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    Keys Jazz Bistro

    4.7 (111 reviews)
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    Updated 3 weeks ago

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    Prairie Sage Martini
    Tonya C J.

    Service was impeccable, drinks unique and delicious, atmosphere chill. Might be my fave bar we visited when in SF.

    Freda Payne at Keys Jazz Bistro
    Tony V.

    What a find! I saw on Facebook that Freda Payne would be appearing at this club I'd never heard of. The whole experience was great. Got there a bit early, and had a drink while I waited to be seated. They seat in order of arrival, although the room is so intimate there's not a bad seat in the house. The dinner was surprisingly good and the staff was friendly and attentive. And Freda, as she has been since I first saw her in 1978 (at the Mocambo, anyone remember that nightclub at Polk & Sutter?) was fantastic.

    Mary Bryan O.

    I visited on a Saturday night for a private cocktail hour, and it was such a great experience! The service was super friendly and attentive. A highlight for me was when the head of food and service overheard me talking about wanting a Manhattan- it was in front of me before I even asked! The performance area was cozy and intimate. We ordered a few appetizers to share. The Manny's Mexican Cesar salad was fresh and flavorful, and the sausage rolls were perfect for snacking. We didn't order full meals but the meat pies looked really good and seemed like a reasonable portion. Most importantly, the live performance was fantastic and made for a unique Saturday night!

    Entrance to Keys Jazz Bistro.
    Randy F.

    I've always wanted to come to this venue because when you go to different jazz events, it's always mentioned by jazz musicians as a place to enjoy jazz. What really stands out are the acoustics which are great. I sat towards the back at the counter and got a great view straight onto the band. Reasonably priced drinks. Especially so for a jazz club. The people who work here are especially friendly and welcoming. Definitely recommended for a pleasant night out listening to some jazz.

    Candace R.

    I found myself with no plans on my birthday so I took myself out for a show here, as I've been wanting to visit for a few months now. Purchasing tickets online was easy, and presuming it's not sold out, you can also buy tickets when you arrive. I wasn't sure how busy it would be so I arrived a little bit into happy hour to grab a bite and relax before the show. The bartender working that night was a treat, super helpful and nice and welcomed everyone in. I will say the lounge reminds me a bit of an office lobby, but it was comfortable and clean which is all that matters. I was seated first and got a great seat up at the front. The room is small but not too small, which I appreciate for a jazz show. I couldn't tell but it felt like a fairly full house when the show started. The owner, who was also helping out at the front, introduced the space and the band which was nice because I had no idea how the club came to be. I wasn't familiar with the band but they were excellent and put on a great set. Things that made me sad: Not sure if it's by design but the show started at 7:30 instead of 7. The food was okay (I had to saw through the tart with my fork). The drinks are DELICIOUS and also truly more than I would spend on a regular night out (signature drinks average $20) but there is no drink minimum so that's good. With that said, I'll absolutely return and would recommend it to anyone who is looking to enjoy an excellent jazz show in a beautiful room.

    Cable car
    Taylor J.

    Woot! I got lucky enough to visit Keys in SF for a nice evening of Jazz! I was in SF all week for work and wanted to spend at least one evening listening to some great music. After a bit of a search via yelp, I found Keys Jazz Bistro. I had spent about an hour at The Dawn Club and Keys was the perfect 2nd spot. I was able to catch the last 45 minutes of the 9pm show and a great trio was playing. Everyone in the room was having a great time! While I was there I had a glass of wine and a cable car cocktail. The cocktail was delicious and served in a lovely and vintage inspired glass. Super cute end to my Jazz night! I love venues like this which are relaxed and unpretentious. If I ever find myself back in SF, I'll happily make my way back to Keys.

    Blair P.

    Exceptional place to listen to jazz. Great sound system, superb musicians, low key classy ambiance, barren walls so the focus is the music. There's a great food and drink menu, plenty of wine, cocktails, beer, apertives etc and Australian meat pies amongst other nibbles and goodies. The servers come around regularly to check on you. They have a monthly jazz club but we came for an evening and paid $40 each for a show on a Saturday night, will return. Recommend; love me some jazz, and this spot is the vibe.

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    27 days ago

    Love everything about Keys. The food, cocktails, ambiance, and especially when Jack Tone Riordan plays guitar.

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    Page 1 of 3

    Ask the Community - Keys Jazz Bistro

    Parking near keys jazz club?

    Parking is pretty hard here. We usually end up about 3-4 blocks away. But it's free in the evenings. Do not wear heels. You will have to walk up and down hills.

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    Review Highlights - Keys Jazz Bistro

    One of the owners, an incredibly charming Australian man named Simon, led the band with remarkable organ playing.

