University Club of San Francisco

I had my wedding in May at the UClub. Like any bride, I was on a budget but still wanted an elegant venue with a view, and after interviewing several venue prospects in the city I found that cost, quality, and professionalism of staff was the best at the University Club (plus I got my view!)
Our guests commented on how elegant and fabulous the venue was, how the food exceeded their expectations, and several of them went out of their way to tell me how much they liked Emily, the coordinator and catering manager. I cannot begin to describe how easy she made our wedding day. Everything was set up by her & the staff the night before (perfectly, I might add, without much guidance on my end at all) and the little things she did throughout the event tied it all together. A few people asked if she was available to hire for their own wedding :) I would choose UClub for her alone!
Honestly, everything was perfect. Emily’s ability to anticipate our needs and work within our budget was truly incredible. The view at night, despite some fog, was spectacular. I wish I could do it all over again!

My wife and I held our wedding reception here and it was wonderful. We had cocktail hour on the 4^th floor, dinner on the 3^rd floor and then cake and dancing back on the 4^th floor.
First off, the space itself is wonderful. Although slightly nondescript on the outside, the moment you step into the University Club, you are greeted with old-​world charm — with lots of wood flooring and wood paneling (which, I might add, is all very well kept). You then take the very regal elevator up to the 4^th floor for the cocktail reception. Upon exiting the elevator, you are greeted with one of the most stunning views of downtown SF imaginable. The room was set up with some standing tables and couches — but a significant portion of the attendees could be found taking in the view on the balcony. The hors d’oeuvres were wonderful — and our guests loved them.
Once the cocktail hour was over, our guests were directed down to the third floor for dinner. The dining room was exquisitely set-​up (the 3^rd floor also has a wonderful view of downtown) and was the perfect setting for a very elegant sunset dinner. The only unfortunate issue with the dining room is that it was not able to fit all of our guests (we were expecting 169 guests — including the two of us) — so the small room next door needed to be used. While not a complete turn-​off, having 40 some of our guests in a side room (which did have a view of the main dining room — but also felt slightly separated from it) wasn’t ideal.
Once everyone was seated, the food started to be served — and it was served promptly and professionally. However, a small note must be made about the food itself — because it was amazing. Going into this, my wife and I had heard from multiple parties that we should not expect delicious food on our wedding day because it is just not feasible to make good food for so many people (so quickly). However, the University Club proved them completely wrong — it was delicious! (And tons of our guests have complimented us on this as well)
After that, it was back up to the 4^th floor for cake and dancing. By now, the sun had set and nighttime had descended on the SF skyline — which made the venue even more breathtaking… and made the first dance feel even more special.
All in all, this place was spectacular. The service and food were top notch. The décor was wonderful and the views were one of a kind. It definitely isn’t the biggest venue, and the fact that the catering (and alcohol) must be contracted/​procured through the University Club (rather than an outside vendor) definitely makes it more expensive than other venues. However, in this case, we truly got what we paid for and would, without a doubt, hold our wedding here again if we had to.
Another point of interest is that, although many of our friends were from SF (or had lived there for a very long time), very few of them were familiar with the University Club. So, if you’re looking for a venue that is beautiful, with great service, great food, and that is less known than its competitors, this may be your venue.
Last but not least, we also want to highlight that our point of contact at the University Club, Emily was fantastic. She knew everything about her venue, the services provided, the food, logistics — so she was quite an asset during our wedding planning. In addition, she was extremely responsive and always happy to help. Needless to say, our wedding day was a success, in great part, thanks to Emily.

