San Francisco has 4 hotel bars in the BarMagazine directory, and Bar Maritime leads the pack. This guide covers the hotel bars specifically; the full San Francisco picture, all 20 bars of it, lives on the city page. Each listing is verified, with the address, opening hours and what to order.
Bar Maritime is a cocktail bar on the second floor of Palihotel San Francisco, steps from Union Square, with a program built on martinis and produce-driven cocktails from Larry Piaskowy and the bar team. It takes no reservations, and the Maritime Boat Club, a seafood restaurant with a low-intervention wine list, sits through a curtain at the back of the bar.
Cavaña is the rooftop bar on the seventeenth floor of the LUMA Hotel in Mission Bay, an ode to Central and South America whose name joins agave and caña. The cocktails are ingredient-driven and built on mezcal, tequila, rum and cachaça, with a kitchen serving small plates and mains until late.
Starlite is the lounge on the twenty-first floor of the Beacon Grand Hotel above Union Square, with 360-degree views, green velvet couches and an all-vinyl soundtrack from nightly DJs. The cocktails were designed by Scott Baird around San Francisco icons, the Cable Car among them, and the snack menu by chef Johnny Spero runs to hot fried chicken buns and baked oysters. Guests must be 21 and reservations are recommended.
Tonga Room & Hurricane Bar is the tiki bar of the Fairmont San Francisco on Nob Hill, a room the hotel says began as a Hollywood set design creation around a central lagoon that was the hotel's indoor swimming pool in the 1920s. Tropical rain, thunder and lightning storms roll through about every half hour while the band plays from a boat floating on the lagoon. The bar is known for what the hotel calls San Francisco's best Mai Tai, alongside other potent cocktails served in tiki glasses and faux coconuts, with Polynesian fusion cuisine on the menu. The hotel notes the room is subject to full closures and buyouts and points guests to its Instagram for the latest news.
These are the hotel bars specifically. The full San Francisco guide ranks the best bars of every style, and the directory lists all 20 with a map and filters.
Best bars in San Francisco