Lori’s Diner

Right across the street from St. Francis Hotel. Quick service, sat at the counter, diner style with 50’s music. I had the Moon doggie which was a –ok.

Ach, der gute alte Lori’s Diner. Als ich für drei Monate in SF gelebt hatte, ging ich oft hierhin. Der an der Powell-​Street, im ersten Stock gelegen, war auch echt nett verziert, sogar ein Flugzeug schwebt im Raum.
Selbstverständlich ein Touri-​Spot, Locals gehen hier wohl eher nicht hin. Immer wenn mich Freunde aus der Schweiz besucht haben nahm ich sie hierhin. Denn die Atmosphäre ist super, wiederum eher für Touristen natürlich, es handelt sich echt um ein (stereo)typisch eingerichtetes Diner.
Burger und Onion Rings gibt’s hier zu Hauf, aber auch Frühstücken waren wir oft. Die Cable Car Pancakes waren bei uns der Renner.
Der Service hier ist ganz okay, und meist geht’s auch ziemlich schnell, bis das Essen kommt. Eignet sich also auch wenn man nur wenig Zeit hat, und sonst auch einfach für ein gemütliches Frühstück, Lunch oder Abendessen.
Bestimmt gibt’s bessere Burger in der Stadt, aber Ich mag den Loris Diner, deshalb gib’ts von mir 4 Sterne.

Lucky me, it was friday and friday there means clam chowder is available!!! I took the chance and choose that instead of the traditional sandwichs etc and can’t be any happier. It was just as clam chowder need to be and I didn’t mind it’s not even winter. Love it, the desserts seems to be amazing and the people nice. Price? Perfect.

I hadn’t eaten here in years — almost 3. I never came back because the food was yucky and pricey.
3 years ago I would’ve given this place one star for that reason, plus the horrible service.
I came back today because my friend wanted to grab a beer and I saw they had a pretty good happy hour for it. We sat in the Beer Zone, and it was actually okay. $ 3 for beers during happy hour, and I got a california burger and fries for $ 11. The burger was massive, and I was really surprised. I guess it’s changed a lot in those years. Now I’m not so afraid to go back.

Dropped by late night since we were tired, hungry and this place was close to our hotel. I will say that the service was awesome! We sat at the counter and our waitress was very efficient at telling us about the menu, making recommendations and just making small talk. Pretty standard fair of diner items. Grilled cheese on sourdough was good and tuna melt was a classic interpretation the wife tells me. Overall, more of a cool place to hang out for comfort food than coming for a food experience.

2.5
Came here for a quick lunch on the go.
Biscuts and gravy $ 6.95
4 pieces of biscuits with bits of sausage covered in gravy.
Side of bacon $ 3.95
Probably 5 pieces of thick sliced and normal tasting bacon
It seems this place sells in bulk as the portions were pretty big but you pay more for each dish. The taste is average at best but I feel this would be a good place to sober up. My friend said the homestyle fries are good here but we’ll see if I come back to this old school joint.

Sehr nostalgischer Laden, Essen lecker, reichlich Milchskae, Musikautomaten an jedem Tisch, hat uns super gefallen der Laden. Toller war nur der Lori’s Diner am Pier mit Blick auf Alcatraz

I mean clearly, a place like this in the heart of Unilocal HQ is going to get shellacked, but hey Unilocalers, tourist traps serve their purpose as well. This happens to be one of the nicer ones.
My sister and I had gotten in early that morning and had gotten separated from the carefully curated itinerary I had planned out, chock full of cool places to eat (we found it later). We stumbled into Lori’s and had a great «greasy spoon» meal.
Obviously, SF is a damn culinary paradise, but you’re not going to be entirely SOL if you get here — be it late night or early AM.

This review is not for the food or the diner but for BEER ZONE.
The sign outside the place caught my eye — something about 50 or so beers on tap. Oh and word on the street was that the place has $ 3 beers.
Attention please: I, Maria G., hereby verify that the $ 3 beers rumor is, in fact, true.
With $ 3 beers and the variety to choose from and being located downtown, come on. It deserves four stars. The service is great, too.
$ 3 beers!!! Need I say it again?!

the beer zone is a good area.
a hidden gem. on the second floor.
if you are in union square and want to watch a game, this place is chill.
its a separate sport bar section of lori’s.
this location is closing soon, so check it out before it does!

