Dimples

Dimples is, without any shred of doubt in my mind, the very best bar — no, establishment — in San Francisco. No poo poo. The five stars that I bestow on this institution are not given meekly. They are given with fire, bravado, and a deep sense of gratitude.

Hostess bar. Hostess bar? This place was pretty popular with Raymond Shrimp Boy and his friends. Just kidding. Maybe. Some serious shady shiz is going on here and it can get creepy. If I were a Hollywood location scout this is THE place to film some shady dive-​bar underground business scene. Complete with secret elevator the ladies take customers to who knows where.

Seriously, I have been looking forward to writing a review for this bar since last year. Once in a while I make a visit and it is dissapointing. The staff is rude and careless, I feel like I am bothering them and I should not be there.

Dimples is in a basement. This is the dive bar of Japantown. Questionable, yet comfortable. Bring money for the juke box, otherwise you’ll have to listen to awkward conversations at the bar or karaōke in random back rooms. Easy place to chill and hang with friends if you like dive bars in random neighborhoods… Which I do.

Dimples gets a bad rap. Stiff drinks, a jukebox, cheesy sectionals, and floor to ceiling mirrors. No dbags and bimbos crowded the bar. I’ll be back Dimples.

If you dudes have an Asian fetish come here. Did I get your attention? xP
Cleanest dive bar ever with attractive Korean bartenders. You may smoke in this bar too. Reminded me of the homeland (Korea). Juke box has a wide variety for various genres of music. There is a karaōke room too.
Selection of liquors are good, not so much the cocktails since I’m not a cocktails kinda guy. Just your average sit, sip and eye the bartender type of hom sup guy.

Dimples is an average karaōke establishment. The song list is not frequently updated so the most recent songs are mostly from before 2010. Although I love to sing songs from my high school years, I also like to sing songs that are currently on the radio, as I remember their lyrics better.
The karaōke rooms fit a party of 5 – 8 well and have a mirror that you can use to sing towards your audience — your friends — rather than sing towards the screen. The size and the fact that two microphones were available was definitely a plus.
I wished they had an easier song selection device. The keyboard for the device was in Korean and didn’t shift to English as easily as the staff had indicated. There were quite a few songs we accidentally selected that were in Korean.
Also, if you are asthmatic, a word of caution; the entrance and exit to Dimples after heading down the stairs has a huge table for smokers. I had to inhale smoke on the way in and out, which made me cough a lot.

As a bartender for 15 years I assure you this is the cleanest «dive» bar I have ever been in. That is important. Sure, there is a cigarette in the lobby, yes, it has a little wear and tear but you can drink here knowing it is safe. The bar manager rocks!

We stopped by Dimples while waiting for a table at a restaurant down the street. It was definitely low key and the older lady had a heavy pour for both rounds of gin and tonics ordered. I’d definitely go back if I’m in the area.

Revise my review, a Korean hostess bar clip joint, will never go there again.

Divey Korean bar in Japantown
Came here with a friend the other day. I’ve walked by the bright neon storefront sign countless times, but it’s only now that I’ve actually had a chance to visit. Inside, the place was actually much smaller than I had thought. When you go down the stairs, you’ll see a table which is usually occupied by customers who want to sit down and smoke near the outside. When you walk even further in, you’ll see the actual bar area, with some couches etc.
Usually the place is not packed at all. There is some background music, and the waitress is pretty cute. In terms of the drinks, they seem to lack basic things like fruit juices for cocktails from time to time, but other than that the drinks are not bad.
Overall, if you walk in, expect a divey bar with not a lot of people in it. If you want to find a quiet place after a long day of work to chill out and sip some alcohol, then this is a good place to go.

My lord what an odd and majestic place Dimples is. The jukebox situation is killer, I mean I love this modern age juke where it’s all internety and you can get like anything you want to hear. The décor and ambiance feels so illegal, but that makes it fun. There is a definite don’t ask don’t tell vibe going on, some of the rooms randomly in the spot seem like they have other usages… uhhh ya. Anyways you can get forget your life hammered here which is fun, until you see your receipt the next day and wonder how your Budweiser and a shot was like 30 bucks. I am not a math genius, but seemed on the high side.

Stumbled in here on a whim one night with my husband. This first time was fun, just a weird, smokey dive bar with $ 10 OBs and peanuts to snack on. The second time we came, we had friends with us. When we walked in, the music stopped. They claimed to not have any sake or soju. They didn’t have anything we asked for, so we settled on the overpriced beers. The bartenders seemed really annoyed that we were there, so we finished up our drinks and got out of there. As we walked up the stairs to exit, the music came back on. Fishy. It’s not really a bar for friends, just sad single dudes.

Super divey, not that cheap of drinks, but was a a decently fun spot (though that was likely because our friends basically filled the bar). Not sure I would be back.

