Grumpy’s American Pub

I find myself near Grumpys around lunch time for work. The service and food is consistent, pretty good and reasonable making it a solid choice for lunch. But I think they really shine as a bar. The beers are always cold; poured and served right!! the bartenders are friendly and even when the place is crowded they do a great job of not making it feel like a pain to get a drink. The crowd is great, I can never tell if it’s locals or people that work local but it is a good mix of regulars types with after work groups and some plain old partners.

Great little place near the Exploratorium! My wife and I enjoyed a bit of a early afternoon happy hour with the kids to take a break from all of the great science exhibits. Good food, good beer, and great energy!

Nice walkable distance from the Exploratorium side of Pier for food. I split the Western beef burger and Baja beef burger with a friend. We wanted garlic fries, but they’re a whopping $ 2 more to substitute.
Around $ 12 a burger with choice of fries, potato or mixed salad. The Western burger was good, reminded me an up-​scale Carl’s Jr western burger. The Baja had generous avocado, but lacked a kick of freshness I wanted it to have. Fries were classic thick cut, good for cleaning up the bbq sauce leftover on the plate.
I deprive this review of a 5 star because the service was slow giving us the check and though food was solid, it was not amazing. If the hamburgers buns were toasted and onions more caramelized then maybe… just maybe.

Check your Credit Card statement after eating here. They added $ 1 to my tip. It’s so minor and I wouldn’t have caught it if it wasn’t a business expense. If they are willing to skim tips, what other things are they will to do to there customers?

I’ve been coming here for years and I will ALWAYS be a Grumpy’s regular. I’ve worked around this bar for 8 years and have made many friends and memories here. Naomi isn’t there anymore, but she was wonderful! Alan is THE MAN. The rest of the staff is absolutely wonderful and I assure you that you’ll feel like family when you walk in. The food is super tasty and comfort food. The drinks are superb. Love this place if you’re in the area and want a cocktail and some lunch. Also they have outside seating which is great on those beautiful SF days.

I was feeling pretty upset and started wandering around and happened upon Grumpy’s, and my foul mood was soothed with a great burger and a beer. Life’s simple things.

Found this place because I didn’t want to pay for expensive food at the exploratorium. I ordered the downtown burger, which had mushrooms, grilled onions, cheese, red onions, tomato, lettuce, a patty, topped with sour cream, with a side of fries. I had an interesting experience with the burger. I think the sour cream just overwhelmed everything and emphasized that part of the burger too much. However, what got to me was the patty. A burnt patty did not look appetizing to eat, nor did it taste good either. The outer edges of it were crispy and black, which kind of killed the burger. The fries were pretty good though, I mean you can’t mess up fries that badly right? But yeah they said this and another burger was the most popular. So if you ask them what their most popular burger is and they mention the downtown burger, you may want to get the other one instead. I didn’t think it was worth over $ 10 for.

It’s hard to get a consistent burger here. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been all that great the past few times I’ve gone. The outside of the burger was overdone, while the inside was still raw.

definitely a dive bar feel
about 12 brews on tap and another 12 in bottles — decent variety
I ordered the fried chicken ($ 14 with tax), and the guy next to me highly recommended it
fried chicken: had virtually no meat and was just fried bits
vegetables: best part of this entire meal, veggies were pretty heavily buttered
mac and cheese: definitely more of a soupy mac and cheese, wouldve preferred velveeta over this
caters towards the local ad agencies. if there were other options in this area, i would definitely seek them out. but alas there aren’t

I had a really disappointing experience at this restaurant today. I should add that I am a vegetarian, but I found that they do happen to have a few solid options on their menu. That being said, the overall experience fell very short.
I arrived with my group, and asked what was in their veggie burger, and they had absolutely no clue. I don’t really feel like paying $ 15 for some questionable frozen patty when I go out to a restaurant. You should know what ingredients are in your products, even if they aren’t made in-​house. Weird moment #1.
I decided on a Portobello mushroom with some yummy-​sounding burger fixins on a bun, along with some zucchini fries. Shortly after, they bring out drinks for everyone (they had all ordered beer, lemonade, etc.), but didn’t bring any water for me to the table. I know we’re in a drought, but they could have at least asked if I’d like water when I placed my order. Weird moment #2.
About 15 mins after we order, someone comes out and informs me that they’re out of Portobello mushrooms. Normally this wouldn’t be a huge deal, although it’s a little disappointing, but it would have been nice to know sooner. I decided to switch to a beet salad with a side of zucchini fries. Weird moment #3.
Finally we received our food, and the salad was ok, but ultimately I could have made it at home. It was a lot of spinach and shredded carrots, with very few beets, and hardly any Gorgonzola. Literally a tiny sprinkle of cheese… come on that’s the protein! It’s the equivalent to getting one little slice of chicken on a Caesar salad. To make matters even worse, they never even brought me the zucchini fries. So I literally received 0% of the food I had originally ordered. Even if they took it off the bill, it was just a bad experience. Weird moment #4, and I was done. I politely paid for my meal, left a small tip, and will not be returning.

A good place for burgers. I tried Veggie burger and it was really good. Good sides too (fries, onion rings). The interior is pretty small. Good service, pricey.
It is interesting to see paper money pinned to ceiling! I don’t remember seeing it anywhere.

They claim to be open until 10pm, I took a cab here, craving a burger and arrived at 9pm on a Friday only to find out they had closed the kitchen! Be forewarned.

