Sidebar Food & Spirits

Sidebar is not the most fancy bar on the planet. It is what it is. The beer is cheap. Decent space. I had little in terms of expectations for the food. I figured it would be typical bar food just microwaved or something. I was pleasantly surprised. The food is really good. Try anything with the buffalo or bbq chicken. The home made chips are really good too.

We’ve been here quite a few times, and they have great prices on drinks. Today was the first time we had food, so I felt I had to write this review. Our friends had a burger, nachos, boneless wings, and we had the chicken bomb. Burger looked decent, nachos looked pretty bad which our friend didn’t finish… boneless wings seemed to be the best bet… little breading and all white meat how I like them… Also the fries are great! The chicken bomb we had however was terrible. It was more like a green pepper and onion bomb, as there was maybe an once of chicken in the whole sandwich. Such a disappointment. So with crappy nachos, and chicken bomb, but decent burger, fries, and wings… this place is alright if you aren’t expecting too much.

This is a bar with tap beer. Their tap beer was watered down and disgusting. We ordered a Sam Adams pitcher first, and was shocked how nasty it tasted. We decided to give it another chance and ordered a Blue Moon pitcher. BAD DECISION. don’t come here if u dont’ wanna get ripped off

hands down best bar in all of downtown boston. cheap drinks — 2 $ tall bud or bud lights, 7 $ pitchers and cheap well drinks. Food is pretty good-​generic dive bar food. Theyve done some recent renovations to spruce up the place. Has a cool mix of young professionals, students and some out of towners. Always have a good time here. The only draw back is that the women’s room is one single stall. Thats not really something they can easily fix though.

Nice place downtown for a cheap pitcher. It gets pretty cramped at the bar but I went there with roughly 10 friends and we had a great time. The bar tenders were a lot of fun and no one minded us getting pretty loud.

–If you’re into cheap beer (pitcher of bud-​light for $ 7) decent wings and a good time, this is the place for you. Its generally very packed after work hours and weekends. Don’t expect cocktails.
–You run into a lot of sketchy characters here sometimes but for the most part if you’re chilling with friends its not that bad.
–Friendly bouncer and bartenders.

The waitstaff was very attentive and very friendly! The food came out quickly and was very reasonably priced. Overall a great experience.

So I came here last night and what am experience. .first off I sat down with freaking william Dafoe… the“GREEN GOBLIN” I had 3 pitchers which where 7 each. awesome price. .my partner had wings which my the goblin picked the tab up and Paids what an awesome night

This place has the most inconsiderate staff I’ve ever met. A friend of mine left a credit card here and remembered before the place closed. He called and the staff told him oh well, and they wouldn’t let him come back even though they were probably still open by the time he would get back. We ran back to the bar, he was leaving the state the next day, and tried to clear up the issue. Eventually some assistant manager who thought he was gods gift to bars came out and refused to help out at all. Never ever leave a card with them, they surcharged him after the fact anyway, calling it a «connivence fee.» Screw this place the food is crap and cheap drinks don’t make up for the crappy staff.

I’ve been here plenty of times and have always loved it.
It does have an awkward dance floor, but overall a good place.
The drinks are cheap and strong. For a while there was a girl who made the leprechaun shots from McMurphy’s. The food isn’t bad, you can’t really mess up bar food. And they have mac and cheese balls.
Pretty much this is the bar that Umass people go to to live their old Umass days.
For a full meal and drinks, I paid 20 bucks.
You can’t get a ton of beer for cheap as well.
Make sure to stop by! The easiest way to find it is to walk up the street facing Tj Maxx downtown where the old City Sports is.

I had a great experience here yesterday and it was largely thanks to our bartender, Juan. It was a quiet Sunday afternoon and it was absolutely frigid outside. When we got to Sidebar, the bartender was very easy with conversation and made us feel at home. The service was prompt but you never felt like it was overbearing. I saw the staff accommodate patrons requests quickly, ie putting on a game on specific TV’s. Juan also prepared a cocktail of his own design for us that was as tasty as it was strong. Good prices, relaxed atmosphere. Will be back.

I really liked coming here with my coworkers for a drink with my coworkers. We got some pitchers of beer which were so cheap! Same with their apps and when you check in with Unilocal you get a discount. I never had to wait for my drinks despite coming here on the weekend. Plus the door staff was very funny and polite. Plus they have buck hunter and two sides of the bar so despite how small it is there is always room for everyone. Only bummer is the bathroom is downstairs, so don’t break the seal for as long as possible ;)

In from outta town and this place hit the spot. The other reviews explain it best. Great buffalo chicken and ice cold, cheap beer. The juke box selection felt like home, and a good mix of folks created a chill vibe. I’ll be back.

