Side by Side Kitchen & Cocktails — Restaurant in Tuscaloosa

This is NOT your average hotel restaurant! We discovered this place as our last stop on our Tour de Chocolat, which benefits the local Family Counseling Service. (A delightful tour of local eateries, but that's another story.) We came for the chocolat, but we stayed for the righteous dining experience.

The quality is on par with some of the most enjoyable dining in town. I'll start by praising the menu creation for its variety and creative incorporation of traditional Southern ingredients like pork belly, crawfish, and pecans.

We were greeted at the door by the manager, who escorted us to the host station for seating. The host quickly placed us in a central location with an entertaining view of the food prep counter. The din of service and other diners nearby contributed to the lively atmosphere without becoming so noisy as to interfere with table conversation. We were seated indoors, but outdoor seating with live music and a fire pit was also available.

The wine list is extensive, and the drink menu has some creative mixes that pair well with the menu. Our server took our drink orders right away and had us sipping cocktails while we perused the menu. We chose the pork belly and the portabella stack as appetizers. Pork belly tends to be a salt-seasoned, fatty meat that can overpower any dish, but the savory pecan glaze and brussels sprouts were the perfect counterbalance for the richness of the meat. I can also recommend the salads and pasta dishes on the menu. Everything we ordered arrived promptly and was served at the correct temperature.

Our Tour de Chocolat entries arrived at the end of the meal. In plain terms, I might describe the dessert as a German chocolate tart with graham cracker crust. It was sweet and sticky and crumbly and amazing!

Overall, I'd rate the experience as five stars and would definitely recommend Side by Side to friends and family for an evening of relaxed dining with excellent food and a...

Worst experience ever. I wish I could give a separate rating just for the food because it was wonderful. However, the service was horrible. Our waitress completely ignored our requests. As a vegetarian I asked if I could just order a few sides. I was told there is a vegetarian plate she can do for me. That is not at all what I asked for. She was rude and very unhelpful. When I ordered a salad as an appetizer and asked which dressing she recommended I was told it’s whatever I prefer. When I’m paying $15 for a appetizer salad and I ask the waitress opinion on dressings, I accept to be told a few options. When my vegetarian meal arrived, the cornbread that was promised with it was replaced by a side salad due to having bacon in it that night. Very annoying as I had just had a side salad for an appetizer. It would have been nice if the waitress would have come over before bringing out our meal to inform us of this, because my husband would have loved to eat the cornbread. The manager must have noticed our annoyances so she politely came over to ask us about our evening. After telling her of the issues, she apologized with no offerings to make up for the terrible service. Our waitress quickly brought the check without asking us if we wanted to look at a dessert menu and without asking if we want to box up our leftovers. Both of which we wanted. She was terrible at her job and made our 2 year anniversary dinner pathetic. We ended up waking over to Chuck’s for dessert and had a wonderful experience!! If you are trying to decide where to go tonight, skip side by side and hit up Chucks. Or better yet, just head over to Mcdonalds, you’re sure to have a...

I have loved this restaurant since it opened years ago but something has changed.

When we walked into the restaurant we knew something was off. They were so disorganized. The maitre’d said our table was not ready even when we could see that many table were open. She asked us to come back to the maitre’d station in 15 min to see if our table was ready INSTEAD of saying “I will come find you when your table is ready”. FIRST RED FLAG that something had changed. My son called another restaurant to see if we could make a reservation there and unfortunately they had no tables available so we stayed at Side by Side.

We ordered appetizers and the oysters were fabulous so I relaxed and thought even though the management was lacking that the kitchen was still top notch. Then my appetizer of soup and the short rib entree were delivered at the same time. RED FLAG #2.

I tried to cut into the short ribs and they were so hard and stone cold so I asked the waiter to take it back to the kitchen. The short ribs were ice cold. When they brought it back out, it was cooked but it was disgustingly salty. Let me just say that I never complain about food but it was the worst thing I had ever tasted in a restaurant. RED FLAG #3.

The manager came to the table to apologize and honestly did not have a good response for why it happened once much less twice.

Side note: We found out that Chris Hasting from Birmingham sold the restaurant at the end of January to the hotel and here we are 2 weeks later .....AND now they are already in major disarray. I hope they correct the major flaws and restore the restaurant to it’s...