    Mentioned in 15 reviews

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    My husband and I hired Nova Jazz as a quartet for our wedding in spring of 2026 and they were…read morewonderful to work with! Easy to communicate and plan with and their performance really elevated our reception. We let them know what kind of vibe and tempo we liked ahead of time and they did the rest choosing songs to play for the reception to keep things upbeat without being overpowering. Daniel checked in with us at various points throughout the night to ensure the vibes were right and if we needed any adjustments. Nova Jazz also was able to play a special request song outside of their listed repertoire for our first dance which we really appreciated and was very special for us. We'd recommend them for weddings and any other special events when you want extra pizzazz!

    Working with Daniel and his band was all around an amazing experience! After reading all the…read morereviews and listening to a few of their videos online, I knew I wanted Nova Jazz Band to play at my company's 30th Anniversary celebration I was planning. TLDR; they exceeded every expectation from start to finish, and Daniel made everything completely stress-free. From our very first correspondence, Daniel was very friendly, quick to respond, knowledgeable, and incredibly professional. The music was phenomenal - very classy and perfect for our occasion. The band totally nailed the vibe. Daniel's attention to detail was next-level. He thought of all the little things that usually fall through the cracks - from what songs should play during the band's breaks, to how the sound system was set up, to which speakers the recorded music should come from. He even coordinated with the venue director to make sure there wouldn't be a single hiccup. Basically, he handled every possible thing before I could even think to worry about it. Everything ran like clockwork and I couldn't have asked for a better experience. Daniel and his team went above and beyond in every way. I can't wait to hire them for a future event! Highly, highly recommend!

    Photos
    Nova Jazz Band - Photo credited to Dennis Hearne

    Photo credited to Dennis Hearne

    Nova Jazz Band - Photo credited to Dennis Hearne

    Photo credited to Dennis Hearne

    Nova Jazz Band - Photo credited to Dennis Hearne

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    Dueling Pianos at Johnny Foleys - James and Noah at the dueling pianos. $20 cover. Fri/Sat 9-midnight.

    Dueling Pianos at Johnny Foleys

    3.9(364 reviews)
    0.9 miUnion Square
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    The dueling pianos on Fri/Sat is great fun. $20 cover. 9pm-midnight. James and Noah play…read morerequest-only songs. 2/5: Non-alcoholic old fashioned $16. I am done with cocktails made with non-alcoholic spirits. They don't work. Stick to the NA beer. 5/5: Irish soda bread & Butter pudding $12. Just the right amount of soaked bread. Bailey's custard sauce is great.

    Oh, Dueling Pianos! I had such high hopes for this experience, and it's really unfortunate that one…read moreinteraction with Noah, managed to ruin what could have been a great night. Let's start with the good, because there actually was a lot of it: Security -- great. Funny, charismatic, and welcoming as we entered. Bar staff -- great. Attentive, helpful, and quick with our food and drinks. They checked in on us regularly throughout the night. Drinks -- delicious. Well-balanced and flavorful. Food -- great for an after-dinner outing. The truffle fries and potato skins were perfect snacks. Other customers/patrons -- AMAZING. The people around us were fun, friendly, and clearly there to have a good time. With all of those positives, I really wish I could give Dueling Pianos a much better review. Sadly, the reason we actually went, The Dueling Pianos Show, is also the reason I don't think we'll ever return. Our group of four arrived a little after 9 PM on a Saturday night. We happily paid the $20/person cover because I've been here before and always had an amazing experience. It was "Requests Night," so patrons were invited to submit song requests along with a monetary contribution. After spending $80 just to get in and another $200 on food and drinks, we felt a $5 contribution for a song was reasonable. Apparently, Noah didn't. We requested anything by Mac Dre or Too $hort, or, if needed, "All the Small Things" by Blink-182. One of the musicians on stage was absolutely amazing! He was incredibly talented and honestly worth watching on his own. Unfortunately, throughout the evening, Noah repeatedly made comments implying that if you actually wanted your requested song played, you needed to contribute more than $10. Side note: Apparently Noah's wife was also at the show that evening, which made his repeated emphasis on how much money people needed to give him for requests even more interesting. It was a little sad that the money seemed to become such a major focus of the performance. After about 90 minutes without hearing our request, we decided to cancel it and request our $5 back through Venmo. Could we have just left the $5 as a tip? Absolutely. But earlier in the evening, Noah had publicly joked about another customer accidentally "requesting" money instead of "paying" through Venmo. We thought requesting our $5 back might give him another opportunity for some lighthearted comedic relief. It did not! Instead, Noah became offended and proceeded to improvise a song about us, calling us out by name and disrespecting us in front of the entire room. What could have been a funny, harmless interaction quickly became uncomfortable and unnecessarily mean spirited. And apparently, we weren't the only ones who felt that way. Two parties who had just entered saw what was happening and immediately decided to leave in support of us. Another customer, someone we didn't even know, went to the bar staff because he was so disappointed by how we were being treated. He even told them, "I really don't think they should pay for anything here." That honestly meant a lot. So did the bartender's response. He encouraged me to write this review and said he would be informing his manager about what happened. I understand what Dueling Pianos is. It's live music. It's comedy. It's audience interaction. You might get teased. You might become part of the joke. But there is a difference between playful crowd work and publicly humiliating paying customers because you're upset they requested their $5 back. That distinction matters. And, for the record, we never actually received that $5 back, despite Noah repeatedly insisting, while berating us from the stage, that he had returned it. I have great memories of this place pre-COVID. Saturday nights used to mean a line around the corner, a packed dance floor, and barely a table available. Last night, the venue seemed maybe 50% full. I genuinely hope this experience isn't representative of what Dueling Pianos has become. The staff treated us well. The drinks and food were great. One of the musicians was incredibly talented. And the kindness shown to us by complete strangers was probably the best part of the evening. But unfortunately, Noah's behavior overshadowed all of it. One performer turned what should have been a fun girls' night out into an experience that lost not only our patronage, but the recommendations we would have given to our friends. And that's really a shame, because we came ready to have a great time.

