Lower Nob Hill borders Nob Hill, Tenderloin, Union Square and parts of the Van Ness corridor. SF is such a small City that if you walk a few blocks away, you can be in a different neighborhood. I feel like this neighorhood is still trying to figure itself out, but aside from the spillover of troubles from Tenderloin, it does have a few boutique hotel options, some nice restaurants, rooftop bars, and lots of older architectural buildings that need some TLC. read more

As the name suggests, the neighborhoods of the Tenderloin and Nob Hill intersect with interesting results: Part hipster with rooftop lounges and dining spots, part addicted residents and new immigrants trying to make it work. It's a block-by-block situation of sketchiness. Be off your phone and aware of your surroundings as you would in any big city. In the heart of downtown, I'm always curious about the turn of the 20th century beautiful apartment buildings, wondering if all the original moulding and fixtures were preserved. I bet some are. "NewTendo" is this neighborhood's long term nickname. Great place for dining; renting is more affordable than most neighborhoods but don't have a car because it means garages, daily street cleaning and fully metered streets. While it has its challenges, I prefer the edgy NewTendo rather than the homogeneous crowd of the Marina. read more

Lower Nob Hill - Liveliness of city life, blue-topped Salesforce Tower in the background - Local Flavor Near Me - San Francisco, California

This is an okay part of San Francisco. It definitely has homeless folks, s*x workers, and dr*gs around, but overall, it is a lot safer than the Tenderloin or other areas nearby. read more

Shatangi has to agree to disagree with Brother Gourmet G. Any good realtor would call it the "Theater District" or "Lower Nob Hill" or Centrally Located" lol. As a reformed Tendernobian (now a full-on Loiner) it was hard to describe your quartier to the inexperienced. Tendernob for a real local just abbreviates Upper-loin/Lower-nob and is easier to say. These days I'm officially in the TL and have lost the Nob. I do get to walk home through the Thriller video every day, even in the rain 'cause crack don't melt gurl. Shatangi told you read more

Lower Nob Hill - Post @ Leavenworth - Local Flavor Near Me - San Francisco, California

Ah the TenderNob, great rent prices, and relatively safe. I get propositioned for crack, or tranny hookers from time to time, but never have I felt in danger. There's good food around, it's close to the heart of the city, and I don't have far to bike to get to school. Also, I hear the cool kids affix Tender to all of their favorite things in the area e.g. "Hey, let's go get some TenderCoffee." I don't know if that actually happens, but it should. read more

Lower Nob Hill - TenderNob from above Post st. - Local Flavor Near Me - San Francisco, California

Tender mmmm makes me think of food. Most of these reviews are just hilarious. This area is not that rough. I'm a posh dapper gent and even I was not concerned about the roughness of the area. I was expecting more along the lines of the Wire television show but instead I got more of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Bars and nightlife available. Guns with scratched off serial numbers, not so much. read more

Somewhat a confusing neighborhood. Lots of food options. I live up on Nob Hill, and I always walk down here to enjoy some yummy options. Yes, it's still a somewhat sketchy area, but homelessness is expanding everywhere. You have the bars, restaurants, liquor stores and the basic Walgreens all in one area. read more

I love my neighborhood, and was ready to write a witty review of the TenderNob until I saw that Jill S. has beaten me to the punch. Nice review, Jill! :) Personally, I find this neighborhood convenient, hip, and architecturally interesting. As a jazz musician, I love living right between the hotels near Union Square as well as the fancy-schmancy places atop Nob Hill. I never have to schlep my gear too far for those wonderful cocktail parties and wedding receptions. I really dig the old classic hotels and old-school brick buildings that populate this area. You're not going to find these puppies in Noe Valley, North Beach, or the Marina. Yes yes, let me count the ways I love the TenderNob I love the fact that I have the unique opportunity to count crackheads instead of counting sheep before going to bed. I love how I had to step over a homeless person sprawled over my doorway on the second day after moving in to my new apartment. I love how when girls are walking down the street, one has to guess whether they're: 1) Hookers 2) Trannies 3) Tranny Hookers 4) Art school students 5) Lost or 6) Drug-induced Hallucinations Yeah yeah, you thought they were smoking hash weren't you? Ha-hah! That'll teach you not to smoke out of random neighborhood crack pipes. Seriously, I do love this neighborhood. You get street cred for living within' striking distance of the 'hood, plus you still get the unique San Francisco experience of overpaying for your studio apartment. Yay!!! read more

