I love the Dubliner. I love Otto. Â I love their clean bathrooms.
We really lucked out finding our neighborhood bad just a week after moving to the city. Â Otto is the greatest--she remembered us on our second visit from just a brief conversation the week before and has welcomed us with enthusiasm and a cold pint ever since. Â
The drinks are strong and the beer selection is on point. Â Lots of TVs and lots of great regulars. Â Great pool table upstairs and an eternally interesting selection playing on the jukebox.
It's also next door to the comic book store, so there's that.
Bottom line: Where everybody knows your name, and you're always glad you came.
This is one of my favorite bars in the city by far. The bartenders here always go way above and beyond to be friendly, and they give you free drink tokens if you've been in there enough. The bar is really nice, very clean. All the classiness of West Portal without any of the snobbiness. Virtual jukebox, pool table upstairs and plenty of tvs. Without a doubt one of my favorite places to spend a night out.
Review Source:Let's put it this way: the highlight of a visit with my friends is my friend's dad shows up with his usual hilarity. Â It's a good spot to visit, watch some sports, or play some trivia. Â I would consider this my neighborhood bar if I still lived in the area, but since the West Portal nightlife is on the nonexistent side, it's not really a go-to destination
Review Source:9:45PM, Sat night.
Just came from the Dubliner an hour ago after a less than satisfactory experience.
This is actually a great bar, been coming here for years and I love Otto (Auto?) and Erin, they are amazing bartenders and when they work, this place is really great.
Tonight was a mild night and I came into this establishment for a quick drink.  Before I left, I decided to take a picture of the bar wall with their new little LCD screens so that I could Yelp it.  I intentionally turned the flash of my phone off and took a quick picture of the wall.  A dysfunctional woman came up to me and asked me if I took a picture of her.  I was super nice and told her no, I did not.  I also went ahead and explained that I took a picture of the wall for Yelp and showed her the picture of the wall which had absolutely no faces on it.  Tried to calm her down and showed her the picture again (which showed absolutely nobody) and  told her no big deal, I would delete it while she watched if she desired.
I immediately deleted the image as she watched (which absolutely showed no faces!) and as I did, another patron, a regular there called Victoria (I will be nice enough not to put her last name) flipped out on me. Â I tried very nicely FOUR times to explain to her that I will leave her friend alone and that all I am trying to do is explain to her friend that it is no problem. Â When she started screaming at me and treating me like shite, I said responded and walked away. Â I then told the bartender, Crystal, that out of respect to her, I am leaving because those two women are crazy and I do not want to cause her any drama on her shift. Â I closed out my tab, $6.00 on which I tipped $6.00 for a total of $12.00. Â I thought both of those things I did for her were beyond cool.
Went to my car right out front and someone outside told me hey, you better take a look at your car, I then realized that Victoria had scratched up my car. Â I called the police station and they told me to come in tomorrow to file an official report. Â When I got home, I called the bartender, Crystal, to let her know about the vandalism and was hung up on. Â She wanted no part of it. Â This is not right! Â I know Otto (Auto?) and Erin and they would at least have listened...they would not have been that way. Â Too bad they were off tonight.
I don't know...what can I say? Â I used to like this bar a lot, but after this experience, will never come here again. Â What would have been a five is now a one. Â ONE STAR for outstanding compassion and customer service, unstable patrons, and lord knows what else. Â Yelpers, take note. Â DO NOT take pictures of the wall in in here. :(
I spent my first year and a half in San Fran looking for a pub to call my own; a place I could pull up a stool, pull out a book, and just work on a nice afternoon pint. Â That search ended when I found the Dubliner.
For someone who lives in the Sunset, the Dubliner can't be beat. Â It's a place that encourages regulars, but welcomes strangers. Â They'll treat you how you want to be treated, as long as you respect the pub. Â I've never had poor service, and I've never seen a respectful customer been treated with less than A-class attitude.
The bartendresses are lovely ladies to a one, and well worth getting to know. Â If you're looking for a solid quiz night spot, they host a Brainstormer here on Wednesdays, and it usually gets a lively crowd.
All in all, the best pub in West Portal, and my go-to in the whole of the Sunset.
Sunday Night is the night to go to this bar, $3 drinks for happy hour and free pool.
The female bartenders are the best, they know how to make everything, and are always gung-ho to try something new.
Jukebox takes cash or card.
Tons of tv's always showin whatever game is on.
