Barbarossa Lounge

Went here for a friend birthday! It’s has amazing décor and great happy hour specials.
BUT…
Service is very bad! We had a couch/​table and waited for an hour (yes we started timing it) before the waitress would come check on us and order our refills/​food. There was a bus boy that kept saying he’d send the waitress to us but she never came (not sure if he told her or not).
The other thing is– I made the reservation said it a birthday in the comments. Then I arrived 15 mins early to make sure we could have a desert/​cake for her. Then when she went to the bathroom I asked the bus boy AND the server to bring it… Well it NEVER happened.
Service was highly disappointing! I hope the manager reads this review and fixes the staff issues because this place has great potential.
I suggest sitting at the bar. You’ll prob get better service. Oh and this was last Tuesday. It wasn’t busy when I arrived to arrange things at 4:45p. We didn’t leave till 8p & I was only able to order 2 drinks in that time frame. One of those 2 drinks required me to go wait at the bar to be told he’d send the waitress.

Goodbye, Bubble Lounge! Hello, Barbarossa Lounge!
I briefly stopped by the newly revamped Barbarossa Lounge during Super Bowl weekend with some friends, so the place was extremely crowded. Due to the crowds and the extra dark lighting upstairs, I couldn’t really appreciate the supposed Barbary Coast theme of the place. That said, the general layout seemed to still be the same… including the underground cave. My main reason for stopping by was to try the new seasonally rotating cocktail menu, but, as it was only offered at the upstairs bar, we headed back upstairs.
I got the Bandit’s Way — Irish whiskey, bourbon, housemade cereal milk, old fashioned bitters and Hawaiian nutmeg — which came with a candy cane colored paper straw in a milk bottle! Honestly, I only picked the drink because I wanted to find out what «housemade cereal milk» was. I wouldn’t make this my go-​to cocktail, but it was an interesting experiment.
I’ll have to come back soon to give this place, and it’s menu, more than a quick once-​over.

Love the ambience of this place. Pretty quirky interior with creative cocktail and beer flights. Go here just for the drinks since the food menu isn’t that great and is pretty limited. This place would be great for fancy pre-​drinks or date night. Will be back!

One of my favorite bars in San Francisco! I went on a Friday and it had fun music and great company. The courteous service is a plus too! I also definitely recommend the mojitos.

Nice spot with good vibe and great artisan cocktails, with solid bar food. Pretty noisy place, but seating was very comfortable with couches, easy chairs and coffee tables.
Can highly recommend the Brussels sprouts, cheese plate, satay and beets. Not so much the oysters as they are served with 3 «vinegars», 2 of which were sweet and apple and cranberry flavored (yuck!). Major effort for them to find me some Tabasco to clear my palette! Anyway, worth going, but methinks mainly for cocktails and bites… skip trying to build a meal… go elsewhere for that.

Drinks were fine. My issue: went in at 5pm with a couple colleagues from work. Had read in SF Eater LAST WEEK that they had a «new happy hour» with $ 1.00 Oysters, which seemed too good to be true.
— it’s # 1 on the list of «new happy hours»
Well, it was too good to be true. The bartender didn’t know of this, the other server checked with someone near the kitchen (presumably the manager) and said «oh — we are out of those Oysters.» So apparently it’s a one time deal? Perhaps Eater (VOX) got it wrong? Again, the atmosphere was lovely, the people nice enough — just think the resolution was ham-​handed — there was no «happy hour» food menu whatsoever… maybe I should blame the NFL?
UPDATE — nice note from the manager — EATER got it wrong, the $ 1 oysters are on Mondays starting in March! We’ll try it again.

