We all know our dear little West Portal and what it has to offer with its small shops among its quiet surroundings. But did you know that West Portal, although disguised as an old-timer neighborhood, offers some great dive bars and restaurants? Here’s our guide to the nightlife on West Portal Avenue—college-style.

Bullshead Restaurant

Not in the mood for an expensive cuisine-style dinner? For a fair-priced dinner head to the Bullshead Restaurant on the corner of Ulloa Street and West Portal Avenue. Open for about 27 years, this unpretentious restaurant serves a mean cheeseburger and has quick service. Just be sure to have patience for a table on Friday and Saturday, its busiest nights. The best part of Bullshead? It serves organic hamburgers and buffalo burgers. Why is this a plus? Say you’re dining with a ridiculously picky, “Fast Food Nation”-changed-his/her-life person and you, like most hefty Americans, eat real meat. Well, you don’t have to settle for some kind of green mush that claims to be food and your partner doesn’t have to be that person who has to order “off the menu.” Meaning, everyone wins.

Price range: $10-15 dinners (unless you order the steak or filet).

Philosophers Club

After a fulfilling dinner at the Bullshead, head next door to the Philosophers Club, where you can have a drink or two in a low-key atmosphere. With two high-definition plasma televisions, this bar is a perfect place to gather for sporting events or for a game of pool. It also provides free wireless Internet, so come after class or late at night for stimulus to write a paper. As Dustin Eichler, one of the three SF State students I ran into, put it, “It’s easy access, right off of the Muni, which runs ‘til 1 a.m. Why not?” The jukebox is also unique in that if it doesn’t carry your desired tune, you just download it. It costs $0.50 for carried tunes, $1 for downloaded songs.

Price range: Fair, with beers running $4.25 and cocktails $4.

Que Syrah

This new wine bar (open 10 months) is busy with the pre-dinner crowd, especially on Friday and Saturday nights. With its jazz music (not gonna lie, after a glass or two, it makes you want to shimmy), and personable servers, this bar is exactly what you’re looking for if you want to take your parents out for a grown-up drink. Stephanie McCardell, co-owner with her husband, is amiable and makes you feel like you belong even if you are a new wine drinker. Syrah, the theme of the wine served, is very fruit forward, with an array of heavier to lighter tastes.

Price range: $6-12 per glass (cheap compared to other wine bars), discount on bottles if you take them home, happy hour Tuesdays 4 to 8 p.m. (dollar off of glasses and tastings).