Marie S.
Yelp
I came to The South Side for Sunday brunch with my 4 favorite co-workers. It was a surprisingly warm fall day so we were seated on the patio next to a couple of heaters, which definitely improved the ambiance. It was all of our first times dining here so we heavily relied on the recommendation of our waiter. It seems like The South Side has a good reputation for drinks, with an extensive Bloody Mary menu, as well as interesting variations of the classic mimosa that aren't just orange juice and champagne. Two of my friends got the Spicy Bloody Mary, two got the Bellini, and I got the Blueberry Bubbles. My drink was the right amount of sweetness and definitely more exciting than a standard mimosa!
For food, everyone got the Hot Honey chicken and waffles, which our waiter told us was one of the most popular dishes. I really enjoyed it - it comes with hot honey that isn't really very hot and ranch, and we all asked for hot sauce (which doesn't automatically come with it) on the side and were brought a bottle of Cholula. Without the hot sauce, it would've been a very mid-tier dish in my opinion since it really wasn't hot otherwise, but the hot sauce + ranch + hot honey flavor combination worked extremely well. At first I thought I wouldn't love that it wasn't fried chicken but actually was a chicken tenderloin, but it made it easier to eat. The waffle was alright also - I wish it was larger/denser since I had more chicken than waffle, but I didn't mind since the chicken was what I was most excited about.
I also shared an eggs benedict with one of my friends. It was simply ok - I'm glad we had the dish to balance out our chicken and waffles but it really didn't compare. I thought the egg portion was a little lackluster in flavor - the hollandaise sauce in particular I thought was bland when I wanted it to be decadent. I did like the potatoes and ketchup that came on the side, but it didn't elevate the dish to where I would order it again over the chicken and waffles. Our waiter didn't mention this was a popular dish but I wasn't that surprised honestly.
Overall for brunch, I would come back. I have heard that The South Side has some of the best chicken and waffles in Cleveland. I definitely enjoyed my experience and would recommend that you try it out, and the drinks were good and incredibly reasonably priced! For other dishes, unsure what my review would be, but willing to go back and try more!