Hands down, one of my favorite new bars in SF! Chic, cool, and super cute.
Vibe: Young professionals. I mean, obviously, it’s San Francisco. Not pretentious! People actually try here and I appreciate it :)
Drinks: Amazing drink flights offered
Happy hour: Great horderves
Music: Chill, not too crazy
Overall, it’s a great place to go in the city if you like good vibes. I bring all my visitors here and they love it! Like Kevin G said from Mean Girls, «keep doing yo thangggg» Barbarossa

Went here for a girls night on a Wednesday night and the place was packed. We had a reservation, they made a «reserved for Mekhala’ sign for our table which was a nice personal touch. Drinks here are creative and presentation quite unique. We got the pear walnut salad, the harissa shrimp avocado salad, the brussels sprouts and the sausages. The lamb sausage in the sausage plate was my favorite. Except for the wedding cake, i think i liked everything we ordered. They also have a private area which is great for parties. Will be definitely back for a drink or two.

Hands down – this is the best lounge I’ve been to in San Francisco. It has a trendy, upscale ambiance – which can be a huge turnoff when not done correctly, but Barbarossa does it right. One of the main reasons is that the sitting areas are spacious – you don’t feel crowded /​congested when you’re hanging out.
I’ve been a couple times, but felt compelled to write a review after hosting a private party in the basement. This setting was awesome – Barbarossa was able to do a cash bar, had a DJ, and was great about the door and handling any issues that came up during a 100 person party on a busy Saturday night. I want to particularly thank Arash, the co-​owner of the Lounge.
This is a great place to host a party or just go to hang out. Couldn’t recommend it more highly!

Ambiance: Came on a weeknight around 6 and it was busy, but not packed. Some people in my group go there around 4:30 though so we were able to sit in one of their lounge areas with the beautiful couches and a coffee table. There were about 7 of us and we were able to all sit comfortably. The interior is beautifully decorated and the bar is large. We hung out for almost 3 hours eating and drinking – great place for a group! It’s also located in a great area with lots of dining options for before or after.
Service: Service was quick and our waitress was friendly.
Food and drinks: I didn’t try the food my group ordered but there were no complaints. The drinks were on the stronger side, but still good! They have a pretty extensive menu and the offerings rotate.

Loooooove this place. Such a hidden gem– new fav sf spot. Brooks is an awesome bartender, loved the cava. Coming back with the ladies

Came here for a friends birthday and had a good time. It was a Saturday night and so expectedly busy. Service was a bit slow, with our waitress taking a while to come back with drinks and check on us (they may want to consider hiring additional wait and bar staff?). The only other issue of the night was when I ordered a cocktail with diet coke only be to be told that they don’t carry any diet soda. Seemed pretty strange for a establishment with a «full bar» to not carry a basic mixer.
Cool space over all, but I definitely recommend reserving a table. It gets pretty elbow to elbow at the bar later in the evening. Also the music is a tad on the loud side. When I have to yell at the person standing 3 feet away from me to have a conversation, the music could go down a notch.

So much potential with the back room still considered the bubble lounge! Love how they revamped the basement no more low white ceiling lol Hope we can still get crazy sweaty dancing down there! Love the new plush couches and décor! I want the bathroom wallpaper haha super fun!
They joined in on the SF prohibition era bar feel with their craft cocktail menu and downstairs basement décor. My Sutro’s Brew was delicious! I agree it’s nice to have the different feel than everything else popping up in SF so it’s nice to still have the different plush décor and back room bubble lounge feel! They just started a good happy hour too! We will be back with all of our friends! Give it a chance Rob! lol your comment was funny how you perceive things! Our server was great and it will get better with time and the right people! Looking forward to some live music on Vday since it is such a big venue for it! Just glad to have it reopened and with champ flights! Missed bubbles and looking forward to more good times here! Cheers

This is a new trendy place in the financial district that I found on Unilocal.
I came here around 9 and it was already super busy and it seemed like every table was reserved for a party.
We grabbed a Moscow mule at the bar — they don’t serve them in copper mugs just FYI. And We ended up going downstairs to the ‘dungeon’ room and found some plush lounge sofas to sit at because upstairs had no unreserved seating.
The décor inside is really interesting — lots of bondage themed art, old gothic styled stained glass church windows, and dark mood lighting with hues of red everywhere. There’s also a cool wall in the lounge of a bunch of mugshots of Hollywoods most interesting from Al Capone to Prince. Sexy and modern would be a good description of the décor here.
I’d also like to mention the bathroom has some kinky wallpaper showing men on men, women on women and men and women having sex. Pretty cool if you ask me. One of a kind for sure!
The DJ plays mostly house music on Saturday nights, not harsh house music but relaxing.
The atmosphere was really cool and the drinks were good. I’d definitely come back here!

