The Plough And Stars

This is a great Irish bar. The bartenders are friendly, the Guinness is truly a perfect pint, and they have lots of live music. I loved the look of the place, and the decorative details. Worth the trip. They don't serve food, but you can buy packages of chips or bring in takeout from one of the nearby restaurants across the street. We stayed for the Irish traditional music jam, and it was wonderful.

Decent little Irish Pub with live music and snack. The bar has a good selection of beer and makes pretty good drinks. The food menu is more snack food then full on pub fare. The best part of Plough is the live Irish music that plays here. The atmosphere can certainly be a lot of fun when the band is playing and the crowd is in. Prices are reasonable and overall casual atmosphere.

Ugh, truly conflicted about this rating, for a year had rated as a 5/5 stars but had to revise after this week's occurrences. I have lived two blocks away from the plough and the stars for the past 2 years and have thoroughly enjoyed this classic Irish bar with its weekly Irish music offerings. I frequented Thursday night set dancing, weekend band offerings and even brought family here when they visited the city to show them the local spirited "dive bar". The environment was always warm and welcoming albeit laid back and unpretentious. As a young 20 something new to alcohol, I even discovered my adoration for Guinness at this bar! Which regretfully brings me to the events of this past weekend. The opportunity for a night cap of Guinness-y goodness arose after a long day visiting Folsom Street fair. I thought to stop in for a beer following dinner with my new girlfriend, a great opportunity to show her more of my neighborhood. We were dressed appropriately, almost entirely covered up by the evening due to the chilly SF air, with a little glitter and a leather necklaces being the only potential signs of the raucous event we had just enjoyed (however, any attire that sufficiently covers genitals shouldn't even be an issue in 2019 San Francisco?!?) We had absolutely no trouble in the same dress at dinner on the same block, we were treated with the respect of patrons that one would expect! However, it seems that the antiquated character of the bar was also reflected in attitude. Although a bar cannot be held accountable for actions of customers, the bar tenders should be respectful without exception. Which is why it saddened me to hear the bar tender negging and jeering with the other men at the bar after we rejected one man's drunken approach. We were mocked and ridiculed while our order for two Guinness was neglected. We left promptly and unfortunately will not be back soon. In the words of my girlfriend, "I didn't come all the way to San Francisco to be treated like this!" A sour finish to an otherwise beautifully accepting and affirming day. The female bar tender that worked (works?) here has always been fantastic, keep her around to temper the delusion that luck of the Irish does not mean "getting lucky".

I don't understand the hype about this place. There's no pub food--just chips and other generic snacks. The place smelled like industrial bathroom cleaner when I visited. If you enjoy the lively pub atmosphere with awesome greasy food and different games and such available, you probably won't like this place much. The Plough DOES offer live Irish music though, so that may be cool to check out.