If you're going to be here when music is playing, wear earplugs. I went here about two years ago and it was so absurdly loud that it gave me tinnitus I'm still dealing with to this day.
Teela Hamner
Kips is EXTREMELY HOMOPHOBIC and severely unsafe for women. A man was fetishizing my two friends for dancing together because they’re both women. We asked him 5 separate times to stop staring at two women dancing and he refused. A Kip’s security guard (Jo) watched the whole interaction and didn’t intervene until my 5’2” friend lightly pushed the (6 foot tall) perv away. Then he kicked our entire group out of the bar for being “aggressive.” He didn’t care when a man was making two sapphic women feel unsafe and only intervened to “protect” a straight man fetishizing patrons. Jo (the security) put his hands on my friend’s waist to forcibly push her out of the bar. He was touching her much more than necessary and not allowing us to discuss the situation, Jo exclusively yelled in our faces and pushed us. We asked to talk to a bar tender or manager and Jo would not speak to us and pushed us bodily out of the bar.
Jo said “two women dancing is provocative, you can’t get mad when someone looks” which is blatantly queer-phobic and misogynistic (Jo had no issue with the straight couple literally two feet away dancing significantly more provocatively so it was clearly a comment on two women dancing vs the type of dancing).
We had no desire to stay at Kips with such blatantly homophobic and sexist security, but Kip’s truly failed by allowing someone so clearly unsafe to put hands on patrons and refuse to hear us out or let us speak to other bouncers/bartenders. Kip’s should reassess its standards for who it allows to “protect” its patrons unless Kips wants to be known as Berkeleys most unsafe homophobic and misogynistic bar.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
Rohan Vikrant Tawade
Best (and technically only) club near berkeley campus. Cali's doesn't count.
Atmosphere: 3
Service: 4
Leila R
I’m leaving this review as a recent performer at Kips. I DJed a private event here and had a pretty bad experience. Upon arrival, there was nobody around to assist me with any kind of sound check. The one person who seemed to be in charge up and left when there were some difficulties saying “I don’t know” and storming away, leaving me to scramble through their audio equipment and cables (all of which was extremely dirty and sticky) to figure out how to make THEIR sound system work. It was very chaotic. The inside was hot, sweaty with 0 ventilation and 1 fan. The cherry on top was the staff member who came backstage to flirt with a couple of guests I brought with me, making sexual jokes, physical advances, and being completely inappropriate towards all of us. He made us very uncomfortable and we had to ask him multiple times to leave us alone. It shocks me that college aged students attend a place where staff behave like this, I can only pray this was a one time incident.
The same unhelpful staff from earlier proceeded to shut the event down early, harshly cutting all power and corrupting my USB drive by doing so. This was by far one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had as a DJ and I hope to never set foot in a place like this again.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 2
Service: 1
Chloe Goorman
This place is not for the girls. The men’s restroom is your run of the mill multi-stall, but the women’s restroom is just a single-use bathroom that feels like and after thought, was basically hidden, and had a significant queue (of the few women that were there). Why would you have a single-use restroom for women when our queues are already typically longer? Vibes = so off.
Atmosphere: 2
Mark Vasquez
Fun place good staff need more themed nights try to attract an older crowd.
Tru Nor
Regular since 2017. Terrible service by the server serving on the floor this weekend (5/16-17/2025). Train her better Kips!
Seemed like we were invisible to her. Even after 60+% in tips day 1 same attitude day 2, shocking!!!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 1
J.J. Perez
Kip’s has all the vibes and some cool light up ice cubes
Joya Stewart
I live in unit 3 and you guys are keeping the entire building up. It's almost 2 am. I live on the eighth floor and I can still hear every lyric on your awful soundtrack with my windows closed.
Min
It's just a typical bar for undergraduates. There's nothing particularly special about this place.
If this is the best place to dance at Berkeley, I’m sorry for the students who will never know a good place to dance. Someone please set up shop to end the lack of good places to club! Palo Alto has far better places.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
Liam Roche
Nice student-oriented bar with a dance floor and we'll priced alcohol
Atmosphere: 5
Service: 5
Rishab Malik
HEADS UP. The bouncers have constantly been allowing minors / underaged people inside. They DO NOT check ID’s at the door and they allow fake ID’s to go through. This place needs to be reported to law enforcement and ATF. I’ve legit seen high schoolers let inside on Friday and Saturday nights. DO NOT GO.
Troy Blanchard
**WARNING** We think this bar has gang or criminal affiliations. Weird charges showed up on the card we used for our drinks. Super shady. Do not go.