mmmm, this place was okay. established in the old bubble lounge *CRINGES*, it is not super chic and modern, and is very spacious. i went with two friends on a tuesday during the holidays and were the 3 of 8 customers. perhaps it is a new spot, perhaps it’s the holidaze effect.
service is kinda choppy and cold??? i felt like the waitresses were only familiar with the cocktail menu, but couldnt suggest anything according to flavor profiles. and when we asked for a negroni or g&t or vodka soda, they were VERY interested in what brand/​type of liquor we wanted… perhaps it speaks to professionalism but it gave me the opposite feeling.
good selection of beers and wine by the glass. moderately expensive.
probably wont be back again unless there’s a large group of people and we can fill up ALL the couches they give you (4) for a reservation for 3. meepsface.

Classier than Bubble Lounge (R.I.P.) used to be. Prison-​themed décor with a sultry red and black color scheme.
The 3 cocktails I tried all looked good on paper but simply tasted off.
The bar wasn’t packed when we were here, and we had a reserved space. However, we still had to wait a long time for drinks, either from our server or when ordering at the bar. It also felt like a bouncer asked us to move from wherever we were standing every few minutes. (Really? I’m in someone’s way again?!) I can only imagine how much worse this place gets when crowded.
I wouldn’t come back.

Excited to see Bubble Lounge turn into a cocktail bar that references SF history. The space allows for better traffic flow if you are trying to get from one end of the bar to the other. The best part is that the downstairs ceiling is higher now (aka less claustrophobic) and there are places to sit. Bartenders are efficient and the drinks are decent. The listed cocktails were mostly whiskey based with a sparkling wine twist. I had the cranberry Grog with Bourbon, which was a bit too tart/​sweet for my taste. The crowd was late twenties/​early thirties working professionals. This is a good bar to check out if you want to hang out with some friends, people watch, and perhaps meet someone interesting. While you are people watching or waiting to order, take time out to notice the décor, there’s some interesting pieces on the wall.

Posh lounge bar. Focused on having people get private tables. Went here on a Saturday night. Less than a dozen patrons until after 10pm when it started filling up.

Came after work with a couple of workmates on a Friday evening. The place was pretty busy and peeping over someone’s shoulder to get a drink at the bar was a bit difficult. But it didn’t take long for some seats to empty out to allow us to sit. The drinks took a while to make but we weren’t in a rush.
I had the Bandits Way (the one in the old school milk glass) and Bonny’s Misfortune. The Bandits Way was kinda fun since it was in a cool glass with a bunch of ice, taste was kind of creamy with a kick. Bonny’s Misfortune was a bit strong at first but with some air (and melted ice) it was my favorite and a good drink to sip on. I also tasted The Hotaling and it was really nice too.
Atmosphere was interesting, somewhat dark lighting (still easy to see), lots of different decorations to look at like caged chandeliers and framed hand-​cuffs. The tables can be reserved (through Unilocal!) and looked pretty comfortable with table service. They also have food but I didn’t try any of it.

What a gorgeous place! This place is perfect to come to with a group of friends, a lover, or just after work for some drinks & mingles. I took my best-​friend here on a Friday night to catchup.
The people here are so friendly and sociable! Totally not use to those vibes coming from LA. Everyone actually wants to talk. In fact almost too much! The dance floor in front of the bar was packed with people just chatting away. Being that I was coming from a stressful day at work that night, I really just wanted to vibe out to some good music & unwind. But unfortunately the dj had the music at a low tempo.
I’d definitely consider returning to Barbarossa. Cool new spot!