With nearly a dozen televisions in front of me, there are no halftimes, no timeouts, no commercial breaks. The playoffs are coming, and at Upper Deck, it's always game on.

The Southeast Broward/Northeast Dade area has been aching for a real sports bar, and Upper Deck -- like nature itself -- abhors a vacuum. With 40 televisions in the sleek dining room and 10 more on the comfy, smoker-friendly patio, it's the place for football fans who want to see every play of every game in the postseason.

Even in the last week of the regular season, when most games are meaningless and many stars are keeping the bench warm, the bar was packed with friendly football fanatics in their Jets jerseys and Patriots caps. A few were even cheering for the Dolphins.

Father-and-son owners Costis and Felix Kambouropoulos were also behind Redfish, Bluefish, the seafood-and-more restaurant that opened -- and closed -- in the same building last year. Like the Dolphins, it was overpriced and underachieving.

''It was a little too high-priced, and summertime was very slow,'' Costis said. ``Now we're getting a lot of local people.''

Their quick-turn conversion to a sports bar less than two months ago was a good call. Almost everything on the menu is priced below $20, with the casual entrees by far the most satisfying.

The trick to enjoying Upper Deck is keeping it simple. The bar food, snacks and sandwiches are quality game-time fare, but the handful of upscale offerings fall well short.

The tuna wrap, for example, was disappointing. Good tuna is the rule all over South Florida, but Upper Deck's had that fishy, only-slightly-better-than-canned flavor. My New York strip steak was unremarkable, on a par with the mild-flavored beef served at chains like Chili's. (That's not a compliment.)

But for the kind of food you wash down with a frosty beverage while talking about the point spread, Upper Deck is a vast improvement over the highway-exit fare at places like the Ale House chain. Those frosty beverages include Japanese favorite Kirin Ichiban and seven other on-tap brews. Roughly another 20 varieties are available in bottles.

Buffalo wings, the backbone of any serious game-time menu, are excellent: meaty, deep-fried in a light batter and coated in a punchy, flavorful, neon-orange sauce.

Fans who want cleaner hands should try the French dip, with full-bodied roast beef and a wonderfully thick au jus.

Do not, under any circumstances, skip the onion rings -- they may be the best in South Florida. The stringy rounds of batter-fried sweet onion have a flaky, peppery, scarfable crust. They're served in a hefty enough portion to carry you through overtime.

The service was dicey on every visit. One night, our overbearing waiter said the garden salad could not be served with the Caesar dressing because ``It is not our practice.''

On Sunday, short-staffing was the culprit. Our frazzled bartender did yeoman's duty trying to handle more than a dozen people at the long patio bar and at least as many tables behind it, but some customers waited more than an hour for lunch.

Still, with its proximity to the now-open Gulfstream race track and the local paucity of casual sit-down restaurants, Upper Deck should thrive in Hallandale Beach. It's a comfy place to cheer on your team.