Our family hosts an annual dinner in San Francisco. Our most recent soirée was held at the University Club. I did not see much of the facility, but the lobby was welcoming and had ready signage directing our guests to our party room. We had the 3^rd floor to ourselves, which was great. The Balck Cat Bar was open so our guests could purchase any sort of beverage they they wished to have. Then, we were led to the adjacent dining room for dinner. With a huge plate glass window, we had a peek a boo view of the bay with a full frontal view of the twinkling lights of the financial district. The room has an old world feel… large fireplace, wood paneling and huge chandeliers. The tables were set in rounds of 8 and had comfortable upholstered chairs that did not crowd the table.
For about $ 75 per person, we were able to have a tasty three course meal. We started with a kale salad, which was among the best that I have had. The kale was tossed in a vinaigrette and was massaged until tender. It was topped with paper thin slices of carrots, pine nuts and Parmesan cheese. It was the best plate of the evening… I ate my kids one too! For dinner, we chose in advance from flat iron steak, mani mahi or ravioli. The flat iron steak was about five inches square and an inch thick and was cooked to medium rare plus on roasted fingerling potatoes with a few spears of asparagus and finished with a green peppercorn sauce. It was quite tasty and tender… DH devoured it. I had the mahi mahi which was presented as a pile of mashed potatoes (allergic so I has aspiration and carrots instead), a few spears of asparagus and a breaded filet of mahi mahi similar in size to the steak with a lemon beurre blanc and diced pineapple. Unfortunately, the fish was grossly overlooked. But, the veggies were not and the sauce was outstanding. Don’t order the fish. The ravioli was impressive. A large bowl had about a dozen pasta pillows filled with chive ricotta on a roasted vegetable purée. Really delicious. I was impressed. They also had bread baskets with fresh, crusty and warm sourdough rolls and butter plats at each place. It was good quality bread. For dessert, we had an almond toile basket filled with a mixture of chopped strawberries, blueberries and blackberries and topped with freshly whipped cream and a sprig of mint. I skipped the bowl, because it was a little chewy, but the berries were perfectly ripe and sweet and the whipped cream was made with a little liqueur that added a lot to the dish. Very good.
The service was good. They were very friendly and working quickly. Sometimes I thought that we could use one more person for our party but it worked out in the end. The facility staff was great and accommodated all that we needed.
All in all, I am a fan. We plan to comeback with our group next year!

We hosted our cocktail reception here and it exceeded all expectations. Here’s why:
1. the establishment: it’s classical San Francisco and it wow’ed just everyone. It has the right mix of old world with the wood + breathtaking views of SF. I don’t know a person in our group who wasn’t impressed and complimented us on selecting this hidden gem
2. the food: I’ve heard from many people it was probably one of the best food they’ve had at a reception. The filet was so tender and the salmon display was unlike any other I’ve seen. People went for seconds on the food. We went with the approach of buffet style with carving stations and our guests, who many are foodies themselves, praised the food
3. the location: you can’t beat this being on top of California, very central to everything. Our guests could even take the cable car and add even more romance to the entire event
4. the service: no complaints here whatsoever. Everyone on the staff was super. At one point we asked them how the wine was coming along and we got a complete list of # of bottles consumed vs left. They were also flexible in giving us options and tailoring it to our needs to meet our budget requirements
5. the number of rooms they make available for you so as to give your guests options. We did our event on the 4^th floor and at the tail end of the night they allowed our guests to play pool. So they could choose between the bar, the library room (gorgeous and quiet), the pool table room or the dance floor. Since we didn’t do a formal sit down, our guests could explore the rooms as they liked and they loved the idea of having this type of freedom
6. it requires almost no additional decoration. The building is just beautiful with all that old world feeling and this gorgeous balcony with the downtown view
In summary, it was a very affordable event for 125 people and we wouldn’t have done it differently. We were frustrated when we were inquiring around the Bay Area and we were being quoted prices starting in the $ 30k range as a minimum, which I think is ridiculous when all you want is to have fun with your closest friends. We even inquired some of the wine lounges that are located in industrial-​like buildings in SF and University Club turned out to be even more affordable than those and we could serve the wines that we liked.
Ultimately, we wanted to give our guests the San Francisco experience and University Club got A+ from us.
Highly recommend it!!!

Great place to stay when visiting SF. You’ll be within one of the most traditional old school establishments in the city that’s accessible by the public. I’d stay and eat here 10x over downtown.

We just had our wedding at the University Club and it was the most perfect day of our life. Emily, the event coordinator at the club, is amazing and she handled every detail with care and ease. The guests were all very impressed by the staff, service and ambiance of the place. I also staying for a couple of nights before and the night of the wedding and I was treated like a queen. Tali at the front desk was super sweet and made sure all my needs were taken care of. This is the perfect venue for what we wanted and the pictures come out great with the breath taking view and décor. Thank you very much to everyone at the club that made us feel like kings and queens. We will always remember how you made us feel and look forward to celebrating our anniversaries at the club.

