BackBeatQue — Restaurant in Sandusky

Oh how the mighty have fallen. That lovely legendary beef brisket is no longer smoked—let alone edible. Like a mustache on a Mona Lisa, it appears to be steamed or boiled. Instead of that oh so wonderful smokey bark and savory texture they had last year and in previous years, it is meaty monstrosity: just low grade, extremely fatty roast beef. Eww. Ditto on the macaroni and cheese. This perennial favorite used to be some of the best restaurant mac ‘n cheese period, not just top marks park food. Now, it is instead missing any cheese or other ingredients and drenched in oil to the point that we saw 1/2 to 1 inch of oil inside of the paper serving bowl. Nasty. As Robert Irvine of Food Network’s Restaurant Impossible would chide, this is garbage! This was a common theme throughout our semi-annual exploration of the park as we window ate through to get a solid feel for the quality—or lack thereof. First recommendation: Eat outside of the park. Seriously, your insides and your palette will thank you later.

All the little things add up and make or break the whole experience. Since Cedar Fair’s $100s of millions of debt has caught up with them (flashback: the pandemic made their foolish business practice of operating on razor thin profit margins for decades turn into death by debt virtually overnight and this of course led to the requisite merger with Six Flags to save both from the brink of filing for bankruptcy), it is clear the quality of the park experience is in a total and complete free fall. Employees no longer smile and greet, apologize when they fall short, or—gasp—try to go the second mile. Dozens of low life vape and smoke and consume drugs throughout the park and when guests report it, staff and security do nothing about it. Top rides like their legendary Steel Vengeance are falling apart and needing significant maintenance on account of neglect and mismanagement. As a matter of fact, for this very reason, Steel Vengeance was closed this entire weekend as they hastily worked to repair structural issues in the beams that would have led to a catastrophic ride injury—and judging by the state of the beams, likely far worse than the Top Thrill Dragster accident a few years ago. Therefore, second—and my top—recommendation: Avoid this place completely and do yourself and your family a huge favor and instead visit Dollywood or Universal Studios Orlando and ditch this...

It isn't often you find decent food at a restaurant within an amusement park, but, BackBeatQue offers that rare exception serving off a great choice of BBQ options, in combo style, served with one side and corn bread.

We opted to do combos, and grab the drink, but portions were fair enough that all things considering prices reasonable.

Order in line, and they build up your tray, grab extras near the end, cash out and grab your drink, and you'll exit at seating. Quick and efficient set up, room inside to open up two sides of doing so. Staff was friendly and welcoming.

Seating outside is spacious, and a stage with live music. Only complaints, is seating is directly in the sun, and only outside seating is available. Outside of a few covered areas right by the building, there isn't hardly any offerings of shade.

Enjoyed my experience here and would definitely recommend and stop here for...

So this restaurant has changed drastically over the last few years. They used to have half roasted chickens, ribs, beans, half corn on the cob, (maybe pickles??) So though it was expensive then too, it was worth it. Last year it still had these things, just not quite as tasty. This year, it no longer has any of those food items- it still has as entrees for $19.99- brisket, chicken wings, chicken tenders, burnt ends (??), pulled pork, and a sad looking tiny salad. You also get a piece of cornbread, and a side. The sides were bread pudding (??), loose corn salad, Mac and cheese, coleslaw (not tasty looking). Truly disappointing as this had been one of our favorite places to eat…. And one of the only edible places at Cedar point. It’s possible the remaining options are still tasty- we passed this time around as nothing on the menu...