Tonic Bar

Travelled from Austin. Visiting friends for a birthday. Walked into an unsuspecting place. Was presented with nothing but joy and merriment.

Good bar, nice outside space, pool tables, darts. Great specials. This place is a hole in the wall that’s awesome on the inside. Come check it out!

This was my first visit. The atmosphere is warm and the food in the back is fabulous. Try the Mac and Cheese.

Me and my husband have been coming here regularly for about two years. There is always live music on the weekends, usually some style of rock with an occasional eclectic cover band thrown in. We usually come in on the weekends but have been during happy hour as well. Even when we just started going to Tonic, service was great and the bartenders were always friendly and attentive. Of course, some of the more popular bands bring in larger crowds so the wait for a drink is usually longer but any of the bartenders will get to you ASAP. They all work hard.
They have a newer event every first Saturday of the month with local artists and vendors that sell their arts and crafts. Pretty neat. They do have karaōke during the week which we used to frequent but can’t party during the week anymore. That was always good fun. The drinks are strong and satisfying; the music is loud (as any live band should be!); the service is great! Five stars for me :)

Best kept secret in town – perfect spot for live music and great staff. We caught one of Jason McMaster’s awesome (Austin Legend) bands last night– «Killin’ Time» — awesome ’80’s rock. Acoustics were great and they played for an unbelievable 3 hours. The Club’s location near the Medical Center probably discourages the bar-​hoppers– too bad– they missed a real treat. Beautiful and comfortable venue too.

My spot! This bar has some great bands and good drink prices. Bartenders are great and friendly. Decent place to unwind.

Drink specials going on almost all the time, outside area has its own bar open during the weekends. The layout of the place is very spacious. Mixed crowd, I’ve met college kids and grandparents there. Lots of seating and very friendly bartenders

My first visit was on 7÷4÷13. Two bands playing that night for a charity event for disabled veterans. Second visit was on 7÷8÷13 for Karaōke and was able to sing a few songs., Melissa is the KJ and is real great on keeping the rotation moving. I am going back Tuesday 7÷9÷13 again for Karaōke. The bar is real large with couches and places to sit. Also has pool tables and they have fresh made pizza and other food items available. Had a great time and plan on coming back. I recommend this to all the Karaōke singers or music lovers on the weekend. I read some of the other reviews but keep in mind most are a couple of years old and a lot of changes have taken place.

Review: Tonic Bar
The Rundown:
The City: San Antonio
The Place: Tonic
The Day: Thursday
The Time: 9:30−10:30
The Review:
I came to Tonic early on a Thursday night, hoping for a few quick drinks before jumping off to hob nob about town. Unfortunately for me, quick drinks were not in the cards.
Tonic is a rather spacious bar located at 5500 Babcock Road in San Antonio, Texas. Blessed with a large main room for bands, couches along the rear, an intermediate lounge area, a back game rool taht includes pool tables and darts, and finally an exterior porch with its own bar, one would think that Tonic has all it needs to be a success. What was unfortunate about Tonic was not so much its facilities as much as its service. At the hour I arrived there were, perhaps, 15 people about the bar. One gentleman was washing dishes behind the bar, while three women served the patrons. I use the term ‘served’ lightly, because it became quickly obvious that if you weren’t a regular, you weren’t being served.
Despite three bartenders, service moved at perhaps a snails pace. There’s a chance it moved even slower, as slow as it took for the band to get set up on the stage. This led to a lack of buzz, and a lack of enjoyment. In my hour at Tonic I struggled just to get two beers served. Not mixed drinks, not liquor or margaritas. Two beers.
The problem arose from a lack of involvement from the bartenders. My main bartender became occupied on the other side of the bar with other customers, fair enough. That’s understandable. However, you still can’t excuse the lack of attention to a patron when there were so few customers. The frustration would not have been so high if the other bartenders had helped pick up the slack. One disappeared for almost the entirety of the hour. The other, a woman who seemed to be in charge of things behind the bar, busied herself with conversations she conducted with a regular and the dishwasher. She was perhaps five feet away from me but never paid attention to my beer. Bloody hell, she never even said hello.
It’s not the first time I’ve seen this woman, and each time she has consistently had a bad attitude that can be felt around the bar. She rarely seems happy and while I respect her desire to stick to her work, she rides the other bartenders but produces little effect. Paired with her own failure to properly serve the bar, it just comes across as hypocritical.
I can’t speak for the food and won’t attempt to make a judgment based on it, and I didn’t get any liquor so I won’t make a call based on their mixing skills. However, the most important aspect of any restaurant or bar is service. When the night grows old and the evening gets hectic, you can understand a lack of attention. You can see the bartenders struggling to keep up and know they’re doing their job. However, when you can’t get a simple beer, there’s a problem in its service.
Overall? Bad service, in what can be a great establishment. There’s so much room here and so much potential. They have various events from time to time, such as all day music concerts with live bands. They also have something called «Porneoke», karaōke with porn playing behind the singers. I understand they’ve also had jello wrestling and such, but I wonder if these events are designed to bring in as many people as possible in lieu of their inability to be able to win customers via great service. It’s a shame. They should be able to do so much more with this place.
The Final Call:
Facilities: ⁴⁄₅
Staff: ²⁄₅
Service: ²⁄₅
Drinks: N/​A
Food: N/​A
Overall: ²⁄₅

Good drink specials. Eclectic crowd that can vary from night to night. They usually have live music on weekends. The staff is friendly and mix a good drink.

Tonic is a fun little neighborhood bar. They have awesome drink specials and pretty decent snacks for when you drink too much. There is always a different kind of entertainment every night. Casual setting and diverse enough to fit any mood.

I have been a few times and I will probably go back but it is definitely not my first choice. The problem is, I never know what kind of crowd I will find when I get there. I have seen it cool and laid back but also ghetto as hell. There may be a pattern to this but I haven’t been often enough to notice one. Regardless of the crowd on the night I go, I prefer the patio area over the dance floor or those crusty-​ass couches. Lord only knows what has happened those things.

I expected more the one and only time I went and will EVER GO!!! I went and it was a «Hustler Fashion Show» uuuuummmm I think NO !!! nobody in SA is Hustler material LOL especially the ones participating… EEEEEKKKK then they had a section to get a makeover and table selling trinkets and stuff. Ill save my shopping for the Pulga (fleamarket) lmfao !!!

I went on karaōke night. The crowd looks a bit country, but it was very lively and fun in there. The bartender (when I was there, obviously) made a fantastic shot called «StarF*cker.» There’s an outdoor patio seating area that’s pretty nice. It gets VERY loud inside, even on karaōke night (with the DJ playing decent music in between). I’d definitely go there again. It’s semi-​dive bar-​ish; a cool place to go hang out with your friends.

It was ok. I was there lastnight. Not the best. DJ was amazing but that’s about it.