I went out in downtown San Carlos for the first time last weekend.  A friend took me to  Orchid Room and I was pleasantly surprised.  First and most importantly, there is smoking inside-a real smokey, dark, dive bar.  It's like traveling back in time!  We went on a Sunday night and there was a good crowd, but not too busy.  We were able to get served fairly quickly, and prices for the drinks were very reasonable.  I definitely enjoyed myself and if I am in that neck of the woods again, I will be sure to stop by.
Review Source:Orchid Room is a proper old-school dive bar! Locals were neither overly friendly nor off-putting.
It features smoking! Yes you can and will experience tobacco if you are here. If you are a smoker, rejoice. If you are a non-smoker either deal with it or shut the hell up.
I went to check out the shuffleboard table which is a proper tournament length (22' ) American Shuffleboard Co from days gone by and in better condition than its sibling at Kingfisher Oakland.
Tap beers are slightly above average (an ipa was $5.50) so i stuck with PBR at $3.
There is Golden Tee and sports on TV, a fireplace and coin-op pool.
Its hidden among the "glitz" of Laurel Street in San Carlos! no awning, white inset door
The service from the gorgeous bar tender Tracy was fantastic. The shuffle board and pool table were hours of fun. The last bar you can still smoke in! Doug, the other bartender that night, served an amazing Budweiser and has a phenomenal beard!!! I would defiantly recommend this bar to anyone.
Review Source:There are some hideous toads who frequent this toilet bowl, beware. If you aren't instantly repelled by the overpowering stench of stale cigarettes and the imminent aura of dark, desolate depression. . . .then just wait until you see the old dishrags who tend bar here! Yuck!
Good place to go scum watching though. 2 stars for that.
I live close to this place so it's always nice to have a bar you can walk to and from. Another plus is that I like to smoke when I drink, and it is legal to smoke cigs in here, but don't try to light up a clove, they don't like that LOL! They pour the drinks really strong here, so you can't complain about that... people pretty much keep to themselves, there's always a douche bag here and there but you can just ignore them. I love this place because it's totally random and you never know who you will run into. Long live the Orchid Room!
Review Source:Yes,the Orchid Room is a total dive bar that has a lot of character so it attracts an interesting crowd. The drinks are stiff & the company of friends or a regular that wants too shoot the shit is always fun & the main attraction is smoking inside & its legal.Orchid Room has a nice set up suffle board & a pool table in the back expectations are low in terms picking up that hot chic the experience & atmosphere is what u come here for....It's not for everyone but if ur a real person aka(not 2 faced) come & check it out.The Orchid Room is not for u aka Douche Bag (wear gel in hair & sport Polo shirts) don't even fuckin walk in! Everyone else will be pleasantly surprised, come I dare take the plunge...... Remember don't judge a book buy its cover.....
Review Source:I have been in SO many bar fights here!!
Been kicked out 3 times. (or more!)
Had my first one-night-stand here! Â (he was cute)
Accused of doing drugs in the bathroom (wrongly!)
Gotten Puked on. (Joe, he was banished too..)
The bartenders HATE me. (erica: ice-queen..this means YOU)
BUT DAMN!
STRONG drinks and AWESOME jukebox!!
I once was a regular, but they all resent the punk-rockers now.
We still love you O.R.!!!!!!
Just quit smoking, but my heart still can not leave this place...
#1 They have PhotoHunt,, now i know its not the funny erotic one that we have all come to know and love, but it does have a big screen and I Â always hold the top score.. ps feel free to battle me anytime... i will gladly buy you drinks if you can beat me..
#2 Sara is a sweety who i love
#3 they have cold bottle beer.. and im talking icey cold.. not that semi cold nonsense that you get at almost every dive bar
#4 you can smoke in there.. well not cool for me anymore.. but still cool anyway because i know tons of people who love to smoke
#5 its super dive barish.. so if you are scrubing it, you will fit right in!
If you are a fan of cheep beer, smoking and quick service in a dive bar ... with an eclectic crowd mix this is the place. Occassional suit mixed with blue collar locals - in general a friendly crowd. Great jute box, opens at crack of dawn (or so I have noticed on drive by at 6am on way to work).
Review Source:Not a bad place, however it's tiny, dark and if you aren't used to smoke inhalation, I don't recommend coming to the Orchid Room. Â As a newly 21 San Carlos resident, my friend and I figured it was only our duty to check out the Orchid Room... we ventured here on a Thursday night.
Drinks are pretty cheap, and you'll meet some interesting people... overall it's a local dive bar. Â They have a shuffleboard and a pool table in back. Â
The bartender was very nice/attentive, and probably the best part of the experience (besides the company).
This is the happiest place every!
Where can you go where everyone is cool, play pool, listen to a sweet juke box, play that table shuffleboard game thing, sit by a fire, drink cheap drinks, and smoke like a chimney? HERE! (Legally you can smoke, but don't smoke a clove)
The bartenders are sweet but don't get on their wrong side, always bring your id even if you have been there before they cant remember everyones face. You may even get to help them on the cross word puzzle.
I love it here because inevitably you can put on Don McClean and the whole bar will probably sing and grown men will get a tear in their eye. Serious. Ive seen it.