BEERZONE!!!
Ok, that’s all I wanted to shout about.
It’s sad that I just discovered this hidden gem in the back of the diner with 52 beers on tap. It unfortunately closes in March, so visit while you can.

Horrible food. Came here with a party of 16 after ice stating at Union Square.
The food was not even mediocre. Even the kids’ meals were disgusting. The kids in our party wouldn’t even touch their food after having a bite of it.
They charge $ 2.45 for a cup of coffee. Seriously?
The service was great, but they really need to improve the quality of food.

BEERZONE
I was also skeptical of this place when my friend made my climb up the stairs :(and we went towards the right back where it was dimly lit and seemed kind of vacant. He said his friend who went to school in sf brought him here and he had a great time. It must be good then.
The decorations around Beerzone is like a retro diner. And there were placards of all types of microbrews on the wall. And so many microbrews on tap! wow what a neat place. Also add in 11 am-​6 pm (wait I’m not sure, don’t quote me on the 6 pm, but I’m certain about the 11 am) HAPPY HOUR! Amazing microbrews at awesome prices. You just want to drink em all. If we didn’t have an agenda for the rest of the day, I’m sure my friend and I would have happily been trapped in that bar drinking and trying to differentiate the tastes… yea, we’re beer critics (we wish).
I also ordered a chicken breast wheat bun hamburger thing and the chicken was so soft and delicious and juicy. What a great order!
Good food, Good beers, all for a great price. Automatic 5 stars.
even if the bartender didn’t pay attention to you and you have to go up and get his attention. still 5 stars for me, because service wasn’t bad at all either.

Lori’s Diner sieht aus wie eine Touristenfalle ist aber keine!
Sehr solides Essen, nette Einrichtung, freundlicher Service und das alles zu überaus reellen Preise. Wenn man keine Lust auf langes Suchen und/​oder Experimente hat, ist man bei Lori’s (u.a. auch am Ghiradelli Square, Ecke Powell/​Sutter und SFO) auf jeden Fall gut aufgehoben!
Es scheint übrigens in irgendwelchen kostenlosen Touri-​Führern Gutscheine zu geben, ich glaube es war der englische Chapteron, aus dem am Nachbartisch ausgerissen wurde

L’une des institutions de SF en matière de burgers! Montez le grand escalier et vous vous retrouverez plongé dans les 50’s avec les gros fauteuils de Diner et les jukebox mis à dispo pour les clients (1 quarter pour passer une chanson du jukebox).

There’s two Lori’s in San Francisco. I’ve now been to both and like the other better. This one was fine, and had a bar for cheap drinking at night which I never got to try. But the service and food were meh. Not bad, i’d go back but not something I’d highly recommend.
Upside, this is the less popular Lori’s

Meh. It is what it is, a diner. Walked in at about 9:30pm to eat breakfast-​for-​dinner. My bf had the veggie burger with cheese, he says it was pretty good. I had the steak and eggs. The usual doesn’t-even-look-like-eggs scrambled eggs typical of dennys or usual diner places. The steak, I ordered Medium-​well, was overcooked, and kinda tough for a medium steak. It always was obviously not a choice piece, but I didn’t expect anything of the sort. It was edible though, and still fairly tasty.
Why so low? Average experiences warrant a 3 stars from me usually, but we were seated 30 seconds after a LARGE foreign party, and while they had their drinks, and their food served, we were still waiting to meet our waiter. We waited 30 minutes before we got up and asked the person at the font desk where our waiter was. That lady was nice and took our order herself. The lady that had served the large party before us brought us our food after though, and didn’t come back for a long time, until she finally offered a refill after the other table, and I finally got some steak sauce.
The person who brought us our check was a 3^rd lady, I guess since it was closing, it was kinda free-​for-​all, which I don’t mind, but I don’t like feeling forgotten and having a hard time flagging down anyone at all.
3 stars for food, 2 stars for service. But I feel like if you don’t come at closing, you’d have much better luck!

