The best sports bars in L.A. to watch the big game

On the Silver Lake stretch of Sunset Boulevard, this colorful indoor-outdoor sports bar makes for a great viewing spot thanks to plenty of flat screen TVs and, well, 33 kinds of beers on tap. If you’re feeling peckish, order one of the burgers with a side of their killer sweet potato fries. A pooch-friendly patio ups the ante for anyone looking to catch the latest football game.

Since 1979, this two-story Second Street bar and restaurant has kept Long Beach entertained with live sports broadcast from around the world. While the novelty of satellite TV has now worn off, the extensive collection of sports memoribilia and two giant projection screens are still plenty of fun today. Peruse baseballs signed by Willie Mays, Joe DiMaggio, Ty Cobb and even Babe Ruth, plus autographed gear by Shaq and Muhammad Ali. Crowds run thick here during NFL season, and over 30 TVs will keep you plugged in for every second of the game.

This sneaker-themed watering hole in Koreatown has 18 television screens, plus stiff drinks, a small outdoor patio area, and a rowdy, always enthralled game day crowd. While you’ll find well-made essential snacks like wings, fries, tots and pizza rolls on the menu, LAces' larger plates are good as well, from the green chili pimiento mac and cheese to LAces' chicken parm sandwich, which comes sprinkled with banana peppers. 

NFL games get wild at this La Brea biergarten, where an extensive selection of German brews are served up alongside traditional Bavarian fare like schnitzel, sausages and homemade pretzels. Grab a seat at the bar or at a communal table on the dog-friendly patio and sample over 35 beers—go for a $13 flight of 5 beers. If beer isn't your thing, there's wine on hand, as well as a ping-pong table and flat screen TV.

The West Hollywood location is the original outpost of this mini-chain, but you can also find one in neighborhoods across L.A.: Pasadena, Westwood, Burbank, Santa Monica and Redondo Beach. You’ll find a crowd of sports bros and ladies all sidling up to the bar, enjoying one of 60 TVs (complete with sports packages galore), and imbibing in an array of beer choices. There’s plenty to look at off-screen, too: They’ve perfected the tacky-on-purpose look, with everything from license plates to sports memorabilia hanging from the walls.

Filled to the brim every weekend, this longtime Pico-Robertson bar offers casual neighborhod pub atmosphere (and prices). Board games, dart boards and arcade fun upstairs keep locals occupied most evenings and weekends, but Founders Ale House turns into a party on game nights, when the bar breaks out a large-scale projector. The vegan-friendly bar menu includes chickpea sliders and jackfruit tacos, but omnivores will find plenty of meaty burgers, fried chicken wings and even corn dogs to munch on while watching baseball, football, basketball or whatever else floats your boat.

There are 3,000 miles between Boston and Los Angeles, but that doesn't keep Sonny McLean's, an Irish pub in Santa Monica, from losing team spirit. Throughout the week, the Celtics, Patriots, Red Sox and Bruins can be found playing on one of the bars mutliple TVs, while East Coasters in low-slung Sox caps reminisce about Dunkin' Donuts and the T (the older-than-dirt metro system, for the uninitiated). The menu boasts New England and California fare, but the best dishes here are of British and Irish descent—the Banger Sandwich, a hearty sausage served with sauteed onions on a baguette, is a stick-to-your-bones revelation. When it comes to clinking glasses, choose from a list of highly curated ciders, stouts and IPAs.

Located in a former auto shop, this Palms sports bars offers an industrial feel, lots of big screens and a casual crowd—the perfect set-up the next time you're going out to watch the big game. A large selection of beers might go without saying, but the Garage's extensive bourbon and whiskey menus will put hair on your chest as well. Known for attracting Philadelphia Eagles fans and always down to stream the latest MMA or UFC fight, the Garage is a solid sports bar option for those living in and around Culver City.

The clamor of beer-chugging students from a block away should immediately signal that this isn't going to be a mellow night out—stepping inside the Nickel Mine is like walking into a well-maintained frat house. There's free WiFi, a bookshelf chock-full of novels no one is reading, communal tables covered in board games and 20 mounted flat-screen TVs beaming nonstop NFL, NBA, MLB, NCAA, NHL and UFC. Muster up the willpower of a freshly legal-to-drink and scour the packed-to-the-gills space for a place to plant yourself for the evening.

The juggernaut of the Southland beer scene, Golden Road is L.A.'s largest brewery. Some of that is due to the company's much-maligned 2015 acquisition by Anheuser-Busch, but it hasn't degraded GRB's hop-forward beer selection—or its Atwater Village location's bustling beer-garden atmosphere. The original space features a shaded outdoor area and TVs in all directions, which both buzz with thirtysomethings, happy toddlers, cornhole and live music. 