You're allowed to bring in food and even order delivery to the bar, which is awesome when you're gettin tipsy!
This is my nieghborhood hangout, and I love it to pieces.
*As a disclaimer, I don't drink beer, only mixed or hard drinks, so I can't comment there.
great place to come when you are waiting for the 17 to come or the movies to start. They have all the standard of a bar including beer on tap and a full liquor section and pool tables. The bar tenders are really nice and they even have trivia nights
Not a fan that people are smoking right outside the door making the bar smokey, but I guess I can get over that part.
They do have really clean bathrooms for a bar so I wish I could give another half star for that
I would say that this is the nicest bar in West Portal. I visited this bar on a Saturday afternoon with a friend of mine. The bar prtion was all dudes watching sports and talking smack to eachother.
We headed upstairs to play pool. (1.00 per game) Its a pub folks, not a wine bar. Although they do serve wine, I don't reccomend it. Stick to beer and mixed drinks.
There are 4 bathrooms here, a mens, two unisex and in the very back the cleanest ladies room I have encountered in ANY bar ever.
Awesome bloody mary's!! I am constantly in search of the perfect bloody mary.. although no celery, it was DELICOUS!!
Super sweet bartenders, reasonably priced drinks.
There's a pool table upstairs and several televisions. Friendly crowd of people. Seems that there are quite a group of regulars.
Clean... check
Clean restroom with a lock?... check
Mildly curt (some are Irish) bartenders... check
Free food on occasion... check
$3 happy hour... check
Free pool... check
Enough TV screens to make most people happy... check
Great selection of alcohol... check
Chance i'm going to get pulled over whenever i leave... check
Will i be back... check
Decent sized bar with three bathrooms - always a plus in my book when there are ample toilets around!
The layout of the bar is pretty awesome with a pool table overlooking the bar and a long bar that extends to the back. I love coming here to hang out with friends; unfortunately, i'm usually the only Asian in the bar which doesn't bother me TOO much considering I am a "banana." Yellow on the outside and white on the inside, but it is a little disconcerting to know that you're the only non-white person there.
Also, other than the normal college age white boy group, my group is usually the only group under thirty-five. Not to say this is always a bad thing, but a lot of the patrons at this bar sit by themselves or are "regulars."
All in all, this place is a great place to kick back and chill with friends, but don't expect to meet your future soul mate here.
This is a great place to go to after a long day and just relax with some friends. Whenever I come here, I ALWAYS see someone I knew in high school so that makes for some interesting times. The upstairs area has a pool table and is small, but its a nice alternative to the downstairs area which can get pretty crowded.
I don't come here all too often because there's not much else going on in West Portal, besides Portals across the street, but this is a great local bar to go to for happy hour.
Another local bar that's not divy and not odorous, with friendly female bartenders, and without barflies. Mostly locals hang here since it's not convenient to get to unless live in the vicinity. There's a number of plasmas/LCDs all around the bar for whatever one wants to watch, though it is very loud to make out what is said even if the place is half-crowded. There's a couch and a jukebox in the back, with an upstairs loft-like section with a pool table. Beers and drinks are a tad pricy.
The place is packed, or mostly full, on Wednesday Trivia nights (<a href="/redir?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.brainstormer.com%2FvenueDisplay.aspx%3FvenueID%3D262%26state%3Dca&s=9f661c531ee9d4a5ef1b2c63bd097e78641f1af42ebf978eda850ef536779a46" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.brainstormer.…</a>). The special is Pilsner Urquell on these nights, though there are rotating specials along with that. Usually, there are a dozen or more trivia teams, so it is more difficult to win or place (and there are regulars=teams that always end up among the top five each week). The host is this dude who is very fun and down to earth. Our team won once, so it's possible...though we haven't placed again since then. I like to think we retired at our peak.
Milestone: the 300th "Funny" vote's review...
1) They have Blue Moon, my absolute favorite AND they serve it with an orange as it should be served, not with a lemon like many of the bars in the city do
2) Trivia night on Wed is oh so fun. Â I suck and always lose but still somehow manage to talk my trivia skills up to everyone else in the bar and love that they have a good attitude about it
Staff rocks here, crowd rocks, what more do you need.
This is one of my favorite bars in town, I haven't been back in a week or so and I feel like I miss it so much, which must be a good sign.
I have to second that he crowd is diverse, and varies per night, which is what a pub should be: a fun local place for everyone to have a pint and some craic.
