Went here to watch my band mates play with their other band playlist. Live music is always the best! Especially when you know the band. First off this place looks small from the outside, but when you get inside it's pretty spacious. They have 3-4 pool tables, and enough tables and chairs. Bartenders and security are pretty friendly. Drinks are pretty good and the prices are average. I noticed that they was a small party that was celebrating someone's birthday, so that was pretty cool. The crowd is pretty good and diverse. Everyone was just having a good time with no drama. I will definitely come back again soon for live music and a couple of drinks with friends soon! read more

See all

Its a chill vibe. Bartenders are nice and like their energy when I chat with them. So far ive seen good energy, but if it changes, ill post another. read more

This place is pretty good and better than your typical dive bar! It's in a Really good location, the music is really good, the bartenders are nice, and the drinks are strong. I would probably say this is somewhere between elevated dive bar with the pool tables and somewhere along a club with People dancing and the security there too. Pretty fun spot read more

First time here and mimi makes the best michelda hands down!!!! She made me and my wife feel like family... i will forever be a customer thank you mimi read more

Will give zero Stars it available. Open arrival to willow den which is one of our go to bars we orders two drinks. To be honest he didn't tip on our first drink because of low on funds. On the second order the bartenders said he didn't give use good service because we didn't tip. When we confronted him about it he said we are no longer served here and we should leave. Horrible customer service will not return unless the owner replies. Bartender is a big guy with small pony tail thinks he owns the place. Don't get served but this bartender very disrespectful. Images added. read more

The Willow Den - The bartender - Bars Near Me - San Jose, California

See all

Came here a few times and I think they had new management cause I've never had an issue until this day. I was there to watch a game once the game was over one of the security told me that I was gonna have to put on a button up shirt cause it was going into the club hours and so I happened to have a shirt in my car so I went to get and put it in then came back and was told I wasn't gonna be able to come back in mind you I had some friends inside and had just got a beer. So we all left because they definitely weren't letting me back in. So I never wanted to go back till a friend invited me and I reluctantly ended up going just to get turned away because I had a tan champion sweater on. So I never went back after that and most likely never will again read more

Bartender, Debbie, is very nice. However, owner seems to do his best to make certain people feel unwelcome. Not sure why. Isn't the goal of any good business man to bring in good customers and to make as much money as possible? Anyway, I gave it a try and will be taking my drinking business to cleaner and more welcoming establishments. read more

What more can I add? Great low key bar that doesn't smell like a dive bar. Located a little outside of downtown Willow Glen on Lincoln St. The Willow Den borders on perfection. I'm a sucker for kitschy decorations. The 70s disco lights, and old album covers, along with the other bric-a-brac covering almost every square inch of the barroom is enough to stir nostalgia in even the crustiest of souls. The drinks are reasonably priced. Bear in mind, this is a proper bar with no food. Well, actually they do serve chips and peanuts, and munchies, but no burgers and fries, etc. But a few doors down, there is a pizza place (Jake's Pizza) and the Willow Den staff was very kind about letting us eat our pizza at the bar. The only downside for me was the two jukeboxes going at the same time- gets very distracting. Also, this bar has all of your favorite dive bar trappings, besides the heavy handed cheap drinks, like shuffleboard, karaoke, live music on weekends, some pool tables, and even a stripper pole if you need those sorts of distractions while taxing your liver. read more

The Willow Den - Gettin' my drink on at the Willow Den - Bars Near Me - San Jose, California

Went to my local bar to chill after work for a beer and the bar attendant Mimi was awesome. She is very friendly and very talkative. Lol

The older bartender guy is super rude. I sense racism because he treats me differently than everyone else and has a different tone. (I'm a black woman lol). He's very aggressive and not friendly and forced me to ask how his day was going when I asked for a drink .. He makes it very awkward when I go in, also the little bouncer guy at the door is odd. But idk might just be drugs. Anyway wouldn't ever recommend if you're a POC. There's some pretty cool places downtown though lol read more

So I just went here after about six months, And now they won't let you play hip hop on the jukebox. That's a lil discriminatory towards all the genre Of music that is in there. Crazy right read more

Great place and cheap drinks! people are always fun. They also have a great food truck parked outside most weekends.

