Chee-Chee Club

If you’re looking for a dive bar, this is the place! Just far enough off the main strip that the bar doesn’t get crowded. Cheap drinks and they’re always planned some old 80s or 90s movie. The bar felt welcoming and grungy at the same time I would definitely go again.

This a great little dive bar. I love that the local artists can sell their art here too. No food though. It's truly a bar and is a fun little place to hang out.

Exquisite caviar is a myth in Southern California ... Everywhere but at the world -renowned Chee Chee. (And strangely affordable, too. How do they do that? Best kept secret in SD).

If you plan on going here, it’s cash only so take money out of your bank or pay the fees for using the ATM there. Wait times for the pool table are not long and the atmosphere is always pretty chill. The bartender is super cool as well..

Came in for a whiskey neat! Dark, classic rock, old school tender! Dive bar if that's what you want it to be. Thanks Chee Chee's! See you again .....

We are stoked on our neighborhood spot! Can't believe how nicely it's cleaned up, prices are reasonable, local art is great, and the company is a hoot.

Awesome bar. Decent prices. Very low-key.

Awesome dive bar and good beer! My wife and I were visiting from out of town and this was one of my favorite bars. Everyone there was really nice and the service was great! The only thing keeping this from 5 stars is that they were cash only.

March 5, 2024 and it is 9pm. Their website says they're open as does Yelp. Well, walked 6 blocks through the unlighted streets/sidewalks and dodged numerous urban campers only to find it closed. Off to "Time Out."

Honestly a waste of time, went to an after party and it was cramped, bad drinks, good music, but they can't charge a door/cover charge and pretend to be a dive bar. All the bad aspects of a dive bar and none of the good

A group of us came here as we waited for others to arrive in the area for dinner. We each got a mixed drink. Total was $20 which isn't too bad. Forewarning the place is CASH ONLY. There is an ATM machine in there. There is also two pool tables and art on the wall that can be purchased. Overall, is a chill spot.

The service was abysmal. Some twink hung up on me because i asked about their menu. I go to BED!

Had two completely different experiences with this dive bar. The first night, my friends and I came in for a drink and some pool. Drinks were cheap and strong. Bartender was a taller slender guy-- was attentive and friendly. 4/5 stars. We enjoyed the divey ambiance so we returned the next night. We came with the intention to do the same thing, but started with pool first. We forgot that the car was cash only which is when we decided to just hang around the pool table and pass on the drinks because who carries cash nowadays? A few minutes later, the bartender asked us if we planned on buying anything. I asked why it mattered, and she said that's what's expected when a group comes into a bar. She was being very condescending with no knowledge that we were here and spent money literally the night prior. Her reasoning was totally valid, but her approach was completely unprofessional and inhospitable. She spoke to us from across the bar and all the other patrons were able to listen in. Felt like it was her intention to embarrass us. She made us so uncomfortable that we left immediately after our game. Should she had approached us directly and let us know that we would need to order something to stay, we would've done so. More than likely, we would've made the effort to withdraw cash and just get a round (because as I said, the drinks were cheap anyway). That night, she lost our potential business and all five of us will never be coming back.

Fun dive bar with two pool tables! It's cash only, but they have an atm on site. Beers are fairly cheap and the bartender is super nice. They also have some cool art on the wall. Will come back in the future.

The place is in a sketchy ass area but it's very good vibes and the drinks are very cheap would highly recommend.

This is one of the greats! Too many doucey bars out there these days. This is a bar back in time before everyone was so consumed with their cell phones. This is a place where you'll find conversation with the greatest of ease, fueled by some of the cheapest drinks in town.

Where the under world go for a drink . This is the last stop for drink you can afford in downtown. Ok for me to give a 5 stars to place where the jukebox has no Madonna. Jesse people skills make this Jen a 5 star dive .

Dive bar with two pool tables, jukebox, cheap drinks and an eclectic crowd. There it is.

Great dive bar with about a dozen microbrews on tap along with top and bottom shelf liquor selection. + 1 star for the cool bartenders and their generous pours of liquor.