Atmosphere: 1
Service: 1
Justin Woo
Awesome Bar/Club! The bartender was very nice and made an awesome Red Bull Watermelon Margarita ?
If you're going to be here when music is playing, wear earplugs. I went here about two years ago and it was so absurdly loud that it gave me tinnitus I'm still dealing with to this day.
Kips is EXTREMELY HOMOPHOBIC and severely unsafe for women.
A man was fetishizing my two friends for dancing together because they’re both women. We asked him 5 separate times to stop staring at two women dancing and he refused. A Kip’s security guard (Jo) watched the whole interaction and didn’t intervene until my 5’2” friend lightly pushed the (6 foot tall) perv away. Then he kicked our entire group out of the bar for being “aggressive.” He didn’t care when a man was making two sapphic women feel unsafe and only intervened to “protect” a straight man fetishizing patrons. Jo (the security) put his hands on my friend’s waist to forcibly push her out of the bar. He was touching her much more than necessary and not allowing us to discuss the situation, Jo exclusively yelled in our faces and pushed us. We asked to talk to a bar tender or manager and Jo would not speak to us and pushed us bodily out of the bar.
Jo said “two women dancing is provocative, you can’t get mad when someone looks” which is blatantly queer-phobic and misogynistic (Jo had no issue with the straight couple literally two feet away dancing significantly more provocatively so it was clearly a comment on two women dancing vs the type of dancing).
We had no desire to stay at Kips with such blatantly homophobic and sexist security, but Kip’s truly failed by allowing someone so clearly unsafe to put hands on patrons and refuse to hear us out or let us speak to other bouncers/bartenders. Kip’s should reassess its standards for who it allows to “protect” its patrons unless Kips wants to be known as Berkeleys most unsafe homophobic and misogynistic bar.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
Best (and technically only) club near berkeley campus. Cali's doesn't count.
Atmosphere: 3
Service: 4
I’m leaving this review as a recent performer at Kips. I DJed a private event here and had a pretty bad experience. Upon arrival, there was nobody around to assist me with any kind of sound check. The one person who seemed to be in charge up and left when there were some difficulties saying “I don’t know” and storming away, leaving me to scramble through their audio equipment and cables (all of which was extremely dirty and sticky) to figure out how to make THEIR sound system work. It was very chaotic. The inside was hot, sweaty with 0 ventilation and 1 fan. The cherry on top was the staff member who came backstage to flirt with a couple of guests I brought with me, making sexual jokes, physical advances, and being completely inappropriate towards all of us. He made us very uncomfortable and we had to ask him multiple times to leave us alone. It shocks me that college aged students attend a place where staff behave like this, I can only pray this was a one time incident.
The same unhelpful staff from earlier proceeded to shut the event down early, harshly cutting all power and corrupting my USB drive by doing so. This was by far one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had as a DJ and I hope to never set foot in a place like this again.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 2
Service: 1
This place is not for the girls. The men’s restroom is your run of the mill multi-stall, but the women’s restroom is just a single-use bathroom that feels like and after thought, was basically hidden, and had a significant queue (of the few women that were there). Why would you have a single-use restroom for women when our queues are already typically longer? Vibes = so off.
Atmosphere: 2
Fun place good staff need more themed nights try to attract an older crowd.
Regular since 2017. Terrible service by the server serving on the floor this weekend (5/16-17/2025). Train her better Kips!
Seemed like we were invisible to her. Even after 60+% in tips day 1 same attitude day 2, shocking!!!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 1
Kip’s has all the vibes and some cool light up ice cubes
I live in unit 3 and you guys are keeping the entire building up. It's almost 2 am. I live on the eighth floor and I can still hear every lyric on your awful soundtrack with my windows closed.
It's just a typical bar for undergraduates. There's nothing particularly special about this place.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 1
Service: 1
Restaurantji Recommends
If this is the best place to dance at Berkeley, I’m sorry for the students who will never know a good place to dance. Someone please set up shop to end the lack of good places to club! Palo Alto has far better places.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
Nice student-oriented bar with a dance floor and we'll priced alcohol
Atmosphere: 5
Service: 5
HEADS UP. The bouncers have constantly been allowing minors / underaged people inside. They DO NOT check ID’s at the door and they allow fake ID’s to go through. This place needs to be reported to law enforcement and ATF. I’ve legit seen high schoolers let inside on Friday and Saturday nights. DO NOT GO.
**WARNING** We think this bar has gang or criminal affiliations. Weird charges showed up on the card we used for our drinks. Super shady. Do not go.
Atmosphere: 1
Service: 1
Awesome Bar/Club! The bartender was very nice and made an awesome Red Bull Watermelon Margarita ?
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
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