The Outsider

I wanted to take my parents (who were visiting from out of town) to Edinburgh to play darts but it doesn’t open until 5pm so we walked into The Outsider. The guests (who seemed like regulars) immediately offered us a slice of pizza that they just had delivered and chatted us up. The bartender was super nice and kept walking over to us (leaving the bar) just to check on how we were doing. There’s a pool table, free popcorn, and a great juke box. If you’re into a local, dive-​y place then this is a great one.

Fun to see the neighborhood still full with normal local… The tech people have not arrive at this spot yet.
FYI they have 5 TVs for sport and open on Christmas

Sausage fest, old sausage to be exact. The gf and I went in here after whiskey thieves and decided to have a quick beer, the bartenders were nice but were spending a lot of time tending to the older men, and ummm, taking shots. They did offer free popcorn though, I won’t divulge what happened but my girlfriend and I will remember it as the popcorn incident lol
Unless you’re an older gentleman, I’m sure there’s better bars around the area.

Full disclosure — our friend is a weekend barkeep here.
What amazes hubby and myself are the patrons here. We’ve been here several times now. The bar being in the TL we assumed there would be lots of folks down on their luck. Well, there are those, but you’d be surprised at who’s drinking at the dive bar.
There are five T.V.s and a pool table. And a juke box blasting music. But a sports bar it’s not.
The dive bar is conveniently located on the corner. We found easy street parking this past Saturday across the street. An enterprising guy offered to watch our car for the last 15 minutes before the meter expired but we declined. We just fed the meter and thanked him for his offer.

THEY REFILL THEIR BOTTLES WITH WATER.
I’m not kidding. I went to this tweaker bar on 11÷15÷14, everyone was totally twacked out, which is probably why they don’t notice that they’re drinking tap water. There were two bartenders that night, and older Vietnamese bar manager and a younger Vietnamese bartender who had to be told how to make each drink. We ordered Jamesons with ginger and vodka sodas. An older Vietnamese gentleman, who I think was the owner, arrived and started ordering shots of Patron.
I didn’t notice anything was amiss until some of the tweakers started demanding that the female bar manager «catch up» on her share of shots, and watched the younger bartender fill the shotglasses with water and wedges of lime. I honestly would have thought nothing of it and assumed that she simply didn’t want to get drunk, but then I saw the same bartender refill her boss’ Patron bottle with water and then start offering shots to him and to the patron next to him. The guy standing next to the owner took a sip of the ‘Patron’ and said «THIS TASTES LIKE WATER», confirming my suspicions. The owner insisted it was tequila and even went to the extreme to make a tequila-​face when he took the shot his patron declined.
After this pathetic display, the owner insisted his staff start pouring him Milagro (in the blue bottle). I don’t know what the hell they refilled that shit with, but the girls were pouring shots of chunky moldy water, then squeezing lime pulp into the shot to cover it up. I AM NOT KIDDING. Needless to say, after I watched them refill bottles with water and try to poison their boss with mold, I started to doubt that my drink had any vodka in it at all. Considering I watched what appeared to be a heavy pour, and was stone sober after 2 drinks, I deduced that those assholes refilled the vodka bottles with water too. Being that I had 2 different vodkas, it’s safe to say that any clear liquor in this establishment is water or watered down. Congratulations, you dicks, for charging me $ 16 for water. Stick to the beer… in the bottle or can. If there is a way to water down draft beer, these assholes will find it.

I went in there for a drink and was disappointed. I ordered a margarita and got a big glass that was filled to the top with ice. Like a drink you get at a drive through in a fast food restaurant. All ice. And the relatively small amount of liquid in there didn’t seem to have any alcohol. For $ 10. Hmmm… Yeah the bartenders were cute Asians but I’d rather have an average-​looking bartender and a great drink. Ok, I really don’t care about the bartender. I just want a good drink! Especially for $ 10!!! Way too many bars in the area that serve up a real drink for $ 9.
So from now on, I’ll stay «outside». I’ll be an «outsider» with regard to this place…

Now that Yong San Lounge is gone, this place has filled a certain vacuum. ;)
The Good: I’ve never seen an unattractive bartender! Usually they take good care of you. Low fratty-​douche-​bag factor. (actually, I saw one once, but it was thoroughly amusing watching him buy the bartenders about a half dozen Don Julio shots thinking he had a chance. He had NO chance!) Also, plenty of Loiny-​color. Good place to chill. Usually not crowded.
The Better: Great Group of People. I have yet to want to leave. Always fun.
The Ugly: Plenty of Loiny-​color. Probably not the neighborhood you want to be in if you leave at bar-​close. (Unless you want to score a tranny-​hooker! Not my thing, but it’s better than cable to watch, and free.)