If this is what a cool dive bar is...I just don't like dive bars at all. I have passed many times by the door as a have friends living just by the corner and never really wanted to take a look at what is inside just by seeing the outside sketchy people. Still, that photogenic facade (from the other side of the street, check my pic) convinced me to go and see what was chee-chee about (by the way, someone commented that chee-chee in Spanish means tits, at least in Spanish from Spain means vagina, so I actually initially thought that this some sort of strip club). Not recommendable for women (unless you are into this type of place). You actually won't see many. I would not say is unsafe, but if you have been taking a shower, put a nice dress, put perfume on, go to the salon to do your hair and your mani-pedi to go out on a Sat night, socialize and get a drink...well, your effort to beautify the nocturnal landscape with shock with the dramatic reality of urine smell at the door, toothless people asking you for something, people at the bus stop offering sexual favors, homeless drunk woman yelling 'i love your dress, bitch', a rat passing by all well fed...hell not even fun. Not even for the cheap drinks. I did not see any hipster as other comment, but only really old patrons, most people very drunk and all the above at the door. Again, if that is what I dive bar is...I like pretty, clean, light and positive. So won't come back and probably won't be missed either:)

I met the girl named Chee chee my first time going before I left she said she you next time asked my name and told me her name was chee chee and I was like WHOAAAAA

Best dive bar in SD hands down! Drinks are generous and fair. Crowd and bartenders push this into must visit territory.

This is the ideal div bar, it was Super mellow and had a decent crowd, The drinks were A good price, they don't have beer on draft but the have plenty of bottles of beer. The Lights are really cool and the music is good. Again, if you looking for a Div bar this place is good

Anytime a bartender tells you "Read the Sign - Cash only " and then points to an ATM is a red flag. Save your 'cash' and go somewhere else; life's too short for rudeness and belittling. Drank half my beer and left - not a good vibe there at all.

Such a chill dive bar. Regular crowd, good music, CASH ONLY but very relaxed environment. Jesse is the best bartender ever.

Chee-Chees is a true local bar. I went here for a taste of the real San Diego. This is a cash only place. I forgot mine, but the bartender let me enjoy my pour like a true gentleman.

Dive Bar! Basic drinks and bottled beer. Pool tables, dart board and plenty of seats. It is great how they host local artists with shows and sales.

I love the Chee Chee Club! I would give it 6 stars Great drinks, Nice bartenders, I always have a great time here! My favorite menu item is a Hot Terry! Ask for it!

It's a dive bar, not a trendy dive bar just a dive bar. If you don't like it it's not for you, nothing wrong with that, heck it's not for me and most of the regulars aren't checking yelp, and they are regular there. It's not trying to be something, it's been around for decades it just is and it is happy being that and good for them.

This is hands down the best dive bar in town. Durk is my favorite bartender of all time and always takes great care of me. I even bought a shirt! Go here is you want a fun vibe cheap drinks!

I thought this place was a strip club for at least the first six months I lived here. After stumbling in one drunk night I was pleasantly surprised. The dirty bar and giant brown stains on the pool table were made up by a simple conversation with the bartender that went something like this: Me: "do you have any specials?" Him: "yeah, we're the cheapest bar in San Diego" Me: "ok what's your well vodka?" Him: "shit." And then we got two PBR tall boys and two vodka drinks for $13. Will come here forever. Edit: I take back what I said - they have not one but two new pool tables. This place rules. Also I'm here right now and "lets get it on" is playing.

DIVE BAR CHECKLIST: Urine smell - CHECK Cockroach running across the bar in front of our $3 PBR tallboys - CHECK Disgusting bathroom with plastic bag over the urinal, a door that doesn't lock, and completely visible to the entire bar when the door is open - CHECK Morbidly obese woman with a walker - CHECK Guy in crushed velvet pimp suit - CHECK Dartboard with no darts - CHECK This place is only three blocks from my East Village condo, but for a long time the place looks so shady and has so many suspicious characters hanging around outside that I've never gone in. They seem to have toned that part down a little, so I decided to give it a go. The drinks are cheap and the crowd isn't so bad. Some are friendly and the rest keep to themselves. The bartender was really cool too; he's from Cleveland so he had a lot to talk about with me (Chi-town!) and my cousins (originally from Youngstown). I love dive bars, and this is as divey as it gets. Cheap drinks and an interesting crowd, but if you're a clean freak I wouldn't even walk within 10 feet of the front door.

