Smog Cutter

BARTENDER TRIED TO CHARGE $ 6 FOR WATER. Came here last night around midnight after Bootie L.A. with two friends to sing karaōke. We each had a beer and paid a dollar each and put our song requests in. We danced and drank while waiting for our names to be called. After about 30 minutes we asked the bartender for water because well, we were parched and intoxicated. She very rudely informed us we had to pay $ 6– for WATER. Thinking there must be some mistake, I asked for clarification and she nastily told me, «You guys haven’t been drinking all night so you have to pay. If youre not gonna drink you can leave.» Apparently she didnt see the beers we were drinking earlier, and wanted us to chug our two drink minimum before having water. What ever happened to pacing yourself? Refusing to serve an intoxicated person water is not only despicable, its ILLEGAL. We left without getting a chance to sing the songs we PAID for and I’ve since left a message with the owner. That kind of behaviour is dangerous and irresponsible. There are plenty of bars in L.A.- I can spend my money in places that respect my human rights and don’t treat me and my friends like shit. Oh, and maybe educate yourself on dram shop liability. Bye Felicia!

This place is fun for a little while so I’ve kept coming back, it’s a convenient location but my friends have constantly been kicked out and harassed by the staff. Every time a gay friend or a minority. The staff is rude and overbearing and have screamed profanities at my friends for being too tired and being gender fluid. Fuck this place. By going here you are supporting ignorant people

I don’t know what everyone’s damage is with drink minimums and whatnot — hung out at this place for hours on a single Coca Cola and got nothing but love from the bartenders. A woman who maybe owns the place cuddled me and told me she loved me FOR NO REASON WHATSOVER. It’s a very loving dive bar. Somehow FILLED with cigarette smoke which is a flat out bummer. I had to take a decontamination shower when I got home cause I stank like a pack of blunts. It’s possibly the worst karaōke situation on the planet — shitty selection, mysteriously gross books, no stage and the lyrics to my Laura Branagan song froze on the screen, good thing Gloria is my go-​to! Regardless, the level of supportive bonhomie among strangers was touching. The KJ is adorable. Three dollars for soda water, however? I call bullshit. Still, it’s a bonafied karaōke dive, the likes of which are quite rare, and so I give it three stars, which is like five stars for a dive.

You go to this dive bar to drink, so there’s no just hanging out and having water. I think there’s a sign that says there’s a two drink limit. The Thai women who run the place are pretty cool and from what I hear they’ll yell at you to make sure you get a drink. It’s not a pretentious kind of bar, so people here are pretty chill and can be themselves. They have a pool table. They do karaōke here, but a guy has to operate it and find the disc and put it in. There’s a lot of regulars from what I could tell, some of whom sing rather well, especially the oldies. Anyhow, I had a great time this past Saturday night catching up with a friend, who used to frequent this bar, and it was a cool evening. I just like it. This place is cash only, so be sure to bring some.

Horrible service from rude bartender, an older Asian woman who probably owns the place.
When I said I didn’t want to drink (I was the designated driver and would rather not drive with alcohol in my system) she snapped, «I’M driving. All these people are driving» (gesturing to some of my friends at the bar). Then she said I had to wait outside.
I was there for my friend’s birthday so in order not to wait outside, I bought a $ 3 Sprite. I was actually surprised she allowed me to buy just a soda based on some of these other reviews. I didn’t tip her.
The place is also gross. Don’t bother. There are a ton of other places with nice employees that don’t suck.

This bar is actually a dive. Many people will describe a bar as a dive just because it has low lighting or maybe the bathrooms aren’t completely immaculate. But when you walk into a true dive, you will know it.
For me, this bar didn’t have much to offer. I’m not going to waste my money on crap beer and the low-​tech karaōke setup was not appealing.

Oh, smog cutter. I love how some reviewers begin with «I’ve been to/​love dive bars but…» but what? Dive bar, by definition, is a bar that takes up the characteristics of its owner. Period. Owners have a right to refuse service to anyone. And if a place lacks any character, guess what? It’s a chain or not a true small business but corporately financed and marketed. This place is like the auteur of dive bars.
Dive bars are not some romanticized, conceptually Western minded places. Go to k town and the spirit of karaōke, also, isn’t the same. The only racists are the people that don’t understand — this place doesn’t want you at the bar if you’re a wet blanket making other people having fun uncomfortable for doing so. Yes, go to 4100 instead where you can pick your own music because at that point it’s like, uhhh, you don’t trust your own mixology at home? I don’t go to a bar so I can pick my own music (lol isn’t that what you can do at home?). I go to hang out with others who aren’t like me but I’m tolerant enough to appreciate. Basically, if you’re whining about this place and then saying you can go to 4100 or the Virgil (which has no karaōke) then you’re so boring you can’t be alone with yourself (or even comfortable enough to invite others) at home to make drinks and choose your own music — you need to go outside and pay exorbitant prices for it. Seriously makes me laugh when people are like «I can go to this place and choose my own music» (lol you can at home for free, silly!)
You’re at a dive bar. Not a cocktail lounge — dive bar rule no. 1: you don’t belong here if you don’t know what you want to drink in less than 2 minutes. Hello, there’s not going to be a fancy named cocktail here. If you don’t know what you want, guess what? Ask what they have and tell them step by step — I’ve done it. I’ve made up non-​existent drinks here based on what they have — it’s called having fun. It’s a dive bar. Get it? Most dive bar natives DIVE right into their usual drink of choice. You must be thinking of the fake dive bars in LA. I’m from Texas; I know dive bars.
The people that don’t know what they want to drink expect someone to curate taste for them to easily appropriate. They belong in the more passively consumptive bars, not here. Whereas, if you know what you want or feel like and can even be a bricoleur about it here, it’s all good.
$ 7 for a guiness is not only normal going out but pretty damn good when you have karaōke as an option. The prices are competitive if not exact as going to any other bar that doesn’t give you a karaōke option.
The folks here are super nice and caring, the locals are charming… the ones that look for LA hype and expect ass kissing don’t belong here.
Based on the definition I’ve given of dive bars, you only don’t like a dive bar if you don’t like the owner and the characteristics the owner gives it. Which is fine; that’s the beauty: not all dive bars are for everyone. If it were for everyone, it wouldn’t be a dive bar. Frankly, I’m glad this bar filters out the undesirables.