But you can also play a whole album of Marlyn Manson and no one complains. (To you people who say that everyone is a hick, old person, or drunk are full of crap. There are many people who go there, in town and out of town, and many friendly locals who are happy to chat with just about anyone. Hey, Ive got lots of piercings graduated a real college work a sweet job, put on patsy clein, poison, and kmfdm and britany spears and no one complains about me or my damn music and I dont complain about anyone elses)
The bar even paid for my cab when I got totally sloshered there once.
All in all, a sweet very local place to go. Remember on the weekends its SUPER busy, AND dont play pool with the midget.
(Coat check = hooks by the front door, pretty safe city and spot)
edit:
Oh, and for all you non smokers, uhh, EVERY OTHER BAR IN CA you cannot smoke. So give the OR some damn slack.
This is a great place if you like down and dirty dive bars. And you can smoke! Great juke box as well. For anybody who disses this place because of the smoking, give me an effing break! It's probably the only place in 100 square miles where smokers can indulge in our nasty nicotine habit. Give us at least one rat hole in this area where we can smoke in peace. If you're a non-smoker and you don't like then you have about 1000 other places to choose from. We don't.
Review Source:Something about this dive being smack dab in the middle of pretentious downtown San Carlos cheers me up! I don't know, maybe it evens out all the goofy over priced bistros and boutiques and the endless choices of bagels (side note: has anyone ever counted the amount of places that sell bagels on this street? I know it's a lot...).
But anyways...
This place caters to a mixed crowd of locals, predominately older (35+), who are there to get they're drink on and have some fun along the way. You can smoke inside this place (which is a lovely feature for a young lady like me) and if the fireplace is going--well, if that doesn't scream kick back and have a cold one, I don't know what does. Yep yep yep.
There are plenty of distractions in this place if you are inclined to do more than sit on your bar stool and stare at the gargoyles over the
mantle with human skulls. Pool, Golden Tee, a decent jukebox and a huge shuffleboard can take up some time and money and oh look, there's an ATM right there too.
This is still my favorite bar, but it's not for everyone. Yes, the regulars are a bit rough around the edges, but this is a DIVE BAR. In every sense of the word. There's one toilet with a busted stall door. Some of these guys are literally here from open to close. The draft selection isn't huge, and if you sit in there too long (4+ hours) your eyes will burn from the second-hand smoke.
If we can look past that, though, there are a lot of really groovy things about the OR.
*If you're a local, you'll run into all the other locals.
*There's shuffleboard. Shuffleboard + booze = Love. And it's free.
*There's an internet jukebox. We battle it out with METAL against the "country boys." It's passive-aggressive fun.
*Drinks are cheap. Really cheap. And well made. And strong. The bartenders (all three of them) know what they're doing, and will learn your name and what you like if you come in enough. Just remember to smile, and be polite, and they'll be sweet as pie to you.
*If you're a smoker you'll feel at home. Bartenders are crazy quick to empty ash trays and keep things clean (in a dive bar? I'm serious, it's uncanny). This is a MASSIVE plus on rainy nights when you don't have to get up and stand outside in the elements to feed the habit. They sell cigarettes behind the counter, too.
*If you don't smoke, the air quality isn't as bad as you think as long as the fire in the fireplace is going. A lot of the smoke gets sucked out.
*You don't have to dress up for this place. At all. This is not the place to go to see and be seen. If you walk in dressed to the 9's you WILL get funny looks from the regulars. The OR prides itself on being unpretentious  so don't bring it.
*Bar Fights. Real ones. Not the "I'ma throw up my hands and fake a punch until other patrons come and split us up." No.
If you want to be with the pretty people, and get complimented on your outfit, sip fancy cocktails, and lounge in a stylish environment - RUN.
If you just want a freakin' beer, and to let your hair down and chill, without being hit in the head with shiny people giggles and hip-hop, then try Orchid Room.
There's a reason why Homer goes to Moe's every night, isn't there?
Your  typical,local dive bar...with a twist!
The twist is you can smoke in the entire bar with all the other smokers and slowly kill yourselves together!!
OK, it wasn't that bad...but I'm a non smoker so its only natural I hate the place. Orchid room gets 1 star because its close to my house and has cheap drinks. And the other star is because if you are a smoker and you live in the smoker hating area that is Belmont/San Carlos then this is a sanctuary for your kind. I often find myself meeting old friends here wasting money on the lotto machines. It nothing worth going to unless you REALLY want to smoke at a bar like the good old days. Otherwise stay home with a 40 and watch tv.
Every single male human being there is a jock, a wannabe-slash-poser, and a drunk. Â Be afraid, be very very afraid. Â This is one of those spots where people go because they never left their hometown and haven't changed much either, holding onto their high school popularity, or something like that. Â I went there and felt like I was in a midwest suburban dive bar. Â Does that make sense?
Review Source:Cheap beers, hooray!  Easy on the ears, hooray!  Don't know how much smoke and shuffleboard I can take in a given night.  Seems to be a charming crowd but not for me.  Friendly wait staff though.  I'd say go for it  if dive bars are your universe.  I see people drinking at 10am at this place....
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