Easy parking.
Friendly bartenders (although sometimes they can be a pain about carding, which a sort of understand)
Decent pours.
Reasonable prices.
The crowd for Sunday night bingo is completely different than Friday night. Try coming on various nights.
Their Bingo and Trivia nights are a lot of fun.
You can get cheap drink specials till 10pm
Convenient location for Muni lines.
Cute neighborhood bar that gets pretty packed during happy hour and on the weekends.
A few tables along the wall and there's an upstairs lounge area. I saw a pool tables upstairs and quickly ran up. "Where do the quarters go? *looks around the table* Wait it's free!? SCORE!" Now to brush up on my skills or lack thereof.
A handful of tvs behind the bar to watch the game. Fully stocked bar and drinks specials everyday. Clientele include very cool neighborhood peeps and suits from the financial businesses down the block. Walls are plastered with sport posters of Bay Area sports teams (of course).
I like beer. I like pool. Pool table is free. Wait, what? Yes... free. At least it was last night. And I had one really good run. But overall I was doing much better at knocking all my opponents balls in the holes. Technically he won 2 games and I won 1, BUT I did knock more balls in the holes, so I am telling myself I won. Seems completely fair to me. Plus my mom taught me that girls get to make the rules at stuff like this.
This place is definitely a neighborhoody bar with beer and locals who talk to you and beat you at doubles in pool.
Once again, I can't believe I live like 5 blocks away and I never come here. I am so going out in West Portal more often. Stumbling home is way more fun than cabbing home. And I got like an extra thousand steps for my pedometer contest.
As Ice Cube once said, "Yeah... yeah! Fool -- you know how we do it". Â
Great place to get together with the homies and shoot some dice.  I witnessed a good fight here last Thanksgiving.  When the cops showed up, I felt compelled to inform Lt. Wong that 25 years ago, my dad was shot here when it was TK's.  He was not interested in my story  so I threw up some WP gang signs and bounced.  Just trying to keep it real..."coming from the west side west side, coming from west side".
Upstairs pool table that overlooks the bar = awesome
Closest bar to my house (2 minute walk) = awesome
Like any respectable Irish pub, they have decent beers on tap and okay prices. Â Not as cheap as Portal's or as divey, so the Dubliner is generally relegated to a mere one-shot bar, unless the pool table is unoccupied, in which case I like to hang out here for an hour or so
on certain nights there are some rather attractive bartenders in the mix, which may or may not sway my group to stick around for longer
Stop #1 on the West Portal Pub Tour...
As expected, I spent most of the time here in waiting-for-peeps mode, until Arturo showed up. Â Luckily I had the 49ers-Raiders exhibition game to keep me company, Â but I almost made the mistake of cheering at a 49ers touchdown...turns out the Irish dudes in here were Raiders fans. Â And you don't antagonize Raiders fans. Â Nevertheless, this is not a Shannon Arms-style, Irish-pool-table-brawl dive. Â With the wood-paneling, the art-deco GGNRA posters, and the little LCDs, it's actually rather polished (albeit in a soulless type of way), not unlike the Dubliner in Noe Valley.
It's also a bit overpriced for being so out of the way (and largely deserted). Â $5.50 for a Guinness? Â That's kind of stretching it. Â Still, the balcony with a pool table was pretty nifty...this could definitely be a good venue for pub quiz.
I went here on a Sunday afternoon about a month ago. Â This is a cool neighborhood bar (not my neighborhood though). Â It wasn't crowed, and the people there were regulars.
They had several ESPN channels on. Â The flat screens are small, but cool to watch!
They have a great selection of bears and it's a nice clean and friendly bar to chill out in when in West Portal.
This is my neighborhood bar. Â It's right on my block.
The decor of this bar does not evoke leprochauns, lucky charms, or four leaf clovers. Â There are a whole bunch of smallish LCD TVs mounted over the bar showing non-Irish sporting events. Â And there are all these dudes in Giants fleece jackets hanging out. Â I'm sure Gerry Adams could give a fuck about Barry Zito. Â Maybe by "Dubliner," they mean a denizen of the far East Bay town abutting Pleasanton. Â But I guess in that case, there would be more A's fleece jackets.
In its defense, at least one Irish bartender works here. Â And they do offer the Pogues on the electronic jukebox, an offer I never refuse.
