU REALIZE the patrons are all shifty.
DO YOU REALIZE that blowjobs'll cost you fifty.
I KID! I mean, I didn't realize what it was when I was there, but soon heard from a friend at Poleng afterwards (we were at Gabin to catch the bitter end of the Warriors magical playoff run) that this place is a front for a brothel -- potentially even a mafia-run brothel.
KARAOKE! the neon sign outside proclaims. But I saw no karaoke.
The joint was shady, the patrons were shifty & a little bit nervous, the drinks were expensive, & they were blasting the DREAM GIRLS soundtrack.
Still, every town has gotta have places like this...places for the dirtbags among us to cavort. Or otherwise for the general amusement of Joe Public.Listed in: As Divisadero Turns, Shredded Vocal Chords
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Review from michael n.
San Francisco, CA
10/19/2006
Great place to bring the wife and kids! excellent service and no one stares at you the whole time because they think you're an undercover cop on a random thursday night at 11:13. Might wanna have a korean friend handy.
Did i mention this place is a front for a brothel? -
Review from Tak H.
San Francisco, CA
6/25/2007
On our way to Poleng, Nacho gets hungry for food and i suggest the place next door that looks like a Korean restaurant.
Outside Gabin.
Nacho: errrr, guys i' m thinking fooooooood right now.
me: what!? we just walked all the way here and NOW you want food? ....ok well, lets check out this Korean place, looks nice.
Nacho: you sure its a restaurant?
me: yeah, looks like one to me.
We enter Gabin, two korean businessmen and a lady sitting at the bar and no bartender. Lady gets up and looks at us and says 'hi'.
me: uh, are you guys open?
lady: yea
me: do you have any food?
lady: yea
me: errr..... ok, what kinda food do you have?
lady: what kind of food you want?
me:korean food
lady: ......we have fruit
me: eerrh, its ok ...Thanks!
Nacho: dude, that was NOT a restaurant
me: yeah, that was the weirdest shit ever.
Yes, not until now...like 10 months later, did i read a review of this place and figured out that it was a brothel, it makes perfect sense now.
cheers Gabin NewsomsListed in: Nacho Escapades
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Review from phillip w.
San Francisco, CA
9/19/2007
Went in here one night jus to have a drink with some friends, I know some of the people that work here. Had a pretty good time, jus drinkin n playin dice.
What else do you really expect from a bar? Yea karaoke is there too, unfortunetly the rooms were booked for the night so we couldnt get one. Im kind of glad though, cause i heard this one guy singing and it sounded awful.....
hmmm i wonder if i sound that bad when i sing......
~I didnt know anything about this place being a brothel, im not even sure if there is enough proof for me to say that it is or isnt. But it wasnt all like quiet and creepy like the other reviewers say. Maybe you guys just get scared easily or watch too much tv~ -
Review from Sally H.
San Francisco, CA
4/6/2007
LOL!!! They lost a STAR fo dem HOs in da back. If I didn't read the other reviews just now, this place woulda gotten 5 stars.
DUDE! Brothel, shmothel. Poleng was NOT happening at 930pm so we got stamped and decided to go to the sketchy bar next door. It turns out to be a karaoke (slash brothel) place! I LOOOOVE Karaoke and this is one of the best places to karaoke in the city! They had all the songs I wanted to sing that Playground or Do Re Mi DON'T have. My friends and I rented out the large room and the bartender hooked us up with Goose! I walked outta there paying 5 bucks feeling good and buzzed to just slip right back into Poleng when the long line of people emerge around 1130. -
Review from Tim G.
San Francisco, CA
3/5/2007
Experience the creepiness firsthand, if you dare.
This is not a restaurant. This is not a bar with patrons. This is not a karaoke place with singing. It is an empty space inhabited by robots. -
Review from Josh L.
San Francisco, CA
11/13/2007
After a Monday that lasted a week I needed a drink. Being new to the NOPA 'hood I just figured I would wander west from Cafe Neon to find a bar and Gabin was the first I came to. I walk up to the bar order a drink, had a seat, sipped my beer and watched some TV. I couldn't help but notice that people kept disappearing into the back rooms which had no signs, women would come in the front, consult briefly with the bartender and then proceed straight to the back, then more male patrons would disappear...Then four cops rolled in...
Let me clear the record, if it hasn't already been cleared: nothing shady is going on here.
The owners were testing the alarm system (they had a recent break in) and the cops were responding to the alarm as they happened to be a block away. The cops did a required run through of the place and they found no sex slaves, child laborers, nor back-room poker games just a friendly bar owner who apologized profusely (and joked about the break-in, "They didnt take the Blue Label, just the Schnapps! HA!").
As a bar I give it 3 stars but I've yet to sample the karoake. The service was fine the bartender wasn't a fluent conversationalist but he got my order fine which is really whats required. It wasn't "happening" but hey it was Monday. That being said I will be going back to try the song selection and will update accordingly. -
Review from Matthew S.