When going downtown you can expect a few things..... 1. Street folk and street posse's 2. Girls dressed in almost nothing wearing ridiculously uncomfortable shoes 3. Expensive Drinks 4. Congestion getting in or out 5. Absolutely no parking Well, at Chee Chee Club you DONT have to pay an arm and a leg for a drink unless you wear a prosthetic and WANT to pay with your arm or leg and of course IF the bartender that night is into it. (serious drinks on the cheap). To me, this joint is a win WIN! Pool tables? YES Juke Box? YES YES Bathrooms? GROSS DONT DO IT AND!!! THE BEST PART:::: IF you like art they have a monthly rotating art show and local artists plaster the walls with their creative spirits! ENJOY and tell Fred I say "Hullooooooooo"

I miss this place so much. Please tell me it's going to reopen after all this pandemic shite is over with. Other LGBT bars/clubs just don't do it for me the way this one did. :(

Awesome dive and friendly bar tender. Cool old pictures. This place has been around for over 80 years...that's crazy

Hmmmm, dull, dark, vacant.... 'cept for the seniors. Friendly (on an early Thursday for whatever that's worth). Cheap drinks!... $3 Vodka Tonics :)

adsfadfadfadf Just a throwback memory as I wasn't complete together when I had walked in, but the story sounds like the beginning of a bad joke: There was man in drag who probably rolled down from Hillcrest (pun intended) and a skin-head type guy that drove in from the easterly limits of San Diego mouthing lyrics to the jukebox. Am I profiling? Yes. Did the appear to have a good time? Yes. Should I judge? Nope!

Great little dive bar. Jukebox, cheap drinks, locals, cool bartenders. Yuppies around here get mad and give it bad reviews. If you want high end craft cocktails and a bar staff that wears bow ties, go elsewhere. If you want to get drunk and have a good time, this might be the spot for you.

Hole in wall but kick ass juke box and pool table. Bartender not the most sociable was with friends for few cold ones before game. Some of the regulars said once upon a time it was a full house on sundays and weeknights once they got rid of crack heads etc would I recommend to ppl ya it's a hole in wall not many around anymore give it a look grab a brewski chill out

This place absolutely SUCKS! No Bloody Mary mix, no vermouth? For a martini?!?!?!?!? The bartender is a golfer so I like him but are you ducking kidding me!!!!! No POS system!!!!!!!!!!!!! Cash only!!!!!

Whenever I see Chee-Chee Club, one thing comes to mind: BOOBS Its like the slang term for boobs in Spanish except its spelled "chi chi." It always makes me giggle in an immature way. Anyway, I had been curious about Chee Chees and I am glad I finally got to check it out. It's not nearly as divey as I expected...which is good and bad. It's a lot cleaner than I expected and the crowd was very diverse. They have cheap prices on drinks and have a pretty good selection of spirits to choose from. Overall, it strikes me as an inexpensive place to pre-drink before going off to some other place in Downtown in the same way most people go to Star Bar. I guess the convenience of choosing one place to pre-drink over the other depends on where your ultimate destination is located.

I'm pretty sure women are allowed in this place, but I wouldn't know from seeing any inside. I've been about 3 times and the score is Sketchy looking dudes 20 Females 0. It's not exactly a hotbed for hotties, but then again what dive bar really is? What will keep me coming back is the extremely cheap drinks paired with the feeling that a fight is about to break out at any minute. You've got to be on your toes, but it's a dive bar vibe at it's finest. I for one dig it for at least a drink or two.

