East Side Sports Grill

We have been here a few times and it seems that with each trip, the quality of their food has dropped. Coupled with less than enthusiastic service, last night was our last trip there.
It started with 2 different drinks being delivered even though my wife and I ordered the same drink. Then after we placed our order, it took an extraordinarily long time to get our appetizer (nearly 30 minutes). I would have understood if they were packed, but it was us and 2 other tables.
We are barely starting in on our clearly frozen food wings, the waitress arrived with our meals. Again, we both asked for the same temp in our burgers and they both come out like hockey pucks.
I really had high hopes for this place. Hope it can turn around.

This bar is my new favorite in the area. It was really well done. Theyve got a bunch of nice tvs to show all of the games. The bar is nice and spacious. There was a nice selection of beers on tap. The food was great! Get grandma’s meatballs! The service was great, the staff was very welcoming.

I’m sad to have to review this as 3 stars, because I would rate the food alone as a 4, maybe even slightly higher. However, after getting to the place slightly before 8 last night, it legitimately took over an hour for us to get our food (group of 5).
This place is relatively new, so I can understand if they are a little understaffed and haven’t quite figured how to manage the bar and restaurant areas at the same time. However, given that it was not a particularly busy night, and that the place is pretty small in general, I find it pretty unacceptable that in the hour we waited, the waitress didn’t check up on us once, even if it was just to refill water.
The appetizer was nachos, which we all split, and that came out without too much of a delay. For the first time, I felt like there were not enough chips instead of not enough toppings for the chips. We got chili on the nachos for an extra $ 4, but it was well worth it, as they give you an enormous heaping, and the chili’s delicious. The nachos also had a very nacho-​y cheese on them and were further topped with beans, jalapenos, and olives. The olives were an interesting, fresh twist, but I can understand if other people don’t like them (my friend group was split on them).
I ordered 3 orders of their bone-​in wings (aka East Side Wings), which was about 8 wings per order, and they offer a variety of flavors. I split an order of Sriracha Lime, Hot, and Medium each with a friend, and I personally thought the wings were really well done, even though my other friend wasn’t particularly a fan. One of the three flavors was a bit wonky (I believe it was Hot), where it was sweet and had a very buffalo-​y after-​spice, but the other two were solid. The bleu cheese that came with it was pretty weak, almost all cream and no cheese substance to it. However, the nice balance of crunchiness and tenderness really compensated for all of these things. I just thought that the wings were a near perfect level of crunch, without being burn/​overcooked or sacrificing the meat on the bone at all. It’s something I feel like I can rarely find, though I don’t really get wings anywhere except Buffalo Wild Wings.
Two of my friends ordered a Southwest Burger, and neither of them particularly liked it, calling it an inferior version to what Bobby’s Burger Palace has. My other friend got a steak sandwich, which he enjoyed, so no fouls there. All the prices were reasonable, maybe even on the nicer side compared to similar places.
Overall, I’d be interested in coming back here, maybe for the bar experience. I am sympathetic towards their service issues, and if that improves, I can see this place being successful, but with how it is currently, I find it hard to imagine that they will be able to build up a consistent customer base. Hopefully, things work out for them because I have more things on the menu I’d like to try.

Beautiful inside! Fun atmosphere we went at an off time for a late lunch wasn’t very busy but will def return! Food was good and people are nice hope everyone supports this local business!!!

This is a new place that opened in the spot across the street from Del Fuego that has had a lot of restaurants pass through. Although I was a fan of the Columbian place that was formerly here, I realized that place was not going to last long serving cheap decent South American food. Seems St. James does not support ethnic restaurants as they have all closed.
When I got in I realized that finally someone had changed the place up. The bar is now much larger and moved to where a glorious rotisserie used to be. I think they are going to have to make another modification and remove the wall between the dining area and the bar area as I do not think the bar area will hold their crowd, and there are a limited amount of people that are going to want to dine on a menu that consists largely of sandwiches and appetizers.
But it is quite OK that this is their menu as they tried to keep it simple. The food came out quickly. I ordered a steak sandwich ($ 14) and it was solid. The steak sandwich at Grant’s place down the road was $ 18 but it was probably worth the extra $ 4 as it had marinated better quality steak. We also ordered a burger ($ 10) which was solid as well. This is where I think they will succeed where I think Grant’s place may not. People don’t go to a place like this to eat the finest burger or steak sandwich, or quail eggs.
The beer selection was OK but Guinness was $ 7 and so was Montauk IPA. These are 2 mid tier beers that should be around $ 6. Looked like they had $ 15 bucket of beer domestics special for football. Not a bad deal. They also had Sunday Ticket and as many TVs as they could fit into that place but again I think the dividing wall may be a problem. Did not look in the dining room so not sure how many TVs there.
All the owner’s bros were there supporting the business so that was nice to give him a crowd on a Tuesday. The owner told me Friday and Sat were very busy. I think they have a niche here. It is 3.5 stars from me due to the aforementioned $ 7 mid tier beers. But rounded it up to 4 as there aren’t any places really like this in St James. Will be back during football to move it to 3 if that somehow gets messed up.