San Francisco, CA
8/13/2007
Wow, I had only wish that I had read all these reviews previously...
Anyways, my story:
So my friend and I had been out for a while, and I was dropping him off at his house when we decided to go have one more drink. He said we should go to Poleng, and having heard a few good things about that place, thought that sounded good. However, there was a 10 dollar cover that night, and we only wanted like one more beer...so we walked down a few places to Gabin, the "the Karaoke" bar.
As soon I walked in, I felt immediately out place. In the way back, there was a group of nicely dressed Asian men in suits smoking cigarettes, who happened to be staring back at me and my buddy. We ordered some beers, and the bartender didn't seem to know what to charge us , so she came up with a number. So far...it was ok....but then my friend was asking why no one was using the Karaoke machine...and I realized all these rooms in back....
The bartender did give us some free peanuts. Plus one star.
This place is obviously a front. I can't vouch for it being a brothel. Maybe they gamble in back, I have no idea. It's not only a bar, or even a karaoke bar...that much is obvious...Korean mafia maybe....who knows, but they DID have Newcastle, so plus one more star for that :) -
Review from Lauren D.
New York, NY
4/6/2007
This place has a pretty creepy vibe to it. It was oddly quiet when we walked in and no one else was singing. There were a group of Korean people chill'n out front in the bar smoke'n death sticks - gotta love the combination of singing and smoking!
So I've never Karaoked before and I have to say I actually had a good time here. It only gets three Staaaaas 'cause they didn't have Warren G's "Regulator," and because I think they watered down our Goose - not that any of us there needed more to drink that nite.
And you wonder why not 2 Staaaaas fo watered down Goose? 'Cause it doubles as a brothel - that's just kinda cool if ya ask me. -
Review from Susan S.
1/13/2009
This was almost the perfect karaoke bar. Some friends and I decided to do karaoke after we got bored of Poleng next door. The bar was pretty empty. There were two or three women sitting at the bar smoking. We got strange looks as we walked in and even stranger looks when we said we were there to do karaoke. I didn't really get that, seeing as how there was a neon sign in the window reading "karaoke."
Anyway, they showed us to this private room, which was kind of like a conference room. Leather couches, a glass table, rows of drinking glasses, and karaoke equipment. A clean karaoke room! Awesome! There was a wide selection of songs and the best part--tambourines that light up when you hit them. One of my friends (Aaron M.) commented that the women at the bar looked like prostitutes. I scoffed. God, Aaron, like a brothel would have light-up tambourines?
The next day, we looked Gabin up on yelp and saw that it has a reputation for being a brothel. Now, to any lawyer reading this review, this rumor is unconfirmed. I do not state that it is a brothel.
So, one star for its reputation. And an extra star for the tambourines.Listed in: My search for the perfect bar
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Review from Coco D.
Philadelphia, PA
4/12/2007
I can't really add to what my other yelpers have said. Everything they said is pretty much dead on to what my experience was. And sorry, but they're not even doing a very good job trying to pretend that this is a bar. No pour spouts on bottles? No Irish whiskey?
The man standing behind the bar who was so clearly skeeved out by us did bring us peanuts, though, so maybe they're learning. -
Review from luis m.
Oakland, CA
1/3/2009
I came here before going to Poleng once with a few people. I had a few GG and Sodas, my company had drinks. We heard singing in the back area. They offered us karaoke rather than handjobs. Seems like a standard bar with karaoke and maybe some hostess service to me.
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Review from vlad k.
San Francisco, CA
10/5/2006
there are plenty of brothels that pose as "massage parlors", but brothels posing as karaoke bars?! that's a new one to me.
we were having drinks at poleng when we noticed this place called Gabin. why not try it out? so we walk in and the place is dead. like completely dead. there isn't a single person in the bar except for the bartender behind the counter. there's no music playing. just silence in a long empty building. i asked if they were open, and the bartender said yes, so we decided to get drinks although it felt really odd being there. as we played some pool, we realized that this place was a karaoke bar with several small rooms in the back. strangely enough though, we really only heard karaoke once in a long while. plus, each room was staffed with a woman who would only come out of the room very rarely to get some drinks and then go back inside. veeeeerrrry suspicious. while we played pool, the bartender just stared at us the whole time.
i read online later that this place is a brothel. somehow that just isn't a surprise...
(my resolution this year is to visit 50 new bars in SF. read about it at: http://fiftybars.thisi...)Listed in: Fifty New Bars in One Year?
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Review from Matt S.
San Francisco, CA
8/2/2007
Worst pretend bar ever. Can I have a martini? Blank stare. MARTINI. No clue. Where is everyone?
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Review from Geoff L.
San Francisco, CA
3/3/2009
Stopped by on my way to Poleng this weekend, and it looks closed.
Too bad, I wanted to cast my vote for brothel vs. karaoke. -
Review from Ken L.
San Francisco, CA
4/27/2008
scary sh**. the giant chain on the glass front door says it all. oh my han-guk brothers, you make me sad :(