Don't get me wrong, I love me a good dive bar, and understand that dive bars are grungy, ghetto, filled with toothless patrons and dirty pint glasses. But when I can't even step into this place without seeing a stream of piss running down the floor and the place reeking of urine and in a haze of thick smoke, I think "biohazard" over "dive."

chi chi n the urban dictionary...but it depends on how you pronounce the name of this bar (dive?) "Chi means a variety of things in different languages as stated here. In Jamaican it's basically the equivelant to the american term gay (can be used when not reffering to homosexuals, just in a deragotory way). In spanish it refers to breasts/tits, in this way it's used commonly among blacks and mexicans. In japanese, it's short for daddy (Chihayo)." Why did I start the review this way. This was my first visit to this bar. After checking out the reviews, I anticipated a mix of old and new. The old Chee Chee was a dangerous place to visit, the new Chee Chee was a hipster art haven (now being next to Hodads in East Village means more touristas). I say it's the mix of both. When we come to have a drink with our former Yelp Talk enthusiast raconteur Danielz for his Birthday debauchery, we expected unsavory characters lurking in the bar. Unfortunately, we found a hipster, artsy show of various forms of art products, paintings, jewelry and other items. The bar was lighted generously for all and the bartenders were not bad (except the bartenderess who shifted Poor El Gato and when confronted stared us down teh rest of the night). Overall, it wasn't as divey when I went, but I did see fringes of that old dive bar feel, there was a big dog at the bar (possibly one of the regulars). I would have loved to see the crowd when there was no art show because it would have lived more to my expectations. I live through the '80s and '90s when I went to some of the most diviest/scariest bars (because when you are young, you want to be scared but awed!). Drinks were considered strong by others, I had a PBR for 4 bucks probably a little less than at the other hipster bars to be found in the Gaslamp Westward. I'll be back Chee Chee and next time scare me please or not! cheap alcohol often trumps scary characters (see Tower Bar review!)

Why five stars? Because this place has character: 1. It's ghetto-tastic 2. It's gay-tastic 3. It's homeless and crazy people-tastic What else do you need?

After pitching a shutout on the guest list at HOB, my friends and I were trying to decide where to hit for a drink. As we were walking down the street, I remembered that I saw a few positive reviews from people whose opinions I value, so we strolled on in. I was expecting it to be way more sketch, but people in there seemed to mind their own business. So we drank a bit (for cheap!), played some good tunes on the jukebox, wasn't horrified at the bathroom and had a nice convo with Fred. He was cool enough for us to drop him a $20 tip - I hope that made his night. I'm definitely down to come in here again.

The Chee-Chee Club is akin to the moment in The Matrix when Neo is offered a choice between the red pill or the blue pill, upon which he decides on the red, sending him down a metaphorical rabbit hole towards his awakening. If you decide to enter the Chee-Chee Club, know there's no going back. This is Dive land, no joke, and that's cool.

I love dive bars-and this place doesn't disappoint!!! Dark, old school Tvs, pinball, jukebox, ATM, and a couple video games! Oh-and here's the added bonus-THEY LOVE DOGS! My little one just happened to be with me and they let her in, and even had treats for her. MY kind of bar. We popped in here for a couple cocktails while our group was waiting in line to get in to Hodad's. Perfect spot, perfect timing, really nice prices. Me likey. Double-dipping at it's finest.

This place really is the last true dive in the 92101 (and I do know about the Star Bar , but they cease to be a dive when they start charging cover in the evenings). All I can say is, be ready for anything. In my many trips to the Chee Chee I have experienced things that you could only experience there. Here are the cons: A (human) turd on the ground behind the pool table Multiple people vomiting up there recently swallowed well shots Loud fights between men who seem like they have known, and hated, each other for years yet still hang out everyday The worst dance moves possible and the charm of hanging around people who really make you scratch your head and wonder, "when did they let this guy out of the hospital?" All these things taken into consideration, they still have the best juke box in central San Diego