What a little tucked away hot spot this is. Open the door and the place was filled. Every plate looked good. The staff were very friendly and accomadating. I came with a friend in a wheelchair, and they were great at creating a space for us in this cramped restaurant. A great mix of a bar and good food.
Ordered a burger which was big, juicy and delicious with bacon and blue cheese. Only complaint was a small amount of French fries. I want to come back and sit at the bar for a drink.

still crashing parties here and loving it.
This place rocks, I’ve had the time of my life here and some great memories as well.
This bar should be in some famous tv show for all its coolness its got.
I love the happy hour ah its not too cheap but the drinks are great.
The bathroom actually has a lock and is clean.
Both are things that are rare in the bar scene in sf.
This is a great place for work parties.
The food here is good.
Its great bar food.

Good burgers… it was weird that they preferred to watch college students play basketball versus watching a professional baseball team play their first game.
But good burgers. And their taps were off.

The place to be for an afterwork beer (or 2,3,…) near the financial district.
I was working more or less next to grumpy’s for 3 months. And there is only one disadvantage — they’re closing to early.
Besides this there is not situation not to drop by — breakfast is great, the burgers are legendary, snacks are fine and they got a good variety of beer and booze. The team is sometimes a bit slow — but it’s a pub… Just charming.
My favorite place for casual beer meetings and a good afterwork drink with great people.

Paper money pinned to ceiling, small and intimate restaurant and bar and good service. A girlfriend and I came here before a holiday gathering and everything was pretty good. There were specials, beer on tap and a decent amount of liquor to choose from. A cool spot tucked away from the rush of The Embarcadero.

Staying around North Beach and Chinatown we’ve exhausted the normal touristy foodie places to eat. I was looking for something different and a local spot. So I found Grumpy’s on Unilocal.His place is in no man’s land. Nothing around but business complexes. This is a local hangout and a true blue dive bar.
We got here about 11:30 and the place is empty. We got our choice table. At about 12:15 then all the local came pouring in. Very relaxing but tight seating.
I had the Chili Cheese Burger and fries. I read they had really good burgers here. Anyways, it’s served open faced. Chili was homemade and was okay. Burger was just okay. Not a great meal. I guess I just didn’t pick the right burger.
My daughter had the Manhattan Melt with ham, turkey, lettuce, tomato, cheese on a grilled sour dough bread. Outstanding. Really good. They give you four huge piece. She got the potato salad on the side with this. Really good. Outstanding. Had a little kick to it. Yum yum good.
My son had the meatloaf plate. Meatloaf was out of this world. Drop dead meatloaf. So good. Unbelievable. The homemade Mac & Cheese was okay. A little salty. The vegetables were so good and sweet. Outstanding dish.
My wife had the chicken Cesar salad. She really like it a lot. Very good
Anyways, service was very good. Water cups were filled in a regular basis. I accidentally spilled my water cup (can you say clumsy) and we had two waitresses cleaning it up right away. That’s what I call good service.
So if your looking for a local spot away from all the touristy places. Somewhere out of the way but not that bad of an area then this is the place for you. Just be careful of what you order. Read the Unilocal reviews first then order. Enjoy.

Total ad bar as proven by the many namesakes on the walls but every good ad bar has an equally good hangover menu because ad people, well they drink.
For a hangover, there can be fewer better things than the super burger. Juicy burger done the way you like it topped with cheddar cheese, bacon, and a fried egg. Some call it breakfast, I call it recovery. For less woozy days, explore their many other burgers. I like the Popeye — sautéed spinach and feta cheese. Decent pub food overall. They have decent fish and chips here although the wait for that during lunch was really long. Speaking of waits, forget about getting a table during happy hour as Grumpy’s will be packed with folks enjoying post-​work happy hour specials like a beer and a shot for $ 7 Mon-​Wed.
Decent pub with equally good pub grub that is worth a stop in if you’re looking for a watering hole in the neighborhood. Just be warned that it does get very crowded on weeknights.

It’s Friday and I AM GRUMPY.
Grumpy that all the FB posts lately and all this weekend will be about EDC in Vegas. That or people thinking that they’re sportscasters for the night.
Grumpy that everyone and their mama, baby’s mama, baby’s daddy are at EDC (I don’t even like raves) right now as I type.
Grumpy that everyone has an excuse to act a drunken hot mess at EDC and I’m sober.
Grumpy that everyone has an excuse to whore out at EDC as I sit here in my granny panties.
Yah SO I’m just a grumpy jealous beezie today but thankfully not as grumpy as Kim Kardashian and Kanye’s daughter will be in 16 years…
Who da eff names their kid «North»? North West? WTF!
Oh yah, btw the buffalo wings at Grumpy’s are kick ass and they have real dollar bills stuck to the ceiling:
! Holla!
OTHER NOTES:
*Older FiDi crowd w/​no eyecandy.
*Divey pub with a full menu ($ 3.95-$ 10.95); from breakfast foods (served till 11 am) to salads, sammies, signature burgers, fried chicken and chili.
*HH is Monday — Friday, 5 pm — 7 pm
–Snapshot of online HH menu:
–$ 1 Garlic fries on Monday — Wednesday
*No waiter service. Place your food order at the bar.
*Buffalo Wings ($ 5.95) were some of the best I’ve had:
! Their crisp and juicy and the sauce is indescribably tangy and spicy with a touch of smoky sweetness.
*Decent drinks. Stiff Hendrick’s Tonic was $ 8.
*Very clean restrooms w/​Dyson hands-​free dryers.
*Odd operating hours. Closes at 10 pm AND they’re closed on the weekends. WTF?
*Be VERY careful as you’re crossing the streets in the surrounding area; there are no stop signs and cars drive by really fast.
*Very easy street parking.