Has to be my favorite place in the area to play pool. Drinks are great, service is great, and the tables are well kept.

Well well well. Everyone already knows this is a dive/shitty bar. How does one/Hans make it worse? Charge a $10 cover. GTFOH. They're doing their best at reimagining Willow Den at the consumers cost. So be it, I won't come back and unless you want to pay to pay to drink don't come here. read more

This is a dive bar. Don't expect anything else. Bathrooms were dirty, music was okay, and it was mostly men and maybe 3 other women besides our group. This place wasn't my cup of tea read more

Chilling at the bar minding my own business. Customer told me to leave so I did. No problem. Next

I had the displeasure of visiting this establishment. The bar owner has zero interest in creating a welcoming atmosphere. We had been inside for over 2 hours. My boyfriend went outside to vape and upon re-entering he had his blue sweater tied around his waist from leaving the earthquake game. The "owner" walks up rudely and says "no flagging bro". We didn't even know what that meant. I asked if I could hold it for him and he repeated the same thing. As soon as I said "we were already in there and how are you coming over here as the owner with a joint in one hand and a beer in the other, unprofessional" he yelled "she's banned, write a yelp review" and storms off like a child. A review was never going to be on my mind but here you go, here's your yelp review that seems to match the rest of your 1 star reviews. The owner is unprofessional, raciest and quite frankly a dick! I'll spend my money elsewhere where the customers are spoken to and treated correctly. read more

Steve had to be one of the rudest and worst doorman I've ever came across. I usually love willow den and the vibes and was super surprised to come across his curtness. read more

Love this little hole in the wall dive bar. They have pool tables, darts, and a set up for beer pong. The bartender Annie was amazing, she went above and beyond. The drinks are pretty reasonably priced and are strong. I will definitely be back whenever I'm in the area. read more

The Willow Den - Patron tequila sunrise - Bars Near Me - San Jose, California

See all

As soon as I walked into this place it smelled like feet and someone's unwashed booty! Ordered a drink and it was weak. Filled with ice l, no way there was enough room for a shot of vodka and some nasty tasting cranberry juice. Not even named brand cranberry juice.m! $14?! Nope, never coming here again. read more

Decent drinks. Sadly, one of the bartenders has an annoying habit of throwing empty bottles into a recycling bin behind the bar. Every few minutes, Crash! Crash! Crash! She must find it amusing, but no one else does. Come on, don't startle us. We just want to enjoy our drinks. read more

Just moved to San Jose and discovered this spot thanks to my boyfriend. Justin is awesome! Fun lively spot with good music and pool tables. Always have a great time when I go. read more

Not sure what happend to this place. Always looked forward to coming here as it's the only cool spot for 21-40 year olds to chill in my neighborhood. It used to be a fun divey bar with fun atmosphere and good music. Now it's still a divey bar but with a more "mature " audience and a live blue grass style band. Felt a mix of being in the middle of a biker bar and a retirement home all in one. Boy do I miss what this place used to be. No more fun music but definitely a band catered to the "willow glen " stereo type. Guess we wont be coming back, until I'm retired possibly. read more

Zayn knows what's up! Great tender location is super chill too, good music and everything

Best dive bar around. Pool. Live music. Good bartenders. No more DJs which is better for me because I don't like giant club scenes.

Great dive. I imagine a lot of young people come here (a sign near a DJ booth warns No Hip Hop of Fri Sat Sun), but I went to see a classic rock cover band and have never seen a lovelier group of cougars. If I was 55 and single, this is where I'd go. I'd walk up to the old people and tell them I have a bingo dauber in my pocket. The correct response to that, ladies, is calling O 69. Good venue- small stage but it has lights and a disco ball. Also, there's a giant Jenga and a long shuffleboard in a corner of the bar. Staff was cool- he made two of the wrong drinks, and let me keep them both. Hmm... i should order them wrong on purpose. "NO, I didn't say Titos and cran, I said Fritos and cran". And there's a bunch of bras hanging from the ceiling. I guess that's because this place is the tits. read more

Mimi and Justin are the best! They make not only great drinks but are just great people!!! 10000% recorded!