I am completely disappointed by the unnecessary behavior of the bartender tonight. Considering that I have been pretty ehh about the mediocre, frozen store bought «food» that they serve (I have had the mozzerela sticks and different types of burgers, even customized), I wished the customer service outweighed the poor food selections.
I was a new patron, who liked the very casual atmosphere of this hole in the wall and enjoyed the crowd and entertainment. The $ 2 Budlights and $ 7 pitcher are a steal but not enough to make up for the bartender’s unnecessary verbal digs. The bar was not crowded nor were there any popular sports games on at the moment and poker was on. I simply asked the bartender if it was too much to turn the captions on; didnt know asking was a big deal until he loudly said among his coworkers right beside me «the bar isn’t breathing and its being greedy», after making a point to change the channel to a random cartoon show and say «we wouldnt know whats going on, we need captions for this».
Essentially, all of the above was absolutely unneeded. The food is below mediocre and now I no longer feel comfortable going to this bar. I find it shocking that after having security fail them by allowing at least ten underage kids in with obvious fake IDS, to treat a patron like myself as such, was just plain mean.
– All of this after I decided to turn the cheek, when my wings never came and were given to aomeone else after waiting 20−30mins and when I did receive my order, there was a long hair in it that definitely was not mine.

The worst Bar in Boston! I walk in at 6pm on a Saturday. The bouncer asks for my ID and so I hand it to him no problem. He then precedes to stare at it as if he can’t find the birth year. I point it out to him (I’m 27) but then tells me that they don’t accept out of state ID’s after 5pm. I wish I could insert the look I had on my face. He says I should carry my passport if I want to come in the bar again. I only stopped in to grab food. This is the second time an incident like this happened at this bar and I should have known better then to go back but trust me I will NOT BE RETURNING!

I just left sidebar (Tuesday, December 10 at 6pm) and witnessed the bouncer charging 2 patrons $ 100 for their IDs back.
As a bouncer, you should either confiscate or give back IDs you deem fake or not you. I don’t think it’s very professional to hint at «the police department gives me $_​_​_​for IDs I turn in».
I will not be returning to this bar, the bouncer makes me feel uncomfortable (I am of age). Please do not support this bouncer/bar’s unprofessional and frankly entitled behavior.

A fellow reviewer commented that he wished you could rate food and service separately and I could not agree more. I experienced a most obvious divide between the two at this pub. My father and I were out and about in Cambridge and downtown Boston on Black Friday. Remembering the Bruins were playing and our stomachs had been growling, we stopped into Sidebar around 2 PM. We walked into the smaller entrance/​bar without being greeting by anyone, which didn’t seem like a big deal at the time, and eventually took a seat in one of the back booths. There were maybe 20 other people on this side, all watching the Bs.
The bartender/​bush boy came over, handed us menus, and said our waitress would be over to take our order. She did come by to take our drink/​food order so kudos there, but that was the last time she so much as acknowledged our existence (someone else brought our food). Here is the good part: our food was very tasty. My father had a chicken cutlet salad and we split a big plate of nachos. I have zero complaints about the food (or the Brick Red on tap). I would say we sat for maybe 30 minutes without being checked out before I had to walk up to the bar and order our second round of drinks. Maybe I would let the inattentive nature of this place slide, but for the fact that our waitress was taking selfies and chatting it up with her friends. It wasn’t busy, we were right across from the bar staff, and there is no reason to be ignored.
I am pretty laid back and love a good dive bar, but I am embarrassed when I receive this kind of service in the city. Especially when I have family visiting from out of town. At one point (around when the Bruins scored the game winner — yay!), our waitress just left. Her shift was over and she was gone. Poof. We sat for another 20 minutes, during which time my dad commented that he has never wanted to dine and dash more than he did at that moment. This is a big deal coming from my father, who has the moral compass of a saint. Seeing how we would never do such a thing, I went back to the bar and sought out our bill. I would have asked to speak with the manager if I wanted to give this place any more of my time. I think what bothers me most is that it wasn’t very busy. I can totally understand if it was packed, but there were even less people than when we walked in. The bar staff avoiding eye contact with me does not mean we’re just going to go away. Standing 5 feet from me while looking through your friend’s phone is just adding insult to injury.
I think this will be my first and last experience at Sidebar, even after enjoying the food and a Bruins victory. There are a lot of cool dive bars in this city. I can’t waste my time on one that doesn’t appear to want my business.