Loud, obnoxious, and a block away from the methadone clinic houses a great row of eateries, bars and clubs. As to any large city, this active spot houses the bums, crack addicts, and complimentary piles of crap along the sidewalk next to hypodermic needles and what not. My loser ex lives out here too, right above the alley where bums are shooting up. What ambiance! THE place to go to for your fix of trannies flashing you a fake boob implant and strutting their stuff up and down Post and Polk. Divas is right on Post after you are too drunk at Lush. The firemen outside the station are cute, however, and after a good argument with the ex, I'd be rewarded with the sight of a couple of the good looking men standing against their engines wearing t-shirts. There are a bunch of dive bars around the corner: the Hemlock, Rye, Swig, Brick. Just be ready for all the parking spaces to open up around 1:30 am. I don't miss the loser, but I do miss the kind shop owner who lives down the block (S & B Grocery & Liquor Store). His constant supply of Haagen Dazs barely kept the cellulite alive and kicking. I think it is a funny thing that this colorful neighborhood has been witness to the breakdown of my relationship. Especially the firemen, who asked me if that "loser" was bothering me. read more

Hands down my favorite neighborhood in the city!! I have been trying to move there for sooo long now but Berkeley just has a hold on me. Still, I spend an extraordinary amount of time there. read more

The saddest thing in the world is to watch a classic Tenderloin dive bar turn into a DJ-spinning, door -manned hipster club. Personally, I'd rather watch a church burn. After all, I've lived in the TenderNob for 15 years precisely because it affords me such a breath-taking view of the decline of Western civilization. Why would anybody go and try to reverse that trend? Yet witness the fall from grace of Bacchus Kirk (RIP), Tunnel Top (RIP), Joe's Cable Car (RIP) and, most recently and perhaps saddest of all, The Owl Tree (RIP). What's next? A sneaker signing at Specs? I wept bitter tears when my beloved, urine-drenched cabby bar "The Overflow" became "Aces". Yet, I underestimated the bar's tenacious cadre of career alcoholics who--through sheer force of will and total dedication to debauchery--have managed to resist the Williamsburg-ization of the neighborhood and rip out the stitches in its cheesy anti-skid metal facelift. Stop in some morning at 8 am and behold the real pros who've been at it since 6 O'clock. Their level of commitment humbles me. As for TenderNob dives that remain unadulterated, The Summer Place is a pretty good bet. While it lacks the pure dank filth of the Tenderloin's HaRa or Rich's 93, its magical syphilitic amber glow and hideous '70's façade imbedded with sharp boulders is not to be missed. If we can agree that a dive bar should, at a minimum, be so detached from the times that it qualifies as a black hole (in more ways than one), Yong San still delivers--AND is spitting distance from the all-male titty bar! Edinburgh Castle, while loveably divey and loiny, is much too roomy to be considered a true Tenderloin dive bar, and besides, dive bars never have food, let alone live music. In fact, dive bar purists will insist that music should be emitted only by a juke box of 45's or the occasional blindly drunk vetran. Tenderloin upstarts like Whisky Thieves and Hemlock may respect your god-given right to smoke while you drink, but let's face it: it's impossible to dive deep enough to hit alcoholic pay dirt in a new establishment. With even the world-economy-crippling mortgage crisis unable to lower SF real estate prices, and everyone trying to rent, the times they are certainly a changin'. As the Academy of Art swallows entire city blocks whole, belching out young "artists" who, strangely, don't seem to make any art, but more than make up for their lack of output with their amount of alcoholic intake, I fear that the TenderNob--a glistening golden droplet teetering on the rim of the toilet that is the central Tenderloin--may be losing its soul as it seeks to serve these hipsters. Sadly, toward the end of the Oughts, the TenderNob seems to be transitioning away from its roots in all that is truly bad, and diseased and unholy. read more

As a recent transplant from the USF bubble known as the Panhandle...I was a little nervous about my new TenderNob abode. However after about two months of living here...I can't see how I lived anywhere else in this crazy city. The seedy bars, the overpriced corner stores run by flirtatious swarthy men, the hookers, the loquacious crackheads and the hipster kids blasting Grizzly Bear throughout my apartment building....what could be better? I think the TL/TNob gets a lot of flac for being "scary" or whatevs...but honestly I rarely feel nervous walking around here. Yes I do get the occasional holla and lewd comment when I'm walking home at night but in general I think most of the life out here is harmless. The crazies and crackheads are more likely to harm themselves than anyone else. I also enjoy striking up conversations with my sidewalk familiars and they generally seem appreciative that this overly-suburbanized young white girl doesn't mace them to the ground and run off screaming into the night. Shout out to my buddy who lives by the 31 busstop! My definite highlight of living in this hood was having a crazed old man freak out to me about the flesh eating turtles that the PGE company was installing in the man holes to feed off my Levi Button-Down Jeans...his words not mine. read more

