Side Pockets

No… just…no. Food selection is decent. Menu offers a number of options. What I had was decent and price was fine.
I know a large part of this business is the pool hall but the amount of smoke as you enter is overwhelming. The service is just horrible. It’s one thing when you have a waitress who has a large group and maybe is a little new so maybe a little slow. But everything was slow. The kitchen is painfully slow. And when the manager appeared to panic and take it out on frustrated customers who waited most of an hour for their food — well that should tell you all you need to know.
No thanks.

BEWARE, horrible service guaranteed or no money back. I’ve been in six times and have yet to have a waitress or waiter come by within 15 minutes. I swear I’m not exaggerating on this. Two times is my «okay maybe this place doesn’t have it together» but six is astronomical. The waitresses act like they have a really abusive boyfriend and they bring it to work with them. I delivered pizza for 5 years and the last time didn’t tip the person at all. That’s sacrilegious to my fellow food workers.

Service is n the pocket of the trash. Food is ok. But it is a good place for a person who do not want to see their server because you will see her, you will have to put out a search party to find her. But if you want to play pool only it’s cool.

The food was bomb, but the service was absolutely awful. It was like being in a 5 star restaurant at Auschwitz with super hot nazi waitresses.
Do anyone else ever feel like Neil Patrick Harris is he most overrated actor ever? Like he got his role in How I Met Your Mother from his guest star in Harold & Kumar, but you’d think that he got his guest star in Harold & Kumar from being in How I Met Your Mother… Weird

Fun place. Too bad its a giant cloud of smoke! I wont be back because of it.

Really good food, nice setting.
Went there for a spur of the moment dinner, and was really impressed.
service is pretty good.

I’m going to comment on our experience for lunch time. We came in on a Monday, and to our surprise, it was B1G1 sandwich day. We also wanted to get some wings as an appetizer but weren’t sure what sauce I could handle since I have my limits on the spicy side of things. Our extremely friendly server brought us a little cup of the hot sauce to help me decide, and we went for it. It had kick, but I could handle it.
We also wanted to try 2 different burgers, so I ordered one, and my friend ordered one. Our server asked the kitchen to go ahead and cut the burgers in half for us and make sure half of each burger was on each of our plates. That was very cool!
Service was the #1 things here for us on this visit. Very friendly, very sweet, attentive. Can’t say enough good things. Would come back based on service and the good daily lunch specials!

I’ll have to agree with most on the service. Went in today and had to go to the bar for a menu then track down the waitress to place the order. It was lunch time and not crowded at all either. Food was mixed up between me and a friend, forgot ranch for the wings, no silverware or extra napkins. Had to track her down for refills and to order beers later on. Food was decent but not great. Pool is the only thing going in this place as far as I can tell. Tables are nice and most the cues are in great shape.

OMG, I give up… every time I go to this place, I leave grossed out and frustrated. First of all, the waitresses are terrible at their jobs and I guess it’s required, but they all wear VERY short cut off shorts and not one of them looks good in them.
The service is terrible. The waitress we had tonight, just could not remember who ordered what, and would get so thrown off if someone moved from the spot at the table where they ordered… HELLO, IT’S A BAR… not a restaurant, people move around, mingle, etc. She was bringing our chips and queso cheese dip to the table and spilled the chips, laughed but apologized and came back with more, but left the chips on the floor and everyone who walked there kept stepping on them and asked why she would leave them there and not pick them up.
Many times through the evening, we would be looking for our waitress to order another drink or some food, and we would see her at a table where other wait staff (maybe off duty at that point) were sitting and she was doing shots with them. Clouding her already very clouded head.
Since the place is in St. Charles, smoking is allowed and let me tell ya, there is some serious smoking going on here!!! My cell phone smells like the place at this point. When we came home (over to the county where smoking is not allowed in most places) our teenage kids said they could definitely tell we had been to Side Pockets because of how we reeked of smoke. It really is unpleasant.
The only reason we went back there tonight is because a dear, life long friend was having a birthday party and we wanted to spend the evening with him. But I would never ever go back here other wise. I would NOT recommend this to anyone. The drinks are watered down and there does not appear to be any top shelf brands…

