Tonic

This review is for the rude bartender giving me attitude for buying only 1 drink. He was clearly not happy that I only ordered 1 drink but I didn’t think much of it. My friends wanted to leave shortly I finished my drink so I asked to close my tab, but the bartender held on to my credit card and said that there is a $ 15 minimum. This has never happened to me before at other bars (I usually buy up to 2 drinks) so I was a bit suprised, but told him that it was fine and that I’d get a vodka shot. Then he shoots me another mean look maybe because I only ordered 1 again and used a snobby tone asking me what vodka I wanted. Seriously get over yourself.

Great spot; love to start my nights here. Bartenders know what they are doing, big fan of their Dark and Stormy.

Johnny is awesome! They made my drink wrong and he fixed it by giving us another one and he let us keep the mistake. He took care of us.

solid drinks that are overpriced
complaint:
–i don’t think the 1 male bartender is genuinely interested in helping you
Left my credit card here and came back to retrieve it but the bartender claimed that «there is a 100% chance that you credit card isn’t here» after sifting through at least 20 credit cards. I insisted that my credit card was here. I came back again another time to try and get my card and what do you know, they have it…

I’m more or less indifferent to this bar. Not the nicest, but a good place to start or end your bar crawl. The space isn’t very big and it’s pretty low key.
I came with a bunch of coworkers earlier in the evening on a Friday and it wasn’t crowded. Can’t say what it’s like later in the night though.
Drinks aren’t bad. Solid vodka tonic.
My favorite thing though was the photo booth! It may be $ 6, but I don’t see a lot of those at bars. It’s unfortunately a bit small and can only fit 2 people comfortably. 3 is a squeeze and anything more is just a bad idea.

Great atmosphere!!! Fun setting! Drinks are amazing, strong and taste great!!! Clean! The bathrooms are actually very nice ;)

Went here on a Saturday night. Average drinks, absurdly rude staff. If I wanted to deal with people like that, I’d go to Oakland. Or Compton. Or Hell. Avoid this place like the plague — there are better places to spend your time and money.

Cool little place, I went to support a friend because Tonic works with organizations to help raise money, so my friend is doing some volunteer work with her school and they had them bartending and they’re tips went to their cause. Super cool of them to do this kind of stuff, great drinks and cool people :) I’ll be back

It’s been well over two years since I was last here, for a KollabSF fundraising event, but I thought a review necessary for reasons of accessibility. More on that at the end, however.
Tonic is a pretty typical bar as far as bars in the city go though. Smaller space, dark, decent drinks, loud music. The thing that sets it apart is that it’s often the site of fundraisers, as Tonic works with various NPOs to host fundraisers, where they donate all proceeds earned during the time that people from the org work as bartenders. Drinking for a cause? Heck yeah!
***Accessibility Info***
Venue — Again, your typical bar space with high bar counters and stools, as well as high top tables, if I recall properly. The space is on the more narrow side, and can become pretty hard to navigate through when crowded.
Bathroom — From what I remember, their bathrooms were down a flight of steps, which is not the best thing when you’re at a venue that’s meant to fill your bladder!

Rude bartender; had bad service on a totally dead night. She was condescending, rude and just had a crappy attitude. She didn’t greet us when we came in, she didn’t leave the bar to give us our overpriced drink and was just a wet blanket of a human being. I’m never planning on going back and I recommend you don’t waste your time in a bar that had all the best potential and just the worst service.

Usually go when I’m hung over and need a little hair of the dawg. guest bartenders are unintentionally generous and usually takes my shakes away
Regular bartenders are a’aight too

Decent sized DIVE bar (aka old, run-​down, don’t wear your nicest clothes) filled with hipsters! They even have a photo booth – SCORE! (Unfortunately, it’s not free :(…) Bartenders were pretty nice and they offer a wide variety of drinks including a COLOSSAL «fishbowl» drink packed with 15 SHOTS of vodka and coconut rum along with Swedish fish, nerds, and juice for only $ 23! It could probably serve 4 – 5 people! They also serve Jameson shots with PICKLE JUICE chasers!!! If you’ve never tried this before – YOU MUST! It probably sounds disgusting but if you love pickles you’ll LOVE this combo! It IMMEDIATELY kills that Jameson aftertaste and works a thousand times better than any soda or juice! Another MUST TRY is the Greyhound – they literally squeeze FRESH grapefruit juice into the vodka – so yummy and refreshing! Drinks were moderately priced and we didn’t have to wait long before a bartender took our order. All in all, everyone there was nice and we enjoyed ourselves. Definitely a place to come if you want to chill with friends!