Where else can you take tourists to see local tranny hookers?? Gotta love the Larkin Street locale, those girls? are always down to make a buck. read more

The TenderNob...my first SF neighborhood. I moved to Sutter and Polk in 1988, straight from Washington DC. Compared to DC the 'Nob was cuddly, even if my new neighbors were crackheads, mental patients off their meds, or hookers. Moved on up to Pine/Jones, with a little better mix of neighbors in the crammed apartment building. I don't think the 'Nob can gentrify. It *can* get more expensive, but, you know, if you have the cash, you live somewhere with, like, trees, and nobody urinating on your doorstep. That said, the 'Nob smells and looks worse than it really is. I never felt unsafe on my way to Little Henry's on Larkin St (best Italian restaurant run by Cambodian people) or to the anomalous Real Foods yuppie grocery which flourished briefly on Sutter St. read more

even though I'm technically a Lower Haighter now, I can't help but run by to say hi to Q as he gives people a hard time trying to get into Rye for the best "Amandahattan" or gimlet in town. I mean really, where else on the planet can you walk around in heels or in a blazer next to a little man smoking a crack pipe or rubbing his little index finger through the cracks on the sidewalk looking for his reflection as if it were a cool refreshing pond? from Rye / Osha / B&B / Swig / Owl Tree (I miss you Bobby) / Cafe Royal / Colibri / the Ambass / the 800 / the (old) Red Room to that guy standing on the soapbox cussing up a storm, I simply love the Eyelash of the Theatre District... the TL, the TrendyLoin, the hood that every San Franciscan should live in at least one time in their tenure near the Bay, the good old TenderNob... read more

So we leave the theatre and we are headed into the heart of the 'Loin. Oh yeah! I love it! Peeeeeeeee Pal Watching!!!! YES! So, we drive around and around and around. We were not gonna leave until we saw some real life working girls. I havent done this a lot, but I have done it before. Its always kinda upsetting because you never get to see the "Pimps UP, Hoes DOWN" types from HBO. It got me to wondering if HBO pays some actors to have their asses out just for the sake of good docudrama. But finally, we see some real hoes and are then off to drive down Broadway to hopefully see some more freaks. BUT....before we got too far we hit yet another red light. I look over to the car on my left and wouldnt you know a freak weirdo was naked from the waist down and watching me watching him play a game of WHACK-A-MOLE! SCORE! My friend was kinda jealous she missed it! We then went on to people see on Broadway and were quite disappointed. Either the bad economy is reflected here or the place is just not as jumping as it was in the days of the Paladium and the Stone. Such is life! read more

Seriously, get it straight. Tendernob is not the Tenderloin. Tendernob is that particular area where you walk two blocks one way to buy fancy-pants antiques and two blocks the other way for second hand bargains. Its also not the gentrified hot spot where you go slumming with your buds. Its a neighborhood. Lots of different people live there and you can walk just about anywhere else if you happen to get tired of it. read more

Some of my fondest memories of San Francisco come from my time spent in the TenderNob. Hell, five stars, that's where I met Lethal Green! "You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus." ~Samuel Langhorne Clemens read more

I live 2 buildings over from the Edinburgh Castle Pub, for many years I never heard a single sound from then, unfortunately that has now changed as they have installed a new sound system that is more suited for a concert hall or a dance club away from any housing! The thumping goes on at all hours of the day and night , many times until 2 in the morning! The city sent out people from the entertainment commission to tell them they need to lower the base and volume but instead they've cranked it up! There are elderly people living around the pub as well as working class who struggle to live in this city, this business doesn't care , they are causing a lot of anxiety and stress for the neighborhood, shame on you guys, be a good neighbor guys! read more

The difference between the tenderloin and nob hill is obvious, but the amount of alcohol available among both districts in clearly the same. I LOVE IT read more

Gotta love it. Don't claim you are in the Tender Nob when you are in the heart of the TL ok. It makes you look like a dork. And don't claim you live in Nob Hill when you clearly live in the Tender Nob. Tender Nob is cool. Great place to hang out with graffiti writers (art students) at their apartments and also a good place to meet some tranny hookers that really know how to give blowjobs (and steal your gold necklace at the same time). lol read more