I arrived sober to play pool. The bartender was really drunk and yelled racial slurs at me. She told me that I was «f*ckin retarded» and to never come back. This is the 3^rd time I’ve been treated this way here. Someone shut this place down. I’ve seen them all drunk drive home and smoke cigarettes inside.
NOTE: they don’t care if you’re the designated driver, YOU HAVE TO GET TWO DRINKS MINIMUM or they kick you out. They will be hostile with you and force you to leave.

Small, dirty, dive bar. The owners/​operators are rude, pretty sure it’s a two drink minimum and cash only. Karaōke is fun though.

If I could do ZERO stars I would. Rolled in there with my friend and was contemplating what song to sing when I was approached and asked what drink I’d like. I wasn’t ready and told her, drink I can’t even decide on what to sing? She then decided it’d be a good idea not to serve me. At all! Do NOT go here!!! She is completely crazy — don’t go!!!

This place is great if you have no respect for yourself. The charm of asshole staff and being ejected for not spending enough money is lost on me

This place is shit– my friends needed to have a cup of water after taking shots but the lady behind the bar says «no only if you buy a beer.» They’re unfriendly and rude– I understand it’s a dive bar but we were buying drinks with 5 people– for hours, give a girl a glass of water! Come on– no one was being crude or loud and the answer was, «I’d have to ask my manager but he’s not here.» We left because we weren’t going to walk a few blocks for a cup of water to come back to a «watering hole»

Crappy dive.
Came in a group of 7 on a dead weekday night. Mostly empty bar. Someone wails away in the corner on the karaōke machine. Cool dive, I think. My 6 friends order drinks, start drinking. As the Dedicated Driver, I do not order anything. Within ten minutes of socializing, a short Asian woman in her 40’s approaches me. Tells me she’s the owner. Sweet talks me. Tells me I should buy a drink. I decline, stating I’m the DD responsible for driving the 6 others I came with. She continues to pressure me to buy a drink. I ask if I could just buy a can of soda to get her off my back. She says they don’t sell soda. She demands I buy an alcoholic drink, threatens to kick me out. I look around the empty bar, a confused expression on my face. I tell her if she does, the rest of my paying party will leave; that she’s sacrificing repeat business for a dumb cause. That we’re practically the only ones here. She doesn’t care, she says. I tell the 6 other persons I came with the situation, tell them I am being forced to leave. Since I’m their ride, they finish their only round of cheap drinks and we walk out together. I drive us to 4100 bar. We have a better time.
You can get cheap drinks here. Owner is a penny pinching, short-​sighted jerk.

I was just the victim of a hate crime by the owner. I sat down at the bar, after another woman got up. An Asian man approached and told me I had to get up. I told him no, I had been sitting down for about 10 – 15 minutes and the Asian man called over the owner, who told me I had to move or she was going to call the police. I had just bought three drinks, for me and two friends, and could not finished because the owner threatened to call the cops on me. So unnecessary and racist, do not go to this bar!

I first heard about Smog Cutter when one of my friends went there on a weeknight date. After that, I started noticing it on that long stretch of Virgil between Los Feliz Village and the 101. I was vaguely interested in checking it out, but now that I have, I can’t imagine going back, never mind dropping in for a date.
To be fair, I went on a Saturday night, when the place was packed and ringing with drunk karaōke. I was the first to arrive of my group of friends, and those first five minutes were pretty uncomfortable. There was nowhere to sit, and every time I tried to stand somewhere unobtrusively, I found myself jostled by other patrons or the gruff old men playing pool in the middle of the bar.
I’ve never been fond of pool tables at crowded bars, and this was maybe the worst one I’ve seen, as it swallowed a huge amount of space in a high traffic part of the bar. Not only was the table right in the thick of things, but the men playing pool needed a lot of room to shove their elbows and cues back as far as they could possibly fucking reach.
We stayed for one drink before getting out, which was technically not even allowed. Apparently, there’s a two-​drink minimum on karaōke night for no discernible reason. The bar is cash only so they can’t even really keep track, but they do send a server around to press this demand on customers. This was uncomfortable and bizarre. I ordered from the bar, and that was fine, except that I paid like $ 7 for a can of Guinness.
The karaōke was loud and annoying in the way karaōke always is unless you’re in a private room with friends of just smashed out of your mind. At one point a few of us went outside to get some air, and a drunk woman came up to us and tried to guess our signs.
We all agreed the Smog Cutter was a bit of a disaster, and ended up leaving at the first opportunity to go to a quiet apartment and drink wine with cats.

