Lefty O’Doul’s

In A Nutshell:
–I always have a go-​to Irish Bar in any city I visit and Lefty’s is my choice in San Francisco.
–A legend in its own right, an SF iconic establishment w/​a ton of history and place that feels as welcoming as the old TV show, «Cheers».
–Shopping with your loved ones in Union Square and not the shopping type or hungry? Stop on in and grab yourself a plastic tray for lunch or grab a drink at one of the two bars.
–Don’t be surprised if you run into the owner Nick walking around. Say hello to him and the many regulars who come to Lefty’s.
–What I really love about this place is the set-​up of the «cafeteria style» food line. Grab your tray like you did in school or the military, line up and scope out the delicious comfort food items, then pay at the end of the line and find a place to chow down.
–If you want a nice drink ask Jessica or Chris at the front bar :)
–Be careful walking down the men’s bathroom stairs, they are STEEP.
–The décor and ambiance of this place is very warming and friendly. You know you gotta be there when there’s a big game playing too.
Overall, I’ve been coming here for a few years and gotten to know the staff and everyone always has a nice smile and all the patrons are super-​friendly.

Let me tell you Lefty O’Doul’s gets 10 stars, my girlfriends, my sister and myself have gone to SF every year for 15 years. We go to Lefty’s and have a ball. This year we had a thief come in when the piano player went on break, he had a spotter. The whole thing took 4 minutes, her purse was under the piano bar, he got her wallet, cash and all credit cards, etc.,
The piano player, the cocktail waitress, the manager, John, Rick, the waitress the next day at breakfast couldn’t have been more helpful and sympathetic. For sure Lefty O’Doul’s stepped up to the plate. We had breakfast the next day while filing a police report, it was a great breakfast, one of my favorites in our 4 days. Thank-​you everyone there, you don’t know how grateful and appreciative we were. Like I said Lefty’s gets 10 stars from us.

Amazing place with drinks and foods. I will make this my place to go for holidays and game days. Dan, the bartender, was fun and amazing

Personally I love their meatloaf which they make and the lemon chicken that they serve are very moist. Most chickens that I have eaten so far are pretty dry up inside, but not from ‘Lefty O’Doul’. I would mostly come back here again for their good food. Thought the setting is mostly for people who love beer.

I would say the service was bad, but it was practically nonexistent. Someone sat me (she was really nice), someone took my order with hardly a word said to me, someone delivered my food and said «enjoy» and someone dropped off my check and said «pay at the front». The water had a green leaf floating in it. And the English muffin had stay looked like mold on it. Definitely not coming back again.

I’ll be honest here in saying that I don’t really this type of food to begin with (maybe its with some bad experiences I’ve had before but I have yet to find one that I truly enjoy) but since my friend suggested it as we were all hungry and wanted to get out of the rain, I said sure, why not? It’s a piano bar so it’ll be cool.
As we arrived, I took notice of how spacious this place was. You can definitely fit a decent crowd here. The bar was filled with people of both young and old, enjoying themselves as they had their drinks while some were talking to the bartender. On the right side, you see the food menu as well as guy cutting different slices of meat as he is getting ready for your order. The way in you order is like a cafeteria style where you have a tray and you tell them what you want on your plate. For me, I had slices of hot, fresh, roast beef with red potatoes, a bread roll, and some salad (combo lunch meal for $ 14). Unfortunately, there was no piano player so the piano kinda acted as a place where people put their drinks down.
The staff seems nice and they were nice enough to bring in some water to the table even though I know that there was a self serve water jug on the side. The food itself was meh. For me, it lacked flavor and it was bland. I had to use all the condiments in order to make it more appealing. For my salad, I asked for some dressing on it, to which the guy drowned my salad with it. I won’t really blame them for that because I didn’t speak up about how they handled that but still, he shouldn’t have poured in that much dressing in that tiny bowl of salad.
Overall, it is between meh and ok. The staff were nice people and the place seems clean but I didn’t really like the food. I finished it with the help of the condiments provided but without it, I probably wouldn’t have been able to finish it. I think some other people would enjoy this place, but for me, I would not go back here unless I was being invited over by a friend just to be nice.