I have lived in this neighborhood for close to 10 years. Not in the same apartment mind you, but that's a story for another time. Anyway, I love this area. When I decided to move to SF from the east coast I specifically choose to live in the urban area of the city. I mean why the hell would I live in a city but live some where like the marina. If I wanted to live in Suburbia or some college town than I would have moved there but I didn't. Although I probably could have saved a shit load of money. Anyway, Jill S. fear not the Marinafication, this has been a topic for many years and there has been little change. In fact parts of the Tender Nob to Polk Gulch area have not improved one bit. This review is dedicated to the prostitute on the corner. You go girl!! read more

Walking distance from my 'hood (Nob Hill). I love the TenderNob. Good hole-in-the-wall restaurants and bars. I love supporting local businesses in the neighborhood. Owl Tree, Huf, Shalimar, Bourbon & Branch, The Hidden Vine Wine Bar and so many more. read more

As we were walking back to the hotel, we passed by an officer arresting a cross-dresser. I didn't hear any ambulance sirens or see any streetwalkers. Its a nasty neighborhood compared to Chinatown or Japantown. My auntie says people are proud to live here because there's a history of hippies but I don't believe. Sometimes the sidewalk is smelly as you're waiting for the bus. read more

Five stars given, but for the place as it existed during the 1990s when I lived there, at 938 Geary Street at Polk, for ten years. Sadly, and all too predictably, the gritty yet for-the-most-part safe atmosphere of the Polk Gulch/Tendernob area has vanished almost entirely as the place succumbs to gentrification, "merchant's associations" that prevent interesting places like the sex shops and artier head shops out, yet the crack paraphernalia simply gets sold behind liquor store counters anyway. The one good head shop left there is overpriced, never orders new merchandise (the same shirts have been on the walls since last decade...) And too many Subways! These are minor "me things" however. The real tragedy is the Tendernob's slow but quickening end to the last true 'hood in the City where cheap apartments were available that were not surrounded by transient hotels. That is sad. I know this will not be something most people will agree with, but in my late twenties I got a kick out of walking up and down Polk, watching the shadier characters, mostly young guys hustling. Some of them were well, let's face it, easy on the eye, so to speak...Alas, but those were different days. O Tendernob...sometimes I miss you so. Now palm trees have grown two storeys tall, which is nice, towering over overpriced so-called 'thrift shops' and restaurants,which is not nice. My biggest personal beef: Once upon a time there was a head shop between Geary and Post on Polk. It's still there but different people run it now, and they don't bother with my favourite product of such places, which this particular little boutique used to carry, when I couldn't even find them in the Haight. Now the place has plenty of smoking utensils - if you've seen one bong you've seen them all - but it now does not have a single quality blacklight poster - only the talentless crap made in the '90s, not the '70s type which had real art behind the flock and dayglo (I am a psychedelist; I really love this kind of thing. So sue me.) There used to be boxloads of them and I bought every one, back when I had a job in 1993 - including the prized copy of the sort-of "dog-faced giant cobra" design that Mom and Dad bought me to hang on my walls (covered with pink roses on wallpaper, what an odd clash THAT was! They got it when I was literally obsessed with snakes to the exclusion of all else...) Another thing I get a kick out of is that it is that same cobra poster you'd see on Mole's wall in Mortville, in my fave John Waters' movie, "Desperate Living". It was in every room I lived in there, then in SF, too, when one day, a third one replaced my Berkeley copy when it got ripped up. In June of 2012, the renovaters accidentally wrecked my last copy while trying to move my stuff too fast - and no one makes them, or sells them here, any more. I have ALWAYS had this particular stupid snake poster in the many rooms I have lived in across the decades, including 938 Geary in the TenderNob...and the one place I could count on finding it? Gone. I know. I know. There are about 7 trillion more important things to be sad about. But you know how it is. Some changes are good and others just make things more dull and less like treasure troves. I'm glad it was fun while I was there, but my once-dear TenderNob is now turning into Castro 2: "Less charm, more redundancy." And did I mention the redundancy? read more

the TN is a great place to visit and an even better place to live. the best thing about it is you get to decide what your day will be like... want to buy some drugs? head a few of blocks south. want to pay too much for food? head a few of blocks north. want to see some tourists? head a few blocks east. want to see strippers? head a few of blocks west. the TN is all of that and a bag of chips. read more

So much better than boring Nob Hill way up that hill. You have to come down the hill for really good food and drinks anyway. I've lived in Nob and TenderNob and I kinda wish I were back in Tender Nob now. read more

I once lived on the 900 block of Sutter and it was a great place to be. I don't own a car so the lack of parking was not a problem for me. All the street walkers that make the Loin what it is were usually not on my block. You are right in the middle of everything and yet sorta insulated from it all. The ambulances are noisy, but you get used to it. Here's a list of the places I liked: Aces, Sugar Cafe, The Cellar, Canteen, and the Red Room. All are on Sutter St. You can really just walk from Union Square to Polk St. on Sutter and find plenty of fun places. read more