    Photos
    Dueling Pianos at Johnny Foleys - NA Old Fashioned. $16

    NA Old Fashioned. $16

    Dueling Pianos at Johnny Foleys
    Dueling Pianos at Johnny Foleys

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    Black Cat - Chocolate cake:)

    Black Cat

    3.5(530 reviews)
    1.1 miTenderloin
    $$

    We had a great time listening to some great music from June Cavlan and band. The main seating area…read moreis on the lower area and is a nice traditional jazz bar setup with a good amount of seating and dimly lit ambience. The stage is small but enough for a small combo band with full size piano and good sound system. This was a bit of a learning experience for us as we discovered that there was a minimum food order of $30 per person in addition to the $50 we prepaid per person for the cover charge. We ordered a Double Smashburger with fries, additional side of parmeson fries, dinner salad, glass of wine, and mineral water. The hamburger, fries, and parmeson fries were delicious. The salad and dressing was good. The waiter was kind enough to let us know that there was a $90 minimum for our table of 3 that had not yet met. We decided to order 2 desserts. The Chocolate Ganache dessert was fantastic. The second dessert we ordered was a Guava Flan. There only a handful of dishes that I have ever eaten that have made it to my list of #1 worst dishes I have ever had. I was the last to try the Guava Flan and my party was eagerly waiting to see my reaction since they had already tasted it. The Guava Flan was unfortunately horrendous and not edible. I am not sure if it had gone bad or if the one who made it had issues with their taste buds or what...but it was absolutely the #1 worst tasting dessert I have ever had the displeasure of having. Aside from that, we had a great time. We will keep in mind the additional table minimums should we return to this establishment.

    Such an interesting RIDICULOUSLY OVERPRICED adventure…read more Outside location: Horrible! Homeless, junkies... whatever Inside location: let the fleecing begin! -$50 per person for the table reservation ($100) . No problem - there was a note saying $20 per head min. Order. No problem But in reality.... eventhough we ordered 2 prefix dinners, which should have covered the minimum... on the final bill additional $32 added for fees ($8,8 +16)...Humm... so this 80 minute adventure cost me $220 ($20 was tip I left). The gouging was so bad I would have left 1 star. Left 2 stars -because the space itself is nice... (minus the fact that you are packed in like sardines. I felt couple in front of us was literally at the same table ‍, they weren't that's just how close the tables were placed. For more context... we were 3 tables back from stage, but I could clearly see every drop of sweat on the perfomers face). - good sound system (very loud) -food was good.... actually felt the food was the highlight of the evening. - service was ok, but not noteworthy. Side note: eventhough most of the crowd was mature in age.... there is no elevator and the stairs are not well lit. Seems like a bad recipe for falls, but on this evening no emergencies. ‍ .....‍‍‍ describes the evening

    Photos
    Black Cat - JustKing Jones and band

    JustKing Jones and band

    Black Cat - The offered dinner was better than expected, and the deserts were delicious too!  These were two favorites.

    The offered dinner was better than expected, and the deserts were delicious too! These were two favorites.

    Black Cat - The beautiful wine I brought for the night :-)

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    The beautiful wine I brought for the night :-)

    Keys Jazz Bistro - jazzandblues - Updated September 2026

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