Casual German beer and food... the best deal in town!

Steins, you kind of rock. Maybe it's because it's Oktoberfest right now, but this place was fantastic. Food and drink are a little pricey, but I'd love to come back. Right now, they have a special deal for a liter(!) of an Oktoberfest beer for $10. It's a fantastic deal. Other than that, highly recommend getting one of their sausages ($12), which come with mashed potatoes and sauerkraut. Kick back on one of their benches or a bar stool with some German fare, and watch the Giants on one of their many, many flat screens. Guaranteed good time. By the way, they have an outdoor patio as well. If it weren't in the freezing Richmond, that would be a great place to spend a Sunday watching football. read more

German food in New Chinatown? Ja! This is genuine German fare. We dropped in to cheer ourselves up on a quiet Thursday evening. The 5 big screen TVs showed sports with the sound off that night, and while the tables were actually fully occupied, there was a quiet mood in the house. The waitress let us know what was good this evening, and what was out, and then let us peruse the menus at our leisure. Although she dashed up and down the room like a greyhound, she apologized for her slowness. We didn't mind, she was definitely moving faster than we. My Lady picked the goulash, with a substitution of mashed potatoes for the spaetzle, and I selected the jaeger schnitzel with spaetzle - apparently it was not on the published menu but it was definitely being promoted that night. We ordered a side salad for My Lady, and my salad came with my dish. I was very happy to discover a genuine Riesling Kabinett (1988), which was too sweet for My Sweetheart, all the more for me! There was a fair selection of desserts, and we typical Americans jumped at the chance to have apple strudel with vanilla ice cream, a popular item in Bavaria. The whole experience cost us about $65. We live in the neighborhood, about a 5 minute walk away. This is a walk I would take again, when I were in the right mood. read more

Came in to this place for the first time the other night for a beer with friends. We ordered a few liters and before we had the chance to get half way through them the staff informed us that we had to leave. When I asked why the girl working there told us they really can't serve past midnight. O.K.cool, THEN DON'T. It was more than obvious that this girl didn't want to be there. I guess we didn't get the hint when she turned out all the lights in the place with us still inside. Oh and staff of Steins, if you are going to kick paying customers out before they finish their beers you probably shouldn't serve your friends at the bar a new drink when we are walking out the door. Unless you want people to think you are jerks. WEAK SAUCE. read more

Terrible Food! This is a sports bar with a family staff that I guess lives downstairs at times, and a kitchen with frozen food made to order on Clement St. The only reason to go here is to get something different on Clement, but I would rather spend my money on the better restaurants that do get 4-5 stars in the neighborhood. Negative 2 stars for the food....most everything our 6 person party ordered was frozen, and then fried. Should I suggest more from bar food....YES! BAR FOOD DOES NOT COST $16 A PLATE! Cheap beer, chatty inattentive staff, and sure some wooden benches make this place different, but different is not always good. PASS!!!! read more

I kinda fallen in love with this place. Drinks are great and super reasonable. I love that you can pick the size. The cider is my favorite. Food is good but I probably wouldn't come for it. It's mostly a great add on to your drinks. Prices are very reasonable as well. Service has always been very good. They're quick to get food and drinks out. It does fill up and people usually don't crowd the bar so it's doesn't feel too packed. The floors stay nice and clean too. I like watching games here but some seats are a little better than others. We ended up staying for trivia which I didn't think I would like but it was a nice change up after watching the Warriors game. read more

Meh, not much to hate and not much to love. The beers are a good value at $7.50 per liter, but the selection was a bit weak (only one hefeweizen for example). The food menu was a bit sparse, and everything was fairly average. No one in our party had any real complaints about the food, but everyone agreed that nothing there was worth coming back for. If this was more of a drinking place I'd say it would be ok given the beer prices, but given the bright lighting, children, and lacking atmosphere they're obviously trying to be more of a restaurant than a bar. You could do worse if you're in the neighborhood, but this isn't a destination. Suppenkuche and Walzwerk are much better options in town for german beer and cuisine. read more

I wish I hadn't been pregnant when I ate here so that I could have hidden the taste of the food with inebriation from the beer. I haven't written a Yelp review before, but this definitely deserves one. The first dish they brought us was "Bruschetta" (ummm, why are you serving an Italian dish at a German Restaurant?) which consisted of cold, french bread slices, topped with Costco style salsa and pre-shredded parm cheese. Gross. The food arrived about 5 minutes after we ordered it. Clearly it was already made, sitting for who knows how long in the back. Those who had salads with their dishes gagged after one bite from the soggy, extra salty bagged lettuce (topped again with pre-shredded parm). The schnitzel was soggy and tough and the chicken was dry and flavor-less. The rolls were pretty good though (however I don't go to restaurants based on their rolls). The service was good as the waiter was attentive. I wish Steins lots of luck and ask them to reevaluate their chef and menu if they want to be more than a sports bar. read more