Ok no one has reviewed the TenderNobby since Feb. '08 so it's due time kiddos. This is my hood, and I know most of you have graced our urine soaked sidewalks with your presence at one point or another. Of course, the fresh, spunky new spots, or revitalized hot spots, a.k.a., the "new black" have got to be the Ambassador, Rye, Red Box Sushi, Cup-a-Joe, the NEW Owl Tree, le Colonial, Red Room, the now closed Empire Plush Room, with some new drink joint opening in Autumn '08, Cheeky B Pet Boutique, Saha, the R Bar, about any hot spot on Polk Street, the noisiest fire station in SF, the busiest routes for 3 to 4-alarm fire trucks to wail down, (Hyde and Leavenworth), Lahore Karahi, Nitecap, Natasha's Apartment, the new Glass Dildo place on Geary, the ever-tasty El Colibri, Bourbon & Branch, Ace's, Pearl's Burgers, Canteen, KoKo's, and the list goes on and on... read more

Before I moved close to this area, and read all these reviews about the TenderNob (is it the same as Lower Nob Hill?).. I was very hesitant. But now that I live here.. dude, it's awesome. It can get scary.. but that's true anywhere. And by scary I mean, that person is not even aware you're there. So just keep walking, don't mind. It's definitely urban living but isn't that why you want to move downtown?? read more

All I gotta say is the trannys watch out for me, they got my back at night! Probably the safest area to live in the TL. (No, I do not tell people I live in the "TenderNob," WHO actually calls it that?! It's the Loin baby! EMBRACE IT!) I can't imagine being anywhere else. read more

The Tendernob is a stupid name, but this is truly a great neighberhood...Although the actual boundaries change daily, I like to assume that the nob' starts above O'Farrell whilst the 'RTL" or "Real Tenderloin" starts below Ellis...than when you get to Turk street where I live...well we call that the "LTL" Lower tenderloin...yeah lots of good bars and boutique hotels, and art school girls, and international students, and hostels...a good time, for sure... read more

what more do people want? free entertainment & curbside service? HA!

I see you making Sutter the boundary and I live on Bush, but oh well. I am in the TenderNob despite the description under business info. I love living here. We have the best cross-section of people, i.e. prostitutes and yuppies, food, cool low key bars, and some cool South-North hills. I have one beef - I wish we were more accessible to the upper market area and the haight. Other than that we have the nicer hipsters (compared to the mission), the late night urban feel of NY, and the best locale for tourists to do what they came here for. read more

My 2nd favorite part of town. I went here looking for 'nice boys' but was misled by the meaning of the 'hood. Alas, at least there are plenty of good, restaurants, bars and cinemas! On a busy night you can catch some excellent tranny drama on any given corner, but mostly they stick to the inner 'loin. read more

So I've lived in San Francisco slightly over a year and have worked at an office in this neighborhood from day one. Now, my first day...week...okay, month working in this area was a little, well, uncomfortable, but now I adore it. There are actually a good amount of cute coffee shops and even a candy store in the area. I must say, I have grown quite fond of the tranvestite strippers, prostitutes and crackheads that hang around the hood. They add a certain charm that you can't find anywhere else. Oh, and I can't forget the crazy bongo man who plays what some may call "music" outside my office. Who need itunes? read more

Yes yes y'all. Tendernob is the best y'all. Dude. Can we have a get together of tendernob yelpers at a shitty dive and drink too much whiskey and beer and look like all the other degenerates stumbling around our hood? We can invite your favorite tranny hooker too. I know who mine is. read more

I miss you TenderNob. I love your urban streets, divey bars, swanky nooks and bohemian residents. I miss my quicky-mart, local movie theaters, walking to work, cheap dry-cleaners and 3am Osha runs. Those big bad housing developers pushed me out, but one day I will come back and make you mine again. I still tell people the "horrors" of living where I did, only to keep them away from your sweet architecture and large murphy bed closets. Don't forget me...we shall meet again. read more

Sure, it ain't the nicest or prettiest kid on the block, but there's some damn tasty food (like http://www.yelp.com/biz/-T5R_Ie7VmpUHP4O8n8EHg), and you've gotta admit - for neighborhood names, it just don't get much better than TenderNob. I mean, really. read more

Oh-I miss it so...moved away for the usual reasons...parking (lack thereof), noise, old lady SCREAMING out "can you turn the music down" at 3am every night when there was no music. But, I miss it dearly....sigh. read more