Average prices, don’t recommend any of the food…

Worst service EVER. I went to watch a pay per view. Waited 90 mins for appetizer (Nachos). They are severely under staffed. Like 1 waitress per 40 people. Our waitress wasn’t friendly (although she would hug and sit on laps).
Very unprofessional. There were busy but not many people ordered food. Most were just playing pool, drinking or enjoying pay per view.
Management shrugged off the 90 minute wait time. Ironically we got our food like 10 minutes after we complained that we had been waiting over 80 minutes to eat.
Food wasnt even hot when received and waitress kept forgetting what food was ours or which condimenta were what.
Terrible, lazy, unprofessional service. If you’re friends or pimps for the servers you may get better service (pun intended). One waitress told me their lack of high tips might explain their bad service. How do you expect good tips when you treat people like burdens and deliver appetizers with food. IHops on Sunday after church dont face 90 minute delays ESPECIALLY when no one is eating. Terrible place

Good food, fast service, awesome darts…

My buddies brought me here the day before I got married. It is your basic pool hall, but the waitresses are for some odd reason, pretty arrogant.
The whole area is wide open, with plenty of pool tables, darts and games (such as Golden Tee) available.
Drinks are a bit on the pricey side, but strong. I did not have the food, so I’ll leave it to other Unilocalers to comment on that.
Overall, it’s not bad to visit when they are slow, but there is nothing special about the place to draw you in from far away.

I lived in St. Charles for a few years and recently moved a few hours away. My boyfriend and I use to go to Side Pockets for UFC fights because it was the only place near our apartment that had them. They have pretty good food and the service was okay. As time went by, the service kept getting worse and worse, including the waitress’ attitudes. We eventually started going to Buffalo Wild Wings a few doors down (it’s smoke free, too, which is a plus!). Recently, my boyfriend and I were back in town, so we decided to go to Side Pockets since we hadn’t been there for a while and watch the UFC fight. We walked in and they had a $ 5.00 cover. WTH? They DEFINITELY lost a lot of business with the cover — it was always crowded during fight nights and we had no problem finding a seat that night. My boyfriend and I sat down at a table to order some food and the waitress came right over. We both ordered a water to start out and before we could even ask for a menu, the waitress rudely tells us that there is a 2 drink minimum unless we were planning to order food. I completely understand why they do this, but she didn’t have to be a bitch about it. I wanted to walk out, but I was tired and hungry, so we ordered food and didn’t see our waitress until my boyfriend’s friends showed up (another person brought our food out). Ironically, after our party ended up with 5 guys and one girl, the waitress miraculously showed up at our table more often. Hmmmmm… interesting. I’m not going to get in to detail, but this place has decent food, but is nothing like it use to be.

I met up with some friends here last night to catch the UFC fight.
Yep, you read that right. This girl went to St. Charles to watch a UFC fight. It was a temporary lapse in character, I promise.
Surprisingly, I had a pretty decent experience! There were about 9 of us, and they had no problem pushing a bunch of tables together so we could all sit.
Given that it was a UFC fight night, Side Pockets was pretty empty. I’m thinking the $ 5 cover had to do with it? Oh well… it meant that our waitress could give us more attention, and the drinks and food came out pretty quickly as well. Did I mention that our waitress was awesome? Because she really was. Super friendly and nice.
I ordered the cheese fries, which come smothered with cheese sauce, scallions, and bacon. One of the top five reasons why I run so much? So I can occasionally eat stuff like this without feeling terribly guilty. And it was SO good. Not on the same level as the Shaved Duck’s smothered fries at all, but pretty good for a bar. REALLY good, even.
The fries plus a double rum and diet (WHO orders a rum and DIET when they’re noshing on fatty cheese fries??? MEEEEEEE) ran me less than 20 bucks. Happy girl.
After the fight, we stuck around for a couple rounds of pool. Side pockets has a ton of tables and lots of sticks to go around.
All in all, it was a good time. I can’t give Side Pockets five stars, however; the fact that they allow smoking inside is a HUGE turnoff. But I’ll continue to let my friends talk me into visiting a few times a year for UFC.

It has the potential of being a cool place but the food sucked in a bad way.

This is the spot to go for watching sports in St. Charles. I have to warn you ladies if you are not looking for a man, I wouldn’t go here alone. I’ve been swarmed like bees on honey. I would go here to watch most UFC fights. The prices are ok. The two male bartenders I had were decent but the younger girl I had sucked. Ok Royally sucked. She was rude, slow, and too busy flirting with men to worry about anyone else. I love the pork nachos. Yep, Pork Nachos, kinda weird huh… they are yummy. Their burgers are delicious. I would of gave it 4 stars but they gotta lose the loser bartender first.