Sidewinders American Grill — Restaurant in Bozeman

Edit: Thank you for your thoughtful response, Chris. I appreciate your support of veterans and the local community, but we all support veterans around here, and that involvement doesn’t make my food any less cold. That aside, I’ll be happy to take down my review when you find a more reliable arcade vendor— for something you have no involvement in, it sure seems to have quite an impact on your business :)

I don’t leave reviews lightly. But sometimes, silence becomes complicity.

Let me start where all tragedies begin: with misplaced trust. I came to Sidewinder’s to share a lighthearted evening with family and friends: food and a few innocent games in the arcade. What I left with was a full stomach, a fractured spirit, and a deep-seated sense that I had been robbed, not of money, but of something more profound: honor.

The food, in fairness, was mixed. My chicken fried steak was well-seasoned and genuinely satisfying. But others in my party received meals that had clearly lost their battle with time and temperature. A burger arrived limp and cool to the touch. A slice of pizza, billed as “giant,” was only accurate in its size, not in its warmth or flavor. The server, while efficient, tried to upsell my party on everything. These weren’t dealbreakers. They were forgivable infractions—quirks, even—compared to what followed.

The arcade.

A hollow shrine to promise. Unstaffed. Soulless. I was drawn to a gravity game—a test of precision, patience, and persistence. You guide a ball along a trembling platform, tilting it just so to land it into a small, elusive hole. For round after round, I failed. But I learned. I adjusted. I endured. And finally, I succeeded. The ball dropped perfectly into place. The minor prize was won.

Except… it wasn’t.

The machine blinked, buzzed, and then fell still. No prize. No acknowledgment. No ticket. No redemption. I looked around. No attendant. No help. No sign of accountability. I pressed buttons. I waited. I stood there with my hand on the glass, staring at the shelf of minor prizes that would never be mine. I had followed the rules. I had played fairly. I had won. But this place didn’t care.

What stings isn’t the loss of the prize itself; it’s the quiet injustice of effort dismissed and success denied. The kind of injustice that sticks with you. That follows you into your car. That makes your good chicken fried steak taste a little less good in retrospect.

This wasn’t just a restaurant that served some cold food. This was a place that taught me a bitter truth: sometimes, no matter how hard you try, the game is rigged, and no one’s coming to make it right.

One star, and that’s...

Im sure that the service may be better than how it was the day we happen to go; unfortunately we choose to go on gameday, if you can help it, I wouldn't recommend going at this time, unless you want to bask in the ambiance of many who came to eat and watch the game. The entire restaurant was packed, making it a long wait time to just be seated, but even after being seated, this doesn't mean you'll finally have any interaction with the waitresses. It took over 10 minutes just to be greeted and have drinks be taken, and over 6 minutes for the drinks to even hit the table(which was only 4 waters and a dr pepper); i would have to also say drink sparingly, as on game days your drinks don't get refilled, we spent most of the time there sitting with empty glasses during the entire meal. I took to chewing ice just to wet my pallet and keep it from getting dry eating the food served; which other than the sidewinder pretzel starter, was really dry and or soggy. I ordered a jalapeño popper grilled cheese, with a side fries; i don't know if it was just cooked and sat out for a while for it to cool off and be able to eat or what, but the cheese either looked partially melted or just dried and shriveled up after sitting for a a long time going untouched. As for the fries; I can tell the flavor would have been fantastic, but, it just seems like they were just sitting in the fry basket for a few hours, no crisp to them at all, just the slight flavor of crispness and mushiness. They tasted like five guys fries left over night. As for the service we got from the waitresses, it was barley existent its as if we were just air sitting there, no checkups no asking how things were going(hence why no refills). I want to go back during a non gameday to see if it changes, but so far not a great overall impression, for what may be the only time I'll...

Update: Received an email regarding this review. Extremely apologetic and looking to make it right. Above and beyond based on today's standards; this alone gets a 4- star upgrade. Pretty horrible experience from the get-go. Had our name placed on wait list at 3:25 with a stated wait at 20-30 minutes and even received a confirmation text. After 35 minutes we checked in at hostess stand and it was obvious we weren't anywhere in their system. After being given the "technical issues" excuse we were told that we would be seated first as soon as the staff meeting was over... in another 10 minutes. We were then led past two available tables that would accommodate our small party but instead sat at a table right next to the kitchen. They literally put us at the crappiest table in the place after making us wait forty minutes and losing us on their wait list. Service was not real great, it seems our waiter may have been aware that we were not enthralled at this point. We finally ordered our food at 4:20. At this point it didn't matter how good the food may or may not have been, the staff failed to make up for their mistake and even punished us for being unhappy about their lack of accountability. We ordered the pretzel and it was very thin compared to photos taken by other reviewers, the artichoke dip was too salty, the pizza was only like warm, and drinks sat unfilled and only tended upon request. When we finally finished and left the restaurant it was 5:05. Overall, it appears the lackluster treatment of the staff reflects an attitude that the restaurant has enough traffic to afford the loss of potential repeat business. Looking over other reviews it appears good service, capable staff manning the hostess desk, along with a base level of responsibility are going the way of the dinosaurs; it would seem perhaps Sidewinder's is...