Eating in Sandusky - where to?

All I can say is everyplace in Sandusky shoots them self in the foot by closing so early.

Once the park closes you have Dianes (which is like a fried food crap joint if you ask me). Steak and Shake which is just a greasy fried food joint. Fast food restaurants if your down with arteriosclerosis. Pizza places as you guys mention but they are just as bad as fast food. I can usually always find Applebees open and serving food late.

It seems if there is money to be made...Applebees wants it and will stay open for us park visitors.

What ever you do don't go to the McDonalds right off the Causeway. They're very consistant at having the worst service at any food place I've ever been to. They might even be worse than CP's foodservice locations. With 12 people behind the counter at midnight on a Tuesday there's no reason why I should have to wait 5 minutes for my food when there was no one ahead of me.

The service at most every restaurant in Sandusky I have been to is very sub-par. I don't know what it is with waiters and waitresses being so lazy in Sandusky.

Not all are lazy, but manyyyy times we've had food that is mildly warm, waiting on drinks, and other random issues.

Honestly Thirsty Pony though has been great though...a local place.

I need to try Cabana Jack's and just the other countless restaurants that are local.

Dianes wasn't bad. Just deep fried everything.

Just wanted to bring this topic back to ask a question. Does anybody know if the Thirsty Pony is any good? I always pass it on my way back to my hotel but have yet to go in there to get something to eat? Also what do they specialize in besides Beer?

We tried Diana's once. 30 minutes after being seated, we still hadn't been asked if we would like drinks or to place our order. Walked out, won't go back.

If you like mexican food, Casa Real on 250 is fantastic. Great service, plenty of choices on the menu and decent prices.

Friendly's, right down the street from Casa Real, is also pretty decent. Service was good and food was pretty good as well.

Ryan's used to be pretty good, but seems like the selection and quality of food for the price has dropped lately. Maybe it's just an off season thing.

Tried the new Chipotle in front of the mall last week. Not much selection, and a little pricey, but considering they are classed as a fast food restaurant, it wasn't too bad. Beat the snot out of anything Taco Bell serves.

Once it warms up the Berardi's Fry Cart between Rainbow Muffler and Blockbuster at 250 and Perkins should be opened back up. Awesome fries and (according to my wife) fantastic cheese steaks.

Thirsty Pony is your typical sports bar with typical sports bar type food. Some of their burgers are pretty good, and they do have a pretty wide selection for being a sports bar. I found their menu online here, and from what I can remember from the last time I was there, it looks pretty accurate.

Diana's can be hit or miss on service. Usually it's pretty good, but every now and then it's really bad. I think there's only been one time I walked out after not getting waited on for 40 minutes or so.

Casa Real is fantastic, although I'm biased because they once re-opened the place after closing because the 25 or so person group I was with showed up looking for drinks.

The new Chipotle will be getting a lot of my business this summer/fall. I love me some Chipotle! :)

Chase Gilbert said:
We tried Diana's once. 30 minutes after being seated, we still hadn't been asked if we would like drinks or to place our order. Walked out, won't go back.

Ralph Wiggum said:
I think there's only been one time I walked out after not getting waited on for 40 minutes or so.

Holy crap! You guys are patient!

Well, at 2:30 AM on a Saturday morning during Halloweekends, there are only two food choices in town. Most if not all of the fast food drive through joints are even closed at that point, although I believe the two Taco Bells (Perkins Ave and Rt.250) stay open till 4.

Good point. Still, after about 15 minutes, I would have just headed to Meijer. :)

djDaemon said:

Holy crap! You guys are patient!

Trust me, everyone in the restaurant probably knew I was unhappy as we walked out :)

Ralph Wiggum said:

The new Chipotle will be getting a lot of my business this summer/fall. I love me some Chipotle! :)

Oh yeah, I'm hooked already and I've only been once :)

I think a good rule of thumb for Diana's is go during the day. I've had all postive expieriences exept for the one time I went around midnight. There were 20 people standing around the door waiting to be seated so I asked the host if there was a list to put my name on. He replied "A list for what?" We were seated in about 20 min but thats when the abuse really began. We ate and paid. Two hour commitment.

