Restaurant Review: The Sidetrack

What and Where:

The Sidetrack Bar and Grill | 56 E Cross St | Ypsilanti, MI| | 734- 213-6762

Ratings (1=terrible, 5=mind-blowingly great)

  • Tastiness: 3.5
  • Service: 3.5
  • Price (1=super cheap, 5=super expensive):2.5
  • Value: 4
  • General vibe: 4
  • Comments

    • I can’t believe that after 15 or so of these reviews, I have yet to do the Sidetrack. I guess I’m just too familiar….
    • The Sidetrack is the quintessential “bar and grill.” What I mean is this: if you were a producer from the classic Hollywood film era and you were to call down to “central casting” and ask for a “bar,” they’d send you the Sidetrack. A beautiful main bar (dark wood, ornate carving, mirror behind it, etc.). Fireplaces and darkness all around. Animal heads and kind of sketchy prints hanging about. And yet, it’s also a place where you can take a family (well, at least before about 10 pm), which very much reminds me of the bars/roadhouses I visited as a kid with my parents and grandparents in northeast Wisconsin
    • There’s a fine selection of beers on tap here, along with all the rest of the usual bar things.
    • If you can only visit this place once, be sure to get the burger deluxe with sweet potato fries. The regular fries are so-so, but the sweet potato version (with their sauce) are excellent. And their burgers– well, I don’t know if it really is one of the 20 burgers you have to have before you die,but it is dang good and what I almost always get when I go.
    • Really, just about all the food here is good. I’ve had good luck with most of the fish dishes, particularly the Lake Perch basket. I think the Turkey Reuben is great, though maybe not that much different than a lot of other places that offer that version if the sandwich.
    • As far as other bar food goes: Personally, I think the onion rings are over-breaded, but I have many friends who enjoy them. Some folks I know swear by the fried pickles they serve here, but frankly, I think that a fried pickle pretty much tastes like a fried pickle. But I’m a big fan of the humus, the other fried veggies (zukes, mushrooms, etc.).
    • On the whole, a must-stop in Ypsilanti. Go check it out if you are in the area and haven’t yet.

    2 Replies to “Restaurant Review: The Sidetrack”

    1. I am always amazed that, given a situation where the author has complete control over the rating scale used, they still use decimals.

      “On a scale of 1 to 100, it’s a 67.5…”

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