Philadelphia Bars Tier List

Update - 7/7/2024:

Here is where I'll post any new bars that have made the list, along with the reasoning for any changes to the list from when I posted it a year ago. All obsolete sections of the original article have been removed, but the rest of the article holds true. 

Rankings Change:

Monk's (A Tier to S+ Tier) - The food and environment here is simply too good. Every time I go to Monk's I wonder why I don't always go to Monk's. Without a doubt, one of the best bars in the city. (original review moved/modified accordingly)

Fringe Bar (D Tier to C Tier) - Fringe bar can be a middling waterfront bar, but during Eagles games, they project the football onto a movie theater screen. PBR's are cheap, and they're streaming the game on cable. One of the best places to watch the birds.

Source Brewery (B Tier to C Tier) - It was too forgettable an experience to justify being ranked with bars as good as Dirty Frank's.

Pistola's Del Sur (Moved to top of C Tier) - This is just putting it closer to B tier, and also doubles as a ranking for their other location in Center City.

Khyber Pass (A Tier to S+ Tier) - For the same reasons as Monk's, but easier to get a seat and open later. (original review moved accordingly)

Buffalo Billiards (S Tier to A Tier) - Dropped down one tier since it can get overcrowded and the billiards are pretty expensive. Still one of the best places to hangout in Old City

Fado (F Tier to D Tier) - Original review: Fado feels like a middle school dance and has staggeringly below average food. Updated review: However, the trivia is great, which warrants a D tier.

New Additions (grouped by tier)

S Tier - Grace & Proper (South Philly): Grace and Proper is a super chic cocktail bar with excellent food that looks like it's someone's home. A great date spot, and a nice place to have a cocktail or two, it's one of the best places I've been for either.

A Tier - Four Places: The four new additions to A tier are increasingly fancier dinner first spots. All have excellent food. The first is Paulie Gee's in Center City, which is a time capsule into the 1980's pizza joint aesthetic that also has a bar. Getting a little fancier, there's Triangle Tavern (South Philly), which is equal parts dive bar and excellent restaurant both aesthetically and functionally. Race St Café (Old City) is very similar, but without the dive bar aesthetic. Finally, Tria is a wine bar in Center City with fun small plates. Not a full bar, but I'm told by wine drinkers that their selection is excellent. The staff were also very kind the past few times I went. 

B Tier - Cartesian Brewing + Nick's Roast Beef: Cartesian (South Philly) is grouped with all the other breweries because they all offer a similar experience. Good beers and interesting pop up food options. Nick's is a dive bar/restaurant combo that is in B tier solely because there are plenty of places close by you can get a similar experience, but that does not take away from Nick's being a great time.

D Tier - Paddy's Pub (Old City): It's the one that the show is inspired by. It's very fitting that the most popular TV show about Philadelphia (It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia) named their bar after an establishment that still allows smoking, requires cash to pay, and has intimidated many a tourist looking to go there (check the Google reviews). This ranking is exactly where any Paddy's regular would want it to be. 

--Original Article--

Methodology/Bias

In tiering these bars, I used a loose set of criteria to score them on. Not every bar offers something to satisfy each criterion, but they acted as a framework for sorting each establishment into a tier. Each establishment is graded on price, drink selection, and food (if applicable). However, when appropriate, I wanted to account for any unique characteristics of a bar like a dancefloor or an arcade. You get the gist. 

These characteristics contribute to the “feel” of a place which, in the end, is the most important to me. A place can be lacking in certain areas, but if it feels great to go sit and have a drink there, that makes it a good bar to me.

Grading partially on “feel” will inherently lead to bias in my list. I believe it’s best to acknowledge these biases on the front end so that if you do not share them, you can take these rankings with a grain of salt. If you do, however, share some of these biases, this list can be a pretty good guide to the types of bars in Philadelphia you’ll enjoy. 

The non-negotiables for me are: long lines to get in, covers for non-dance bars, and a crowd so large that it is difficult to get a drink from the bar. All of these actively work against the enjoyment of a bar, so if a bar has any of these characteristics, there’s a good chance it’ll be near the bottom of the list. 