This place is fast becoming my new, New Year’s Eve/​Day tradition. Great drinks, great atmosphere and excellent Hofbrau. Only reason I will give it four stars instead of five — my small dirty Tito could have been cheaper than $ 10.75.
Today I enjoyed the corn beef sandwich on sourdough with «Beaver Brand» cream horseradish — hot.

It was crazy busy Christmas Eve, and I’d still give these guys solid 4 stars.
My mom and I had fresh cut roasted all white meat turkey sandwiches, double dipped on a sour dough roll & my husband had the pastrami. It was all amazing. Food quality was fantastic.
FYI, this is served cafeteria style. If you’ve never been to a place like this, take your time figuring out what you want or go with someone who has been before. My mom’s been going here for ever, so I know what’s awesome to order. ;)
We waited in line at the bar for drinks after we put our food on the table. The bartender let a dude in a suit cut in front of my husband and I to order. The dude with the suit came back to order more, and evidently he was more important than us because the bartender stopped making our drinks to get this guy who already cut in front if us once more drinks. When the bartender was finally finishing our drinks we laughed cause he was spilling alcohol everywhere… At that point, whatever, just laugh it off.

If you look at my page I say I don’t review places I don’t like. The only reason I am writing this one is to encourage the owners to take advantage of the rich history of this place and bring it back up to the standards I know it used to have and could easily still have today with a few small changes.
1. Your Servers and rest of the staff (barmaid excluded) all need a refresher course in Customer Service and Friendliness. Rarely have I seen such lethargy and indifference.
2. Your food is just OK. With some effort and proper guidance from the Chef it could be great.
3. Your House Manager’s attitude is poor at best. I believe the leadership here is the reason this place exists instead of shines in the vibrant Union Square area of San Francisco.
Come on, folks. What a great, classic, historically relevant piece of San Francisco. Lets do it!

Aali our waitress is great. Here with my friends s having a great time with excellent drinks. This was our third stop to find a place to accommodate our group and it is perfect. Great atmosphere and great environment.

Lefty O’douls is serves up some classic american grub in a deli style counter, but also has a bar and live entertainment. Its difficult to imagine a business like LO’s starting today.
The vibe is relaxed and the place tends to have ample room for larger groups.
This classic feel is why LO’s gets the 4 stars — its unique.

We came to Lefty O’Doul’s after an event. It was a great, low-​key place to grab a beer. They had good tap choices and a lively crowd.
We didn’t eat but the food looked good. Drinks were priced fairly and the food seemed to be reasonable too. They had a «piano man» at the front of the restaurant who was rocking out some old tunes. Very fun atmosphere.
When we first arrived there was a table full of guys who kept giving us the shady once-over…but to be fair we were dressed for a formal affair in a divey Irish bar. We didn’t really blend.

Love lefty’s, I’ve eaten here so many times when in the city! Being a LA boy born & raised anything giants suck big time! Yet I’ve never had a problem going into lefty’s which is a shine to giants baseball & baseball in general.
Well back to the my review. I’ve always embraced the cafeteria format, takes me back to being a kid in the 50’s & early 60’s. So that’s a plus, the food is hardy and good, not great but solid! Afterall it’s all around $ 13.00 for your main course, 2 sides, dinner salad & a roll!
Keep in mind it’s as much a bar as restaurant! So it can great a bit loud at times!
All in all its inexpensive for sure! The ambience, history, café style, food, price, l & service all leave me saying lefty’s is a great stop if your in the Union Square area!
A ⁴⁄₁₂ out of 5 stars

It was a long, arduous wait to get in. Once we got in the food seemed to have been prepared for the proles; a bitter waitresses reluctantly accosted our dinner party, uninterested in providing libations for our cohort. ¹⁄₁₀. Next time we go to Righty’s.
–P and the Terror Squad

They really know how to do corned beef well! I finally had breakfast here recently and had the corned beef hash with eggs. The corned beef was chopped up wit potatoes, bell peppers and onions — sooooo good and filling. This gave me energy for the day!

