11/09/09

Amazing nook of north beach

by CSMobileUser

great piano live piano music at night, wonderful service at the bar, happy hour until 9pm on Mondays! AND the food was fantastic! We will definately be back!!

11/07/09

Queit hidden Gem

by CindyMeyer

We were delighted to find this quiet corner of North Beach!! There are few places still around that you can catch game 5 of the World Series while listening to live Piano music! Great drinks, wonderful food. We tried the Duck fat fries and Calamari (which had a perfect kick of spice) to start, then the Burger and Linguini with Clams for our entrees. Everything was delicious!

• Pros: Ambiance, Character, Charm and one hell of a Manhattan

11/06/09

Wonderful wonderful wonderful

by jacek

We were a little hesitant at first because there was no one at the front door to greet us, but we were very happy we chose to stay! We had a great meal at the bar with friendly service and listened to an amazing live pianists! Overall everything was amazing. The atmosphere was wonderful and the restaurant has old San Francisco Charm. We can't wait to go back!

• Pros: Great live piano music
• Cons: No one was at the door to great us.

07/30/09

Disappointing

by MarySF

Food was just not good

06/05/08

Re-opening!

by mdinightmary

Liam Tiernan of Tiernan's at Fisherman's Wharf will be re-opening the restaurant at the end of the summer. Be on the look-out!

01/02/08

Closed- Shuttered for good!

by patrickbad

I went by today and this place was closed for business, the landlord was looking in as well. He seemed surprised the place was closed. The delivery of bread was still sitting on the table and not a soul in sight. Pretty odd. Considering they were opened the night before.

• Pros: Cheap because its closed
• Cons: Closed

12/05/06

The North Beach institution returns after a lengthy hiatus with new owners, meticulously restored decor and a vastly improved menu.

by Contributor

This SF landmark, re-opened after being painstakingly restored, is a perfect time capsule of Herb Cain-era North Beach, when writers, politicians, musicians, professional athletes and charmingly crooked cops all schmoozed, boozed and occasionally ate here. Gimmick-free and defiantly old-school, "The Washbag" clings to its history with memorabilia and framed black-and-whites of local icons, and even re-hired much of the same staff from its heyday. The house-specialty is nostalgia, and the classic menu reinforces the theme--expect bar-and-grill standards like calamari, troifles pasta and flat iron steak--although unlike the old days, the food isn't an afterthought; in fact, you may find yourself thinking fondly about it afterwards. What's coming out of the kitchen has vastly improved, but the bar's remained exactly the same, save for an added rack of fine scotches of the sort once found in a decanter on the commisioner's desk. This city may have changed, but this old haunt full of old timers having a good old time hasn't, and is betting its future on its glorious past.

11/08/06

good food, great service, but bad management

by anneaden

The restaurant was great at first! It's in a great location with a good old-fashioned atmosphere. We were greeted at the door by a hostess who was cheerful, pleasant and seated us quickly. The waitress was attentive and the food she recommended was terrific! Unfortunately our otherwise perfect meal was ruined by someone screaming in the back in the kitchen. From what I was told it was the owner who was yelling. My husband wanted to leave right then. I can't imagine the owner can keep any of his staff for very long with that type of innapropriate berating. That's definitely no way to run a good restaurant! All in all, I might recommend this restaurant because of the food and service - but stay as far away from the kitchen and the screaming as you can. If I wanted that type of chaos at dinner I would go out to dinner with seven toddlers.

• Pros: Service, Food, Location
• Cons: Ambience and a very angry yelling man

09/14/06

Love this place!!!!!

by mrh07

Wow! Definitely worth a return visit!! I cant believe this is the same restaurant I ate at a few years ago. I met a group of friends at the Washington Square Bar and Grill for what was supposed to be drinkswatching what looked like amazing food leave the kitchen made it impossible to leave Although we didnt have reservations for what turned out to be 11 of us, the awesome hostess made a comfy seating arrangement possible on the fly Way to go girl and thanks for making it happen on such short notice I had an out of this world wild mushroom strudel. So glad we decided to stay.

10/10/05

Food was ok, service was NOT OK!

by hb_3pencil

Arrived for dinner with reservation, had to wait about 10min for our table to be setup. Then another 15 or so before our order was taken. Water and bruschetta came late. Another long wait before our food finally came, brought out by the busboy, followed by the waitress who mouthed the usual 'is everything alright', then no service for the rest of the meal. Had to wait for our plates to be taken away, for the check, for her to take the check, for her to bring the check, took us almost 2 hours to eat a one course meal!

Would not go back again.

• Pros: free bruschetta, clean
• Cons: loud, sloooow service, bad service