The only reason I bother coming here is for the cheap pitchers. The service is awful, particularly as a female with the female bartenders. Tonight, I ordered a vodka soda and received vodka with plain tap water. Twice. Thankfully another bartender remade each drink correctly. Our (original) bartender also ate food and continuously texted on her phone as I stuck my neck out to try to order a drink and close my tab. Completely unacceptable service. Waited 10 minutes just to close a tab on a Wednesday night, leaning over the bar trying to get her attention, and ultimately had to ask another bartender for the manager on duty so she would actually start paying attention and doing her job.

Pretty terrible. It’s a pretty gross run of the mill sports bar. We planned on having dinner and drinks here after literally every restaurant in the area was full. They somehow managed to mess up 3 out of 7 people’s dinner (ex. Totally forgot about one guys meal). This would have been excusable if the place was wicked busy, but alas we were pretty much the only ones in the joint. Management was nice though and tried to make it right by discounting all of our food tremendously. The food was meh, but edible. I would not recommend this spot.

Waited way too long to get a round of drinks (despite an almost empty bar). Service was slow and inattentive. Wings take the award for world’s smallest wings. Quesadilla was good. Cheese fries were yummo; however, the waitress missed them during our order. Burger was good but very overcooked. When I checked in on Unilocal,I got a 25% off food coupon. The servers acknowledged the wait and gave us a free round of drinks. There are a lot of great bars in Boston so I will not rush back.

We stopped at another bar/​restaurant to have dinner and were told they weren’t serving food on Sundays. Which worked out for the best for us because we ended up having a great time and awesome food at the Side Bar.
Ambiance is pretty laid back, clean and well kept. Crowd was a mix of age and they had the football games on when we stopped in.
We sat at the bar, and the bartender was really fun from the start. He was friendly and attentive.
We ordered the fried pickles, BBQ chicken pizza, and bleu burger with a side salad. The burger was perfectly cooked and the pizza was awesome. The pizza had a slight sweetness to it.
They also offer $ 2 draft Bud/​Bud Light. Can’t beat that!

Great bar, decent variety of booths, cocktail tables, and walking room, split between two bars.

stopped by for an afternoon beer. Nothing bad or good to write about.
The bar was playing some good music

We used to come here after work. The place is under new ownership, so its a little different, but still fun

I wish I could rate the food, service and social atmosphere separately; unfortunately, I cannot so I will give the Sidebar a four because the food and service were awesome !
The Bacon Cheeseburger, Onion Rings and Caesar Salad were awesome ! My only qualm about the Caesar Salad was that there appeared to be a lot of Iceberg Lettuce which has no nutritional value. I’m a big proponent of Romaine Lettuce which has a lot of Vitamin A.
The patrons at the bar were losers-​loud, drunk and obnoxious. One guy kept knocking at my table as he was constantly entering and exiting the bar. I’m a stoic so I didn’t think much of him, but when I look back, he was annoying. The people entering the restaurant seemed like alcoholic, unemployed, loser bums who do nothing but drink all day and the bartender seems to accommodate them. This restaurant-​as good as the food and service are-​needs to monitor who they serve alcohol to as well as attract a cleaner clientele. Too many dirt bags.

Cheap pitchers, wicked awesome bartenders — a great place to grab drinks with coworkers! Always have a great time at sidebar.

My friend and I had been to this place twice before and everything went well. Today after we finish shopping at Macy’s we decide to stop by to grab lunch. we walked in and sat down. It took about 7 minutes before a waitress came over with a menu and asked to take our drink order. After we got our drinks we sat for about 20 minute and no one came over to take our food order. The whole time we sat there i notice a waitress going around taking orders for other people. I went to talk to the guy at the bar about the situation. I wish I knew his name but anyway, he told me that we should have walk to the bar and order our food. Then I asked him how come everyone else get to order from their seat but we have to walk to the bar to order, plus no one told us that when we walked in. he reply was, well i am telling you now. My friend and I just paid for our drinks and left.
Now, I hate to bring race to this situation but the one thing i notice was that everyone else at the restaurant was white with the exception of my friend and I. Maybe this has nothing to do with race, just an idiot they hired as a bar attender. I wanted to say more to this guy but decide not to because I didn’t want be viewed as the angry black man.
But one thing I know is that I will never step foot in the place again and i will discourage anyone I know from going there. I am going to try to get in touch with the manager to voice out my frustration.

This place is idiotic. I came here with four other people, and when they checked our ids, they insisted that my friend’s perfectly valid New York State ID was fake. It is so offensive to be accused of lying when you are just trying to relax and get a drink. They need better training for their waitstaff here.

I frequent this place for everything else but the food… until recently. Had the Cubano sandwich and it rocked my world! Definitely trying the rest of the items on the menu. Usually not a big fan of dive bar food but the chefs here know what they are doing! On a side note… everyone that works here is fantastic! Super friendly staff! One of my favorite spots in Boston for sure.