This is my very first time at a piano bar! I like the concept, but not this particular bar… sadly. My friends and I arrived on a Sunday night, the place wasn’t completely empty, but there were enough space to accommodate 13 people. We got some food from their cafeteria style food and took a seat at the back of their restaurant. My first impression was that it was great to watch sports and hang out with a large group of people. However, as you continued to eat, the room just got darkers and stuffy. Most of us were fanning ourselves the entire night! Towards the end of the meal, we had some visitors… and by that, I mean there were some roaches crawling around near our booth. Yikes!
I ordered the Prime Rib with mac & cheese and macaroni salad. It was decent, something you would expect from a place like this. Since they serve cafeteria style, the food is prepared in advance and you get it quick.
After dinner, we made our way to the bar to enjoy some great tunes. James, the pianist and vocalist of the night was amazing. He was on point and carried a great tune the entire night. He has a song list where you can submit your request on a piece of paper. Don’t forget to tip! It is amazing to see how many songs he knew, especially the wide range of genre. The waitress serving our drinks was super flirtatious, it is almost amusing to see her prance around. She is a 65+ year old waitress who has no shame in slapping your behind, calling you a f***** idiot, giving you hugs, and calling you honey.
So why 2 stars? It’s probably more like 2.5 stars. It was overall a great night, but there were 2 things that didn’t sit well with me. The room was HOT the entire night… yes, they could have cranked up the AC a bit as many people were fanning themselves the entire night. Also, we found some roaches crawling around the dining area. Next time, I may skip the food and head straight to the bar while wearing short sleeves, short pants, and sandals.

The Hofbrau.
I love it.
Why you ask?
It reminds me of my parents.
When I was a little kid, whenever we went to the Modesto mall, they’d take me by the hand, & we’d go to the Hofbrau for lunch.
Then, to Orange Julius.
All this was second only to getting a churro at the churro place, of course. Even though there was ALWAYS a line… remember?!
Sigh.
Well, this place is nothing like those fond memories. It’s a bar. A very big bar.
But it has a Hofbrau. What a great idea!
It’s also a baseball lover’s dream. There’s tons of baseball memorabilia all over the place.
If you’re used to artisan cocktails… well, you can just forget about all that here. Stick w the basics, & everyone will be happy. Booze & a mixer, or beer. That’s what this joint is all about.
You’ve gotta do the singing along w the pianist late one night, at least once. It’s an SF thing.
Solid.
3 stars.

3.5
The atmosphere here is great — fun bar and definitely a spot to have a beer. I love the vibe of this place. The service was beyond awful and the food was just ok but I would definitely come back to have a beer and watch a game.

I really like this old school kind of sport’s bar, joint! It’s one of the oldest sports’ bar in San Francisco!
It’s low key and I like the homely grub meal that you get to select from on the ready-​to-​go counter.
It’s spacious and full bar with sports’ TV channels available for your entertainment!

Pina Colada oder Hawaiin Sunset Cocktail besser vermeiden. Gute Lage nahe Union Square, trotzdem geräumig, so dass sich ein Platz findet.

Lots of mixed reviews here. I ended up at Lefty’s recently for a Wednesday lunch. The place wasn’t crowded, and I chose to sit at the bar. They have a house brew «Lefty’s Left Arm», which the barkeep told me is made by Firestone Walker. It’s a tasty pale ale — barkeep didn’t know the ABV.
Like lots of other folks that passed through while I was there, I opted for the lunch line and grabbed the «light lunch» — half a sandwich and soup. I chose pastrami on sourdough and the soup was split pea. It was a savory and filling meal, so don’t let the «light» label fool you.
It was an above average experience and I left satisfied. The combination of decent brew selection and decent pub food at Lefty’s pushes the rating up a notch for me.