3 /5 Joe: A mediocre dining experience with decent pretzel bites and good music.
We visited Courtside Bar and Grill on a weekend evening between 8 and 11pm. The establishment was busy.
Courtside is a newer establishment in downtown Binghamton, and as the name suggests Courtside focuses heavily on playing basketball on their many televisions set up throughout the bar. While most downtown establishments are focused more toward the younger, college crowd, the choice of music struck me as interesting as Courtside was playing a lot of late 90s/early 2000s alternative, which is right up my alley.
We decided to check this new eatery out while we were downtown for another event and even though the establishment was busy we were immediately greeted and shown a seat. There is nothing bad to report on Service her, as it continued to be very quick throughout our visit and we waited very little time between ordering, receiving our appetizer, and receiving our main course. For an appetizer we ordered pretzel bites with cheese, and for the main course we ordered a PB&J burger and a buffalo chicken melt.
While the pretzel bites were good, things got a bit sub-par at the main course. The buffalo chicken melt was highly disappointing as there were more blue cheese crumbles in my sandwich than there was chicken and it greatly overpowered the rest of the flavors in the sandwich, even the buffalo itself. The fries were nothing special and were not seasoned when they hit the table, although they did come out hot and crispy. The PB&J burger was fine, but a bit overcooked and incredibly sticky, although sticky should be expected with this burger and isnt in itself a reason for complaint.
Overall our visit to Courtside wasnt bad, but it wasnt really memorable. I could see us eating here again if we find ourselves downtown for another event, but it will likely find a spot a little lower down in our rotation with hopes of a better experience next time.