I love this dive bar for one reason and one reason only. I had a drink with the world famous Dawn Miceli here.
The drinks are rather bad.

They should invent a no stars or a negative ranking cause this place was terrible!
How I ended up at this place? Must’ve been intoxicated cause there is no way I’d enter this place sober. My pals and I were on pub crawl and never been to the SF (San Francisco) night life. After a fight broke out at a bar near by on the way back to our hotel we ended up here. Talk about hole in the wall… the place was boring to say the least. The music wasn’t up to par and definitely not the drinks or service. The bartenders didn’t know how to make half the drinks that even Red Robin served. It wouldn’t have been a problem to explain it except they hardly spoke any english! Two female korean bartenders in skimpy outfits must’ve been the appeal of the place because it wasn’t the atmosphere or the service. After an incident broke out, they told us all to leave but not before taking my friends card and charging for beers he didn’t even get to drink. A swarm of timid and shady looking group of men showed up and just perched out in the front of the bar. As if I wasn’t sketched out enough. I hate to be one of those customers but this was just truly unacceptable. If ever I’m back in town most certainly won’t be coming back here!

a small bar we discovered during a bar crawl
it was filled with losers, but i am sure the bar had character. i just did not stay beyond a drink. i had many places to visit during my trip to SFO. Music was sad, drinks were steep and weak. $ 7 for a cocktail watered down?
San francisco is still the second best city in america, after NYC and some of these hole in the wall dive bars are fun on a night out, just don’t stay longer than a drink.

The Outsider is a hilarious little awkward bar. Someone took the idea of every bar they must have gone to and set up a nice little hangout in an odd part of San Francisco. The grungy interior consisted of a pool table and plenty of cheap seats for everyone. The employees are wonderful and a caretaker (this nice, grumpy old lady) is always coming around cleaning stuff up and making sure people don’t leave garbage behind.
If you purchase a drink at the bar, you also can eat the food they have set out. This is where the initial weird set up takes an interesting turn. They had everything from Costco turkey wraps, refried beans, mashed potatoes, Chinese fried chicken wings, ham, and popcorn. Their drink prices are good. $ 22 covered for 3 beers and a Manhattan.

ughhh. 0 stars.
This place is extremely shady. I really, really believe something illegal is happening after business hours. The bathroom was really sketch. and it was connected to secret doors. SMH. I’m sorry, but yes, I do believe the men entering this bar are going home with happy endings. Bartenders we’re half naked, dressed in skimpy tutus and we’re practically topless.
Oh and I would really like to know how two Korean females can run a bar when they only speak about 5 words of English. I had to point at the beers I wanted. So to the real owner of this bar, hire someone who CAN speak English and hire someone who owns clothing that they can wear to work.

I don’t want to get in the pants of any of the bartenders and, therefore, I was a waste of their time as about thirty guys were doting over the girls behind the bar. I was ignored and felt as though they were ostracizing me since I was the only non-​employee female there.

Why do I go to these places? Do i hate myself so much that I must drink in places reserved for dead souls? Pub crawl, right!
If I start coming here on my own throw me in rehab.
If I ever start coming here all do not be afraid to slap me!
Dive bars are alright once in awhile or if you wear thick trousers but not for what I wore.
The beer was cheap
cheers

This bar is what happens when four replicas of my mother open up a dive just enough blocks off Polk to be pretty sketch.
Pretty diverse crowd, though I feel like half the patrons were hipsters trying to be ironic. Drinks were priced appropriately, the female bartenders will try to play you into buying shots for them, yadda yadda… all the other reviews are pretty much on point.
Four stars after all is said and done because they didn’t throw my ass out after I kept screaming ‘AMERICA!!!’ in Korean somewhere between drinks 5 and 14.