Never want to come back ever again. The first time I went to Lori’s was at Powell and I was drunk. The last time I came was Friday, because I never want to go back. The food gone from bad to horrible and not even cheap horrible too.
The non-​spicy chicken wings were completely overcooked. And the patty melt was so supper salty. Even the pepperoncini was super saltier than it is from the jar.
The music was extremely loud.

einfach nostalgisch…
man fühlt sich in die 50ziger Jahre versetzt…
Essen gut amerikanisch…
Service sehr aufmerksam…
Wi-​Fi vorhanden…
Komme immer gerne hierher…

My friend and I (both tourists of San Francisco with no transportation but our feet) were starving after walking all day and found Lori’s on Powell. Of course we had to fall for the tourist trap and decided this place looks good. The interior took us back to the 50’s and we were excited about the jukebox conveniently placed next to our table. Spent a few quarters for 3 Elvis hits and waited for our food to come out. Service was on the slower side and we were getting impatient!
The onion rings came out first and by now I could eat ANYTHING.
After dining, however, we came to the conclusion that onion rings here were no bueno. 95% deep fried breading, 5% onion, 100% greasy.
A few minutes later our cheeseburgers came out as well. Again, nothing out of the ordinary. The burger in general simply had no flavor. As tourists we felt like we wasted tummy space on bland burgers and we were sad.
Now that I think about it though, we didn’t have much of a choice anyway because everything else in that part of San Fran was hella expensive! Oh wellz :/​The chances that I come back here are minimal.

Okay, I’ve been to several Lori’s Diners before, and the atmosphere was similar, but the situation was quite different. See, it was for celebrating my birthday with some college buds, and we didn’t want to wait 2 hours to get into the frickin’ Cheesecake Factory on the top of Macy’s!
The food here was okay (maybe a chicken stir fry dish?), but what I liked better were our fast service from a friendly waitress, the excellent beverages ordered (which included some sort of dry pear champagne, top notch), and the delightful folks that accompanied me upon our night on the town!
The experience can really make or break it. Great night the whole way through. Probably my first 5-​star rating of a diner. Cheers!

I’ve never eaten here until I was with a friend who was super hungry and didn’t care where we ate. Usually I don’t try to go for the tourist traps, not sure why? I like the small restaurants. But I was like you know… I’ve never tried this place before why not. I liked the decorations inside, it was 50’s memorabilia.
Out waiter was super nice. Food I felt was just okay. Nothing making me blurt out my usual «Mmmm’s and so good.» I did eat my food because I was hungry. I don’t have much for a reason to want to go back here unless I have another friend that says hey lets eat there.

So why bother reviewing Lori’s? After all, Lori’s is just Mel’s with estrogen and an Edsel (see photo). It’s just that I wonder what these retro-​diner-​type places say about us. We appear to celebrate a generation we don’t know because we think the times evoked were so pure and good. I envision in the year 2060 that there will be retro-​diners like Lori’s, but they will confuse those Eisenhower-​era values as our own. Perhaps the implicit message is that we have no sense of identity, that we have to live in the past to generate memories we don’t have. I’m so deep.
While you ponder that, I can tell you I had a $ 10.25 Lori’s Special Omelette, and it was the generic dish I expected with chunks of bacon, tomatoes, green onions, mushrooms and cheddar cheese inside. The hash browns look like they came from a package, and the sourdough toast was cut and buttered like a machine (see photo). I was actually waiting for the 450 Sutter pharmacy to open and thought I could eat fast here. I could and I did. I’m quite amazed at how quickly this place fills up with the tourists from the local hotels, but they must be drawn by the kitsch factor and easy corner location. Certainly couldn’t be the generic service.
FOOD — 2.5 stars… generic diner fare
AMBIANCE — 2 stars… the faded magazine covers of Ann Blyth, Liz Taylor and Debbie Reynolds really need to go
SERVICE — 2.5 stars… they seem to just be walking by without much intention
TOTAL — 2 stars… I think retro-​diners like Lori’s help erase the impact of our generation… whoa! that was heavy