Family operation, super friendly and great service. Excellent beers, fresh and flowing. I want them to succeed, reading several comments here about the food, I agree it needs improvement. It's good to also to have bar food, but the concept might be a little confusing. It's billed as a German place and the German food I tried there was not so impressive, while not cheap. After all, Suppenkueche is the standard for this kind of food in SF and the chefs from Steins should go and try it a few times to find out why they are so successful, beginning with simple things like great mustards - a must! That cheap stuff they serve with the $ 16 brats is an insult. Best of luck to Steins and we'll be back soon and give it another shot. read more

Nice place with a forgivable identity crisis. The huge bar and spartan decor hints of trendy beer bar, but there are only 8 or so beers on tap. It was a very well selected 8 and I appreciate that it is not a purely German assortment. The literal array of TVs is geekily gorgeous and may make you think it's a sports bar, but half of the tables' seats do not face a TV at all. Fine for my dinner but seems unfit for a true viewing event. The food was great, on-par with stuff I've had at Suppenkucce. Service was also pretty good, the family run vibe was a very nice touch. Prices seemed normal. It's a great option when not feeling like Asian food in the inner richmond, I'll be back many times. read more

My wife and I frequent Steins at weekends, and I have to say if you like German beer, this is the place for you. Food is very good, but I really appreciate the variety of clean, cold imported beer on tap. All the staff are super friendly and really attentive, which is now rare in San Francisco. It's a mixed crowd of young and old, and if you want to watch a game, enjoy a good beer or wine and have a snack I can't think of a better place in the neighborhood. They sometimes have Andechs beer on tap, which I hadn't tasted in several decades, and for that reason alone I would always come back here. read more

Decent German place in Richmond San Francisco. More of a sports bar than a restaurant. Not the biggest choices on the menu, especially for traditional German food. I also wish they had a bigger German beer selection, more hefeweizen. The weissworst and spatzle were good. The goulash was good, although it is more of a Hungarian style with paprika. read more

I wouldn't call this place German. Just because they have beer, doesn't make a bar so. It's not well decorated and really doesn't feel authentic to me but more of a divey sports bar without decoration or character. The food was quite bad as well, we had bruchetta which was sour and we took a bite and left it, the Goulash was also very bad, the meat was hard, the sauce was watery and lacked any depth or flavor to it. Yes the beer was good and they have OK wines, but no liquor, so I can't really call this place a bar either. They do have tons of TVs and the layout is great for watching games. read more

I've been here a few times for brunch with friends. The service is fast and thorough and the food is tasty. Bottomless mimosas for $13... no rush to leave like other crowded brunch spots. The daughter in the business was helping us out. She checked my ID for the mimosas and noticed my birthday was the day before. None of my friends said anything to her.... It was all Stein's... they proceeded to come out and bring me a cute little mousse cake from Schubert's with a candle! It was very thoughtful of the people at Stein's! Will be back again soon! read more

Stumbled across this sports bar/restaurant while on Clement trying to find some good American food. I am SO glad I did because the food is really yummy and at reasonable prices!! It is also one of the few non-Asian food places within that area as well which was a nice change. We had the most wonderful server, too! I would definitely recommend the delicious German sausage sandwich as well! I would definitely recommend this place! read more

Great place to enjoy a pint and watch sports ...great beer selection and food selection . There are plenty of TVs and the bartender is awesome ! Had a great time here read more

We were here last week for a birthday dinner with about ten people on a Friday. I really enjoyed this place! To counter what others have said about the sister who is a co-owner, I found her quite friendly and accommodating. The whole staff that evening was super accommodating. We always had drinks at the ready (and the beer was fabulous!) and when we wanted a group appetizer the sister made up something on the spot. The food was good. I tasted someone's schnitzel and it was quite yummy. I myself had a salad as I filled up on beer, but everyone's plates looked great. I would recommend this place for a get together with friends any day. We will definitely come back. read more

Steins - A good time was had by all! - German Near Me - San Francisco, California

Imagine a sports bar and a Irish pub had a baby, that's what you get when you go to STEIN'S. Cool atmosphere and great food. My burger was clearly freshly made and charred perfectly. Also lots of TVs all showing the game (if you're into that kind of thing) read more

Sadly, this place is two thumbs WAY DOWN. Try it if you're in the area. You're better off spending the money to fly to Germany, or try the other established restaurants/bars. read more

