The Sundance Kabuki Theater
Normally, if you want to eat and drink well while watching a movie, you stay at home and watch a movie on cable or on DVD. Yet the Sundance Kabuki Theater in Japantown is not like most theaters. It is spacious, both in the lobby and in the theaters themselves.
The theater has three stories, with a Bar Bistro on the second floor where you can order drinks and snacks, and the third floor is home to the Balcony Bar that serves light meals along with bar drinks, which you can then take into the theater with you. Seeing a movie at the Sundance is just as comfortable an experience as watching a movie in the comfort of your own home.
The Sundance Kabuki is owned by Robert Redford, hence the name Sundance, just like his film festival of the same name, and Kabuki is for the theater's location at the north end of the Japantown mall (also a hop, skip and a jump from Indian food at Dosa and live blues at The Boom Boom Room). The Kabuki charges a small fee on top of the ticket price, and they explain that it is for the convenience of not having to sit through TV commercials before the movie. So while the Kabuki is not cheap, it provides you with the chance to enjoy dessert and drinks in large, comfortable chairs in big, state of the art auditoriums. The theater shows both big Hollywood blockbusters and independent and foreign films; it also hosts film festivals, such as the San Francisco International Film Festival.The Kabuki is a great place to sit back, relax and enjoy a movie.
