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Category: Bars
Neighborhood: Nob HillMon-Fri. 6:00 p.m. - 2:00 a.m.
Sat. 11:00 a.m. - 2:00 a.m.
Sun. 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 a.m.
"Free popcorn! Kick-ass Bartenders! Shot specials every day/night of the week! Hollaaaa!!!!! Perfect spot for game days that I can crawl…" read more »
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Love this place, it just never gets old.
-great hole in the wall bar with some character.
-awesome jukebox (seems like no good spots in SF have one these days)
-not too pricey
-great place to start a fri or sat night
Met my girlfriend/future wife here, so I can't add enough stars to express my adoration for this place.
Now that you've finished vomiting, let me break it down for you:
-$2 tall cans of Bud Light = WIN
-Jukebox = WIN, if you get there early enough to have your songs played
-$7'ish, generous glasses of Dewar's=WIN
-Plus, if you're desperate and get shot down all night, there's an asian "massage" parlor steps from the entrance!
It is true that you'll occasionally get a douche-y crowd. Part fratboy, part snob group. But for the most part everyone at the R Bar is chill and I've never had a bad time here. The place can get pretty crowded, but isn't that just a sign of its reputation? Been here once during a weekend day and it seemed like a solid joint to catch sports and relax.
Heard this was a good place to watch football.
Regardless just a solid neighborhood bar.
Decently priced drinks, lots of room, etc.
I went back there tonight and the drinks weren't watered down or poured so weakly. Different bartender. Thanks R Bar.
What's up with the ultra-weak drinks? For my first drink I thought it could have been a mistake.… Read more »
Even though I have moved out of the neighborhood (but still in SF), this is still my favorite neighborhood bar! For me and my friends its "Our Bar" kinda like Cheers where people recognize you even on a busy night. The place gets really crowded on Friday and Saturday nights. You try and play a song on the jukebox and your lucky if you hear it before last call. The other days of the week is cool to come by and get a drink. On Sundays, you can watch football games and the Ed the bartender is really cool! Props to Chris and Todd! and Miguel is my homie!
Best Jukebox Ever!
Good bar for warming up the night.
This is my favorite place to score a Fernet shot. Nice down to earth bartenders, although sometimes this place can be a sausage fest.
Sunday's bloody mary's made by Ed are by far the best I have had in SF! Just the right amount of horseradish and spice! Yum yum.
Awesome pink grapefruit Greyhound w/ juicy bits - very good start.
Seats in the lounge area in the back, nice for two, and perfect when more friends came - sweeeet.
Ordered a round of 3 drinks for $15 - can I say AWESOME? And THANK YOU, R Bar!
Random dude gives us his songs for the jukebox - SCORE!!
Walk home from R bar is only a few blocks - THE BEST.
Music was kinda random, but I guess that attracts a random crowd, which can be good or bad. My motivation to go out is not to meet random people but to hang w/ my friends, so I'm no expert, however looking around, I wouldn't recommend R Bar as the forest where you'll find Prince Charming. A good-looking, intelligent one, anyway. But what do I know, I don't believe in love. I'll stick to believing in greyhounds, thankyouverymuch.
My friend Melissa picked R Bar as the venue for celebrating her b'day. The high ceilings, skylights, tumbling vines, mirrors garlanded with sweet-smelling pine and the warm.
The patrons that night were quite obviously. I'm not sure if this is the norm. Someone told me that the crowd is usually much posher ...
Drinks are expensive but boozy (not quite worth the money but at least the markup isn't as enormous as it could be).
Overall great time .. not because of the place... because of great friends.
It was by no means deplorable, but man was I underwhelmed. R Bar was the *counts* fourth stop out of five during a night of improvised bar hopping. After leaving Slide down on Mason & Geary, my friend suggested we venture up to R, via the 3 Sutter. (Who the hell wants to walk eight blocks when buzzed?) She told me it was really cool.
It was not. At all.
As soon as I walked in I wanted to leave. It's not that I'm against dive-ish bars (500 Club is a favorite), but this place was kinda sad. R housed maybe half a dozen patrons all together, and the music was more country than rock. I decided to give it a shot (I swear, that pun was not intended!), and ordered my friend and I a Jameson/Coke- the new drink I'm trying on for size as of late. The bartender was very friendly and laid back, but not cheesy- and the reason I'm giving this place two stars instead of one. I meandered to the back lounge-y area and sipped my whiskey, while my friend scanned the jukebox in search of some Interpol.
We stayed maybe 20 minutes before heading on out to our last stop of the evening. I'm not really sorry to say that I won't be back to R Bar.
