SFReview
photo credit: Krescent Carasso
Louie’s Gen-Gen Room
This spot is Permanently Closed.
Included In
You know what was the best when you were a little kid? Breakfast for dinner. Pancakes and hot chocolate (AKA child coffee) are extremely exciting to eat post 6pm. Louie’s Gen-Gen Room, a tiki-esque cocktail bar, is here to bring that excitement back. But the question is: are waffles for dinner as exciting as an adult as they were when you were seven? Yes and no.
It is still definitely fun to eat waffles for dinner. It’s even more fun when you get to wash them down with strong cocktails, while sitting in a great room that makes you feel like you might be below decks on a cruise ship. The basement location beneath Liholiho Yacht Club is dim and lounge-y, with a 1950s vibe from the plates and glasses to the retro teal paint.
But as much fun as Louie’s is, waffles for dinner are only going to get you so far, even if they’re delicious and topped with things like burrata and bone marrow. We like Louie’s for a drink and a dish or two - if you want to go for cocktails and a snack before a late dinner, or before a show at Bill Graham, or for a 10pm dessert waffle, it’s awesome. But the menu (which, to be clear, does include a few other non-waffle bar snacks) still lacks the diversity you need to have a thoroughly enjoyable full-on dinner.
Another reason Louie’s only really works in specific scenarios: it requires advanced planning. It’s reservations-only, and each reservation is for precisely two hours. It’s a fun challenge to see how many drinks you can down in your allotted time, and - spoiler alert - you can also consume many, many waffles in those two hours.
So while you don’t need to plan your next dinner at Louie’s, you should plan a drinking and snacking session here. In reality, waffles for dinner might not be quite as excellent as when you were seven, but Louie’s reminds you that it’s still pretty great to be an adult.
Food Rundown
photo credit: Krescent Carasso
Potato Chips
photo credit: Krescent Carasso
Seafood Cocktail
photo credit: Krescent Carasso
Thinly Sliced Raw Beef
photo credit: Krescent Carasso
Avocado Waffle
Okonomiyaki Waffle
photo credit: Krescent Carasso
Bone Marrow Butter Waffle
photo credit: Krescent Carasso