Accessibility (Parking / Wait Time) 1/1 Star: street parking wasn't too hard to find but I think I got lucky. No wait to be seated. _____ Service (Waiter / Cleanness / Ambiance) 0/1 Star: Waiter wasn't good. Kept forgetting our waters. _____ Taste (0=Not Edible / 1=Edible / 2=Good (average) / 3=Must Try!) 1/3 Stars: the food is edible but was bad. Don't order food here, just get beers. Beer battered ship tasted like dirty water. Sasage sandwich was more like a hot dog. Gunush was tought, bitter, and a small portion. _____ Overall Experience 2/5 Stars _____ Last Words Do not eat the food! read more

My husband and I have been going to Steins for years, it is our local place we go to every Friday. In some ways everybody there feels like family. They are very friendly and helpful. Let me just say they always go above and beyond for us, even with my dietary restrictions. I love their food. Their wine is excellent for me and my husband loves the beer. They are very generous and overly accommodating to us, they pour huge glasses of high quality wine. Excellent service all around! read more

One of the main reasons that I miss SF is due to my friend Scott as he is amazing at introducing me to new restaurants. I passed through SF for literally 28 hours, but made it here on his recommendation. Its the perfect neighborhood for a German style restaurant and the schnitzel here was amazing. I also love me some 1L of Optimator too. The service (maybe it was the owner) was pretty solid too, as he really went out of his way to accomodate our large group. Only strike was that I was still hungry after polishing off their main entree, but maybe that is just me. Still, the food was tasty and I enjoyed the ambiance here. read more

I went there with a friend (who happens to be German) Sunday morning. The beer selection was small but the price for the beer was very good. I think it was $4/0.5 liter and about $7.5/liter. I was disappointed by the menu. It was mostly an American style breakfast. To be fair the breakfast food we ordered was done well. They also had enough TV's to show a few football games. Maybe they will show soccer games as well? Will have to go to dinner there and try out their schnitzel. read more

This place is absolutely fun for large groups! My party of ten came here, was sat down immediately on saturday night and ordered their special (I'm not sure what it was called, but it was about 30$ for like a lot of food. Just ask them about it!) We also got a giant 5L mug which was so much fun to drink. Everyone else at the restaurant was asking us what it was ..but they only had one! So we felt pretty special! The staff here is amazingly nice and friendly. I believe it is family owned and man do they really put in all the effort to make sure people here have a great time! We even took shots of jaeger with them! I highly recommend this place if you're in the richmond district, have a big party who wants to grab drinks+dinner, and have a great time! Some good memories here! read more

Really bizarre experience. The server was immediately offended that we sat down at a table before she could seat us and then proceeded to be rude the entire night - it seemed she took it personally that someone in the party didn't like the texture of strawberry cake. It was like the twilight zone. We spend money to eat and drink at your bar and you cause a scene and have zero customer service skills. Bravo. read more

So a quick disclaimer: This is still a new restaurant and I'm sure it's working out some kinks. I've been here twice and so far I like it. It quiet enough to have a conversation and loud enough to where you don't feel like you're in a ghost town. So far I've only had what is on the bar menu. A burger and a fish and chips, now I really wasn't that impressed the reason being is that the fries they use are those crinkle cut fries you would get in a school lunch. Using the crinkle cut fries for fish and chips is a no no and using breaded microwavable fish for fish and chips is a no no as well. Now the dinner menu is different, the food is awesome. Especially the rotisserie chicken which my buddy had looked magnanimous. So like I said, they are probably still getting things together but, it's worth checking out. The customer service and the ambiance makes it a place worth while. Oh and the beer selection is great. read more

Bratwurst was delicious and savory, as were the mashed potatoes. The sauerkraut was served warm. The wait staff was friendly, attentive and polite. The place is clean, and the ambience was warm and light. Street parking, but plenty of spaces available on a Sat. night. read more

They raised their liter prices :( but have excellent french fries.

It's definitely no biergarten, but what do you expect you're on Clement Street! Ironically, I'd count Steins as one of the cleanest restaurants on strip. Everything seems brand new including the flat screens, and cloth napkins are folded in neat triangles at each place setting (a little weird, but again everything was super clean). We went for brunch and had the goulash soup, club sandwich, and smoked salmon bagel platter. The goulash was hearty, rich and delicious! The club sandwich was totally normal with good BK-like fries. The salmon platter was fresh, but oddly served with an untoasted bagel (is that how they do in Germany?). It was very quiet on a Sunday afternoon with just a few couples at the bar watching the game. I imagine it doesn't have enough beer spilled on the floor yet to attract the real sports fans. I think the decor needs some work before people really get into this place. read more

