SPIN San Francisco — Restaurant in San Francisco

I recently visited Spin with a group of 11 friends (for a birthday), expecting a fun evening of ping pong and food. Unfortunately, the experience didn't live up to our expectations.

Our server was excellent--friendly and attentive throughout the night. However, the hospitality stopped there. The hostess was notably rude from the get-go, which immediately set a disappointing tone for our visit. Things got more frustrating at the end of the evening. Although we were 11 people, the hostess gave out a total of 15 wristbands (four to people that weren't in our party) and incorrectly charged us for 15 people. When we pointed out the error, an event coordinator threatened us and said "You either pay for 15 people or you're dining and dashing." First off, we never said we weren't paying. We just weren't paying for the hostess's mistake. Secondly, the system they use to give out wristbands is a joke, there's no confirmation, no checks or anything. So basically with their logic, if they mess up, they don't want to assume responsibility and they put it on the guests to pay for their hostess's mistake. And third, following the threat, he lied and said there was apparently no way to correct their billing mistake in their system. He (or anyone else) didn't even come back to apologize after someone had corrected the bill. Absolute trash service and honestly enough to put me off from ever coming back, even after having been there several times to celebrate birthdays and company events.

Additionally, the food was just mediocre and took an unusually long time to be served--over two hours with minimal communication about the delay. Angelina I believe did extend us because of the issue until their closing time (11PM), but then the hostess tried to kick us out early by placing the "you have 10 minute signs on our table" at 10:20PM, which speaks to the lack of communication among the staff.

In all, while our server did a great job, the issues with the hostess and the event coordinator guy, lack of communication, billing, and service speed significantly marred our experience at Spin. I wanted to love this place, but I don't want to return or recommend it without some serious changes. Especially when they tried to scam us out of $240 for people that were never in our party or authorized by us to receive...

This is going to be a long one. I came here with a group of 4 about three weeks ago. We wanted to eat before we played some table tennis, so we were shown to the main area, and then left to find our own table. We were not approached by any member of staff for about 10 minutes (even though there were about 10 walking around looking like they were doing nothing) when we called someone over. The barman proceeded to be our "server" for the rest of the night, with not a single other person coming to speak to us. We could see how busy he was behind the bar, but he was also serving our table. We felt completely ignored and it was the worst service I have ever experienced. We didn't play table tennis in the end because we had no interest in staying any longer than we had to. We decided to call the manager at the end just to let her know how abismal the experience had been, so they could do better next time. My boyfriend explained the situation, she said nothing, left and told us to wait. She came back about 5 minutes later with our server/barman and made him apologise to us. I was appalled by this response, as this poor barman was the only person who paid any attention to us whatsoever, and he did his best despite being busy with his actual job. We explained that he was not the problem, it was everything else. She didn't even apologise or really listen to what we had to say, she just handed us some vouchers for free table tennis for next time. This reaction was so far from what the point of our complaining was. I was truly shocked by her lack of professionalism and accountability for what had occured. And blaming the poor boy, I was horrified!! Very disappointing as the interior of the place is cool and has potential. I will never come back here. And side note, the food was pretty bad, my pizza looked like it came straight of of...

• In Short *

A pleasantly chill alternative to the usual loud and crowded SF bar or club.

• In Depth *

I pass by SPiN most nights on my way home, and never knowing what it actually was until my friend decided to host her 30th here, and learned that "ping pong social clubs" were a thing. And, did I turn my nose ever so slightly upward in gentle criticism? Well, yes, of course.

But, actually coming and experiencing it a few weekends back, I can certainly see the appeal. The place is clean, the music is enjoyable in both selection and volume, the bar has a decent selection of alcohol (judged by the fact that they carry Templeton), and most of all, is not insanely crowded or loud. Is it expensive? Yeah, no doubt, at $29/hour during off-peak, and $49/hour during peak, but consider this: you're basically paying for the equivalent of a table at a club for you and your group of friends, in a much more chill environment. Looked at that way, SPiN is actually a much more affordable and pleasant alternative!

Accessibility Info

Venue - On a Saturday night, the place was busy, but not nearly as crowded as a bar or club would be, so the only thing you have to be worried about in getting around is dodging all the balls on the floor. Ramps abound, to get you to wherever you need to be.

Bathroom - The men's and women's restrooms share a central sink area, where they've opted for electric dryers instead of paper towels, which may pose a problem for some folks. The restrooms themselves are completely...