I've only spent a few hazy minute in R Bar, but I like what I saw! With a fun crowd, loaded jukebox, and quick bartenders I don't know where there could be a problem. This is the kind of place that makes you know that you are kicking off a great night.
Had a shot of fernet, and it tasted just fine, but I think I'll stick to Jaeger.
I wasn't here too long, but I liked what I saw at R Bar.
Being a Seattle native that was visiting S.F for the first time, I was very happy to see that they served Olympia Beer in the can, like they do at home.
If I lived in the neighborhood, I would easily stop by here once or twice a week to get a drink or to watch the game.
I look forward to coming back.
Stopped by R bar yesterday and I can't believe that I have never seen this bar before! The crowd was the normal polk street crowd (kick back and chill) which I love and the bartenders were cool. Everyone seemed to be having a good time and no drama heads. I will definitely be back for more!
I don't really get the hoo-ha about this place because it's just a run-of -the-mill bar...yet somehow, a shot of Fernet at R Bar ended up on 7x7's list of 100 things to try in SF.
So okay, we made it stop #5 on my Bon Voyage, San Francisco tour.
* Enter
* WHOA it's crowded in here and it's only like 9PM!
* Drink our shots of Fernet with ginger chasers
* Do a bit of flirting with good looking young men even though at the ripe old age of 32, I'm pretty sure I had cougar status in that place
* Exit
* Meet my future husband outside while waiting for a cab
* Make Fernet-inspired promise to look for him on Craigslist Missed Connections
* The end
If I was 25 and lived in the neighborhood, I could see this being a go-to hangout but I'm not and I don't. But okay, three drinks = $16. Considering the highfalutin night we'd had up until then, this was a value I could appreciate.
Uh ok...let's see what I remember.
My friend lost her wallet, some woman tried to take my GF's seat, the bar was sticky, had drinks spilled on my shoes, crowded, loud, oh and it was hard to get a drink.
In spite of all that I have been here a few times...why you ask? Well, sometimes in life to know what are the finer things you have to venture to the less finer establishments that the "commoners" go to. Yes people...it is a typical dive bar in the tender-nob. I might even consider it in the tenderloin.
Outside you have the guy trying to sell you drugs and the few hoodlums that are stealing purses and taking off running, knowing good and well drunk people can't run.
My advice...go here if you like all of this or if you don't care about standards in a bar. Oh, and their bathroom is the size of a broom closet. Even the broom closet might be bigger.
I had a grrrrrreat time!!!
Its a bar. It's a long bar... with some mirrors, appropriate lighting and a cheezy small space that at the end of the night turns into a dancefloor for over intoxicated, under intelligenced frat boys and girls to shimmy up to one another for a night full of potential regrets.
There's nothing special here, its a bar at the end of the day and the clientele was such a turn off that I doubt I'll be coming back. We had encounters with way too many folks in college or more acurately, of college age but of a high school demeanor.
There are so many watering holes in the area that I don't see why one would want to park themselves at this one for the course of a night especially when 3 shots of crap well vodka costs $19. WTF?!
This is my 2nd favorite bar in my hood. The booze is reasonably priced and the bar tenders are all super friendly. That's a rarity to not at least have one pain in the ass bartender, I'm impressed!
My first night there after I moved to the hood I chatted with Chris (bartender and I think part owner?) and he effortlessly pulled me into a conversation with some other regulars and I ended up there much later than I intended. Partially thanks to the "welcome to the neighborhood" free Jameson he hooked me up with.
The space is moderate in size but beware: If you go on a Friday or Saturday night the place is a'gonna be crazy packed. We're talkin' wall to wall people environment where you have to squish through people for 5 minutes just to make it 15 feet.
This is all good though, I mean there are a ton of people there for a reason right? The crowd is eclectic and generally pretty drunk. Good times, good times.
Watch out for Bill the "bartender", he gyps on the liquor. Very unprofessional.
Other than the fact that during my second out of four drop-ins the "just subbing" bartender was the best-looking and most charming Irish import I have ever met and that he made a truly wonderful cosmo, I cannot recommend R Bar for a special visit. It is what it is: a bar and, sometimes, a culinary industry water hole. Not bad but nothing special. A quick trot down Polk will reveal more entertaining spots.
Polk Street barhopping extravaganzas would not be complete without hitting up R Bar. I thought I was walking into a place full of gangbangers and thugs given how this place looked from the outside with the graffiti and cage doors. Inside is actually not too bad, a good old bar packed with an eclectic crowd. Supposedly the Fernet is the drink of choice here but that stuff taste worst than the crazy Chinese elixirs where they boil every root and weed that looks interesting in a claypot.
