The Swingin’ Door

Okay found this after Unilocaling by the Maker Faire at the Event Center. First off I would not have just happened upon this pub and entered it had I not Unilocaled it first. Do not let the exterior keep you from entering the front door. I saw several people come in from the patio side but did not see where they entered from. It is a pub through and through and this is why my husband and I loved it!!! The food was good and the staff was very friendly. Some that came in felt it was a Mc Donald’s type of walk in and get it, but the food was MUCH better than that and the staff took their impatience and snottiness very well! Long story longer. Enjoy a great beer and some good pub food but not because you are in a hurry! Kid friendly place as well!

Love this place friendly staff lots of big tvs cheap beer prices and great selection of beers on tap and in the bottle

this place is great local pub, that now serves hookah!!! hookah in san mateo, come check it out!

Bartender upstairs was great! The food sadly was only meh. My burger was over and the bun was greasy.
The dueling pianos were way too loud. I left an hour into the show. Not my thing anyway but certainly not at that volume..

Dont think about it just get there. Karaōke. Darts. Cocktails. Bar Food. Check. Check. Check. This establishment is bar far one of the best dive bars in San Mateo.

The karaōke set up on the ground floor is a little bit awkward. Karaōke is set up RIGHT as you step into the pub and upon entering, you are literally walking into someone’s performance. The ground floor is a little bit dark and totally reminds me of a English pub you’d find in a London basement. Not sure I loved it.
However, if you head upstairs on a Friday/​Saturday, there’s an amazing dueling piano bar scene. I LOVE the upstairs area! It’s great if you want to hang out with friends to celebrate over drinks and live music. There’s a bar upstairs and the drinks are strong and affordable. I’d totally be back for the dueling piano bar!

This place is literally the worst pub I have been into. The vibe seems like it should be okay — but the bartender that was working that night was SO incredibly rude the ENTIRE time I can’t help but write a review. I was with my older MOTHER and several of her friends and the bartender came up to her, while we were clearing a table for ourselves since none were clean and said, «The least you could have done is walked up to the bar and handed these to me.» Are you F$%ing kidding me? We had just spent $ 80 plus tip at the bar and this is what she says. We should have left right then but we didn’t and decided to order fish and chips a little later on. An hour and a half later we had to go back up to the bar and ask where our food was after we watched numerous orders come out that had ordered after us. The fish was very mediocre, not to mention so SO oily. Almost no flavor. We decide it’s about time to leave so we went back up to the bar and asked to settle our bill. We asked that she please not charge the card but rather let us pay cash. She went right over to her register and charged the card anyway and added a tip on for herself automatically. This was the last straw — after the experience was so bad right from the get go. As we are leaving, again I am with several older ladies that just wanted to get some fish and chips and a drink — I hear her call me a bitch. It was obviously meant for me to hear but at that point I didn’t care. She was so awful.
So…if the owner should ever come across this review, PLEASE get rid of the horrible person that is your wait staff. Little beanie hat and glasses.

The best place in San Mateo for good bar food, excellent bartenders with a good poor.

Fantastic piano bar experience! No cover, plenty of beers on tap, and very talented/​friendly pianists.
They also have karaōke downstairs and I’m not a big fan but theirs actually got pretty good in the final minutes before closing when all the regulars start rocking out.

The Swinging Door is my workplace’s go-​to Happy Hour spot – when its name is mentioned among my friends and colleagues, cheers ensue – and even the occasional applause and happy-​dance. What does that tell you about a place?
I used to live in England, so I know that a good neighborhood pub is as essential to a happy existence as a working toilet. Living in San Francisco, my heart has atrophied from the lack of decent pubs in my neighborhood. Thanks be to Jesus, I found my favorite right down the peninsula in San Mateo.
Do you want fancy cocktails with poetic names and exotic fruit? DON’T GO TO A PUB. Do you want a place that’s bumping with a wild and crazy party at 11pm? DON’T GO TO A PUB. Do you want a place where the menu is full of healthy, organic, diverse, gourmet delicacies? DON’T GO TO A PUB. Do you want a place streaming with sunlight, with walls decorated with pictures of flowers and bunnies? DON’T GO TO A PUB. A pub is a cozy, dark, magnificent den of solid, unpretentious booze (and the «Swinging Door» goes above and beyond here, with quite a nice tap list), delicious comfort food (and the «Swinging Door» has AWESOME fish n’ chips, fried seafood platters, mozzarella sticks… and pretty much everything else it puts in its deep fryer), and fun, quirky decorations that include old British pub signs, stuffed animal heads, old photographs, and other awesome, unique paraphernalia.
The «Swinging Door» reminds me of my favorite pubs in England, because it’s legit and it knows exactly what it’s doing. If you don’t like it, and you want to complain about stuff like burgers and cole slaw and the lack of light and dance music, repeat after me: DON’T GO TO A PUB. And if you think pubs have it all wrong, do remember that they have stood the test of centuries – and are probably all secretly running the entire operation known as Great Britain.

I love this place as my local friendly refuge, full of all types of characters. Everyone working there does their bit too from the helpful, even if busy, bar staff to the big «gentle giant» bouncers outside at the weekend.
Always seems to have something going on jazz band evening for the senior crowd or rowdier games watching outside with the smokers…

Owner is a real cock and their burgers suck. He tells everyone that their burgers are really really good, but the patties come from a bag from Costco and same with the buns. They don’t toast or butter the buns or put seasoning on the meat. He just tells everyone the burgers are good so people will buy them.
Drink prices suck and they charge for a club soda during bar hours. The bar tenders are fucktards. What’s with all the security? There are more security guards than people in this place sometimes on the weekends.
This dude thinks he is way too cool for school.
Fuck this place!