Danny Boy's Italian Eatery - really good pizza though a little expensive.

Chett and Matt's Pizza - It's thin, quick, cheap and they cut it into strips for some reason.

Sandusky has no unique dining options really. Qdoba is the best thing to fill up on after a long day of hoofing it around Cedar Point if you ask me. Either that or Steak and Shake.

Thirsty Pony is honestly the place to go at night. You know how when you go to a ski town, and head down the slopes, back to the hotel, and go out for drinks...its a skiers bar?

Well the Thirsty Pony is "that bar" for Cedar Point. After Cedar Point it is really packed with visitors from all around. Great conversations to be had with strangers really.

It is "not just a bar". They do have crazy drinks and ridiculously big beers. They have some like hotel attached which has a water slide. They have horse betting/sports betting? Not everywhere has that.

Chet and Matt's is just okay. Never had Danny Boy's.

Diana's...honestly this is just a "homestyle" restaurant where they offer a huge menu of deep fried foods and crap. Almost stereotypical mid-western food :)

I went there and had good service but spent probably $30 between 2 people and realized we had just ordered plates full of grease really.

T.G.I. Fridays, Famous Daves, Chik-Fil-A, Panda Express, Subway.....these have been the only places @ CP worth eating at. Are they worth it? Thats up to yourself to answer. Famous Daves / T.G.I. Fridays offer the best bang for the buck i.m.o . Unlimited refills, air conditioning, views, quiet time, and the food albeit still marked up over traditional TGI Friday's or Famous Daves is much better in quality than you will receive at a walk-up stand. And those walk-up stands sooo easily allow you to spend $11-13 on lunch and before you know it you should have just really ate out somewhere nice.

$6 Beers might seem expensive @ the park food joints, but I've come to accept you are on vacation, you are not at wal-mart. You aren't driving to Wal-Mart are you now?

Qdoba is closed down. We tried Steak and Shake once. Just another fast food place where the food looks nothing like the pictures. Wafer thin burgers, and the dining area looked like nobody knew how to wipe a table or sweep the floor.

We ate at Friendly's recently. Reasonable prices and great food for the whole family.

Speaking of closed....East of Chicago is no more. They are remodeling to become a Dairy Queen which I'm sure, like the rest of town, will close by 10. Now it's time to find a new place to get PB&J pizza.....

First of all - Wow! Qdoba closed down? Are you kidding me? It was open last year when we went if I am not mistaken. But every Qdoba/Chipotle has been a blast here in Michigan. They have started to saturate certain cities with them even due to their popularity (with expanded hours - open till 3 A.M. on weekends).

I could have swore people of Sandusky would have whole heartedly gobbled up that Qdoba stuff.....

But Sandusky is a tough crowd. In my few years of being a CP fan I have seen a fair number of establishments open and close.

So East of Chicago pizza right by Cedar Point closed down also? That sucks....I bet CP is happy to find their guests with less options near the park entrance.

Not surprised to see the Qdoba go down once the vastly superior Chipotle opened across the street.

Ralph Wiggum said:
Not surprised to see the Qdoba go down once the vastly superior Chipotle opened across the street.

Okay well that explains a LITTLE. BUT I will sternly disagree with you about qdoba vs. chipotle.

I have never seen a Chipotle with a queso sauce, and therefore Chipotle is just an invalid choice.

If they could just make a chicken queso burrito I would be all over their balls

Queso is not natural (chesse is not naturally a liquid) therefore Chipotle doesn't have it since they've got the all natural ingredients thing going on. Allegedly they have invested money in trying to find a way to make all natural queso, but to no avail.

Queso - aka Alien Embryos - makes Qdoba vastly superior.