This is the type of place you go — if you’re
a.) A tourist
b.) You’re confused
c.) If you like to pay too much money for mediocre food.
My first job in the city — was located at the top of Nob Hill. On late nights — when I knew there weren’t too many places open in Berkeley (where I was living at the time) — I’d occasionally stop in here.
The tacky diner décor, and their swivel red chair seating at the old-​school looking counter always enticed me in. I’d order a big plate of french toast — and then just sit.
Often times I’d be the only one in here — and I appreciated that the staff were friendly enough.
But this place isn’t a regular hang out spot. The people who come in here — wander in when they’re lost, or because they don’t know better.
So as you sit at the counter — putting bites of lukewarm french toast in your mouth — there’s a pervading sense of «eugh…is this the best I can do? Is this the best they can do?»
And the neon lights in the place start to hurt your eyes. The staff seem anxious and bored. And when you ask for the bill — you cringe when they bring it. Because you know it wasn’t worth it. What you put in your mouth doesn’t settle well in your stomach — and the receipt doesn’t settle well in your wallet.
I’ve never had the milkshakes here — but milkshakes are the one thing — you can’t mess up. It’s almost impossible to. So if you’re going to stop by this place for any reason — go for shake, the later hours, and then leave it at that.
Trust.

Inexpensive and not bad.
Whenever my good friend visits from Sactown, we do end up around Union Square to hit the shopping multitudes in bringing up the spending dollar for the city of SF.
That being said, where does one go for satisfying a sweet tooth? Lori’s has always been the savior when I’m looking for an inexpensive dessert dish and that has always been Apple Pie A La Mode.
After resting our tired soles with some ice tea, I ordered the Apple Pie and it was not bad at all. A large slice of pie, with lots of sweet apples and a thick crust (I prefer my pie like that) warm and topped off with a large scoop of vanilla ice cream.
In addition to my usual dessert inclinations, they also serve typical diner food such as burgers, sandwiches and plates reflecting an era back in the day. Cute decorations and the wait staff here have always been consistent.
I’d also recommend this to the tourists who mill around on the ground. If you get a seat at the windows, you can look down at the crazy foot traffic down below.

So, war letzte Woche mal wieder dort zum Frühstücken, gab nen Chili Dog mit Pommes und né Vanilla Coke. Ja ich weiß, zum Frühstück echt ätzend, aber bei uns ist es nun Mal schon Nachmittags. War wie immer sehr fix am Tisch das Essen und äußerst lecker. Das Beste ist aber, das sie keine fertige Vanilla Coke haben, sondern diese selber mischen lecker!!!
Ansonsten ist wie schon geschrieben alleine die Einrichtung einen Besuch wert, und wer schon immer mal in ein typisches American Diner wollte, kommt am Lori’s nicht vorbei. Sehr nett sind auch die Jukebox Automaten an manchen Tischen, wo man sich für 50cent ein Lied aussuchen kann, welches dann über Lautsprecher gespielt wird.
Wenn ich diese Woche wieder in San Francisco bin, stehen die Chancen gut, dass ich dem Lori’s wieder einen Besuch abstatte.

A huge dining space, good service and fun ‘50s décor highlight this Lori’s Diner on Powell Street. This restaurant just seems to scream out to the tourists and out of town visitors to come on in.
My only dining experience here was a major disappointment because something as basic as a cheeseburger fell flat on its face. They call their cheeseburger the Cadillac Burger cooked to order with your choice of cheese. I had mine with Monterey Jack and asked that it be cooked medium well. I substituted onion rings instead of fries for an additional $ 1.50.
Just looking around at the available space inside this restaurant I’d say it would probably be a good place for group dining. There were 8 in our group and we were seated comfortably with plenty of elbow space. The wait for the food was not long, and everybody got his or her food at the same time.
What was wrong with my burger? First off, they use shredded iceberg lettuce instead of leaf lettuce; that’s not too bad except that the lettuce was dripping wet and they already stacked it on top of the toasted bun. The toasted bun was toasted too much and was hard and dry. The burger itself came out cooked well done with no pinkness in the meat and no juice, just a dry pre-​formed patty. The one half pickle spear tasted stale as though it had outlived its shelf life. The onion rings were okay but just a tad on the greasy side. I didn’t have one, but their shakes appeared to be pretty good.
Maybe this place is better suited for breakfast instead of burgers, but I’ll never know because I won’t be returning.