Kip’s Bar

The volume level of this place is always 3 clicks higher than optimal… the floors sticky — just how a 21 yo would want it.
Cheap drinks, good fun. Caters to the young students at UC.
Papis, former Blakes, the more classy choice.
Also try Jupiter for pizza and beer — their outdoor patio and live music is awesome

I really enjoy visiting this dive bar when in town. They have a good drink selection, diverse crowd which makes it fun to people watch. Last time I was here I devoured the carnitas tacos. So good! No fatty pieces like a carnitas usually has.

It’s a great place to go to watch the game. It’s a bit of a dive but I like it. The bartenders are chill. It’s a mix of older Cal alumni and college students getting drunk. They have a wide range of beers on tap including my favorite, Firestone 805. Plus great food. 50 cent wings and 40 cent boneless every night with a drink order. The Mushroom burger is great as well.

The drinks are great. The Dj sucks at mixing songs. I’ve been here 4 times and it’s always the same bad mixes. If you’re coming here for dancing, I’d go else where unless you don’t care about the songs

No. Just no.
This place is good if you have a fake ID and still live in a dorm. Everyone else can go to a better bar to get wasted at.

Ugh, what a horrible place. The food taste wood, the floor was sticky with lord knows what. Guys were aggressive and when security came over. I thought, great another thug to try and grope me. Not sure who the security is there because they wear nothing to distinguish them from the clientele and they look like the hoodlums on the street. And the manager was «conveniently» not in.
We are definitely not going back!!!

Divey college bar that succeeded in getting this USC girl plastered when I visited Cal friends.
==DRINKS==
Fishbowl: $ 25 || ⁵⁄₅
Great price for really tasty alc that’s shareable.
Easily forgot there was any vodka in there.
Got me drunk.
==VIBE==
Dark, ratchet place.
Sticky floors.
Wait time for girls’ bathroom felt like hours.
Puke and piss around the toilets.
Basically, a college bar. Do not expect a spa.
==SERVICE==
Negligible. Nobody cleaning any tables or bathrooms.
At least bartender succeeded in making the fishbowl.
==YAY/​NAY==
Yay. Had a great time drinking yummy booze with decent music.
Not the classy bar where you expect to meet your future husband.
But low price for a conveniently located watering hole.
Got schwasted + police didn’t show up = success.

For much of the UC Berkeley population, Kip’s has a reputation for being the bottom of the barrel when it comes to going out for drinks some random night. Friends have described it as «trashy», and «fratty». During the summers, it’s packed most nights with students from abroad, mainly French and Irish — I was even asked last summer if I was «one of those visiting Irish» while at Kip’s one time.
The music tends to be loud so unless you’re sitting extremely close to your friends, yelling directly at their ear, having a conversation will be a struggle.
Having said that, Kip’s certainly delivers for what it is: a bar. You go in, get a drink or two, hang out with your friends, then finish off the Southside Berkeley barhopping trifecta by walking over to Pappy’s and Tap Haus.
Don’t expect elegance or glamour — just a pub, alcohol, and drunk people.

I mean, this place is cheap, so there’s that. The restrooms are gross, but what do you expect with college, drunk kids? Go Bears!
I recommend the fish bowl with tequila OR vodka. Its only $ 25! What a deal in comparison to fish bowls elsewhere. It’s suppose to for 4 people, but if you’re not weak with alcohol, it will last for 2.

Meh… Not the worst bar ever. It’s more the type of bar let you go to when you’re not really sure what a bar is. It’s a good first bar, when you really don’t know any better and just want cheap beer.
The beer is good if you enjoy the eloquent aftertaste of rust.
And walking around sort of feels like getting a foot massage. The floor sticks to your shoes like warm liquid gum.
The smell is also familiar. But only as familiar as your morning poop.
It’s also a great atmosphere to go to with friends if you are introverts because it is so loud, and ass to elbows, that conversations are unintelligible.
Bad beer, bad atmosphere, sticky floors. Great dive bar!
I haven’t been since I’ve gone to Cal, but I’m sure the formula is the same :-)

My friend’s roommate described this place as being ratchet but honestly, it’s your typical college divey sports bar. Also, it gets hella popular and crowded so it was a trial trying to walk to the dance floor from the other side of the bar. The dance floor is super sticky, the music is meh and creepy guys stand along the sides of the dance floor (basically it’s fairly standard).
The fishbowls are actually pretty strong and well worth the $ 25. I recommend getting the red one. This place gets pretty loud so expect your voice to get hoarse or stop hearing from one of your ears.

Shady place with bartenders who fake tips on your receipts. I would avoid coming here to avoid credit card fraud.
Came here for my friends 21^st birthday and it was quite disappointing.
we got a fishbowl (blue, vodka based) and it tasted more like sweet water than anything else. I’ve had way stronger fish bowls, so I felt like I was paying for water. What’s worse is that the bartender charged me tip on my credit card even though I tipped well in cash, and specifically wrote that on my receipt. That’s shady and credit card fraud.
The floors are sticky as well, but the music is good and it’s always lit here. It’s a college bar with really dirty toilets. I wouldn’t come back here because of the shady bartenders and the super diluted drinks.

I’ve been here only once. That was enough. Sticky floors and tables, crappy food, ugh. People, there are freakin’ better places to eat in Berkeley for cheap. And if you want to dance, go to San Francisco. It’s just a Bart ride away from Berkeley, c’mon.
The guys here are creepy. They come to drink away their sorrows. I have girlfriends who have complained of how creepy the guys are here. Especially during the summer time, when Irish guys come to this place to party, and will grab at girls to kiss them. Gross! But what makes me NEVER want to come here again is because I know a sexual assaulter who frequented here, and has deejayed at least a few times here (though I don’t know if he’s still a regular).
Ladies, stay far, far away.
Gentlemen, don’t be associated with the losers here.

