800 Larkin

Great drinks, Very personable staff, LOVE the owner & all of the improvements being made… a bit sketchy outside BUT wonderful inside… BE adventurous & give it a chance; my kind of «Cheers» type of place/​Bar…

Thank You many times over, 800 larkin club !!! So glad to have somehow found our way to your door. A perfect ending to a great day. Thank you so much, Eric, for the warm welcome, great music, sharing, and some good laughs… looking forward to my next adventure that lands me in the city… oh yes… and on a Sunday! ***Kat Smith (aka Lydia) ;)

Awesome costumer service and a great bouncer. Helped us out with a great night.
Lookin forward to our next visit.

Longer stay.
This time it was a late afternoon visit with good conversation and $ 4 beers. Was eyeing the leather couches and red felt pool table for the next time around.
Stays four stars.

Wow… this place has changed. For the better! Lots of really lovely cool people who didn’t seem like they were definitely going to stab you. Progress!
The bartender is really fun and brings a great energy to the bar. We had a great time.

Swanky looking place. Nice lounge in the Tenderloin with a cool happy hour list. Pretty chill place with good music. Had a mango margarita which was made to the perfect sweetness. The bartender was really nice and chill!
Nice place to have drinks.

This place became one of the unofficial bars of the Giants Grounds Crew today! 17 thirsty people walked in at once after a long walk, and Martina didn’t flinch. A great atmosphere, rockin’ jukebox, and great drinks. She definitely earns honorary status.

I don’t know how exactly it happened, much like most drunken adventure nights. We were at a bar in downtown San Francisco, we searched the internet for Touchtunes check in bars, caught a cab and made friends for life at 800 Larkin. Ok, maybe not for life, but if we came back in another month or two they would remember us and we would remember them. That was everyone at the bar that Monday night at 800 Larkin.
You’re cool, bar. You’re cool. I would totally be friends with you once a weekend if I lived here and that might be a good thing that I don’t!

Very divey, been to better places, and saw some weirdos walk in. On the good side, the drinks were strong.
That about sums it up.

Once you get past the crackheads by the door you’ll enter a diverse bar with locals and newbies alike. Love love Christine. Drinks are good, happy hour is great. It’s not somewhere you would expect non locals to know about

My favorite bar in the city. And I have been to many. I found myself always ending up at the 800 and now Im a regular. You’ll find a very diverse group of patrons here. Everyone is kind and welcoming — and funny as shit. The bartenders are amazing — especially Shannon and Christine. Eric is the shiznit. Great atmosphere. They have an awesome pool table and a smoking room too.

Closer to 3.5 but it’s a great bar in the middle of a bad neighborhood so it deserves some credit.
Me and hubby found this place thanks to
Free pulled pork sandwiches during the Final four. Also 2 for 1 wells (a double for $ 5 essentially). yay! I ruined my diet, thank you very much.
As others have stated, the bar is in the TL but in the «nicer» part of the TL if you can believe that such a place exists — closer to Polk Street. Inside of the bar you’re pretty insulated from the riff raff outside. The bar is surprisingly light and roomy. The service was great — attentive and the drinks were good. There are 3 TVs and a projector which is great for game watching.
I had a great time and will return although I have a hard time dealing with the bull that happens over yonder.
Oh yeah, don’t park over there. Pretty sure I saw someone’s car being broken into… at least it looked that way.

I just went there for the first time last night and while it was a slow night I must say this place was kind of pleasant and interesting.
There is a smoking room in the back so you can still drink and enjoy a cig. (this a always a plus in my book)
The drinks are average price.
The interior is hispter/​urban/​trendy, mostly hispter. I think I’m making that call just because I saw more fixed gear bikes in this bar then I have at any other bar in the city (with the exception of anything on valencia)
The down side is that this bar is straight up in the TL. Getting to and from this bar is just not wroth it depending on how much you plan on drinking. (a drunk person is the first to get mugged)

Great Dive Bar that’s sorta nice. It’s in a crappy neighborhood. The plus side is almost right next door to a strip club should you fancy that. lol We came here for a birthday shin dig and since the place was fairly empty we had the place almost to ourselves. It’s actually fairly decent size inside. It has a bunch of couches and chairs like someone’s really big living room but it makes it really comfortable.
Here’s another plus. Yah it’s in a crappy area but if you want to smoke you don’t have to stand outside and get harassed. You can sit in the smoking room which is set up with tables and stools with an open gated door to the outside. You can slide into the room with your drink have a smoke in peace.
It’s not a mixology bar so if you come here and start critiquing and saying «she shook that martini when she should have stirred it» you’re in the wrong place buddy. Staff is nice and accommodating. Beers are not the cheapest but coctails are cheap. 6 bucks for a top shelf vodka not bad. They also had a DJ who was spinning some good music.
Will definitely end up back here for a drink.

saturday seven pm… mostly empty and crickets… spacious bar and divey lounge atmosphere… nothing fancy or appealing… signs of aging and wear… sketchy few not even drinking… not caring and not asking… alone and at the bar and stella draft ordered… heavy pour pass line… one female bartender working…$five plus $dollar tip equals $six total… steep pricing for tenderloin draft… as dave chapelle said, «ain’t nothing tender about the tenderloin»…

I’m a neighbor, and this place brings out the worst in me. Long story short, they are so loud I can’t sleep, and I’m diagonally across the street from them. I’ve tried talking to them directly, and it goes nowhere. When I call the police they do quiet down.
And, listen, I have lived in the ‘loin for two and a half years. I know what I get here, and I would say I’ve grown a lot from living here. I’ve learned to accept a lot that I can’t change. This place stands out to me, and I suspect it’s not just the noise that’s a problem there, but I really don’t know the details.