On the positive side, one of the easiest ways for me to enjoy a bar is live music. As long as it is baseline competent, it will enhance the experience tenfold to have live instrumentation over just a playlist (although a good DJ is always welcome). I considered location but am obviously biased towards my neighborhood of Old City, which is the easternmost part of downtown Philadelphia. Finally, for bars that weren’t also considered restaurants, good food was a plus. 

Bars are loosely ranked within the tiers themselves.

S+ Tier - Best of The Best

Bob & Barbara’s (South Philly)

This is the best bar in the city - you just need cash. Opened in 1969, the place hasn’t changed much since then. Wall to wall Pabst Blue ribbon decorations and prices that are astoundingly cheap make going to Bob and Barb’s feel like traveling to a bygone era. 

Always crowded, never packed, there is live music every Friday and Saturday, Karaoke every Sunday, and one of the longest running drag shows in the city on Thursdays. Reliably open until 2AM every single day, it’s hard to find a better place to grab a drink. Just pull out cash beforehand to avoid the ATM fees.

Sto’s/Old City Beer Garden (Old City)

Open during the warm months of the year, OCBG is the outside extension of Sto’s. This is my local dive bar, so the bias is obviously strong with this one. However, I feel this ranking is still appropriate as one of the best dive bars in the city. Inside, you can play board games, shuffleboard, and occasionally beer pong on a dedicated pong table. Outside, they have basketball, pool, and plenty of other bar games fit for an outdoor setting. 

The drink menu is comprehensive enough that everyone will be happy, and the friendly staff have excellent taste in music. Whether watching a game (except Pitt, it’s the Pittsburgh University bar), catching up with friends, or just grabbing a few drinks on a weeknight, it’s hard to find a better place to go than Sto’s.

Frankford Hall (Fishtown)

Right in the heart of Fishtown, Frankford Hall is the most versatile bar in Philadelphia. There is something there for everyone. Despite being a beer hall, they have a full bar for non beer drinkers. For the beer drinkers, a slew of German beers and other imports are sold in half and full liter steins to cement the Oktoberfest look and feel of the place. 

The building and outside area, which is open all year round aided by bonfires and heat lamps, is enormous which prevents the bar from ever becoming too packed. Occasionally, it can be difficult to find a table inside. They have some board games, multiple ping pong tables, and a pretty good kitchen to ensure everyone in the group enjoys at least one thing while at Frankford.

Locust Rendezvous (Center City)

Locust Rendezvous is the perfect example of a bar that absolutely nails “feel.” Locust Rendezvous has good food, good drinks, good prices, a jukebox, and a reliable schedule (11AM-2AM every day). All of these would seemingly contribute to a bar that is good but not great. “The Vous” avoids these allegations by captivating a truly singular feel compared to any other bar in the city. 

A long, thin, one story establishment, it can get crowded quickly, but it is a great bar for almost any occasion. Personally, I’ve been there for sporting events, birthdays, dinners, dates, and work happy hours just to name a few. This ranking is probably the hardest to defend via writing, since you truly have to experience The Vous to understand its incredible vibes. 

Good Dog Bar (Center City)

Literally around the block from The Vous, Good Dog is the only bar in this tier to be food-forward. That does not take away from the drinks they offer, though. A thorough beer list and creative cocktails supplement one of the best bar food menus I’ve ever tasted. Their food is so good, they got a visit from Guy Fieri on his show Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. 

Converted from a three story row home, Good Dog has a bar and booths on the first floor, a dining room on the second floor, and a pool/darts room on the third floor to accommodate any type of evening you’re trying to achieve. The tables are reserved for customers dining, so if you’re thinking of getting any food, do so in order to take advantage of the seating. Availability is what puts Good Dog at the bottom of the S+ tier, since it can sometimes be hit or miss when trying to get a table. Other than that, excellent establishment. 

Khyber Pass (Old City)

Right in the heart of the action on 2nd St, Khyber Pass is affectionately referred to by my cousin who just moved here as “The Bar With The Food.” That’s because their Cajun-inspired menu is one of the more unique on this list and never fails to deliver a good meal. They also have a stellar beer list that is constantly rotating, and they even let you know what’s up next. Also a late night spot, it’s hard to go wrong at Khyber. They have plenty of punk concerts on the second floor as well. This is a better version of both Kostas & Interstate, hence the higher ranking.

