General comments - My friends and I went to Sidetrack at an EMU alum's recommendation and because we heard their burgers are among GQ's "The 20 Burgers You Must Eat Before You Die." I will say the restaurant is easy to find and it's at a great location that is full of railroad history, but the parking situation in that area leaves something to be desired. I love that there's an outside area to the restaurant and the feel of it is like that of an Irish pub. I'm impressed with how quickly we were seated considering how busy it was at the time and I walked in with a request for a table for 8. The staff was very nice to us despite the fact that 3 of the 8 turn out to be no shows. I'm also thrilled that Sidetrack sells merchandise that says "Beer is the proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." - Benjamin Franklin. That is awesome! Sidetrack does have a pretty good selection of beer. Unfortunately I just wasn't in the mood for it.
Foods tasted - Beer battered clams, Spinach artichoke dip, Gourmet mini burgers - Mini Driver with hand cut fries, and my boyfriend's half pound handcrafted burger with feta and roasted red peppers.
Thoughts -
1. Beer battered clams - very solid appetizer for an excellent price. Clams can get chewy if not cooked correctly, but these were delicious. It was obvious these clam strips were not sitting under a heat lamp all day because the first few were HOT (temperature hot). The tarter sauce that came with it went well with the clams too. It's not overly seasoned so you can still taste the claims, which is the way I like it. The clam strips tasted great even without lemon juice and/or tarter sauce. That's the sign of a good dish.
2. Spinach artichoke dip - I like that it's very cheesy but still contains a good amount of spinach and artichoke. The only thing I would change in this appetizer is that I would chop up the artichoke pieces more. It's hard to share with 4 other people when I dip a chip hoping to get a taste of it and wind up picking up 20% of the whole thing just because the artichoke pieces pick up everything else around it. The chips are fine. Definitely not freshly made but as long as they're not stale...
3. Mini Driver (mini burgers with bacon and blue cheese) / handcrafted burger with feta and roasted red peppers - both very much overdone. The 1/2 pound burger was ordered medium rare and it was cooked medium well, borderline well done. They actually messed up on my Mini Drivers because they didn't put the blue cheese or bacon on them. So I'm sure by the time they were brought back to me, the mini burgers had been thrown back onto the grill to melt the blue cheese. I was disappointed to find more or less barely cooked bacon bits as the "bacon" on the mini burgers. I think the feta and roasted red peppers combination is a winner as far as toppings, but toppings are toppings. It doesn't really matter how great the toppings are if the burger is overcooked. I'll say the staff was very apologetic and fixed their mistake very quickly so I can't complain about that.
4. Hand cut fries - they were just OK. I've certainly had better and worse. The outsides were done but the insides still tasted raw and starchy. Like I said in my pilot post, potatoes are one of my all time favorite foods so I take potatoes very seriously. If you mess up on my potatoes, if I don't tell you in person, it will now be known to the whole world on my blog.
Final thoughts - Was it Very Yummy In My Tummy? Unfortunately, no. I'm disappointed to say the reviewer from GQ must have been sick and lost his sense of taste the day he went to Sidetrack for a burger, because quite honestly, the burger is NOT worthy to be in a Top 20 list. I've had chain restaurant burgers that are much better than this. Sorry GQ! However, I'm happy to see it as crowded as it was so obviously they're doing something right. I'm glad to see it's not totally crowded with drunk college kids as it seems this spot is located on the outskirts of the EMU campus and the general demographic of the customers are people in their upper 20's or older. Hopefully my next review of this spot will be better when I order a non burger dish. Don't get me wrong, it's a great spot and like I said, and they're crowded for a reason, but the burgers were just not worth they hype.