This place place freakin' SUCKS! The sad thing is that I live right around the corner from this spot! So on my boyfriend's birthday we (his friends, him & I) had decided that after dinner that we wanted to hang out, have a few beers & celebrate his birthday; so we thought the Willow Den would be a perfect spot. Nope, BAD IDEA! The bouncer who was dressed super scrubbed out wouldn't allow my boyfriend to come in because his "pants were too baggy", are you kidding me?! That's the funniest thing I have ever heard because he was wearing FITTED corduroys, a black FITTED thermal, a peatcoat and really nice loafers! I WAS PISSSSED! Because we had told our friends to meet us there and there was already 15 people parking up and getting ready to celebrate his Birthday. Overall, this place is a joke. Ohh & let me add that this was a WEDNESDAY NIGHT, AND he allowed two WHITE guys with BAGGY CARGO SHORT and SNEAKERS in right after declining us. ROFL!!! Then again, I should've seen that coming because if you noticed in the Yelp photos for this place, there's only pictures of WHITE PEOPLE. Don't get me wrong, I am not racist at all, but come on, lets be real. Also, to the drunk sloppy "white washed" Asian girl that was groping on every guy in front of the bar and friends with the "security", can suck it! Definitely not coming back! read more

Fun memories in a crap hole. I was introduced to this place several years ago after my friends bf, now husband, brought us here because his buddy worked there. And of course security would stop me at the door with some nonsense about dress codes. The worse time was all my white friends (one wasn't even wearing shoes) went in past security without a problem. And then the guy stopped me. "We can't let you in, no baggy pants." "Really? Because the white guy over there in that neato us flag tank top has some baggy ass shorts practically falling off his ass." (My pants were relaxed fit to be fair) "Uhhh, your shoes..." "The guy you just let in has no shoes. What else do you got?" At this point the friend at the bar is yelling at security to let me in, and they finally do. The best part is that another bouncer comes up to later to apologize for their racism and they were told by the owners to harass blacks and mexicans, which must suck as, at that time, most of the security staff was black. That was 3 years ago. The friend who works there was telling me they changed. A whole new staff. No more racists. The same group of people went last night, apparently there's now a large chain linked fence in the front (for your security) but there's a "vip" entry in the back. We go there, dude with a clipboard was like we don't have your name and makes go to the front, and another guy took us to the back and through deductive reasoning, figured out how Facebook works. He then takes our IDs, and went ok, white; ok, white; ok, asian; ok, white; whoa hold up you're brown..."I'm gonna need another form of identification." The other best parts were watching the security at the front barely run their metal detector wand over the white patrons but black or mexican damn near were molested. Thanks Willow Den, you suck a sack of shit. read more

I've never been to bar that has a metal detector, takes a picture of your ID and records your information including your address. I guess the Willow Den is taking proactive measures to prevent all the stabbings and crime. I hope this place can recovery from its biker bar status. I was really hoping for a drink at a decent dive bar but instead I found the staff had an attitude. Place smelled like black mold in the bathrooms and drinks were weak. I'd rather drink with my mom.... At last her bathroom is clean! read more

The owner is creepy. Takes advantage of women. I was drinking with my sis, I was also seeing one of his bartendersthat was working that night, which my man let him know too. The owner got us drinks and seemed super friendly, we were all chatting it up. When my sis went to the bathroom, he randomly grabbed my boob. I was in shock, and told him he had no right to touch me. He laughed and shrugged his shoulders. I threatened him, and told him he can't treat women that way! He got up and walked away. I told the man I was seeing, and apparently the owner was saying racist remarks throughout the night aswell,, that was just the cherry on top.. so he quite. Will NEVER go here again. Woman, please do not go here. I've heard worse stories from other women. read more

Came here with co-workers to play some pool. I was singled out by the owners for wearing a red Vans shirt (after being there for over an hour) and asked to leave, even though there were plenty of other people wearing red in the establishment. I thought they were joking at first, but they actually stood around waiting for me to leave. When I tried to find out why, I was told they just don't like the color red and no further explanation was given. Humiliating, felt like I was back in grade school with the crips and bloods. Definitely would not recommend this place to anyone looking to chill and enjoy themselves. The bartenders were great but ownership is a joke. read more

