Martuni's — Restaurant in San Francisco

The rudest waitress I have ever encountered. Came here this weekend for a friends birthday and we sat down at a table. We were short one chair so my partner innocently got an empty chair from another table. The elderly brunette waitress was immediately rude and shouted at him saying “don’t touch the chairs in my bar”. From that first interaction I could tell she had no manners but we moved on and proceeded to order our drinks. We had numerous people from the UK and France in our group so when we showed our British driving license we were told that they didn’t accept that as a valid form of identification - which is ridiculous considering in nearly 6 months of being here this has never happened. We questioned it because it makes no sense that I can legally drive and that be accepted as ID but I need my passport to buy a drink? It is ridiculous to expect someone to carry around such a valuable document and risk having it lost or stolen. However, I understand if that’s their policy it’s not up to the bar staff to change it, even if it is a ridiculous rule. This same woman again was incredibly rude in her delivery. We are reasonable people and if she simply said “sorry it’s our policy and out of my hands” then there would’ve been no issue.

This waitress, or should I say, the chair police, decides to berate one of our party members for having the audacity to let his shoe lightly graze the edge of a chair. She went on a tirade about how filthy his shoes were. It was incredibly rude and unnecessary - again a simple “excuse me would you mind moving your foot” would have sufficed. I don’t know if she was a manager from hell or just a member of staff with a power trip who’s insanely possessive over chairs but she was beyond unpleasant. Her negative energy was suffocating, and I genuinely feel sorry for anyone who has to work with her.

Fortunately we were able to walk to another bar and be served by people who actually are capable of speaking respectfully and do their job. Needless to say, we won't be setting foot in this establishment ever again. Hopefully she retires or is fired soon so that no one else has the displeasure of an encounter with her. Save yourself the trouble and steer clear of this...

I've been going to Martuni's for the last 16 years. When it comes to piano bars in San Francisco, there isn't a better one. If you're out for a last call/night cap and in a bit of a hurry, I recommend going straight to the bar and ordering your drinks. The place can be very crowded up until 11pm and the cocktail servers can't spin magic to get you drinks really quickly. It's just a tip and not a dig at the servers. They're working their butts off.

The piano area is where most people like to be and it's this smaller sequestered section in the rear. If you're just outside this room, you can still hear the piano and whoever is singing quite well. Any further towards the entrance of the bar and you can't hear much over the cacophony of talking at all the tables. You should plan to get a table in the piano area BEFORE the piano player even starts playing or good luck finding a table. They fill up in the blink of an eye and it's always this pattern of rear seating goes first and the last remaining open tables in the bar are near the entrance where it can get quite cold depending on the weather.

The singers change every night, so if you aren't a fan of someone's particular style, wait 5 minutes or try another night. Typically there are multiple singers per night and most, if not all, are professionally trained. This isn't corny karaoke.

The only negative thing I can say about Martuni's is they stopped making the key lime pie martini years ago. I wax nostalgic about this drink with my sister and friends whenever Martuni's comes up in conversation. WHY CAN'T WE HAVE THIS BACK?! I have so many memory associations imbibing it here. It had a graham cracker crumb rim with the key lime-flavored spirits holding a positively ghoulish green color. I don't even like key lime pie but this drink was awesome. Now they took it from me...

The place was cute! The man that’s served our group of 6 our drinks was very nice. I want to make that known! As for the actual manager, she was extremely rude from the very first interaction! As I had started, we were a group of sex and they have small round tables that accommodate for groups of possibly three or four. There’s no sign saying please don’t move the tables. Nobody had told us that upon arriving so my group and I found two empty tables that were side-by-side and scooted them closer so I have us all set together. The manager who was the manager at the time came in and stated “first of all don’t be moving furniture around here second of all we’re gonna be closing down this room within a little while” My friend asked if she could clarify what a little while was and she stated whenever I Come in here and say get up. Then, after that, my friend was a little bit in the walkway and instead of asking her politely to move, she said you’re in the way and explained that her bar back couldn’t get through there But she was inches away from my friend and pretty much yelled at her. And when my friend asked her to say that a little bit nicer because she was being extremely rude to people that had just arrived she said “I’m not here to be nice. I’m not nice. Attention I didn’t know that she was the manager, but I let him know that his manager was extremely rude and he said she can be rude. We’re not nice to service and hope everyone has a good time.. Service understatement probably won’t be coming back here. The drinks weren’t worth being...