The Monk’s Kettle

Amazing beer, great service, cool ambiance, great interior and exterior seating. My friends liked the food though I didn’t try it. Highly recommend!

Great beer selection and tasty eats! The service received was split for me. The bartender was incredibly warm and attentive, whereas another worker was barely friendly and accommodating at all.
I would absolutely come back to enjoy the great selection of beer while munching on the steak, fries, and kale salad!
Warning though — it is fairly small so if you want to go after work or during other «peak» hours, know you will have a wait to get seating at the bar, in the dining section, or even outside (~ 4 tables set up on the side).

I loved this place! We came in on a Tuesday and Wednesday evening and enjoyed it both times. We were carded by Joel, the über cool doorman, who remembered us the second night and let us right in with our friends. Sounds like the type of place I could be a regular if I lived nearby!
The environment is nice. You can have a nice dinner here or have it as a stop on a night out. It’s a very tight fit, especially with a big party, so you’ll end up standing around the bar or the back side table, but that’s perfectly fine with the staff. Just don’t stand on the barstools to reach the upper chalkboards… you will get yelled at, obviously. The drunkies just didn’t understand… sigh.
They have an EXTENSIVE list of beer, domestic and imported, bottled, on draft. But the cost of having all these gems available to you is reflected in the price. It’s probably a few dollars more for the glass than your average gastropub, but you can try really interesting brews here.
On top of the great beer selection, they seem very popular for dinner. I am the type to get very hungry while I drink, so I ended up ordering the Monk’s poutine, just a monster of a plate. Fries smothered in gravy with a mountain of juicy shredded pork on top. Excellent portion to share! It was so good, everyone stopped creating their chalk masterpieces to have a few bites.
Service is fast. They check on you very often and deliver drinks quickly. You will probably get drunk quicker than you think. Overall, fun place that can be a chameleon for the type of night you plan on having, be it romantic date or night out with friends.

Located right in the heart of the Mission, this pub and restaurant is the perfect date spot conveniently between several noteworthy bars.
Known for their huge selection of beer, Monk’s Kettle seemed to have everything and more. The best part of the experience is taste testing, and I tried several, even if I ended up playing it safe with an IPA.
We started with some butternut squash soup, which was a decadent, not-​to-​sweet blend garnished with fresh herbs. A must during El Niño!
Next we split two entrees: the spent grain & chick pea burger, and the pan seared whole rainbow trout. Honestly, we couldn’t have ordered better.
The veg burger had so much texture and flavor, and was topped with tzatziki, roasted red pepper, and pickled shallot. Such an intricate blend, and a hearty portion. Certainly something you’d want to split, especially given all of the filling beer you need to consume.
The trout was just as delicious, and a lighter dish that paired well with it’s fennel purée-​squash-​apples-​pecans-​brown butter accompanying side. The ingredients felt wholesome and tasted delicious — not something you always necessarily feel about your side side. It was warming, and the spicy and sweets aromas made for the perfect winter dish.
I’d recommend getting here early, because it’s always packed. Start at the bar, and work your way to a table for a meal you’ll long for again, long after the fact.

It’s small. So get there early. But it’s nice inside. Light. Clean. Wood. They have really cool and beautiful taps.
I just came in for Beer. I’d like to return for food sometime.
There Beer selection is good. 20 – 30 on tap, MANY, MANY more in bottles. It did seem to lean towards the European style on the selection… I got an IPA made with Brett from Fieldwork in Berkeley. Pretty good. Crisp. On the light/​not hoppy side for an IPA.
Not cheap. I think it was $ 7.5 for my 13oz pour.

It has been way too long since I’ve been to Monk’s Kettle.
It has been way too long since I’ve seen my friend M.
And like reconnecting with anyone or anything you LOVE, it’s like no time has passed.
The Monk’s Kettle still has the same digs, ginormous beer selection and awesome bar food (now lunch food because I am old AF).
Unsurprisingly, M is still awesome.
Speaking of awesome, the double Brioche Pretzel thingamajig is my new carb crush ($ 10). Especially when dunked in the cheesy sauce. (Sorry mustard, but you know, CHEESE).
Speaking of twists, I enjoyed my side salad of kale, pomegranate seeds and fennel MORE than my fried chicken sandwich ($ 17). :sound of lightening striking: The former was flavorful and perfectly dressed and the latter was itty bitty.
M also had a nice looking salad but wasn’t wild about her oysters appetizer as they unexpectedly looked more like hushpuppies than oysters.
So note to self, double down on those brioche pretzels.
And triple down on the cheesy sauce.
¹²⁄₂₀₁₅

Great beer selection! If you’re in the mission and you want great craft beer, this is your place — it does get crowded at nights, so the best time to come is right after six.
We had their Putin fries, and they were alright. I thought the gravy on top didn’t go well with the ricotta, two soggy soft differently tasting textures just didn’t go tighter.
They don’t have Mac & Cheese, which would have been great with my beer. I talked to the staff and they told me they had it at one point, so maybe they’ll bring it back, fingers crossed!