I could give a damn about the game on TV, but nobody seemed to mind me sullenly drinking and writing at the bar. Apparently I looked like I needed to drink last night because after buying three rounds, the bartender dropped off a 4th on the house.
Good prices, good beer selection and a bartender who knew the percent alcohol by volume of each off the top of his head make this the sort of place where I could brood again.
My first impression of R Bar was when my new roommates at the time told me if i live in SF i HAVE to go to R Bar and will love it! I met up one night and next thing i new they were shoving a shot in my direction and said i HAD to take it haha.. hesitant i tried to get more info out of them but they just said its fernet and its initiation for R Bar 1st timers, oh man.. it was awful haha, my description then was tasting of rotten earth and black liquorice ;) well I'm pleased to say it is an acquired taste and i am quite fond of it now. You can not go to R Bar without ordering a shot of fernet or 2 to 3 haha (with ginger back)!
Since my first encounter with both R bar and fernet i have returned to both many times.. they are now a part of me and i love them both haha. I was so pleased to see a shot of fernet was on the big eats SF, its definitely a SF thing and deserves to be on there!
R Bar is just a great spot to come with friends for a laid back fun night of drinks...
i guess i might have a better experience on a weekday, but this place is just way too crowded and stuffy on a saturday night. it was just uncomfortable. the crowd was ok, but just way too many people packed into a tiny setting. drink prices were pretty decent. i believe it was $4 for a well drink on a saturday night. i can't complain about that. but overall, i'd rather go to a place where i can actually move around and breathe...
uhh...
awesome!
Small but cool place in the TL. Back room can be reserved for parties but wow, it's really hot and stuffy back there, almost unbearable. Cool aspect though - they have Ms. PacMan and Galaga video game too. Cheap beers, they were running a $2 Olympia beer special. I've ended up here many times but never seem to remember where it's actually located. Seeing that I was sober on this occasion, maybe now I can finally remember and recommend it as a cool spot to chill.
I give R bar 2 stars because they allowed hundreds of snuggies to invade their friday night, and gave us cheap drinks. I'm not really a dive bar kinda gal, maybe it's because I like going out and getting dolled up, and when you do that for a dive bar, people look at you funny.
Anyways, if you are looking for that dark, dingy, almost illegal feel, R Bar fits the bill.
I can't judge the crowd, because we were all in snuggies, but I will say the bouncer was awesome...I'm pretty sure he knew I had my drink in my snuggie sleeve every time I went in and out...he just laughed....
After 3 vodka sodas, a tequila shot, and a slice of pizza, I was finally ready to face the good old R Bar around 1 am. I generally try to avoid this place because with the exception of a few gems, I've always found the general clientele at R Bar to be pretty creepy. But since it does hold a spot on the Big Eat SF List, I practically jumped when someone suggested it.
# 71: A Fernet at R Bar
I think I could have died plenty happy without ever having tried Fernet. Instead now I'll just die with a slightly more damaged liver. So we had the shots with a ginger chaser. At first, the shot was so gross I went immediately to the chaser not even thinking about how much I hate ginger. Then, when that was so overwhelmingly gross, I couldn't help but wish I had more Fernet to chase my chaser. I will say this: get ready to get DRUNK. And not just any drunk...an "I feel all warm and fuzzy and think it's just about time to start making some drunk dials" drunk (lucky for me I forgot my phone at home last night).
As for R Bar as a whole, it's pretty much Kip's transplanted into San Francisco. It looks like Kip's, it smells like Kips, and it has all the same people who used to be at Kip's 2-6 years ago. So if you went to Cal and need some college flashbacks to help you through your quarter life crisis, head on over to R Bar.
It's amazing, you can smell the stale and bitter stench of beer from across the street. It's small dark and packed with meathead douchehbags all fighting over the few hammered chicks in the corner.
I am sorry to be a hater, but it is not my scene. Two stars because it may not be my scene but for some of you it is. So, enjoy the STD's and have shot of Jagermeister for me.
Again, I am not a hater I guess I just have my own reasons for not liking this place.
After a night at R Bar make sure to yelp about your local Planned Parenthood.
I like R Bar. It measures up nicely to my standards for a dive. Dark, dingy, sticky, etc. Check, check and check. There's always a good mixed crowd here. From frat guys to old, regulars that stay glued to their bar stools, it's fair game for everyone.