My Koren friend brought me to this places because apparently it’s Korean owned. It’s hard to decided whether to give this places 2 or 3 stars. Why? Here’s why:
The bar tenders we cute, and they had soju cocktails. We just finished eating down the street at Dong Baek and they didn’t serve Soju cocktails, so I needed my fix. I ordered a strawberry soju and it was pretty good, though it could be a bit stronger.
But the thing is the area seems a little dicey (or maybe this place?) and the few people there playing pool wasn’t exactly my kind of crowd… i.e. older gangsta style. In addition to that, what really turned me off was that the chairs /​sofas were heavily stained and one even had a cigar burn that was maybe an inch deep!
So yea though I didn’t like my drink, it was kinda hard to enjoy it…

Kind of a dirty dive bar but that is what I expect for this area. Very large for this area. Has a pool table.
When I arrived the bar stools were mostly taken, I found an empty spot, ordered my beer, then went over to an empty table to relax and enjoy my beer. It was a little entertaining to watch a few people playing pool. Some pretty good players this evening.
The bartenders were very cute Asian ladies. They were both wearing short skirts to show off their nice legs. As I was sitting at a table far from the bar rail, I had no interaction with the ladies behind the bar, or many of the guests here. I have been here before. and always seen to enjoy myself. The staff and patrons are usually quite friendly.
I will be back on a future visit to the city.

This place is more of a 2 and a ½ stars.
And it’s not that I didn’t have a good time here. I did.
But that was largely due to the fact that I was with a lovalicious group of buzzed, weary Santas.
Taking a break from the red and white packed bars on Polk Street — during Santacon — we wondered into the Outsider.
The space was dark and empty and — the crowd — eclectic. We grabbed some seats, kicked back, and made friends with the jukebox. With holiday songs in full swing — we couldn’t help, but notice the eccentric Outsider crowd — who appear all too familiar with this place.
From the casual pool hustler, to the guy who repeatedly used the women’s room (despite the men’s room being free) and always left the door unlocked, to the dazed bleary eyed regulars nursing their drinks at the bar. To the smokers in the corner.
The Outsider is bizarre. There’s something off about the place. And usually I embrace the different — but there’s something about the Outsider — that doesn’t feel right, and that only works — if you’re with a solid group of people.
I appreciate that there are plenty of seats and room in the place. I appreciate that their bathroom is clean enough. That they have a pool table. I especially appreciated that they didn’t mind when we brought in egg nog to make festive toasts.
But I don’t see myself coming back here. There are definitely far more charm and character filled bars in the hood to end or begin your night here.
Trust.

I’ve been to The Outsider plenty of times in the past, but never before sunset. It’s usually a last stop after an evening of drinking swill at other sticky-​floored dives along Geary, so to see this place with the actual light of day was quite the experience.
After running into one jam packed bar after another during Santacon, my crew and I decided it was time to escape into something a bit less crowded. Insert The Outsider. There’s really nothing to write home about with this bar, but what you’ll find is a gaggle of ‘hood rats drinking away their sorrows, a pretty nice pool table, an ultra modern juke box emitting neon like it’s going out of style, and bartenders who’ll gladly adopt a half-​empty carton of egg nog that you brought into the bar yourself to sell to future patrons at a later date. If you head in anytime soon and order an egg nog/​brandy, it’s likely the holiday concoction came from me.
Beware of swindlers at this bar, though. After running out of champagne for mimosas (I think they’ve been using the same bottle of bubbles for 5 years… this isn’t exactly the type of place you come for high society libations), a gentleman bellied up to the bar asked me, «you want some champagne? I can get you some champagne, brother… Dom Pérignon, in fact. Just give me $ 5 and I’ll be right back.» Being that I’m a bit of a gambler, this was a wager I just had to entertain. I’d be lying if I said I had absolute faith that this cat was actually going to return with a bottle of champagne for only $ 5, and as you an imagine, that was the last time I saw the chap. You win this time, good sir.
Tweeker-​chic Outsider regular — 1
Ruggy — 0

If you’re in the holiday sort of mood, head to the convenience store near The Outsider, grab a carton of Berkeley Farms Egg Nog, head to the bar, order a shot of brandy, combine said egg nog, head to the jukebox, cue «Christmas Wrapping» by The Waitresses, join your friends at the table and then match your jingle bells to the rhythm of the song and dance around the invisible Christmas tree.