Went here for dinner around 10:30pm. It was one of the few places that was still open within walking distance.
We shared a poutine. It was pretty good, though not really the typical gravy-​ful cheesy goodness you may expect. The best part about the poutine was definitely the pulled pork shoulder. It went well with the (slightly over salted but otherwise bland) fries. There wasn’t much cheese curd in this poutine.
I got a Kale salad, it wasn’t a good choice. There wasn’t enough dressing on it (other than oil) so it was pretty much just a plate full of raw Kale some bits of fruit.
My friends got the fried chicken sandwich, which tasted pretty solid. They come with the previously mentioned blande fries.

The Monk’s Kettle pretty much ruined the Mission District bar crawl for me, simply because there’s really no other place worth visiting in the Mission District after you’ve been (and have been promptly seated at) to the Monk’s Kettle.
Where to even begin. The food at Monk’s Kettle is out of this world; I’ve never once been disappointed with their Monk’s Daily Sandwich, and the charcuterie board is a home run if you’re just stopping by for a few casual drinks late in the afternoon. If you end up staying for dinner, like I usually end up doing once I see the lines forming outside, their trout is a delightful combination of juicy and chewy (two adjectives I don’t commonly associate together with fish), and I double dog dare anyone to NOT fall in love with their duck confit. It’s impossible, I swear.
The beers. By now everyone has that one friend who is absolutely bonkers about craft beer. When I say absolutely bonkers, I mean that this one friend is the one that drives four-​five hours to a different state for bottle releases, will look his nose down at you for drinking an IPA out of a nonic pint glass, and publicly shame anyone who thinks Blue Moon is a «craft beer.» Monk’s Kettle is kind of like that annoying friend, except he has an ulterior motive to be nice to you in that he wants your money. So imagine that the one beard-​toting, hop-​sniffing, pot-​belly-​having, brewery t-​shirt wearing friend suddenly had some sort of a lightning epiphany and decided he wanted to share all of his prized possessions with you (in exchange for money) and you pretty much have the Monk’s Kettle.
For those of you that speak beer, the Monk’s Kettle is one of two places that I can count on to carry Russian River Brewing Company’s Pliny the Elder on tap at any given day of the year. They also have around 25+ taps of beer, primarily from CA (Cellarmaker and Firestone Walker being the usual suspects) with some other choice curations from around the US and Europe. They also have an extensive, yet somehow rotating bottle list as well which includes a vintage ($$$) sour/​stout selection; a very curious selection of hard-​to-​find (albeit grossly marked up) Belgian beers with the likes of De Dolle Brouwers, Brasserie De la Senne, and Oud Beersel; and for extra brownie points, they also serve the original Leipziger Gose here as well.
If by some chance you’re that one absolutely bonkers guy and are still sporting a resting meh face even after reading the above paragraph, Monk’s Kettle is also a long-​time participant of Pliny the Younger Day (February); on top of that they regularly have themed tap events, like hosting a vertical of all the years and variants of Deschutes’ the Abyss, for example.
My advice for any beer-​oriented guy or gal looking for a good time in the Mission District would be to shut up and let Monk’s Kettle take your money.

I give it 5 stars for beer, 4 stars for food, 4.25 stars for size and atmosphere. Oh yeah, and 10 stars for dealing with my in-​laws who could not comprehend fire code and why we couldn’t squeeze three tables together in front of a window.
So, OK, beer. They’ve got a lot of it on tap, and in bottles, and some of it is stuff you want, others are not, and some of it is sweet, and others malty. Man, it’s all here. Seriously, you can get it if you want.
Food is very much small plates oriented, which is actually really great given the size of tables and the fact that they are easily shareable. Don’t bring a big crowd here (5), you won’t fit. You might be able to commandeer enough space outside, but that’s up to you. Do try the poutine with your group, as well as the meat and cheese offerings. I’d also recommend a sandwich, because they have some great ones.

Beer is their focus — but the bites, particularly the Oyster fritters, old bay remoulade 3 for 9, the Kale salad, shaved fennel & pear, pomelo segments, walnut vinaigrette for 13 and the Roasted sweet potato and leek risotto, aged parmesan, fresh herbs 22 are each excellent in their own right. Service — great attitudes and always done with a smile!

Huge selection of beverages.
Well-​organized beer menu with detailed descriptions (even a glossary!)
Friendly, attentive bartenders.
Food selection /​menu was unique & what was delivered to other tables looked amazing (although we didn’t order anything).
Keeping this spot bookmarked for future ref :)

Alright… I’ve been back to Monk’s Kettle several times since my original review, and it’s time to give a well deserved five star update.
The beer selection is still great… the food is better than before… and the service has been wonderful each time.
You truly are a fantastic upscale tavern and we look forward to our next visit.

5 words: best poutine in the city.
Seriously, try it!
Their beer selection is also impressive. Try the Modern Times + the Staffe. Yum!