Cheap, strong drinks- always a plus. Juke box with some quality jams- another plus. R Bar is always a decent spot when you're in the neighborhood.
Why do I always forget about this place? I guess I spend too much time on the Northern side of Polk Street...and I need to change that immediately!
Great things seem to come in pairs...just like the NStar and Shanghai Kelly's, R Bar is in cohoots with Pier 23. Usually if you love one, you'll love the other.
I rolled into R Bar last night with some lady friends and we had a blast. The drinks are decently priced, the bartenders are good looking and friendly, the patrons are chill, and they play awesome music. Also, for those of you who know me well, it's a Fernet bar!! They are the number one buyer of Fernet in the nation! That's crazy.
Long story short, don't be caught of guard by the somewhat seedy neighborhood...just pretend to be on your cell phone (am I the only one who does this??) and walk briskly down Polk and make a turn at Sutter. It's worth it....trust me.
I'm here so much they might as well forward my mail.
This is without a doubt one of my favorite bars in the city. It's a bartenders bar, which makes it just stupidly fun. Chris, Tod and the gang pour out Fernet like its going out of style. The juke box is good, even though I think they banned both Mickey Avalon and Dirt Nasty because of me.
Its dimly lit, probably dirty and the closest your liver will ever get to heaven.
Located right at the corner of sutter and polk, I've rode the bus by the place 100 times and never noticed it. Finally, I went in for an after work drink. This place rocks.
It opens at 6pm except fridays when it opens at 4pm. We opened the bar. Chris, the bartender and part owner, was super nice and friendly. Made me a very strong vodka tonic and stuck around to chat a bit about sports and stuff. As the hours went by, a few more people came through and he was just as attentive and nice. Adorable too!
As a local bar for after work, I highly recommend this place. It is a little dark inside, but the seats and bar were totally clean. The bathroom (at least to start the night out) was clean as well. I haven't been on the weekend but will definitely put it on my list.
7x7 Big Eat List: #71 Fernet Shot
Oh R Bar, where do I begin to count the ways of how I love thee? When I used to live on Polk, this was one of my regular haunts. Chris is awesome, all the other bartenders are awesome, and well... AWESOME.
Had many memorable moments that due to blackout I don't remember. Luckily, there are many pictures to prove things actually did happen.
I don't really have much else to rave about R Bar because to me, it's just one of my bars. It feels like home when I walk in, everyone who goes is out to have a good time, and the fernet shots are disgusting but the company is fantabulous!
What's with this place???...I can't seem to ever remember the leaving part of the night!
Perhaps it's the cheap and stiffy drinks and great bartenders that never make you wait for a drink. It's not the nicest bar, but I love dive bars. I know I'm always guaranteed to have a good time if I end up at R Bar with my friends.
Jukebox with MGMT, MSTRKRFT, Sneaky Sound System and Juan Maclean - what's not to like.
I've been hibernating the last couple of days but what a way to come out of hibernation by coming for the canned food drive. I always love going to support a good cause. The drinks are stiff, the bartenders are cool, their is a juke box and a dance floor and the decor is a mix between a lounge and a dive bar.
I haven't been here for over a year and todd, the part owner/bartender was very nice and still remembered me. Came here with a group of us. Although I only stayed here for an hour or so, we all had a great time. Will definitely come back.
R Bar...what can you say, it's AWESOME. Especially during the weekend days - beat the crowds.
Bartenders are tops, patrons are good. Fernet Branca always, unless it's a tequila day.
My roomie refuses to come here with me anymore dubbing this place as a guaranteed sausage fest and dive bar. I, on the other hand, love it for all of those reasons as well as the cool, relaxed vibe, owners Chris and Todd and of course - the jukebox.
No matter what night it is, it's def one of those places that you will never leave sober ; ) The staff here has mastered the art of hospitality and just plain ol' fun.
Too crowded to even move (8pm on a Saturday). There were no drink specials and I couldn't get a drink. Thanks but no thanks. There's plenty of other cool bars around.
Wow, I am blown away that I have never reviewed R Bar. I live a few blocks away and have been many times. A cool place to come and check out. The people who own the place work there much of the time and are always really cool. On the weekends R Bar can become super crowded (sometimes w/ a large male %) and ridiculously hot during summer with no ventilation of any kind, i don't even think they have a fan in that bitch. If you are a Oregon Duck fan they usually have the flag hanging out there on football game days, and the place is packed. They also the have the MLB package too and is a great option for me to come down and catch the Cubs.
R Bar can have a very different scene from one day to the next.
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