Despite the horrible decor, this bar is still fabulous. Â After I'd played the entire Best of the Pogues album on the jukebox, I put on my Zorro mask and played some Rush. Â I generally do not advertise the fact that I enjoy the thump of Geddy Lee's bass, and felt that, if discovered, I might be kicked out of the bar. Â To the contrary, after I sat back down, the dude to my left actually congratulated me on my musical selections. Â He was a middle-aged, overweight slob. Â In other words, he's probably a Sillicon Valley millionaire.
There's a cute and friendly Eastern European bird that works here on Wednesday and Saturday nights.
I think I may have found a new neighborhood bar. Â
I know I proclaimed my love of  Joxer Daly's as a neighborhood bar earlier, but now Joxer Daly's has a strong competitor. Â
This place is bright, modern, cherry, has pool tables, a pin ball machine, a jukebox, and takes credit cards ( which I am finding out more and more, alot of smaller  neighborhood bars don't take). Â
The bartenders are fun and friendly. Â The drinks are cheap, for the 4 hours we were there, we had at least 3 Irish coffees, 2 Irish Car Bombs, and at least 6 Jack and Cokes, 4 beers and our total tab was about $50. Â (2 of our drinks were on the house!). Â
The crowd is younger than Joxer Daly's-more people in our age range (25-30) than and less of the older crowd which is fine-we felt more in our element here. Â Everyone was hanging out and having a good time and as we like, almost every seat was taken yet there was still room to move around. Â Â
What more can you ask for in a neighborhood bar?
Situated towards the end of the 'portal stroll'.
My date and I stopped in here after our Grindhouse double feature.
The two cute flirty girl-bartenders gave an excellent pour,
and indulged patrons with witty conversation.
We had a gush-fest about the recent
Pedro Aldomovar film Volver.
My drink* (mount gay,ginger ale,lots of lime,dash of bitters)
was excellently executed each time.
I shall visit again. . . .
*ccLisa G.
Cleanliness is not a priority here. Alcohol is supposed to kill germs so I'm sure that in the end it's sanitary but who knows for sure. I thought I'd try a new vodka so Vox and tonic it was. I usually drink from the tiny stir straws in the drink and this time, they had an odd "flavor" to them. That was a first. If I think too much more about this I'll probably be sick so I'll just leave it at that.
From the banter at the bar, the half dozen or so people there were regulars and lived in the neighborhood. Really low-key place and fairly quiet except for a couple of guys who had at least two too many.
I heard there's a pool table on the second floor but I didn't make it that far --- the talk of broken glass and a belligerent male gave me cause to think twice about heading up there.
Otto is back! Â My boycott of the Dubliner is officially over. Â I went here to begin my St. Patty's blackout and she delivered! Â Irish Car Bombs are still the devil. Â
Pool table, darts, free food on the Holiday, and I love to get involved in the petty squabbles between the different cute bartenders. Â I hear Kaira is a bitch, but i like her just fine. Â She's a little tiny thing and I think she might have magical powers. Â And their accents! Â All these girls talk fancy. Â The only place I've ever been called a 'cheeky geezer' and where I learned that English people don't say 'drunk at work' they say 'pissed on shift'. Â Fancy.
I live nearby this bar, so it's a handy little place to get a drink. Â I only frequent bars with clean bathrooms and I have to say, this place does a pretty good job keeping their bathrooms clean. Â They have a pool room upstairs that is usually unoccupied, and good if you have a group of people with you. Â
The bartenders are nice and if you spend lots of money, they aren't against giving you one or two drinks on the house. Â That's always a plus!
It would be nicer if there were a few more attractive people there and fewer freaky middle-aged guys trying to grope my hair!
I'm not much for bars, but this place warrants an honorable mention. Â Reason: I once ordered a grasshopper and the bartender girl had no idea how to make one. Â Instead of asking me what to put in it, she asked some of the old guys sitting further down the bar. Â I think one of them said Midori, because she asked "Midori doesn't go in it, does it?" Â No, honey. Â Anyway, here's the good part. Â She finally gets the right stuff together and gives me friggin 8 ounces of the grasshopper. Â PLUS the shaker with the leftover that wouldn't fit. Â I was set for the whole night. Â Don't remember ordering it ever again, (not because it wasn't good because it was) but i just don't want to get disappointed with a dinky two-ouncer.
upgraded this to 3 stars, because i ordered a grasshopper again and again it was huge! Â love it. Â and man, the bartender lady always cracks me up. Â a third of the time we just smile and nod because we have no idea what she's saying. Â but whatever she's saying, i'm sure it's funny because she's so emphatic about it. Â whatever it is.