My boyfriend and I booked our room on
on March 12^th and we booked it for June 26. Our total was about $ 563 & my boyfriend was charged 2 days after we booked it. When we got there we told them our info. My boyfriend had a new debit card issued a month back from our check In date because someone was accessinghis money. So we explained to them that he didn’t hVe the same card he used to pay for the room. They Began telling us that we needed that specific debit card ! Which made no sense to us since new debit cards are always being issued when someone else is accessing their accounts. We spoke to the lead in charge that day and she kept telling us that we needed that card & then she began telling us that we had not even paid for our room yet and that we could get the room if we paid them in cash. At that point I was already upset ! So my boyfriend was looking at his bank statements online to show them that they deducted the $ 563 from his account and that it was already paid for. The lead told us that she would have our room on hold for a couple hours until we figured it out. (Wtf!) She also told us that they don’t ever charge anybody until the guest is there they just hold that amount though. So what I did was I called
customer service & they told us that their system was telling them we hadn’t paid either ! The lady on the phone told me that she would call them to see what was going on so I was put on hold. So we waited while the lead was on the phone wth her. When they hung up the lady on the phone told us that we actually were charged and now it was showing up in their system. We were dealing with this for a good 45 minutes ! We had arrived at San Francisco at 7am and were exhausted and just wanted to shower and rest !! When we were proceeding to getting our keys to our room, turned out we had room #2 on the first floor when we had requested the higher floors. At that point we just took the room because we had already dealt with them enough and didn’t want to keep dealing with it. That night we went to a Giants game and when we came back the lead had left cookies and sodas for us and apologized and said she hoped we enjoyed our visit. The rest of the stay there was good besides that issue we had when checking in. The cable car outside was pretty cool though lol hope this helps and doesn’t happen to anyone trying to check in to this club !

Solely for the accommodations — we stayed here over NYE this year, and while the club had quite a few nice points (easy parking in the back alley, updated TVs and a breakfast included), there were also more than a few problems. When we arrived in our ground-​floor room the heating was on at full blast — not a problem if it had worked properly. It was a steam-​style old heater, and it made the rooms a sauna. After multiple attempts by us and the staff onsite, we were told it was as good as it was going to get. It being NYE, we stayed, but windows (without screens) were open to the street, making me nervous and more than once, cold.
Art Deco details throughout are nice, and the staff did its best to be helpful, but there were no other rooms available at the price point we had paid, and no partial refund was offered if we wanted to move. No amount off our bill was removed either. A pretty ok experience the one time, but I wouldn’t stay there again.

this review is solely as a potential wedding venue –
we saw the University Club and the City Club on the same day. we definitely liked the City Club better as a potential venue. the giant window looking out to the cityscape was pretty neat though, and we would have wanted our ceremony to face the window since we couldn’t have it outdoors. there were a lot of restrictions, and overall we didn’t like it enough to continue considering it as a venue.

Good Old Boys club. This is an upper class establishment that really lives up to its reputation. The service is akin to Downton Abbey, meaning, the help is proud of their job and the atmosphere is classy and rewarding. I loved the view from the top floor, the various rooms for events or functions such as a billiards room, card room, sitting room, dinning room, etc. Real class!

What a gorgeous place! It’s so quintessentially San Francisco. From the trolley car that passes right by the front door to the amazing views across downtown, you never forget where you are. We looked into the University Club for our reception venue. While we ultimately chose another venue, this was an amazing choice. There are two floors for reception use which allows a lot of movement and flexibility in staging. Both floors have gorgeous architecture and balconies with a view. There are even rooms downstairs that you can reserve for your guests to stay in. The only downside is the parking, but that is to be expected in the city.

We attended the Friday the 13^th Black Cat Dinner at the University Club. The club is really nice, elegant and old fashioned. The food is good, the service excellent, and the view is awesome. Since it is located on top of Nob Hill, we rode the Cable Car up from Powell and Market. The Black Cat Dinner included some really good entertainers, most notably Soprano Maryam Mahvi, who closed the show. Back in San Francisco after her Gala Concert at Carnegie Hall, Ms. Mahvi looked and sounded better than ever. One complaint, though: the producers didn’t use the grand piano, but substituted a small, cheap spinet — which sounded rather tinny. Next time use the real piano, please.

We had our end of year party at the University Club in November of 2012. I needed a place for 150+ members of my triathlon club (SF tri club) and this venue was great. The rental was affordable and we worked with the University Club to provide an open bar for 2 hours and cash bar after that. We brought in a DJ and photobooth and everyone loved it. The balcony has gorgeous views of the FiDi. I HIGHLY recommend the University Club.
My only gripe as a planner was that I was not told until the week of (after having planned this months in advanced) that there is a Nob Hill noise ordinance and music needed to stop at an unreasonably early time. If you are a planner please make sure to ask about this so it doesn’t surprise you. We ended up working out a solution but this could have spoiled the event as I believe the cut off time was 10pm which is far too early. If it had been mentioned to me from day 1 I would not have chosen the venue so I didn’t appreciate it being dropped on me when it was too late for me to find another venue. I chose not to hold this against the University Club (I was working with Gail L.) in terms of my rating but think it is certainly worth noting. Other than this I had a 5 star experience at University Club.