What does one do when they find themselves DEEP in the Tenderloin late at night? Well I guess you make your way into 800 Larkin for a drink.
Pretty nice bar considering the neighborhood with comfy lounges, a spacious pool table area, and a DJ mixing it up for the night. It’s good that they have a smoking room so you don’t have to be on the street all exposed although the room does get filled up quickly and hence, really smoky too. The beer was also surprisingly expensive for the TL. A pint of Anchor Steam was $ 6. No not earth-​shattering expensive, but still surprising given the locale.
800 Larkin is a decent bar given its location. Not that you will find yourself here to often but if you do, you know where to go.

Thursday night. 2 girlfriends and I wanted to continue the dinner talk over some drinks, so we wandered into a bar nearby… into 800 Larkin. And umm… WHAT A PLEASANT/​AWESOME SURPRISE. On the outside, it looked small, dive-​y, kind of grungey (although, we were totally down for that) and it’s not in the prettiest of areas, but man, do not judge a book by its cover.
Roomy inside. Dimly lit. Full bar. Loud, but chill music. Plentiful sitting/​area to lounge about (couch, arm chairs, stools). Friendly bartender. There’s even a pool table and cozy smoking area in the back. Oh, and the ladies’ room was clean :)
We each got ourselves a beer ($ 5 each, so not cheap, but not crazy either) and had a great time catching up here. I will definitely be back!
A hidden gem no longer!

800 Larkin is an undercover lounge in a realm of dive bars. The hood is divey, the sign and exterior are divey, and the crazy ass people wandering around outside are sure as shit divey. That’s why it’s relatively shocking when you walk in and find out hey, this ain’t no dive bar.
With a good sound system, pool table, and lounge seating, it’s the perfect place to kick back. The vibe is a darker version of something like Vertigo over on Polk St often with live DJs and if not, a solid juke box.
It’s like a Polk St bar… but shadier. Maybe it’s the people stalking the nearby sidewalks, asking for «spare» drugs. Do people just have «spare coke» on them? I know asking for ‘spare change’ is referred to as «spanging», is asking for ‘spare coke’ called «spoking»? Perhaps it feels shady due to random foot traffic near the door that looks like they just caught a serious beat down, complete with black eyes and bloodied wounds.
Shady doesn’t mean bad though, think of the positives. Not being on Polk St, 800 Larkin can afford more space. Those shady types I just mentioned generally stay outside, once you get inside you can relax (although do not leave your belongings strewn about, they will get jacked). Also this direction off Polk St avoids the douche bag crowd. You know, the Marina gents that think going to Sutter and Polk is «slumming» it. They don’t venture to these parts.
I’d prefer it if their drink prices matched the location, it’s a buck or two higher than I’d normally expect for shot of Jameson in the TL. I think they’re capitalizing on the stream of customers from the neighboring Century Club, people run over between strippers for a quick shot because Century sells no booze. Other than the slightly higher prices I have no qualms about catching a drink or two at 800, it’s a 2 blocks from my house and a more than solid spot to start off a night of adventure in the Tenderloin.

I went to the 500 Club for my 500^th review…
I was going to the 700 Club for my 700^th review, but Pat Robertson kept trying to throw holy water on me, and now it’s…
REVIEW #800 for 800 LARKIN… Woo-hoo…woo-hoo?
Where were you?
Where the hell were you?
No balloons… No streamers… No kazoos… Nada!
Do you think it’s easy to be caught in a cesspool of self-​absorption on such a momentous event in my otherwise humdrum life? All I ask is for some empty praise, some alcohol, a slap on the back, some alcohol, a toast to my health, some alcohol…
Remember that scene in «Barfly» when Mickey Rourke as the perpetual drunkard kept saying «To all my friends!» over and over again at the bar? That was gonna be me that night except the bartender snickered when I ordered a dirty Ketel One martini. He made me feel humiliated ’cause I guess I didn’t order one of the twelve beers on tap. Guess they’re not quite as uppity as they think.
Jamie W. and I decided to come here after a great dinner at Pagolac (…I always love this place, never lets me down). 800 Larkin is only up a block from there. This bar has changed a bit from the testosterone-​driven O’Farrell Sports Bar it was for lo these many years. At least the décor has with a long mahogany bar, artwork involving eerrr… ummmm …“professional women”, and little cocktail tables strewn around. I don’t think the customers have changed that much though… still loud, still horned up, still a lotta cock-​of-​the-​walk if you know what I mean.
The volume was turned up quite a bit that evening with a competitive pool match in high gear, a DJ in the corner playing God-​knows-​what (aww…this new generation!), and a herd of carousing youth within vomiting range. Still I nursed that $ 8 martini for what it was worth. In the meantime (hoisting my glass)…“To all my friends !!!“
DRINKS — 3 stars… wet my whistle for a fistful of shekels
AMBIANCE — 3 stars… it’s OK, but methinks it wants to be all things to all drunks… but does it matter when you can’t walk a straight line anyway?
SERVICE — 2 stars… gee, no one likes to be snickered at… I’ve written 800 reviews, dammit… I deserve your respect if not your pity
TOTAL — 3 stars… what can I say… there ain’t no 800 Club in the city… see you at the 900 Club in a few months… not