UPDATE 5-16-07 the "odd wall display" TV's are gone, and smaller LCD's facing the bar have improved this place's coefficient-of-sports-bar by a two to one margin.
*************
"A good businessman does not an interior decorator make."
One look inside the latest incarnation of "The Dubliner" bars drives this point home. Â The wood you face when you're looking at the bar is stained Oreo-cookie dark, while every other panel in the place is a-la-folding-table simulated blonde oak. The result looks more Modesto-California than Dublin-Ireland. Â Televisions are present, but they're freakishly placed in discussion-unfriendly positions. Â Two screens sit at the end of the bar, and one-of-two people sitting closest to a TV has to turn their head 180 degrees away from the game to make eye contact with the person behind them. Â Other TV's are built into an odd wall display above the entrance to the pool table area. They're too small, too high, and too oddly located for anyone to pay attention to.
The day crowd usually has a half-dozen middle-aged men watching a game. Â They're fairly talkative, but interaction between them is stifled by the position of the televisions. Sports fans tend to cramp towards the TV's at the end of the bar, and conversation amongst them can be fairly awkward.
The night crowd started off wall-to-wall on opening night, but cooled down immediately thereafter.  There was a lull for several months, but last time I popped by it seemed like the Dubliner was becoming a post-event hangout for the mid-40's sportcoat-and-evening-gown crowd.  It was around 10 PM, seating was near capacity, and  9-out-of-10 patrons looked just like they'd just gotten back from the Opera.  Several *beautiful* women were on hand...and even though most of them wore sizable commitment-rocks on their off-limits fingers, the better part of them were mature enough for a man in his 40's to admire.  And come nightfall when the lights get dimmed, the blonde oak paneling doesn't look half as bad. Â
T.K.'s (the previous tenant) was a gritty place that had it's problems...but it had a soul, and one that perished completely during the process of a tragic remodel. Â The new bar is clean and sterile, but utterly devoid of character and decorative virtue. Â Sports and decor aside, it's not a bad bar. The night clientele is mature and upscale, surrounding restaurants are plentiful, and the K,L, and M MUNI lines stop within a short walk of the front door. Â Still, I've come here in search of the West Portal vibe on occasion, but always wound up feeling like a round peg in a odd-shaped hole. Â I'll pop by periodically to see if it evolves....but for the mean time it's got pretty stiff competition from Portal's Tavern across the street.
I go here about once or twice a month with my soccer buddies. The best reason to go is named Kristine and she tends the bar while dispensing carrot sticks and other roughage to the sozzled regulars. Otherwise it has nothing to recommend it. Oh, and they took down the TK's sign so now I have trouble finding it from the street.
July update: Kristine's gone, prices still high. Time to find a new hole. They lose one star.
When I first walked into this place it was empty ... Let me clarify, When I first walked into this place I was smiling, then I noticed it was empty and I continued smiling because I was gonna start drinking ... and it was only 2pm on a Monday afternoon.
The good ...
They have all the traditional bar drinks, no food, a pinball machine, and one of those new internet jukeboxes that can play anything if you pay.
The bad ...
The new "fake-wood" paneling and shiny decor makes this place "not so irish" feeling. The bartender, with an irish-accent, responded with "Yeah it's been revamped" after I questioned her why the place felt so new. I expected a few more dents in the walls and more teethmarks in the bar wood.
And the ugly ...
In a grid like fashion they had repetitive sports "greatest moments" pictures hung on the wall illuminated by the standard pool table style green lamps.
The 5 best restaurants in the 2015 Denver Restaurant Week
3,611 Views | Category: Denver
The complete list of 2015 Denver Restaurant Week businesses
1,972 Views | Category: Denver
The tourists' guide to Portillos: 5 must have dishes
3,318 Views | Category: Chicago
Pho = Pronounced "fuh" not "foe" for pho-king sake
2,915 Views | Category: Denver
Indulgery selected to exhibit at Collision Conference
2,987 Views | Category: Press Releases
Not Logged In
BUSINESSES
Local Businesses
Near Me
My Favorites
SOCIAL
Blog & News
MY ACCOUNT
Login
Register
Contact Us
Add Your Business