The place is fun… bartenders can be a little more attentive and customer friendly, but overall i see the appeal.
We ordered chicken sandwiches and garlic fries and of course a kips fishbowl which was way sweet but super strong .
Will be back to see how it is late night!

Let me tell you all about the terrible bartender at this bar. I wish I could give zero stars because of this experience. He is a short older Asianish man and he is the worst. He told me his name is something like Chicksof but someone else told me his name was Buna. He was rude when we ordered and clearly didn’t care about us. Whatever. I don’t care if you’re a jerk. But when we give you $ 20, and you insist that we gave you only $ 10, you seriously mess up. Pay attention to what you’re doing because there is nothing more insulting than being told you’re wrong as the customer — especially when you steal my money.
It’s sad that you managed to ruin my entire experience at this bar, because even though the bathroom looked like a war zone I still could’ve had a great night. Thanks for being an utter POS, Buna.

I went on a Wednesday Night with friend to play pool. So let me break down my experience:
The venue:
The place is a typical Downtown Berkeley bar, sticky floors and funky smell!
They only have one pool table and they charge one dollar (in quarters) to play unlimited time, which was a plus since that was exactly what we were there for.
The Drinks:
I didn’t drink at all but my fiend did, since he had like seven drink I am assuming the drinks are cheap. And I saw this guy drinking out of a fish bowl, literally. Which is the name of the drink,;It’s massive! IF YOU PAY WITH A CREDIT CARD YOU HAVE TO MAKE A MINIMUM PAYMENT OF $ 10.
The Atmosphere:
They had Karaōke the night. there was some people singing. Overall the bar is just a place where college students go to get drunk with their friends. My friend left me for like two seconds to go buy a drink and I guy approached me immediately. Apparently drunk guys are just waiting to see a girl alone to go hit on them to see if they get lucky. I wouldn’t go back other than to play pool.
If you liked my review add me as a friend. :)

An a-​okay bar. Not sure why there are so many negative reviews, but I had a fun time with my friends. They ordered some drinks– shots, Moscow mules, and beer. I took some water and I ordered the pork slider appetiser and the garlic fries.
They liked their drinks, but since I was the sober one, I don’t know how good they were.
The pork sliders (3.5 stars): not bad. The pork was tender and decently seasoned, but it was missing a little something that I can’t put my finger on. A six dollar dish for 3 sliders.
Garlic fries (2.5 stars): eh. Decent amount of garlic, but the fries were weirdly cut with the skins on? They were more brown than usual yet they weren’t burnt. It was only okay. Average bar food.
The bar tenders were very fast and efficient and polite when ordering food so no complaints there. The girls’ restroom was decently clean though a ventilation system can’t hurt.
Overall, I’d be back with friends. It was a nice night out.

A place referred to by my friend as «the devil’s playground” – gotta give it an extra star for that.
I can’t say much about Kip’s. Came here after hanging out at two other bars; it seemed the night deteriorated into Kip’s, our final stop. A good place to close the night.
Kip’s is loud. The floors are sticky and crowded. At one end, you can dance, and at the other, you can sit at booths. I stood the entire time, my feet perhaps glued to the floor by some substance.
Loads of interesting, friendly people were milling about when I came on a Monday night.
Take it for what it is (which isn’t much), and you won’t be disappointed. Stay until closing and finish off the night with pizza from Artichoke Basille’s up the street. It wasn’t my best night, but it’s one I won’t forget.

Kips is not and will never be a contemporary or particularly special drinking experience. What it does offer, other than dim lighting, is a space to live out all of your stereotypical college experiences (even the ones you may not remember).
Kip’s is part of the triangle of bars on Telegraph and Durant, and of that triangle it’s also coincidentally my least favorite. Nevertheless, every Friday me and my friends explicably end up here splitting a fishbowl or taking a chance on the random drink wheel for God knows why.
Drinks: the drinks range from terrible to surprisingly good (as most bars in the area do). The bartenders are far from consistent so it’s important to scope out the right one to make sure your drink is not overly watered down (and maybe more importantly not overly generous). Me and my friends have found that sharing the pink fishbowl (which is essentially a large tequila sunrise) is the most economic and enjoyable way to spend the night. The drink is pretty good and the novelty of getting your instagram pics with your friends just adds to the fun. The bowl gets the job done and where else in the area can you do this? If hard alcohol isn’t your thing they have a generous selection of beers, but compared to the other local options you’ll generally be paying more for the same thing.
Food: I think they have the best Taco tuesday option in the area, the fish tacos are actually really tasty and more generous than what you can get at Café D and Pappy’s. Also the fries are a lifesaver after a night of drinking (although not the tastiest, it’s nice to get something in your system after dancing and drinking the night away)
So: if you’re like most of the 21+ crowd in Berkeley you’ve likely already visited this establishment. If you’re on the fence go pop in any classic college DVD and make sure you want to live or relive that experience. If the answer is «yes» grab your coat and head to Kip’s. If the answer is «no» do yourself a favor and join me at Jupiter’s or Remy’s for a tastier experience.
Til next time, keep learning keep eating (the student foodie)

Fish Bowl
Potency-2.5 out of 5
Flavor-2.5 out of 5
Sweetness-​Saturated
Variety-​Two choices
Price-​standard
Overall Thoughts
Novelty of the drink wanes after a few sips…