Well there was a long line to get into El Dorado down the street, so I took the GF to Chee Chee for a drink instead. Now she won't talk to me ever since and won't return my phone calls. That is how bad this place is (;_;) Hey, dive bars are "in" but this place is a mess. They made my GF drink beer because they don't do fancy umbrella drinks like Stingaree. The place smelled like ass and I saw a cockroach thank god my GF did not see it otherwise it would be over for sure (x_x) I guess I am going to have to buy her something nice from Bert Levi jewlers to make up for this but i will give them one thing they are a dive bar and this is definately the diviest bar in San Diego so 3 stars

Absolutely a genuine hole-in-the-wall dive bar! They even had the crazy trashy blonde puma hanging out at the end of the bar hitting on all the guys. Went in Friday night. Not much of a crowd. Locals hanging out. Cheap pool tables. No taps for beers, all bottles and cans. The place is beat up and run down which is the character you want from a genuine dive bar. Good variety of mainstream bottle/canned beers. Enjoyed 75 cent pool tables as well. Good straight sticks, chalk for hands and cues.

I love this cool comfy bar. God bless the night time bartender 3/25/17.... He's soo cool!!!! Nice place to go sit and play pool.

Probably one of the best places I've been to BAR NONE. I mean, the smell is incredible, the atmosphere is sketchy, they even have the audacity to occasionally host an art show. The true definition of a dive bar. I don't think I've ever had more senior citizens talk to me at one given time, or buy me drinks for that matter. This was one of the first "bars" I went to downtown, so as you can imagine, I hold my standards high.

The Chee Chee is back. Yes, you will still have a random staggering homeless dude who pulls his pennies together for a cheap pitcher just to use the bathroom, but the place is cleaned up and Fred is one of my favorite bartenders in this town. There was a private roof party around the corner and they did a soft re-opening and it was fun and cheap and we had a great time. Get a group of friends together and you can own the bar. Anyone looking for a place to gather a group of friends together should keep the Chee Chee Club on their radar. Cheap drinks among good friends. And they passed the clean bathroom test for sure. For people who miss a true dive bar, like before Star Bar charged cover, before DJs took over North Park, this is your new favorite spot. Just wait till the Hong Kong reopens and Broadway will be your destination, not just a place you stumble upon.

Oh man... My buddy lives around the corner from this place. When I finally ventured down 2 see him he told me he had been waiting for me to show up to go inside...Even before I arrived at my friends spot this place caught my eye as I circled the block like a shark. We rolled in and got a couple pitchers of Bud to start. It smelled like a liquor/cigarette/urine/vomit/beer mausoleum. Good God! The bartender gave us a snipe look and pushed the pitchers over. Glasses! We don't need no stinking glasses! Unfortunately I had to use the facilities. Let's just say it wasn't #1. During my biz someone came in and decided to leave the door open so I could see the whole bar while I was pinching it off. John Waters would cream over this place for sure. We had a couple more pitchers and bounced. Mind you this was in the daytime. I can only imagine the heathens that regular this place after the sun goes down. I'm back down here at the moment and think I might have 2 see if they have t-shirts. I know status when I see it

Not in the el dorado fun times mood we decided to ditch our friends and check out Chee Chee. Loud music and toxic fumes rocked my body upon entrance and my eyes widened like a blood thirsty zombie. We only stayed for one drink (due to my hang over status), but it was a STIFF one and the bartender was extremely kind. Reminded me a lot of Ken Club, and wasn't suprised when I found out it was same owner (delighted ). Will be back, but this time with my party hat screwed on tight,

On a random, early evening midweek I popped into Chee-Chee because a friend I was meeting up with was in the area. There was maybe only one or two other people there besides us and the bartender (who, btw, was sweet, but not particularly attentive for such a small crowd). There are pool tables and a juke box and the drinks are super cheap so it's pretty much exactly what you're looking for when you want a good divey place. Just watch out for the crazies yelling at you as you walk in. Oh, and ladies? Yes, the bathroom is what nightmares are made of, the kind of place that you're pretty sure you're gonna be murdered in. But I made it out ok and you (probably) will too. :)

I love this bar, say what you will haters! Try to appreciate free entertainment. Yeah, because downtown San Diego is SO classy. LMAO. Bartender is nice, drinks are strong, and a free show with every visit. Love the old jukebox custom music obviously.