Steins is a nice surprise. Expected beer garden food but everything is really delicious. Waiter is really attentive. Ambiance is really great, good lighting and booths for a bit more private gathering. Breakfast for dinner 2 is really good, waffles with a hint of mustard with mustard seeds and the pork belly is delicious. Pork steak and jambalaya is also really good. Having a great time. Just don't expect authentic german food. read more

It's nice to have a different flavor enter the Clement-street atmosphere. All I can say is that the beer is fantastic - not nearly as cheap as Germany, but just as delicious and satisfying. And just as important, the staff is friendly and welcoming. I would recommend Steins if you're looking for a comfortable place to watch your game, or to enjoy a mellow night catching up with friends. read more

After having come back from a trip to Munich's Oktoberfest, I was rather excited to hear that there would be a German spot around the neighborhood which in my mind meant german food at a pub or beer hall. Sadly, this is not what I had expected. Before it was Steins, this place was a Burmese spot, and prior to that, a random cafe. Even between that time, it was struggled and rumored to be an L&L's, but obviously that never went through. Now, it's Steins....neither solely a restaurant, solely a bar, or anything remotely close to any of those two for that matter. With 4-5 tv screens surrounding the bar area, you would think that the place would welcome a sports bar vibe. But looking behind you, you'll notice individual chairs and tables that make it look like that old diner that was here. I didn't quite understand some of the older comments from fellow yelpers, but I get it now. And with a food menu that seems so little with only one appealing factor, the German beef stew, everything else could really be passed up on. The beer is well, its beer and that doesn't change much. But frankly, there needs to be some change because for someone looking for a bar scene to watch some games and order some beer, it doesn't clearly present that environment, and with some people looking to sit down and eat (which may not be very many considering the menu) it needs to provide a more welcoming setting. The lights could be dimmed a bit because it just looks like a huge open space at the moment. Hope my comments get considered. Really wanna see this place succeed. read more

Always good! Good selection of beer and wine, food is great, the staff is friendly. The place is spotlessly clean.

Excellent schnitzel with mash potatoes with a beer for $20!! What a gem on clement! I'm definitely coming back!i

Beer, beer and more beer! All the fancy and tasty imported ones too. I am positive I ordered a beer that said it had holy water in it, blasphemously delicious! First time you've ever read those 2 words in a row I bet! The food is, meh. If you're hungry grab yourself anything, it's all average. The burgers are solid, but don't expect greatness, a bit dry. The area is very large so you won't have to worry about places to stand or wander. Drink all the beers ($7-10 each) and be beer happy here. read more

Staff is always friendly and food is great! I love their house red and my boyfriends favorite is the delicator. They are very generous with the amount of liquor they give for their pricing. Monday's are the best because they have trivia. The bartenders are very interactive with their customers which is great. read more

Oddly decorated Bar/Restaurant. Good (cheap) European beers. American food. TVs. Good Service. Nice Servers. That's it in a nutshell. read more

This is a great local place to grab some German beer! My boyfriend loves the Optimator and always gets a huge stein of it! The food is decent. I took one star off because the mac & cheese tasted like it had been microwaved. When I order mac & cheese I want it to be nice and cheesy and the pasta to be soft not rubbery. Besides that, everyone is really friendly in the place and they have a bunch of TV's to watch sports on!!! Enjoy! read more

My husband and I came here to check out a Warriors game. It was said to be a good place to catch the game in the Richmond. When we first arrived, it was about a half hour before the game was going to start. There was however no pre-game on the tvs. There were a couple patrons that asked if they were going to have the game on and the waitress said they will be showing it shortly. Just seemed a bit odd that a couple people had to ask before they turned the tvs to the game. It was 15 minutes before the game started that they finally changed it to the Warriors game. Just didn't have that homer feel for the Dubs game. The atmosphere was very lacking for a sports bar. Sadly this was the game that the Warriors lost to the Bucks to end their streak but we only stayed til half time at the bar. As for the food and drinks, we ordered the spicy sausage and some fries to share along with 2 drafts each. The sausage with sauerkraut was pretty good. Honestly for me, german beer is ok. None were very memorable as in WOW I need to get that again. The fruity finish just left me not wanting another. Overall service was ok. As for a place to watch a sports game, I'd recommend somewhere else to go like the Bitter End or Yancy's. Maybe this was an off night for the bar, but the Warriors were on a winning streak. Why the lack of enthusiasm? read more

Always great service everytime I visit. I appreciate the variety of the beer selections. A cool and hip place for grouos to hang out in the evenings and enjoy some company together. I look forward to my next visit. read more