My wife and I had out wedding at the University Club in Nov 2012, and we were so happy with out choice. The place is extremely beautiful inside (tall ceilings, large foor to ceiling windows, and hard wood floors, to name a few). This place has so much old-​world character!
Beautiful view of dt San Francisco
Excellent meal options (catered to my wife’s diet)
Flexible payment schedule (racking up those credit card points!)
Gail Lee, event services, is very kind and did a great job making sure everything went smoothly.
If we could do it all over, we’d still go with the University Club!
(on a side note, it was our wedding planner who worked very closely with Gail and the University Club to throw our amazing wedding)

Attended a wedding here recently. It was great to get back to the city and do grownup things with the kids at home for a change. This place was super classy with a gorgeous view of the greatest city in the world.
The food and drinks served at the wedding were all fantastic as well. A great occasion held at a fantastic location!

Came here with some member friends of mine. The venue is a beautiful location on top of Nob Hill. The building itself is very old school with original wood floors and paneling. There is of course modern bathrooms.
I haven’t stayed here or had an event here so this review isn’t for that.
The service here is always top notch. Kenny the bartender/​server is very funny, and while he has an accent, he knows what he’s doing and has many suggestions if you’re struggling to decided amongst all the delicious choices on their menu. They have some great HH options and a full bar.
Gail the coodinator of the site does a great job organizing events for the members, from movie night, to reserving your very special day.

Weddings and Events are not where the University Club’s money comes from — it comes from the members, so clearly they put them in highest priority. They are unprofessional and rude, upholding antiquated ideals for a Good Old Boy’s club. Small examples:
*The wedding I coordinated had a rehearsal the day before. The on site Coordinator — Gail — would not let us set up the screen being used in the ceremony so as not to disrupt them members using the lounge — during our allotted rehearsal time.
*apparently in the contract it says the music has to be off by 11pm. This was not brought to our attention, and then we were threatened by the police being called if we did not turn it almost all the way down at 10pm and off at 11pm. They would not bring the contract out to show us.
*The club would not allow us to park 1 vehicle in their parking spot in an ally — late on a Saturday evening — for fear a member would want to come and play squash. We paid A LOT to rent that space, they could have let us park there for a few hours.
*The club has a dress code for their lounge. We were at no point informed of this, and then not allowed up to the lounge for not meeting the requirements.
*The staff is all female and all attractive, presumably to be pleasing to the members. They are neither helpful nor friendly — just attractive.
We had a really rough experience doing a wedding there. The space is beautiful and the serving staff was friendly and helpful, but reception we received from the management was so bad I would never recommend this place to anyone.
Judging from a lot of the other reviews, we are not the only ones.

We had our wedding reception here and it was fantastic.
It was nice because on weekends you pretty much get the whole beautiful space. We had the reception upstairs and the dinner and dancing on the floor below.
Gail, the coordinator was quite helpful with prep beforehand and even worked with the in-​house catering to provide vegan options.
She and staff really showed up for us on the big day. The setup and service was top notch, didn’t need to worry about anything at all, we didn’t have another separate planner so I was bit worried about this. The table settings were fantastic, got lots of compliments on the food, and the schedule was moving along well thanks to them.
The only tricky part was no affordable parking. I found a solution, I rented a double decker trolley (Grey Line has the only 4 in the city that I could find) which was massive enough to take all the guests on a one hour tour and drop them off there. Everyone had fun and was a way to let my new bride and I to get a few more photos around the city.
Anyways, I had a perfect day and it helped to have UC take care of a big part of it.

Pros:
Catch up with alumni and feel like you’re back in New England for a night, complete with corduroy jackets, elbow patches, wine, cheese, grapes, and a whole lot of wood that’s not quite polished.
Cons:
If you don’t like snooty, this might not be for you.
Fun:
The balcony views are really nice. Also you might catch some aging Ivy alumni getting a little tipsy and being inappropriate; always a bonus.

Location is pretty awesome and if you don’t mind the «Grandma’s Antique Attic» charm of the place, it might just be the right spot to get married, throw a party, or hold an alumnae function.
If I didn’t already have my wedding planned (still accepting applications for groom) down to the most minute detail, I’d be tempted to consider this venue for my own nuptials.
The views are decent, the space is warm and charming, the bar upstairs is very masculine with wood paneling and friendly bartenders and delicious martinis. The dining room and dance space are equally old-​world charming.
My only complaint was the wedding planner, but I don’t know if she came with the place or not, so I will not deduct points for her horrific manners and accusations that I was a wedding crasher (What???). The filet and fish were fine, as far as wedding food goes and the overall experience was great. But then, who doesn’t love a good wedding? Oh right, unmarried women of my age. But even I enjoyed this one…