This Southern California chain is all about the kitsch—and the flat-screen TVs. Watch just about any game your heart desires from the collection of more than 60 TVs hanging around the Mexican beach-themed bar, whose tipples include frozen drinks, 22-ounce “schooner” cocktails, beer buckets, shot specials and more. Watching a morning game? If you’re early-to-rise for your team, Sharkeez usually offers breakfast specials, mimosas, Blooby Mary stations and bottomless coffee bars for early weekend games.

Known among Westsiders for its weekly turtle races, this Marina del Rey sports bar has a massive outdoor patio and an extensive craft beer list, plus the requisite numbers of TVs to watch football, soccer and the like. If you’ve been roped into watching the game, the bar also has games of cornhole going on the green and an indoor pool table.

This Marina del Rey brewery’s adjacent bar, the Propagator, is one of the best places to watch sports on the Westside. In addition to plenty of house beers on draft, and TVs inside and out, there’s plenty of stick-to-your-ribs fare with a twist, from fish and chips to ahi poke nachos.

L.A.-raised Neil Kwon took a cue from the beer gardens of Berlin and Munich in bringing craft beer to Koreatown in 2010. His beer hall, Biergarten, views Germany through a Korean prism. Platters of brats are dished up alongside Korean fried chicken, kimchi short rib fried rice and burgers both American and international—try the spicy Chosun, with red chili paste aioli and pickled daikon, or a schnitzel katsu sandwich. The beer list combines Old World ales, like malty Spaten Optimator, with West Coast IPAs, like Fort Point Animal. The space also touts flat screens that draw UFC and sports fans.

You don’t have to love canines to appreciate the Blue Dog (although pet parents may go gaga over the framed dog photos covering the wall). The Sherman Oaks sports bar is located in a 1940s-era bungalow that’s been stripped of the walls, leaving the framing exposed and allowing TVs to be visible from every seat. The beer list isn’t the largest in town, but it might be the best-edited, and come 10am, fans are fully decked out in their favorite team’s gear and all eyes are glued to the TVs.

Both the Highland Park and Glendale locations of this neighborhood bar and eatery offer several TVs and the reliable wings, pizzas and beers make for excellent sustenance on game days. Not only are there smaller screens hanging around the British-leaning bar (it’s "the home of the official Los Angeles Tottenham Hotspur Supporters Club," for football fans)—there’s also a massive pull-down screen displaying whatever’s big that day. But if a Dodgers game is on, you can bet it'll be tuned to that. You can also bet on game day specials, which is great because you're going to be ordering a lot of those famous wings and boilermaker combos, and if they come at a discount, all the better.

Even if you’ve never been to Casey’s, you’re familiar with the sprawling, dark-wood-everything bar: It’s served as the set for just about every pub-focused scene on television in the last 20 years. Even though it’s now operated by the modern bar juggernauts Pouring with Heart Hospitality, Casey’s is still imbued with that faded-elegance vibe. The many rooms here are dotted with TVs—you’ll find both North American and European sports on the screens—and plenty of fans, especially of the USC variety. In addition, there’s the occasional live band, darts, billiards, and some quality shepherd’s pie and fish and chips.

The first thing to know about this dive bar in Los Feliz: The chicken wings are the stuff of legend. Ye Rustic Inn has a full menu of pub grub, as well as a regular rotation of both old-timers and a younger (and rowdier) crowd on the weekends. There’s an old-school jukebox (no touch screens here), kitschy mood lighting (chandeliers!) and TVs playing the sport of the season. Get here early to score a comfy booth inside, or hang out on the back patio where patrons can smoke—but, inexplicably, can’t drink.

It’s not every day in Los Angeles that a new neighborhood dive comes along, and while Tiny’s lacks the scuffed, mysteriously sticky floors that traditionally accompany the genre, this Chicago-inspired watering hole serving Italian beef sandwiches is a welcome addition to the Westside drinking scene. Sip on $10 house cocktails (in this economy!) and snack on affordable bar bites—including some seriously delicious hot dogs—inside Tiny’s red leather booths, or break out into the adjacent covered patio for pinball, arcade games, a photo booth and the latest NFL game. Inside, there’s a jukebox and a pool table, plus Mallort and Hamm’s for those homesick for a taste of the Windy City.

This Pasadena establishment carries on the tradition of British pubs everywhere, including celebrating every drinking festival known to man (Belgian Beer Festival? Check. Oktoberfest? Check. IPA festivals? Yup, they’ve got those, too). You’ll be able to see any football game you want here, all while indulging in the European-heavy list of 60-odd beers on tap. The food includes classic pub fare—mostly meat and potatoes—which you can enjoy on the outside patio. (Don’t panic! You can see a TV or two from out there, too.) Care to bring along a canine friend? Dogs are welcome, as long as you don't mind them being spoiled by the pub's friendly regulars.