Monk's (Center City)

Monk’s claims to fame are their beer list and their burgers. Monk’s is notoriously one of the hardest beer lists to get onto in the world, let alone the United States or Philadelphia. It sounds crazy on its surface, but the Beer Bible is world renowned to any beer enthusiast. The hamburger is the best in the city for my money, and I haven't found another burger that comes close.

S Tier - Great Bars

These bars ended up being overwhelmingly similar, so I will be reviewing most of them in pairs.

Winston On The Water (Old City/Delaware River Walk) & Trestle Inn (Chinatown)

These are the two best dance bars in the city. Winston, as the name suggests, is right on the Delaware river, but does not fall victim to the shortcomings of the other waterfront bars (which I’ll get to later). As sort of an “if you know you know” bar, it’s a great dance floor with an even better view. 

Trestle Inn is an intimate dance bar where the DJs are mixing vinyl live every weekend for a $10 cash cover. Adding to the retro feel, they have Go-Go dancers dancing on stages around the bar to really liven up the dance floor. With a big enough group at either place, you can really own the dance floor and have a great time listening to great music. 

Fergie’s (Center City) 

Fergie’s, hosts live music, karaoke, poetry nights, and standup comedy twice a week. They're also open later than most of the other establishments around them, and never get overwhelmingly crowded. Full warning, if you want to watch a game, they do not have any TVs. They do, however, have a menu full of traditional Irish food and solid pub food.

Kostas & Interstate Draught House (Both Fishtown)

With Kostas and IDH, it’s a matter of how hectic you want your bar experience to be. Both of these are fantastic restaurants disguised as dive bars, with Kostas being in the dead center of Fishtown and IDH right on the edge of the action. Kostas is legitimately some of the best Greek food in the city, and I have yet to find a better place to get tater tots or vegan takes on popular bar food than IDH. 

Kostas, by virtue of being in the center of everything, is a little dirtier, louder, and more crowded than IDH on average. However, if you’re going to see a show at the Punch Line in Fishtown and want to get dinner and drinks beforehand, there are not two better bar/restaurants in the area.

Victory Brewing (Ben Franklin Parkway) & Misconduct Tavern (Center City)

Both of these are the perfect expression of a sports bar. Both get reasonably crowded, Misconduct more so than Victory, and they both offer bar food that will make any dad watching six different NFL games on Sunday want to go back. These are so remarkably solid yet unspectacular bars that they usually are the starting point for an evening, but they are so good at what they’re designed for that it must be recognized. These bars are like the equivalent of a three point specialist in basketball. Every once in a while, they’ll score forty points in a game, but you can always count on them for at least twelve. That consistency is valuable.

A Tier - Really Fun Bars

Firstly, Nut Hut has since closed which is truly tragic. RIP to a Fishtown staple. I’ll review the similar bars in this tier together, but the unique ones on their own.

Tattooed Mom (South St.)

Tattooed Mom is a diamond in the rough on eastern South St. They fully embrace the dive aesthetic: the walls of the entire top floor are graffiti, there’s a pool table, drinks are cheap, there’s an old school jukebox, the lights are dimmed at best, and the music is loud. The only thing keeping this from S is its location on South St. Hard to get to and far too hectic to be deemed totally safe, this bar is an Uber-in, Uber-out ordeal. However, they have excellent food and specials running most weeknights. One of the best dives in Philadelphia.

Franky Bradley’s (Gayborhood)

This dance bar falls a tier below Trestle and Winston due to how packed it can get. Right in the middle of the Gayborhood in Center City East, this bar has great foot traffic and mobility to other locations as well. They charge a cover which keeps it from getting out of hand, but the dance floor is always full. They have good DJs, one of which put up a sign that read “I do not take requests.” Massive respect to that guy. They emphasize inclusivity due to their location in the Gayborhood which is great because any friend group can go there and feel safe. No place does a last minute dance bar evening like Franky Bradley’s.

