The bartender was a fantastically nice lady who makes a great white russian. I love the fact that The Viking has 50cent pool tables and all the locals in the bar seemed pretty nice and down to earth.
The only thing that I would have appreciated more is if the Ms. Pacman video game and the Lethal Weapon 3 pinball machine were up and running. They were'nt plugged in and there wasn't any sign of them being in working order. So if those games were working this would definitely be a 5 star.
Seriously? Take that head out of your ass. 50 cent pool, shuffleboard, jukebox, and die at the bar. Everyone's chill. Its not too crowded, you can hear people talk, if you want to. Never like a crowded "club," and the viking is a rare gem of a kick back, down home dive bar.
Where else can you hit the jukebox and have two people come up trying to get you to put on Hank III?
I love this place. It's a funky, come-as-you-are place. Everyone's welcome and regulars are cool. Only unfortunate thing is the owners are cheap screws, times 100! If they would just put a LITTLE bit of money into this place...that would be nice. How much does a coat of paint cost, hmmmm? They don't give a dang about thier customers and it shows. One of the first families of Novato and they just don't give a dang. Too bad
Review Source:I love this place, this is the best happy hour in town. It's also the only time I'll spend hours here, otherwise its a stop on the pathetic excuse of a Novato Pub Crawl. It's got pool tables, shuffleboard, dice, TVs with different baseball games on, cheap beer, loud-and-drunk regulars, charmingly grumpy owner in dolphin shorts. Phenomenal for the Friday 5:05 club. Cash only.
Review Source:My band 'Wild Mint' plays at The Viking sometimes on Sundays.
We love it there. Â Friendly people, and nice atmosphere!
Although we bring our own friends along for the show, the regulars are a lot of fun and come up to sing and dance with us.
Nick is great and so is the bartender. Â Lots of FUN to have there.
Dive bar....well ok. This is the neighborhood hang out in Novato. Everyone is friendly for the most part and the locals all treat each other like family.
As far as the 1000 year old bartender? Well you could say something great about your life if you were honored enough to know her.
Come in Monday afternoon for a game of three ball and check it out!
I've never understood why bars put carpets on the floor. Â It just seems like you are asking for a permanent mess that is on display for everyone to see in the future. Â I am sure I was the only one thinking about the carpet situation when I ended up here the other night, and no one else in the joint probably even noticed. Â Useful to note, though is that in one back room there is a part where the green carpet slopes down as you pass through the doorway...and it is easy to lose your step and fall down (drunk or not). Â
Apparently some drunken people think that the green carpet is actually astroturf, as one group of obese and heavily tattooed men used it to wrestle one another down to the floor when they entered the joint. Â Yes, before they even ordered a drink.
A bonus point for being open late (Finnegan's calls last call earlier and earlier every time we go; the bartender there called it their "slowest Saturday ever"...uh, ok, how about you stay open a little later and see?)
Another bonus point for the totally retro cigarette vending machine in that back room where you could fall down if you aren't watching your step upon exit.  Not that smoking is my thing, but I bet that this machine has come in quite handy at last call many a night...even at the steep  price of $7 a pack.
I didn't see if they had any food there (besides the small bags of chips that were on display). Â Something tells me that you would not be wise purchasing food from a dive bar called The Viking. Â
Typical roundup of beers on tap. Â The Makers Mark Whiskey kept calling my name over and over. Â I was able to resist this time, but maybe not next time.
I know that I am fairly new to Novato, but I am surprised by some reviews where the writers are surprised that the Viking is a dive bar. Â It is what it is! Â The exterior is honest dive bar. Â And the inside matches the outside. Â I definitely wouldn't go there alone, or with those of my girlfriends who are uncomfortable with the quirks of such an establishment. Â
Five stars for the most well-maintained shuffleboard in the county and for people watching.
Three stars for the decent jukebox.
One star because at the end of the night, the back room with the pool tables seems reeeeally shady.
The BEST dive bar!!
A group of us used to go there after work @ Firemans Fund. Â Always got these great sideways looks when we rolled in dressed in business attire. Â Some notes:
Busier when govt checks come out, but you can always get on the pool table with no problem
Once witnessed an actual, impromptu dog fight in the bar (no, real dogs!)
You might get fleas
Pissing on the ice in the urinals is fun
The lady tending bar (was) about 1000 years old
Places like this won't exist someday- Â check it out it's like hanging out in a movie set.
came in here on a friday. Â day.
my boy and i decided to get out of san francisco, and being PO' and not having cash enough to hop a greyhound, train or rent a car, we looked up some places we could bus to via golden gate transit. Â Novato offered the "open space" of Mount Burdell. Â the open space itself was just that... an open space. Â we had fun hiking around for a bit but finally decided we should head back and maybe hit San Rafael (pronounced, hilariously, as "san raffel" here in california) and check out China Camp (we never quite made it thanks to a google maps SNAFU)...
on our way back to the bus station, we passed by The Viking. Â being the lovable alcoholics that we are, we decided to stop in for a beer. Â the bartender was an older woman who was really cool. Â they offered pretzels in small cups, which was cool.