I’ve been raving about this place to my husband for at least 6 years. When we finally made it here??? O.m.g.
My general advice is if you have 2 hrs to spare to get here over the bridge, 30 min to wait for a table, 20 min to take your drink order, another 20 min to take your food order, another 20 min to watch the tables around you who ordered after you receive their orders before yours and then another 30 min to get what you ordered then totallllyyyyyy come here.
I’m here right now on a Saturday, 2;30pm service. «Service.» Seriously if they wanted to serve their customers maybe have more than 2 servers for the entire, crowded restaurant. No beer is worth the hours I took to get here, park, order, eat and then leave. There are way too many beer joints around now for this kind of service.

I finally got to come here on a day off. I’m lucky that I got here early as the stool seating at the bar filled up quick. After looking at the menu, they had an entire list of entrees that reminded me of higher end restaurants. I just ended up getting a pretzel and I focused on the beer since the beer selection was why I came here. Most of the pours were less than a pint of varying strengths. I ended up trying the Imperial Pumpkin Sleigh’r by Ninkasi and the Le Terroir (Lips of Faith), both very high quality beers.
I’m glad that I got to come here and experience this place before it got extremely crowded. I would come back again for the beer selection alone but will try more food if possible.

*** In Short ***
Extensive beer menu with great food, but terribly long waits to get a table.
*** In Depth ***
Alright, so, extensive is a bit of an understatement. The variety of beers here number well into the hundreds, which normally means that someone like myself who doesn’t really drink beer would be screwed. Fortunately, I am blessed with friends that do, and do it a lot. And with hundreds of beers to pick from, it’s not entirely surprisingly that they actually found one that I enjoyed: who said choice was necessarily a bad thing (when you have someone else choosing for you, anyway).
Now, enjoyable as the beer was, the food was definitely the highlight. My friend proclaimed their burger to be the best she’s had in the city, but, well, I wasn’t so easily convinced about the worthiness of a $ 17 burger, so, instead, I went with their roasted mushroom risotto instead, which was absolutely fantastic: rich, flavorful, creamy, and very filling. My friend, kind soul that she is, offered me a bite of her burger, if not just to prove a point. That point being that, yes, their burger IS indeed incredibly good. Certainly among the best I’ve had in the city, but, having had Nostra’s raviolo burger recently, best is debatable.
My only qualms with the place? It’s certainly a little on the pricier side, but worse is the fact that they don’t take reservations, which, in our case, meant waiting for two hours before we had the opportunity to eat. But, if you don’t mind drinking while you wait, and you show up before you’re hungry, Monk’s Kettle ain’t a bad option.
***Accessibility Info***
Venue — While the place is accessible, maneuvering through the restaurant when it’s busy (so, basically, all weekend) can prove to be a little challenging with the narrow walkways. The tables and counter seating in the very back don’t pose any height difficulties though, that being said.
Bathroom — In the very back, so, assuming you can make it back there, given the aforementioned, the bathroom itself is totally accessible.

A real disappointment. We came with a party of 10 for dinner on a Friday night. Understandably, the place was packed and we expected a wait. After an hour or so, they said that they would have to split up our tables, but because one table was already free, the first half of our party would need to take our seats.
Ok, so we parted ways and took our seats. We put in some drink orders while the rest of the party remained outside, waiting for their table to open up which took another 20 – 30 minutes (and was located in the other corner of the restaurant). We didn’t want to order our food until the other half of our party was seated, because we didn’t want to finish our entire dinner before they had even started… Thus we continued to sip on our drinks. However, our procrastination only lasted us for so long and we were told that we needed to put our food orders in as soon as possible if we were to stay at our table. We were essentially forced into ordering before the other half of our party was situated.
The food ended up being mediocre and overpriced. The beer selection was good, but nothing noteworthy. The entire experience was a huge letdown, being that we really wanted to experience what was known as one of the city’s greatest gastropubs. We just weren’t impressed with anything at Monk’s.
(Props to the door man, though. He was probably the nicest and most patient person there. He really tried to help us out.)

Special Sour Event +1
Great outdoor area +1
Wide range of beer choices +1
Consecration (AMAZING sour) +1
Friendly Host +1
Pretzel was good and fries were done well but couldn’t taste the hop notes
Overall Thoughts
What a serendipitous event for us to stumble onto Monk’s Kettle for their special sour event, will definitely be back to try Monk’s other options

With 20 seats at the bar, 20 seats inside, and 20 seats outside, everyone can enjoy good beer or good food at Monk’s Kettle. They have 28 beers on tap (whoa!), but the variety of beer will blow your mind. Pages after pages of beer adds up to about two hundred beers! I really dig the glossary (beer terminology) in the back of their menu.
The bar is really nice to look at, and the bartenders are knowledgeable and attentive. It’s a perfect date spot even if you’re sitting at the bar. :)
I heard the food here is bomb diggity, so I’ll definitely be back to try the food (and drink more beer)!