The Hotel Utah Saloon — Restaurant in San Francisco

Very mixed feelings about this place. When I first booked with them, they offered artists 10% of the bar sales during the set. I asked my friends, The Traumacides to join me, and they agreed. Two weeks before the show, I get an email from them telling me they no longer pay 10% of the bar and I need to rely on tips and merch sales. Fine for a Wednesday night, but two weeks before a show is virtually impossible to find a replacement show. I stick to it. The other band, The Traumacides backed out but nobody told me. I can't blame them. I wish they would have told me before doing it arbitrarily. When I got there, parking was decent and I got a parking spot in front, and it looked decent, so I s stayed. The chef even fed me a bowl of celery leaves, which is very healthy. I thank him tremendously and appreciate it. When it was almost time to start the show, I realized the other band was late or not coming, but I proceeded anyway. I asked the bar manager about setting up for the PA system and he knew nothing about it, but I set up anyway. I asked again 15 minutes before show time and he flat out told me there is not going to be any sound guy that night, so I played without any mic. I was about to pack up when there were actually people into my sub-genre of music (psychobilly) who came for the show. I was not going to disappoint. I played for 2 hours, no mic and only earned tips, which I made about $20 for a whole night. The ONLY redeeming factor about it was the people who actually listened to my sub-genre of music showing up at the last minute fie the show. Had that not happened, I would have rated them 2/5. Had there been a sound engineer there, I would have been generous and rated them 4/5. Had someone from the establishment pitched to the crowd that I am on tour and need to earn tips, even though they weren't paying me and didn't have a sound guy, they would have easily earned 5/5, but the fact that they treat bands like this really irritated me and I do not recommend bands play at this venue. Skip San Francisco (all big cities) all together unless you're getting paid. Don't be like I was that day and think it'll be OK. It was not. This venue does not value...

Came here to see a band play and tried out the food while I was here. First of all its got a really good dive bar vibe and an epic wooden bar. I appreciate both things equally. At the suggestion of the bartender, I ordered the fried chicken sandwich. I chose Buffalo style (other options were plain or bbq) with hand cut french fries and a drink while I was waiting for the show to start.

The good: the sandwich was really good! I wasn't sure I'd I made the right decision to go with buffalo style because at most places that means drench it in Tabasco sauce and slam it between two slices of bread - in effect overpowering the chicken, the crisp fried breading, the bread, and anything else that happened to be in there. The sandwich from the Utah had just enough buffalo sauce to give it flavor yet still allow me to taste the thin sliced onions, tomato and lettuce on the very tasty, homemade?, roll. Then there was the blue cheese sauce on the bread. It was the perfect compliment to the Buffalo sauce. Thick enough to taste on the chicken but not overpowering with sharp blue cheese flavor. The fries were cooked well and seasoned well. The whole meal was well worth the $12 price tag. Seriously, do yourself a favor if you like fried chicken sandwiches and get this ASAP!

The bad: nothing

The mediocre: As long as you like dive bars, then nothing is mediocre. If you're a stickler for clean bathrooms and perky, corporate servers, you might not be happy here. Stick to Red Robin or Chipotle.

Overall: fun dive bar with very intimate music venue featuring live music and open mic nights. When I say very intimate, I'm not exaggerating. It is one of the smaller live venues I've been to. There's a downstairs that can gold maybe 25 comfortably - including the band - and an upstairs that might maybe hold another 20 people. That's it. I'll come back to the Utah if for no other reason than the...

This place is very choice, they work with you... the owner still has their elbows in the business... and their ingredients are choice, fresh, and prepared right here in their establishment.

I regularly come here for chili cheese fries, its delicious, excellent portion, and (in my opinion) economical. You get a meal and a half worth of food in one basket!

never even mind their 20 dollar special.... a shot, a beer (albeit the beer is canned) and a full ass chicken sandwich (or burger) with fries (WITH FRIES!!). the grilled chicken can be a little skimpy (but still very acceptable) but the fried chicken sandwich is MASSIVE! I eat a lot, so brought a friend one time. they took the meal home (and some EXCEPTIONAL potato skins) and fed a whole family with what they couldnt eat (I'm not even joking)

Some of the bartenders screw up the snake bite but I didnt have to tell them what it is and they dont give me ANY fuss about the guiness being in a can. I could probably just buy 1 drink (leaving half a can of guiness) and they wouldnt say a damn thing! (I still buy two of course, itd be rude not to).

This place has definitely become my choice bar even if its gimicks are as aged as saloons (I mean, thats a whole joy in itself though). I dont meet women here, sadly, but I get great food... great atmosphere... and plenty of amateur music. And the BEST bar service of all the bars I've been to all throughout san francisco!

*edit oh, forgot to say, my friend is a SUPER lightweight so they got a mocktail and absolutely loved it (they do tend to like sweater drinks though so...