It’s not too big and not too small, but just the right size. There is comfortable seating throughout the bar. No long waits to order a drink and the music was great (if you like edm)!

Can’t really say I didn’t like the place, but didn’t love it either. If you are looking for a bar to Start a night on Polk Street, or end it, Tonic is the perfect spot at the of the row f bars.
It’s dark inside with loud music. It gets super crowded on weekends with people just standing around talking over the loud music. Wasn’t too hard to get a drink and there are plenty of seats even though it is a small bar, I think there is another room up the stairs in the back, but i didn’t venture there. Russian Hill crowd.

Just your average hole in the wall bar with a special menu… Could be included in your pub hopping since it’s in a good pub hoppy neighborhood.
Stick to cash to pay.

They have photobooths which is cool and tons of hipsters to enjoy.
NO pool tables tho, no jukebox, No karaōke, no comedy, Etc.. etc… Idk what it is about this place that’s so special.
Theres other places like this around an well I guess the drink prices aren’t that bad here compared to other high end joints like this.
There didn’t seem to be a happy hour.
great bathroom very clean.
It does seem to get packed here and the neighborhood is very nice .
The service is okay here, nothing too special.
You may get asked to give a bigger tip.
Its in a neighborhood that’s nice to walk in, the area smells nice so I guess that’s a plus.
I hope they do something more with this place .
NOt a big fan of these kind of places.

Three words… VODKA GUMMIE BEARS!!!
They were amazing :)
Oh, and the fish bowl was cool. A huge bowl of alcohol and juices and straws and good stuff. Really strong but really fun.

Want your credit card stolen? Want the bouncer from out of town to threaten to beat you in the streets? This is your spot!
After having my credit card stolen and shoved under the rug by staff, whom which claimed no fault, I had the unlucky coincidence of coming back.
The bouncer in all out LA Dodgers gear, was banging on the bathroom door like he was ready to beat me. The joke soon lost its muster after I realized the chunti guy wasn’t joking, seriously, he wanted to kick my ass.
Head my words: the bouncer wanted me outside for a good old fashioned brawl. I don’t know if you have faced a fight or redneck brawl in your life, but if you want either, Tonic is your joint. Suffice to say I won’t be back anytime soon.
This is not a jest of a review, if your boyfriend is craving a good ol’ fashioned brawl, or your credit card company is bored, this is your place. The both will have a great time.
Really, no matter how dive bar discount it seems, don’t be tempted…
Identity theft? Black eye from an overzealous bouncer? This is your jam.

This is a pretty amazing bar with some great drinks! They make a fresh squeezed grapefruit greyhound as well as a vodka, cucumber, mint martini, which is quite like a cucumber Mojito martini (but of course with vodka instead of rum). One of my favorite drinks has got to be the peach jalapeño martini, with fresh jalapeños!
I also would recommend the fish bowl. It’s $ 23 and contains vodka, coconut rum, Swedish fish, and white candies (which resemble the rock floor in a fishbowl). One thing to keep in mind is that they won’t serve this to you unless you have a minimum of 4 people who are sharing it. This is because there is 15 shots in 1 drink!
This place is definitely worth a visit!

Stopped in here with friends while waiting for a table at Leopold’s.
There was a charity event going on, and only one bartender was actually a bartender (the other people making drinks were with the charity.)
Everyone likes when a local place supports a charity, but it was really busy, and they didn’t know how to make basics, like a Manhattan.
When i went up to the bar to order a second drink (i spilled mine) I had the actual bartender make it, it was pretty good, and he was FAST, and still friendly.
It is really loud when it gets busy, so if you want to have a non-​screaming conversation, this is not the place to do it.