The Sidecar Bar & Grille

This bar is so cute! Great brunch, great bar snacks, great drinks! The staff are super friendly and they have quizzing certain nights! Me and my girlfriends come here whenever we want to stay close to our neighborhood but still have a nice time!

Great place to go w/​a group, as they have a little of everything (w/​good quality ingredients) and the drinks/​liquor selection is pretty good. I had some excellent carnitas here, but the Reuben was just absolutely fantastic (fall-​off the bone soft corned beef + great accompanying ingredients). The mezcal + pickle juice pairing is also really uniquely delicious — smokey flavor, sounds weird but the pickle juice really went well with it.
Overall, a total go-​to when I’m thinking about where to go around for eat/​drinking in the Grad Hospital area.

Tiny place but they make up for it in the friendliness of their employees and the food. My husband got the Super Mario burger, two patties with a mozzarella stick and tomato compote. He loved it.
I got the crispy goat cheese salad and it was great as well. This place seems like a «dive» but the food definitely isn’t.

Love this place! They have an alright happy hour where beers and some cocktails are around half price, and they also have reduced price appetizers as well. FYI the cocktails don’t come out in some small fancy-​looking glass, but rather in a large glass that looks like it’s meant to hold draft beer.
I really enjoyed their nachos — it came out on a huge plate with lots of food, so definitely an appetizer that I recommend sharing. The best part was that they layer the toppings! So once you eat the top layer of chips/​meat/​cheese, the bottom layers have new toppings (unlike nachos I’ve gotten at other places where the bottom part of the chip pile is devoid of yummy toppings).
Their burgers are also amazing. You probably can’t go wrong with any of their burger options. The portions are again big, with lots of fries on the side too, so you will leave Sidecar feeling very full and happy!

Great beer, clean and cool place. Nice staff and the food is high while the prices are decent. This is getting sustainable.
The beer menu has about 12 good drafts and the menu even shows what the next lineup is. Unnecessary but it shows they care.

I love Side Carrrrrr. It has a really great casual neighborhood vibe and they welcome tiny diners as well as dogs. They have a bar on each floor as well as patio seating in the warmer months. The staff is all very friendly and knowledgable about the menu and drafts.
The menu is small but creative. I love the mushroom melt which consists of mushrooms and buttery goodness. They have happy hour deals where select plates are $ 7 which is awesome.
Truffle mayo? Yes please.
Excellent choice of drafts and a list of what’s coming next on the draft list. If you’re into pickle backs, they offer three different kinds which Make for an interesting evening. Additionally, the cocktails are delicious! I love the drink with grapefruit soda, spicy simple and tequila. Gimme!!!

Clam chowder…
BIGGEST LITTLE DISAPPOINTMENT:
I ordered this dish and expected a bowl of soup. When the waitress walked up with this large bowl and presented me with something small and dense inside, I was at first sure she got the order wrong. (Hopefully I can post a picture of this thing.) Soup, it was not; more like a few spoonful of dense casserole. The garnish was A LOT of fried onions and scattered greens. After some digging I saw a few clams mixed in with the potatoes. The entire dish was overwhelmed by the taste of dried onions. At $ 12 a bowl, it was the most disappointing thing I’ve ever ordered.

Update! It has been years since my last Sidecar review! Nearly four, to be exact. Meanwhile, Sidecar is my go-​to neighborhood bar, I practically know the menu by heart, I have consistently great experiences with servers and bartenders there, they always play great music… the list goes on!
Something I’m really loving that they didn’t have the last time I wrote a review is the addition of a few really nicely done cocktails. I’ve been drinking less beer and more wine and cocktails lately, and I absolutely love the raspberry cooler, with fresh raspberry iced tea, vodka, simple syrup and fresh lemon and mint. It’s a simple drink that isn’t overly sweet, which is just perfect for me.
The food is consistent, whether you go for brunch or dinner, and I love that the kitchen is open late. My go-​tos are the pretzel chicken bites, carnitas, salads and, when I’m feeling extra splurge-​y, the Super Mario burger. Delish. Anything on their brunch menu is a hit with me. Thanks for holding it down in the ‘hood, Sidecar.

Had a delicious brunch on a busy Sunday morning. The menu was substantial, yet not overwhelming. I ordered the coconut curry tofu scramble with a side salad served with a pomegranate vinaigrette. If you’re interested in a light, refreshing brunch item that fills you up, but does not stuff you senseless, then I’d highly recommend this scramble! The curry sauce was spicy, flavorful, with just the right amount of acidity, which paired so well with the tofu and and veggies (broccoli, bell peppers, onions, and fingerling potatoes).
My bf had the special of the day — croquet madame, with ham and gruyère, topped with bechamel, and served between two thick slices of sourdough — along with their house potatoes. A bit of personal info: the amount my bf eats is scary — he has an almost superhuman appetite. Most times I wonder in awe how it all fits. Anyhow, even he could not finish the croquet madame! While delicious (and obviously filling), it was just a tad too rich and had a lot of bread. In retrospect, he realizes that pairing this massive sandwich with potatoes (which were slightly under-​seasoned) might not be the best idea.
Overall, I liked my dish, the service was friendly, the location was convenient; therefore, I’m a fan and would definitely venture to this South Philly local spot again!

Three friends (Christina V., Christina G. and Nina S.) and I met at Sidecar for Sunday brunch. They don’t take reservations and won’t seat you until your entire party has arrived. We had a short 10 – 15 minute wait at the bar before a table opened up for us. This was not a bad wait considering some other places in Philly that have 60 minute waits for brunch! I ordered a vodka/​pomegranate/​minty cocktail from the bartender, it was good but it didn’t blow my hair back. One and done. My friends ordered bloody mary’s and said they were awesome!
For brunch, I ordered the Smoked Salmon Eggs Benedict with Spinach (as recommended by our patient waiter). It was a great meal, a perfect portion size with a decent side of home fries. The smoked salmon on a nicely toasted English muffin, accompanied with the perfectly poached eggs and smothered in hollandaise sauce. You really can’t go wrong with this dish! There was plenty of egg and sauce goo left for me to wipe up with my home fries (that were nice and crispy on the outside.)
We also shared a side order of cheesy grits. I do not normally like grits but these have changed my mind 100%! If all grits tasted like the grits at The Sidecar, I would eat them all of the time!
The Sidecar is definitely on the repeat list.