Murph’s (Fishtown) 

Murph's would be probably B or C tier if not for having some of the best food anywhere in Philadelphia. Bar or restaurant. However, it sits only in A tier due to the menu being the star of the show. It is a claim to fame that you really have to experience to believe. Murph’s is an Irish pub that makes incredible Italian food. In true Italian tradition, on Sundays, you are only allowed to order your food in quantities of two. Like any Italian grandmother, they literally force you to eat as much as they will give you. Being cash only is a bit of a drawback, and Murph’s is significantly harder to get a table at during most nights. Regardless, these bars will blow you away with their food and drink menus.

Graffiti Bar (Center City), El Techo (Center City), & Morgan’s Pier (Old City/Delaware River Walk)

These are bars with pristine locations, but a few drawbacks keeping them from the upper, upper echelon. Graffiti is attached to an excellent Asian Fusion restaurant, Sampan. It is behind the restaurant and an alleyway, yet has a staggering amount of natural lighting. This is also partially what keeps it from higher tiers since getting in is inconvenient due to how small and tucked away it is. But it is a perfect place for a happy hour if you can swing it.

El Techo is much bigger, but also can be pretty difficult to get into since there are no reservations and they carefully monitor the number of people in the bar. That being said, it is a relatively high rooftop right in the center of the city that also has a retractable roof if it begins raining.

Morgan’s Pier is right on the water, but if you’re getting there any later than 7:30 on a weekend, prepare to wait for quite a long time in line. I have seen lines for that bar that take as long as 45 minutes to an hour just to get in. Now imagine how packed to the gills it is once you arrive. However, on off hours it’s a really pretty view of the river with good drinks and food.

If having to rank these bars on location, food, and price, it would probably look something like this:

• Food: Graffiti > El Techo > Morgan’s Pier

• Price: El Techo > Morgan’s Pier > Graffiti

• Location: Morgan’s Pier > El Techo > Graffiti

Strangeloves (Jefferson University Campus Center City) & Black Sheep (Rittenhouse)

These bars are grouped together because they’re my two favorite places to play trivia in the city. Full disclosure, I have not played trivia (Quizzo as we Philadelphians call it) many places in Philly, so I do not speak with an overwhelmingly informed opinion. They both offer solid food, and Strangeloves has really good happy hour deals. Both of these places make great date spots. 

1518 (Center City)

1518 is another Center City bar that wins on vibes. That and having awesome food. With the interior of a fancy restaurant but the feel of a dive bar, 1518 is good for work lunches, happy hours, a non crowded Center City Sips trip, or a nice dinner right in the heart of the action. 

B Tier - Nothing If Not Enjoyable

This tier ended up being the most clustered tier. Since this is right before the “aggressively average” C tier, most of these places are clones of each other. This led to the following groups: breweries, dive bars, restaurant-focused, and others. I’ll separate the reviews into these groups as well. Since all of these bars are a baseline level of fun, I’ll try and point out the unique qualities in each rather than try to describe what makes them the most fun.

Breweries

Love City Brewing and Yard’s Brewing are right around the corner from each other, and are nearly identical in feel. They are pretty good at everything, have decent food, and close early. While Love City is ahead on the list, they’re dead even as Love City’s food truck compensates for it not having entertainment like Yards’ pool tables and dart boards.

Evil Genius is right under the train tracks in a bit of an “off the beaten path” segment of Fishtown, and it would be much higher on this list if the beer names weren’t absolutely absurd. You try looking another adult in the eyes and say “Can I have a ‘There’s so much room for activities’ and ‘Is butter a carb’?” These beer names are unique and good for branding, and many of them taste pretty good. I just simply cannot participate in the charade of pretending it is normal to speak that way. The taproom has plenty of board games and also sells wine so that non beer drinkers can enjoy it there too.

Crime and Punishment rounds out the brewery group. It is tucked away in BreweryTown, an unofficial neighborhood in Philly on the north west side of the city. This makes it quite difficult to get there on any public transportation other than the bus. The beers and food are excellent, but the location and weird hours keep it from being anything other than a place you go specifically for their beer and or food.