Black label.
Smoking.
Korean ladies.
Hostess bar?

Having formally been a bartender, I was amazed at the lack of consistency behind this bar. Over the course of about 2 hours I ordered three whisky & coke’s, from three different bartenders. Each one of them used a different glass, poured a different amount, and charged a different price.
What was even more disturbing to me though, is that the prices seemed to be «made up» on the fly. At no point did I see the bartenders actually ring a drink into the cash register, which made me feel like I was blatantly being stolen from. It’s one thing to charge $ 8 for a miniature well whisky & coke, it’s another thing to then steal that money right in front of me! A friend that I was with was able to actually haggle his drink price down — which tells me that they were absolutely stealing from me.
The décor was weird (a yoga ball and hamper of laundry on top of the juke box?!), it smelt like cigarette smoke and bleach, we were told by the bartenders that the karaōke and jukebox haven’t been updated since the 90’s, and that a private karaōke room was $ 75 an hour! it was just all bad.
The only saving grace of this bar (and the reason for the two stars) is that the bartenders were extremely friendly and fun. We had a great time talking to them and the owner who seemed very nice.
I still wouldn’t return though, but if I did I would try and haggle my price down.

My new favorite dive bar in SF! Found it completely by accident, but oh, what a find it was…
A group of friends met up near the Fillmore Center for drinks Saturday night. We got tired of being cramped inside a wine bar, so decided to trek over to Japantown. My suggestion? Festa Karaōke Lounge, quite possibly the best karaōke bar in the city. However, when we arrived, they were closed for a private party. D’oh!
Where to go next? We walked outside and saw Dimples across the street. The neon cocktail glass sign drew us in. Plus, you have to go downstairs to enter, which is usually a good sign too.
Yeah, it’s smoky inside (yep, they still let people smoke), but the drinks are stiff and they have a killer jukebox. Reminded me of bars that I’d visit in another city outside of SF. No pretentiousness, no hipster mustaches, no bartenders explaining all the fresh ingredients. Just booze and music. Yessss.
No, I wouldn’t go here all the time, but it’s fun for a drink or two. $ 2 gets you 7 songs on the jukebox, which is just enough.

One Hite beer, a Crown Royal & ginger, and a well vodka & soda = $ 25.00
Really? I thought I was in Japantown. How did I end up paying Manhattan prices?
I mean, it’s cool to have a jukebox that has Def Leppard’s Hysteria and Dr. Dre’s Chronic album, but as cool as it may be, is not $ 25.00 worth of cool.

Dimples makes me wish I lived in Japantown so I could be a regular here.
Walking down those stairs and into Dimples is like walking into a scene from «Lost in Translation». The bar itself is manned by friendly chain-​smoking asian ladies and has some awesome lighting. Across from the bar there are several comfortable lounge booths with mirrors surrounding them, and then there are several karaōke (?) rooms in the back.
When I went all beers, from bud to heineken, were $ 5. Glenlivet was $ 8.
While it’s not the cheapest place, the atmosphere makes it completely worth it.

I came here a couple times with friends. Apparently, this is their chill spot. They knew all the bartenders and owner.
I liked it b/​c it’s sorta hidden, you have to go downstairs (below street level) and it’s like a world of it’s own. It’s a bar/​lounge, so it’s kinda got that dark setting to it. The bar tend to get filled with regulars that go there… seats about ten of them. We usually sit at the tables, service was good… since my friend knew them, they hooked us up with fruit platters. There isn’t really much to do here. It’s a chill environment where you just enjoy the company of your friends. They have dices available upon request.
The first time we went there, knowing it was a Korean bar and I LOVE flavored soju… it was something I HAVE to order. The way we drink soju is by pitchers, we can go through like eight pitchers of them in a night at Hues in Santa Clara. But this was the first time we have soju here, so we only ordered a pitcher of strawberry to start with, and let’s say that was it. It was too sweet and thick, not much soju to it. It was like if I was drinking strawberry juice. Kinda disappointed about that. I’ll just stick to beer.
The second time we went was for a friend’s bday party… we went to there REALLY HIDDEN section towards the back for their private karaōke rooms. Consistently, the service was great… they offered came in to check on us and if we needed anything, the bar was right outside and we can order directly from the bartender there. The karaōke system is cool, there was a point system that comes up at the end. The songs were mediocre, it wasn’t the newest but definitely not the oldest. There actually songs we were surprised we found there. We had total privacy, so it got really fun. One though is that they can sure use a better wall insulation, b/​c we can hear pretty clearly what the ppl in the room next to us were singing when we weren’t singing.
Not bad though. Like i said, I like this place b/​c it’s hidden and not as crowd as loud as Playground upstairs. Will be back :)