Kate O’Brien’s Irish Bar & Grill

Great service and great food. Prices are reasonable. They have a lot of tvs, so you can watch your sports here!

The bartending staff here is incredibly off-​putting. Serving staff is ok. I have been ignored by multiple women bartenders while they flirt and give their numbers to men (cannot tell the difference between them– they all have tattoos and black hair), and on the other hand I have been flirted with by a male bartender when he is working– don’t call me hun, sweetie, I don’t know you bro, I ain’t your bae, you feel?
They will all be on their phones most of the time and love playing up the cool card, like too cool to be gracious, helpful servers… as if they aren’t here to serve you. So weird. All I think every time I am in that place… «this place is so fucking weird.»
Food is okay, hence the massive efforts I had to put in to give them another star.

lets start off with, I MISS MY FAVORITE BARTENDER SHANNON. over all, ive been comming here for years and ive always had a great chemistry with the staff. they make u feel right at home. very dissatisfied with not having SHANNON AROUND. HOWEVER, the staff here gives great service and attention. i work all over the city and i always fi d mh way here. i really recommend this place to anyone, which i already do.

Bartenders there were bad at mixing and had stuck up attitudes. Plently of better irish pubs in SF. I recommend you pass on this one.

Love this little Pub! We stop in every time we’re in town and it’s always delicious and a great little atmosphere!

Great food, great drinks, and decent prices, if you get there during happy hour. Otherwise, similar to every other over priced spot in SOMA.
The servers are awesome! They’re always prompt, always pleasant, and they make it a great place to visit.
If a good Bay Area game is being played, Kate’s has it on! It’s a great Irish bar that plays great music. Good for first dates, drinks with old friends, drinks with coworkers, drinks with family. I recommend this spot for if you want a cool place that has a perfect balance of being laid back but also fun and exciting.

I’m a huge fan of Irish/​English beers. I’ve been to this bar a few times and generally their selection is top notch, along with attentive bartender. Bar is usually not too crowded, even on game days. I no longer work in SF so I don’t come as much anymore, but whenever I’m in SF, I stop by this bar for a drink.

Food is bad but drinks are strong and a good beer option. Gets kinda packed with the soma post work crowd but whatever, that’s going to happen with a great location like this

I went to this place during the «how weird» festival, and I understand this is a crazy time to be a bartender but if you don’t want to work shut your bar down for the event. Every single person (except the friendly blonde chick in the blue dress) was a dick. I was ignored for a good 20 minutes while other people were being served and I finally asked the bartender if I could just get some water real fast because my girlfriend was seriously dehydrated. «I serve alcohol before water» was what I was told by the chick with long brown hair after the dude with the hat told me «we don’t have water» and walked away. Blonde girl, you got me some water and you’re rad. The rest of you guys are fucking idiots. I spent a load of money there prior to asking for water and I was going to tip you as if it was a regular drink.

Stopped by this place on the way to a Giants game with a few friends! Within walking distance to the Montgomery BART station. We arrived about 2 hours or so before the game started and the place was still pretty empty.
Server was very attentive with getting our orders and refilling our water. Thank you! Ambiance of the place was chill — it was pretty dark inside compared to some other places.
I ordered the Irish BLT ($ 13) to eat before heading over to the stadium, so I wouldn’t be starving. It was delicious! You have the choice of a salad or fries to go with the sandwich.
The place was packed by the time we left to go to the game! Probably cause there are also plenty of TV’s at the bar to watch the game. Cheers!

Friendly and lively bar in SOMA. I really like coming here for lunch. They have great Irish brown bread, bangers and mash with beans, shepherds pie made
With lamb (the right way apparently), and good chicken wings.
Also great for happy hour specials. They have two dollar beers and food options. Also love that this place has PBR in the bottle– and good value! Not the most Irish of Irish pubs, but I like it a lot regardless.

Interesting spot. if you cover everything in hot sauce you might be able to stomach it down. But then why not just drink the hot sauce alone?

There’s one bartender (black haired girl) here who is extremely rude and obnoxious. From the moment we walked in we could tell there was something wrong with her. She was yelling at people the entire time we were there.
Don’t go here unless you like getting yelled at or listening to everyone around you getting yelled at constantly.

My friends and I walked by Kate O’Brien’s on our way from Super Bowl City to the Moscone Center. I said a comment that the exterior made it look like a fun place and everyone impulsively decided to go inside and grab a drink.
It was around 2−3pm on a Saturday and there was a good crowd. A couple people in our group snagged a small table while others ordered beers. Unfortunately there weren’t enough chairs for everyone to sit, so one person always had to stand. We didn’t order any food so I can’t speak to the quality of that, but they had good beers on draft. We enjoyed our quick stop here!