Dive Bars

There’s a bunch of these, so I’ll try to be as thorough as possible. Dirty Frank’s is an introductory dive bar for people who normally go to the popular bars in D and F tier. A cash only place with touchtunes, if you can find a space inside it’s a good time. Mac’s Tavern suffers from being right next to Sto’s. It is the “You vs. the guy she told you not to worry about” meme personified. Other than bathrooms, Sto’s is better at just about everything. Mac’s has a great actual bar, though. Like, the physical bar you sit at is really comfortable.

Brownies is another Old City spot and is the diviest bar in the city that I’ve been to (Locust Bar a close second). This is proven true by it being the bar where most of the bartenders I know go to hangout. Pool table and games upstairs are a big plus. Locust Bar is right off of Jefferson’s campus and is as barebones as a dive bar gets. Touchtunes, full bar, some booths, and some classic bar arcade games like the golf machine.

Happy Rooster and Oscar’s Tavern are both in Center City and couldn’t be more different from each other. Oscar’s is an astoundingly cheap, cash only Locust Bar with a worse bathroom and no games. While Lucky Rooster has a vintage feeling interior and bartenders seemingly in uniform. They also had an outdoor seating area where a DJ would play on weekends until construction took it over. All of these dive bars are fun if all you’re really looking for is a bar.

Restaurant-Focused

I have to add the caveat for Lucha Cartel that I have not partaken in one of their Friday or Saturday DJ events. As someone who commits on the dance floor despite not much actual dancing ability, I’m patently terrified to be around a bunch of people who actually know how to dance to the authentic salsa music the DJ is playing. Those are professionals whom I cannot hang with on the dance floor. That being said, they have solid Mexican fare and their drink list is pretty good.

Han Dynasty (Old City) is mostly a restaurant that serves Chinese-American food, but if you’re looking for some of the classics like General Tso’s or beef and broccoli, you’ll need to go to a “Chinese takeout” place. This is not to say the food is bad, it’s good. Their bar offers good Asian beers that can be hard to come by outside of Chinatown. Lots of sports on the tvs makes Han Dynasty a good place to have a truly chill night at the bar, as there’s minimal music playing.

Jerry’s bar is another place I’ve been to for mostly trivia. The trivia is fun, the food is pretty good, and the drink specials are affordable. I’ve heard it can be a fun date spot, but it is just outshined by too many other bars to justify a ranking anywhere else.

Other

Assembly Rooftop lounge is difficult to get into since it is a hotel bar, and the prices reflect that. But if you’re able to get up there, it’s a great view of the Ben Franklin Parkway and City Hall. Victory is a more accessible, more affordable bar right down the street with a rooftop that is a few stories lower, but gets the job done.

Time is such a weird evaluation. In a vacuum, if you read my methodology and biases for this review, a bar that has live music, a touchtunes room, and a dance floor should be way higher than B tier. However Time is truly on a night by night basis. My personal success rate at Time is about 25%, but those nights it was fun, it was an absolute blast. Really tough to (no pun intended) time it correctly, but on a good night Time can be outstanding.

Barcade and the bar literally named “Bar” are like cousins. “Bar” has touchtunes and less entertainment options, whereas Barcade has food and a full arcade. Hence the name. The food at Barcade is quite forgettable, and both of these places have entertainment options to get you to spend more money. Whether it’s tokens for Barcade or coins to play bubble hockey or billiards at “Bar,” you’re going to spend more money than you thought.

Vintage Wine bar is another tough evaluation for me as someone who doesn’t drink wine. My friends who are wine drinkers say it is enjoyable, and I’ve had fun there a few times. The food is pretty good, and it’s in a great location which really helps. My bias is strong in this ranking as I have no reason to put it this low other than I don’t really drink wine so I don’t ever have reason to go. If you like wine, I’d recommend this place.

I tried to come up with a thoughtful write up for Cavanaugh’s Rittenhouse, but I think my notes on it encapsulate my feelings as succinctly as possible: “worse version of Misconduct.”

C Tier - Other Places Do It Better

This was, by far, the toughest tier for me to compile. All of these bars are just… fine. There’s nothing that really stands out about them, nothing they do exceptionally well, and nothing that they do markedly better than other similar bars. Rather than review these individually within the groups that they fall into, I will just review the group as a whole.