HORRIBLE. An absolute disappointment. I’ll start by saying that the crowd was okay for the most part and I’m all about hole in the wall establishments. That being said it was a little red room with a pool table that I thought showed potential for a good time. DONT BE FOOLED (They should change the name of this place to The Desolation of Smogs Rectum or the Devils Asshole) .
Unfortunately, when I approached the bartender and asked her simply for a couple of waters since I don’t drink and I was getting a friend of mine to sober up enough to drive (I offered to kick down a couple of bucks for the 2 waters because I understand it’s a business) I was received by an angry little troll lady who told me to Fuck Off! and not waste her time… Uhhh WTF? I told her she was obviously angry about something else and tried to deflate the situation by telling her that we should be friends and I’ll gladly pay for the two drinks. She treated me as though I was trying to steal from her and kept telling me to fuck off so after getting into a yelling match with her cause I wasn’t about to take her shit (I’m pretty sure she was the drunkest person in the bar), I was thrown out of this fucked up shanty POS place by a bouncer who was kind enough to apologize for this «bartenders» (she might even be the owner) disrespectful, ignorant and confused outburst. By far the worst bar I’ve ever been to based purely on this crazy strung out bar owner. Haha over fucking water! This place sucks. Never again.

O, cutter of smog! How you cutteth through the smog of my sobriety and replaceth it with the fog of drunken ridiculousness! O happy day!
So I’ve heard a thing or two about a thing or two about this place. I’ve heard about the crazy Thai bartenders. I’ve heard about the yelling. I’ve heard about the sublime divey-​ness that pervades. I’ve heard about the stiff drinks. And yes, I’ve heard about the karaōke awesomeness that abounds. Ladies and gentlemen, I stand before you today to tell you the stories are all true!
*scummy light from heaven shines down*
There is a place where this all exists, and in abundance. Sure, the crowd may get dicey, or hipster-​y, depending, and sure, I’ve heard they may or may not be turning tricks in the alley out back, but hey, I implore you, what self-​respecting dive mecca doesn’t? Go here now, unless of course you’re trying to stay sober. In that case, this place will break you. Stay away.
The bartender may or may not have screamed «I f**k you. I no care about your girlfriend! I f**k you!» while I sang «Faithfully.» It may or may not have been completely hilariously amazing.

Awesome Bartender cute Thai girl
Good music cold beer get crowded about 11pmt :)

I have no problem with dive bars in fact I frequent them often, but $ 15 for a rum and coke — which tasted watered down — and a small Heineken, is far from dive bar prices. Trust me this is the lowest of low dive bar with the highest prices in this area. Drinks are not priced at all, there is a well posted two drink minimum posted everywhere and they charge you $ 1 to sing karaōke!
Do yourself a very big favor and walk a few blocks more to The Virgil, 4100 or The Good Luck bar. They are all cheaper and much, much nicer places.

I love it here! A date took me here for the first time last year, and since then I’ve brought friends and dates here as well.
Honestly kids, it’s simple: get your two-​drink minimum, be cool with Adam (the karaōke guy), and don’t be a douche. You know who you are.
I’ve always had a good time here, and it’s probably because I get along with others, don’t take myself seriously (it’s a dive bar, not America’s Got Talent haha), and generally have good taste in songs. I’ve also karaoked for years with family and friends, so I can totally rock the mike. Holla!
Last night after I sang, someone said that my voice «shook» her. Aaaaaand I’m done. *drops mike*

Rude bartender, confrontational clientele, $ 3 waters. I don’t get it. If this business can survive then any idiot can thrive in LA. I’m from a small town. I know dive bars. Dive bars are meant to be a cozy familiar place where drinks are reasonable and the bartender buys you a shot every now and then because they appreciate you. This is sadistic elitist crap with $ 7 wells.
Three of us walked in. One ordered a drink, one got a water. I didn’t know what to order yet so I said I don’t know yet. The lady brought us 2 waters and a cocktail and charged us $ 13. I tipped her one buck and she snatched it away like I had shortchanged her. Then she swung a case of beer by my friends head, nearly knocking her out. Then as I was staring at karaōke some girl shouted at our group to sing. No. The thrill is gone.
I don’t understand the appeal of this place other than its location. Why are there rules? There isn’t an specialized sushi trained 20 year mixologist behind the bar. It’s a crotchty greedy Asian lady no different than the lady who won’t move her cart in the middle of the aisle at 99 ranch. This is crap service hiding under the guise of a novelty bar. Masochistic consumerism is what it is.