Restaurants: Southside Grille offers an interesting dining experience

Bunnell is not really known for having a sophisticated dining scene but there are enough little mom-and-pop type places there to make it rather interesting in its own right, however. We visited one of those interesting places to find out if the accounts we had read were true and we were pleasantly surprised by what we found,
We were expecting a diner sort of place judging by what we had seen but they were advertising a prime rib special over the weekend. That didn’t add up completely since we had never seen a diner serve prime rib before. And the hours weren’t a diner’s either since they didn’t open until 11 AM.
It does look a bit like diner on the inside but that’s where it seems to end as the menu offers too many higher-end items for that thought to remain in your head for long regardless of the wall decorations and counter seating that are featured.
It’s an unpretentious but comfortable looking interior and the large menu seems to echo this theme as well. There are a mixture of old favorites as well as some items that you maybe wouldn’t expect. — like prime rib. We tried it, by the way, and it was quite good and at a price, $22, that will almost certainly bring people back.
We also tried the ribs and they were unlike any we’ve had since we moved to Florida as they were sauced but then they were also put back on the fire to carmelize and even char the sugar in the sauce a bit, creating a different flavor and crunchy texture which reminded me of some forms of Chinese barbecue you can get in parts of Asia.
Anyway, they were very good, as was the burger we got, the prices were reasonable, and the service was fine. There’s no reason not to check out this intriguing little place with its large menu that offers good value to its customers.
Southside Grille, 1104 S. State St., Bunnell, 386-693-4926