The sports bars are City Tap House, Urban Saloon, Bar’Ly, and Wooly Mammoth. City Tap is great for March Madness since they can turn their one enormous TV into 16 smaller TVs. Overpriced otherwise. Urban Saloon is electric for games, but good luck getting a seat if you’re not there hours early. Bar’Ly is an oasis at the edge of Chinatown, but always crowded. Wooly Mammoth is in the midst of South Street and too small.

The next group is the super popular places: Uptown Beer Garden, Woody’s, and Bok Bar. Uptown Beer Garden is an outdoor bar in Center City that can get too crowded to move around in, but they do decorate for Christmas so it’s recommended you go there rather than wait hours in the cold for the 15 minutes of Instagram pictures that is Tinsel (the other Christmas bar). Woody’s is stimulus overload, for better or worse. The most popular bar right in the middle of the Gayborhood, it is always packed, has a huge dance floor, and is deceptively large. This leads to it feeling like running a marathon by the time you leave. Bok Bar has a great rooftop view of the city, but doesn’t even have a full bar to offer, and you have to walk through a school to get in, which feels weird to say the least.

The others in this tier are simply just forgettable. Cherry St. Pier has the feeling of a pop up bar, but is open year round. Milkboy South St is tiny and not worth the few extra blocks from Old City. The new Boot and Saddle bar, Solar Myth, is also a coffee shop during the day but doesn’t offer draught beer or rum. Triple Bottom is just a further away version of Yard’s/Love City. Kelliann's has fine food, but isn't really near anything. Source brewery is near a bunch, and gets overshadowed by just about every place close by. National Mechanics has nice brunch, but making a dance floor out of a bar that used to be a church feels strange. Pistola’s del Sur has a disappointing menu of Mexican fusion food, and Devil’s Alley is just near too many other good places to be worth a visit.

D Tier - Fun Only On One Condition

The bars in this tier escape F tier because they are capable of fun, regardless of how difficult said fun would be to achieve. Concourse has a huge dance floor, excellent speakers, and a ball pit if you’re really trying to get down and dirty on the floor. McGillin’s is the oldest bar in Philadelphia, but falls victim to a phenomenon I call “the rotisserie.” This is when an overwhelmingly popular (read: hot) crowd goes to a bar and just spins in circles talking to only their friends, not unlike a chicken spins around heat lamps on a rotisserie. Garage Fishtown deals with this too, and both are best visited during off hours. XFinity live is mostly for after going to a live event at the stadiums. Cavanaugh’s Riverdeck and Howl At The Moon are college bars where you’re really wasting money by paying the cover (Howl at The Moon offers happy hours occasionally to avoid this). 

The only thing keeping UBahn from its neighbors Bru and Tradesman’s in F tier is that it is outstandingly well air conditioned. Giovani’s has the feel of a pizza place just trying to get rid of some spare alcohol, and if you watch a lot of pay-per-view, Rivers Casino will let you watch for free while buying your drinks. 

F Tier - The Worst Bars In Philadelphia

These are the bars with zero redeeming qualities. The novelty of axe throwing takes about fifteen minutes to wear off, and Kick Axe plays some of the most “sad dad drinking alone” music I’ve ever heard. Plough and the Stars is far too loud, has only ok food, a rude wait staff, and former employees have told me of a toxic work culture. Voyeur has a $30 cover. Disgusting. And yes, it’s spelled wrong on the tier list. The only time Ladder 15 was enjoyable was when I went to a work event there with a crowd of about 60 and was not paying the bill. Drinkers is full of college kids, so yes, I’ve had fun there once, but cannot in good faith go back. Bru is a crowded nightmare, and Tradesman’s is a multi-story crowded nightmare. JJ Bootleggers is the only bar on this list I have not been to, however I rank it last because they are known for lenient ID policies. No thanks. 

Never Been/Want To Go

Never been (mostly by choice):

Fishtown Tavern, Bottle Bar East, Chinatown Beer Garden, Las Vegas Lounge, Con Murphy’s, Cleaver’s, Spin, Tinsel, Barstool Sansom St

Want To Go:

Cuba Libre, Johnny Brenda’s, El Bar, Thirsty Dice, Charlie Was A Sinner, Garage Passayunk