Went here for my friend Jen’s Birthday no too long ago. I’ve never been here before. I’m about nine months pregnant and had a blast!!!
The dueling pianos were absolutely amazing! I say this because my husband requested Vanilla Ice’s Ice Ice Baby… and I was asked to do the dance in the video… and I did my best! For sure an entertaining sight to see, but I loved every minute of it. Memorable and priceless. Anything for our dear friend Jen on her birthday!
We were only there for the drinks and music, but I can only rate the entertainment… but from the looks of it when we left, the drinks were just as good

This is a fun place to spend the night (before you go to sleep).
There’s plenty to do between karaōke downstairs, dueling pianos on top, with potential for darts, hidden in the back corner. My first experience with karaōke was here and it was kinda awkward. Now I just go upstairs.
The pianists are really friendly and like to engage the audience. Nick has a ponytail and has been there both of my visits.
The waitress was really polite and my friend loved that she had a British accent. It’s the complete package for a British Pub!
Overall, I love this place and it’s my go-​to bar whenever I’m in the area. Definitely coming back. (I still have to try the fish & chips!)

It is what it is: a run down pub.
It was pretty dead when I showed up at ~8−9pm on a weeknight. Nothing pleasant about the atmosphere, and the fish and chips were lacking in flavor. All the standards on tap, but was certainly hoping for more.

Fish and chips were bomb. Drinks were strong. I’m a fan of this place.
My co-worker’s and I usually come for HH too! Awesome spot.

This place is by far the worst British pub ive ever been to, the drinks are way over priced, the fat ac/​dc wearing bar tender has no idea how to pour a decent guiness, and the lame ass karaōke night is hosted by a off beat hipster with an ego larger than the beer price, they will tell you budweiser and cheaper beer are «out» to force you to buy watered down shots. Dont go here if you have any self respect. .. Sucks

Fun! I’ve always passed by this place but never thought to try it out until now. I came here to check it out because it seemed more my scene than the bar next door (which I still went to after haha).
Karaōke was super fun — my friends kept going up and it was overall a good time to watch others sing.
There’s a $ 15 card minimum, which sucked at first but I rolled with it since I was gonna stay for a bit anyway! Got a good selection of beers and a nice patio out back. Looks like there was an upstairs too but I didn’t get to check it out.
All the food that was brought past me smelled sooooo good. Now I wish I ordered something off the menu! The steak fries looked enticing.
I hope to be back soon, I had a good time here.

Do you enjoy good olé fashioned fish house COLESLAW? Well THIS IS THE PLACE! Enjoy GIGANTIC SWEET AND DELICIOUS piles of coleslaw here at the olé ‘Door! I swear these guys REALLY know their coleslaw!
Also, the fried dill pickles make an excellent combo with their award winning coleslaw! They are breaded with light and fluffy cornmeal which makes them extra crunchy. Not too salty either! I hear they use kosher dills as well, very nice touch!
I can see management enjoys demeaning patrons by replying to their reviews instructing them exactly what to say. Unfortunately Warren was suckered into paying Unilocal which drives a man mad in itself. Perhaps if the manager spent less time antagonizing patrons on Unilocal and worrying about the business operations, maybe the service would be better? I don’t see any advantage to harassing patrons to say what you want them to say in Unilocal reviews. Seems to be a bit counter intuitive.
Since they choose this route of antagonistic harassment, unfortunately they will always remain a 3 star dive bar that serves bar food.
Warren the manager unfortunately moves so slow and disoriented a lot of the time and obviously cannot keep up with the flow of customers. When he works it seems more tables are left dirty. Perhaps add a refuse area so customers can bus their own tables, especially if he’s going to slack off that much. Would rather not smell the pungent smell of vinegar and half eaten food when walking in. Not to mention the flow of cigarette smoke coming through the bar from the patio.
The food is ok. Nothing to write home about. They mix in garlic with the existing Heinz ketchup and call it «house made» oooooooh ahhhhh. Inconsistent with the service, but it seems only when Warren works, go figure.
I guess if you like a cigarette smoke filled bar while you eat and unclean tables everywhere, then give it a try! Don’t forget to try the SLAW YOU HAVE TO! I swear by it!

Everyone seems so happy here more happy more happy than I’ve seen before but it must show alot about the place.
I’ve been told alot of crazy stuff to stay away from here but everytime I am here it seems so happy an peaceful so I really don’t know what thats all about.
Mondays they have comedy, It usually ends pretty early tho.
The great thing about this place that stands out if you watch food tv shows is the super hot habenero burger that gets your pic on the wall if you eat if .
They have an excellent happy hour and the dueling pianos are pretty awesome.
They have a pretty incredible patio thats cool to chill out on an theres even tv’s out there .
The bartenders are real awesome. Theres this one female bartender that dances if you put shakira on the jukebox.
THey have karaōke a few days a week here, I’ve been there on Saturdays.
I am not sure what karaōke is the other days.
wait.actually They have karaōke Thursday, Friday, and Saturdays, by kj Dan .
The regulars here are pretty cool.
They have a couple antique arcade games too and two whole levels of the place to enjoy.
THe bathrooms are very clean too and they even have a working lock on them.