POOL IS 50 CENTS. Â let me repeat: Â POOL IS 50 CENTS. Â that's pretty amazing, to me. Â granted, the table isn't exactly the straightest, but the offering of sticks was decent, and whatever warps in the table aren't really terribly awful.
the local color that filtered through as we hung out (for more than just a beer, of course -- we stayed for about four each) were totally wonderful. Â we didn't necessarily rub elbows, but we overheard many stories of couples and singles sitting at the bar conversing with the bar tender. Â a lot of the overheard stories were great.
the one star retracted is for the following:
-someone played amy winehouse. Â granted, this is no fault of the establishment... but it was a part of my experience, so there's that.
-they really should clean the hoses for their draft beers a bit more often. Â most of the beers we had tasted a bit... off... you know, when bars don't clean the hoses as often as they should.
all in all though, if i moved out to a nowheresville (please, locals, don't take offense -- i'm a san franciscan), i think i'd seriously have to consider Novato on merit of The Viking alone...
this place is GREAT.
There's nothing like getting out of the city every now and then, sometimes without any direction. That's where The Viking comes in. So, me and my girlfriend decided to hop on a bus and head to Novato with no real plan. After a bit of hiking through some "open spaces" (Mt. Burdell), we decided to find a drink.
Any place named "The Viking" will always pique my interest, so we head in. It was early afternoon and it was empty, I was into it already. A nice friendly bartender in an empty bar helped us to some Sierra Nevada's and some free pretzels. We talked about the waterpark on TV, and the Halloween decor was so random, masks and spider webs all over the place, i was diggin it.
One beer down, and we decide it is time to play some pool! The highlight is that pool games are only 50 cents! We ended up staying for several beers (and a few more glasses of pretzels), and playing 4 rounds of pool. The locals rolled in on their motorcycles and were just as foul mouthed as the rest of us. The prices were decent, and the environment was the perfect getaway from the pretentiousness you find so easily here in SF.
If I ever decide to get lost in Novato again, I will DEFINITELY make it a point to stop here and take the homies for a few rounds of pool, and some good local eavesdropping!
Love it! What a dive bar is all about!
So, this is one version of a dive bar. Novato has some more regular places to drink: Finnegans, Moylans, bar at Wildfox or Boca.
But, sometimes a drink in a dive bar is good for you. Yeah, it is. Nobody is going to talk about their superior in their company at the bank, insurance company, brokerage, software firm, etc. Nobody is going to go on about how to get a better deal on this or that.
People are going to get down and dirty. Talk about drinkin', shackin' up, the wildest time they ever did this or that, scrapes with the law, the ex, their partner's ex, etc.
It will be colorful. If you have some tattoos, ask to see someone else's and promise to show them yours. Then, show it right there at the bar. Screw it.
Buy your new friends a drink. Its cheap in there. Play darts, pool, shuffleboard.
Yeah the lighting is wacked. The place should probably be fumigated.
wtf, its called slumming. Take a cab there, and back home. Just don't get so loaded that you are dragged back to the abode of one of the regulars.
Similar review works for DeBorba's (no darts or shuffleboard, just a couple old farts trying to act tough). Brown's Binyard is about the same, except there might be some younger regulars.
Larry and I were 'out' in Novato (no such thing really exists for people like me in this town, but we're new to the 'hood and frequently embark on expeditions to see what's up around here).
First we went up to Hilltop for a platter of beer battered mushrooms and "boneless" wings (???). Â Then it got boring; sitting and drinking in a place like that is so 'yesterday' for me. Â I like to PEOPLE WATCH - and not a bunch of suburbanites. Â I like SF - let me see REAL beautiful people!
I digress....
So we got bored. Â We left. Â Larry went straight through the De Long intersection (usually a left turn homeward) so I said "where are we going?"
He pulled up in front of the Viking. Â
Ok, first of all, I could smell the place before I was completely out of the car. Â Second, we walked in and the place was lit up like a pawn shop. Â Third, the 3 or 4 or 5 fine patrons lining the bar scared the hell out of me - made me think the bathroom was going to smell like vomit.
I got about four steps in the door (just long enough to clog my lungs with that awful stench only dirty, nasty, alkie dive-bars give off), spun on my heel and walked out.
Larry came scootin' back out "........ whaaaaaat?"
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