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Sideline Social Kitchen & Bar
Wingage Score: 81%
Address: 89 Meadowvale Dr. - St. Catharines
Parking: Mucho Bueno
Intersection: Lake Street & QEW
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Last Reviewed: May 1st, 2025
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Last Visited: May 1st, 2025
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| Judge |
Score |
| BHON - May 2025 |
81% |
Overall - May 2025:
I’m not sure what it is about this particular pocket of the city, but the formula seems to be to take the former breakfast spot attached to the adjacent hotel, take out the pancakes, add some sports paraphernalia and call it a sports bar. This trend began more than a decade ago when Wrigley’s Field took over whatever pancake house was located in the old Holiday Inn on Lake Street & the QEW. More recently, the iHop and former Golden Griddle across the highway became the Courtyard Bar & Grill followed by the SideLine Social Craft Kitchen and Bar opening up in the former Perkin’s location at the Hampton Inn. We’ve had mixed opinions of these places in the past, what would we think of the latest incarnation? Stay tuned to find out!
The Environment:
So take an old Perkin’s restaurant, strip out the country-kitchen vibe with grandma’s wallpaper. Paint the whole place black and white, hang up a bunch of TV’s, and some sports paraphernalia. Add some steampunk inspired furnishings and some funky LED lighting effects and call it a sports bar! Top it off with a little subway tile, and a mix of high-top and regular tables and voila!
The Good:
- Good selection of craft beers on tap. We enjoyed many pints of Great Lakes Stout, which was a tasty and smooth alternative to our usual Guinness.
- Wings - decent sized, lightly dusted and properly cooked with crispy skin outside and moist chicken inside.
- Pricing - eh....$17 for a pound of wings is nothing special these days. Pints were $7 but more on that later....
The Not So Good:
- No Guinness on tap but the selection of craft beers made up for it.
- Fairly generic selection of wing flavours. Nothing hotter than the usual Frank’s & butter buffalo style.
- Pint glasses seemed smaller than normal - closer to 12oz, so all of a sudden that $7 price isn’t as great a deal as you thought it was.
- They tout is as a ’social’ place, but it was mostly empty for a Thursday night but at the same time it was loud with the acoustics of a gymnasium, making it tough to hold a conversation without yelling at one another.
Overall - a mixed bag. We liked it, but nothing stood out about it making us want to come back right away. |
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