It is always interesting to find a restaurant that is popular among the locals. That should mean good food at good price, or at least I think that is the secret recipe for local’s choice. We found one here called Lakeside Bar & Grille.

It is a local sports bar, and while we were there, people of all ages kept coming in and out. I could see that it really was quite popular spot. The inside is not so big, a bit smaller than I expected. It has a long bar counter seating from the entrance to the back, and high table seating throughout the space. They had several TVs on the walls for the sports fans.

We went there for lunch, and we were pretty hungry. So, we decided to share an appetizer first. We had no idea what we were getting into at this point… We ordered a sample platter, called Quinsigamond Platter ($11.95), as the restaurant is near Lake Quinsigamond.  It comes with fried mozzarella, potato skins, onion strings, and tender boneless wings tossed in your choice of sauce. We chose BBQ sauce for the wings. When it arrived, we were in shock. There came a mountain of appetizers!!! There were three of us, but I think the platter was enough for six. The wings were pretty good, and I liked that they were boneless. So much easier to eat. It was tender and tasty.

There were three fried mozzarella, and they were in round patty shape, which was interesting. I am used to more of a stick shape ones. They were good, not great, but nice and comforting. They were not greasy which was good. It came with marinara sauce for dipping.

There were four potato skins, pretty good size. They were heavy and loaded with cheese and some bacon. It came with sour cream on the side. It was not great, but ok. Again, very comforting. My favorite was the onion strings. They were lightly fried, and very tasty. It was so addicting… I am glad they had mountain of them. Before we could finish, our main dishes arrived. Yes, we took the reminder (little less than the half of the plate) home.

For main, we ordered Fish Sandwich ($9.95), The Brenna Salad ($10.95), and Meatball & Sausage Combo Sandwich ($9.95). The Fish Sandwich is made with fried Haddock, served on a bulkie roll with tartar sauce, lettuce, and tomato. The choice of side was fries, onion strings, coleslaw or potato chips. I went with fries. You could also chose the bread, but I left that one to be bulkie roll. This one was huge too, mountain of fries with huge fish sandwich.

After I made the sandwich into one piece, it was really big. It was enough to feed two people off this plate. I didn’t finish the mountain of fries, so we took most of it home too. The fish was nice and tender, juicy, flaky and had good seasoning. I really liked the bulkie roll, it was nice and soft, making it easy to eat. Veggies were very fresh.

The Brenna Salad is made with their House Salad, topped with marinated grilled chicken, sliced strawberries, spiced almond and feta cheese. Have I mention their portion is huge? This was a humongous salad. Massive! It reminded me of “the big salad” from Seinfeld show. Everything was very fresh, and had generous amount of grilled chicken loaded on top. I liked the strawberries addition, it went nicely with feta. The almond had some kick to it, I am not sure what spice that is, but some of them was spicier than others.

Meatball & Sausage Combo Sandwich gives you combination of their Hot Italian Sausage and Meatball. They do have just the Hot Italian Sausage Sandwich, and Meatball Sandwich. But, if you want both meatball and sausage, they let you get both without ordering two sandwiches. We chose coleslaw as the side for this dish. The coleslaw was surprisingly good, I am not sure what their secret is, but it was really nice. The color comes from shredded carrots.

 

Now, the sandwich. We chose Italian Loaf, recommended by our waitress (thank you!). It nicely held hot Italian sausage and meatball, and meatball is made with their original homemade meatball recipe, topped with provolone cheese and marinara sauce.  It was huge, I would say it can also be shared among two people. The meat was juicy and packed with flavor. The sausage had nice kick to it, while the meatball was more on the sweet side. Ultimate comfort food.

 

We took home maybe half the food, as it was just way too much for the three of us. The generous portion of everything is just unbelievable. It was a nice lunch, we were completely stuffed, needed a good nap afterwords. The service was ok, friendly and casual. The atmosphere is comfortable, no-frill, and laid back. A great local hangout spot. If you need a massive amount of comfort food or salad at great price, this is the place to go.

Lakeside Bar & Grille – 97 Boston Turnpike, Shrewsbury, MA 01545