Very cool club but for my 1st time was not good so I give them 2 stars you ask WHY ? Well let me tell you ! I was dancing to music while waiting my turn to play pool some old guy came up behind me and grabbed my ass I shoved him and he goes tumbling on the floor I'm a girl I did not push you that hard but in the process of that The security is telling me I have to go because I push the guy I was explaining to him that he touched me in a way I did not like the security said I still had to go I was the victim in this situation and I still got put out and the guy Got to stay I honestly feel it was a racist thing because I was the only black girl there tonight so I do not think I will ever go back I also have a video of the whole situation but it will not POST BUT I WILL KEEP IT AND KEEP TRYING TO POST IT !!!! read more

Pros: + decoration + atmosphere and ambiance + staff + nice cocktails+ heavy drinks Cons...huh...I dunno...maybe toilets could be cleaner? I mean it. Seriously. We went there on a Friday night, the crowd seemed ok. I had a really fun time with a couple of friends. They got pool table, jukebox and old video games. Nice place for getting drunk in loose in early evenings. When we left, bunch of security guys was there filtering people...cops showed up at some point...not sure how safe it is in late nights but do go check it out it's a fun place! read more

Fun spot, live music, great beer! Come here with friends or ready to meet new peeps Have fun and be you. read more

Just went there on last Friday night to play a pool. Put my name on the list and it was my turn to play it but the owner said "it's his place and he is one who decides to play next and it was he is turn" I explained to him how it's not fair cutting people in front of him even though he is the owner and he got super aggressive said some racial slurs! what a way to run a business even his own bartenders and securities were apologizing from me because of his action. read more

I love this place. This is my home bar :) I'm confused as to why there are so many negative reviews. This is a fun bar filled with a lot of young people, bartenders, bouncers and patrons. There is no racism! Every size and color is represented. People need to stop getting their feelings hurt over stupid little nit picky bullshit. Bartenders have to deal with a lots of bull on a daily basis. Give them a break! read more

See all

I hate to write this, but any bartender who is an actual bartender should know to leave personal life at the door when they walk on shift. Bronson, was not just extremely rude but did not give an ounce of attention or regard or respect to my friend and I. I was unaware about the dress code policy, and my friend was more then willing to take off his hat so we could finish our night with a game of pool and a drink. Considering I worked with him and his EX girlfriend at another bar, he decided to kick us both out within 4 minutes. I do not understand why personal issues should interfere with other patrons good times. I will come back since I have moved into the area, but I definitely will avoid his shifts. We came to support a fellow co worker and he treated us like complete shit. read more

My friends and I came here for drinks one night, and she had to pull money out of the ATM. She attempted to pull $60 dollars out, but the machine seemed to freeze in the middle of the transaction. One of the bartenders working there told her the machine was broken and we should head over to the liquor store next door. My friend asked him if he would keep an eye on the machine, just in case it dispensed her money since the transaction was never canceled. While we were next door, he comes running over with the money and tells her that the ATM actually dispensed it. Automatic 5 stars for this establishment and their employees for such honesty and integrity since he could have easily pocketed it and we wouldn't have known. This has definitely made all of us fans of the Den. But, besides that, this place is super chill to hang out at. Great place to watch some sports games, listen to live music and drink some beers. Definitely not overpriced or pretentious for Willow Glen. read more

I'll admit when we pulled up and were sitting in the car, I was thinking, ummmm.....nope! This place is all dark from outside and looks like a biker bar. It is located right next to a tattoo parlor. Hello? But we all gained some inner strength and walked inside wearing our blazers and cardigans. What can I say??? This place is interesting, it is dark, but filled with average people wearing hoodies. I liked their music, booty bumping songs. Warning, my friend ordered a beer and she paid $5 and she said it tasted strange. So she ended up just not drinking it. You might be better off getting mixed drinks here, since their beer tap might be spoiled. read more