Queens Tribune

Sidetracks Restaurant & Lounge
45-08 Queens Blvd. in Sunnyside
Phone: (718) 786-3570
Cuisine: Comfort Lounge
Hours: Daily 11 a.m.-11 p.m., Late Nite Menu Sunday thru Thursday ‘til 1 a.m., Friday and Saturday ‘til 2 a.m., Brunch Saturday and Sunday 11 a.m. ‘til 4 p.m.
www.sidetracksny.com

There are very few places in Queens where you can stop in for a good drink and hang out with your buddies – and where you can sit down to a great fine dining meal. The lounge-restaurant hybrid is a relatively new feature dotting our streets, but one that underwent an overhaul 17 months ago is showing that the impossible can be done – and well – on both ends.

Sidetracks Restaurant and Lounge transformed itself in June 2007 from a well-known place to get a good quick meal to a place where the food is now as good and contemporary as the lounge that occupies a large chunk of the space.

Leather chairs, geometric design features and great lighting set the mood in this location just off the 7 train in Sunnyside. The two-sided bar in the center serves as a divider for the space, with the lounge on one side and the restaurant on the other. Sliding into a both last Saturday night, we got the feeling that we were going to dig in to something … well … more. More that what we’ve seen in other places. A more diverse menu. More reason to come back.

Our expectations were more than met.

We started the evening with a couple of “Comfortizers,” Grilled Chicken Satay with a spicy peanut dipping sauce and a Coconut Shrimp Martini, served with a honey mustard dipping sauce blended with a fruit chutney. We also sampled the Warm Goat Cheese salad with roasted beets, baby greens and a toasted pine nut vinaigrette.

The Comfortizers work perfectly for the lounge crowd – they are flavorful, filling and fun to look at. The satay was four plump chicken tenders, the shrimp martini was a delight to taste and the salad was a perfect mélange of ingredients, each very present on the palate, but none overwhelming the other.

Though we were well-fed by our first course, we ventured on to the entrees, which included the Hanger Steak Frites served with a red wine reduction, a special Surf and Turf for the evening – a 5-ounce filet mignon with crab-stuffed shrimp served over wilted spinach with whipped potatoes – and a children’s meal of Macaroni and Cheese.

The meats were perfectly cooked to order, with a hard sear on the outside and just the right blend of red and pink in the middle. The shrimp acted as a great duet, with the smoothness of the crab stuffing contrasting the snap of the fresh shrimp. The spinach was fork tender, and not over-salted, allowing the green flavor to dance around on the tongue.

My companions included a 9-year-old, who loved the shrimp martini and was delighted with the grown-up Mac and Cheese, which was creamy, al dente and obviously made fresh and to order. This just went to prove that even a place that caters to the 20-something lounge crowd and the refined diner can still make time in the kitchen to allow families to enjoy themselves as well.

We finished our meal with a range of homemade desserts, including a warm apple cobbler with vanilla ice cream, a triple-layer chocolate chip cake and a sample or sorbets, including lemon, mango and coconut.

Owner Bernard Reilly made his way around the tables as we dined, checking in to make sure that everybody was enjoying themselves. The food and experience were like Reilly – friendly, comforting and a pleasure. This was clearly a place to get a grown up taste of excellent comfort food. The range of pasta, fish and specialty dishes is tempered by the chicken pot pie, quesadillas, burgers, brick over pizzas. All seems to be done with the same amount of care and sophistication that the design conveys. This is truly a place we will return to, and recommend that everybody stop in for a drink, a snack a meal or the night. Go, and enjoy.