I came here with a group of friends on a Saturday night to watch the Warriors. All tables were full, but it was not what I would call a busy night for an SF bar. At times, there were only 3 – 4 people actually seated at the bar.
Given the occupancy, the slow service at the bar was incomprehensible. There were at least two bartenders and one bar back, but it took upwards of 10 minutes to even have a drink order taken. There was one bartender in particular who stood out as rude. She did not look up to take my order for several minutes despite there being no one else ordering and snapped at me «Don’t touch that!» when I pointed to the lemons asking if I could put one in my Long Island (since she had forgot). The other bartender, while also a little slow, was far nicer. Everyone in my group of 6 agreed on the slow service.
The drinks themselves were fine and everyone was happy with the food. For typical bar fare, the food wasn’t too greasy and the chicken strips were actually quite good. Sadly, the (slow) speed and (poor) quality of service brought this review down significantly.

A San Francisco classic, this place has survived The City’s economic ups and downs through the years. And for good reason, consistent drinks, bar food, good music and welcoming ambiance are found every time.
The food is Irish based pub food, perfect for drinking. A great beer selection and a full stocked bar are the main attraction. Take your pick of a cozy booth, small and intimate table, or group seating on the sidewalk to people watch.
Tuesdays offer cheap happy hour specials and the hip-​hop soundtracks keep me coming back.
Parking is tough on nearby streets.

FOOD
shrimp salad, yum pretty good!
Cod taco, mm this is pretty good too!
SERVICE
nice workers, table service nice, kitchen opens top 10! Pretty late and it’s good Bc you can hang way longer since it closes at bar time
ATMOSPHERE
Small fee patio seating opens up into a straightaway pub high ceilings old pub feel, patio is good for the day too, also few tvs around so possibly ok place to catch a game

Usually when I go to a bar it’s hard to review them because they are all the same. But there was one thing that was VERY different at Kate O’Briens…their ranch dressing.
I don’t know what they put in their ranch but it is DEE-​LICIOUS. I wanted to get more chicken wings just so I could get their ranch.

Your typical loud Irish pub in SF. Some friend were here for happy hour, so we met them up on Wednesday, August 19^th around 6:30pm for drinks and snacks.
They have HH, Monday through Friday, 3pm-​7pm. The deal is $ 1 off draft beers, wines and well liquors. We got a Boddingtons and a Bouvet brut-​france. I had the sparkling wine while my friend had the beer. I followed it up with a glass of red wine, but I’m not quite sure which one it was as I let our waitress pick. Told her I liked cabs and she took it from there.
Food here is standard bar food. We got the Chicken strips ($ 7.50) and Hot wings: 6 count ($ 7). Nothing to really write home about. Our friends had gotten there first and ordered a bunch of dishes. I tried their Irish nachos and Calamari which I liked better.
Fun place for HH, but they need to work on the noise level. We were shouting at each other the entire happy hour. But I guess that was our choosing. We did go to an Irish pub after all.

I might be a bit biased because it’s so close to home, but I love this place. The bartenders are great, the beer is good, and the atmosphere is chill. There’s nothing super special about the place, but it has a good vibe and serves as a place to get an easy drink without the frills of say Southside Spirt House (next door).
My wife and I have been hanging out here regularly, and we really like when Aaron bartends – friendly and knows what we want as soon as we sit down.

okay for lunch, but nothing special. clam chowder was okay. Cobb Salad was meh. probably better at happy hour, especially tuesdays with $ 2 apps and discounted drinks. plenty of other pub food choices in SoMa and FiDi

We seem to stay at hotels in the area and since my wife works nearby, we end up having happy hour pints at Kate’s just about every time we are in SF.
When I say pints that’s just what I mean, a proper imperial pint. That is most welcome as I got quite accustomed to the 20 oz pints across the pond. They have a good selection of craft beers and your typical pub selections as well. I think our round of Greenflash double IPAs ran $ 12 during happy hour. Can’t beat that. Only food we’ve had was the chicken quesadilla and it was good.
Solid option to grab a beer, a bite and watch a game. Always seems to have a good crowd of people enjoying themselves.

This place is super close to our new place and my husband and I talked about making this place out local bar… we are working on becoming regulars! It’s clean and looks like a typical irish bar but I like the extra décor around the top of the bar.
A new club opened across the street and it appears that a lot of wasted kids come in Kate’s to drink shots. Amusing to watch but not super annoying since they didn’t stay around long enough. We engaged in some light banter with the bartender who was happy to take the time to talk to us between groups of people coming in for shots.
I have yet to come here and find the place overly crowded but we usually make this stop late in the night on our way home since it’s on the way, from whichever direction in the city we are coming from and it’s open later than a lot of the places around.

Always a good time!
I visit Kate O’Brien’s every time I’m in the area.
A pretty cool Irish pub setting. The décor fits the theme perfectly. I am a big fan of Irish bar food so their menu works great for me. The fish and chips or the corned beef rueben are my favorites. The lamb meatballs for an appetizer are tasty too. Great beer selection, which of course you would expect in a pub of this sort.
Service has always been pretty good.
A repeat place for sure.