Big Wangs

Today I was feeling foul – or fowl – after having a cold, muscle clinching, joint locking morning at the pool. It was time for lunch and my mood left a lot to be desired. We wanted to stay in the NoHo area because B had to return and pick up some books at the library. I was too hungry and nasty to go to the library first so I drove up Lankersheim and parked where there were a number of restaurants. We saw a Panara and decided to go there for some black bean soup which they advertise on their Tuesday menu. We walked in and there appears to be no black bean soup on the board. I accuse B of making a mistake in the day. True to form, she gets a menu and shows me that she was correct. I ask the person behind the cash register if they have black bean soup. She replies that they will have it later. I, in my way – remember my mood – told her that will not help me now. I looked at B and said that we should leave. B was fine with that. I said goodbye and the woman said amazingly – you’re not staying? I said no because we came for black bean soup and you don’t have it. Out we walked and she stood there with her mouth open. I think another rather disturbing fact about this is that Panara is supposed to have the freshest food but it was obvious that they were getting rid of yesterday’s soup before they put out today’s.

That left us still hungry so we walked a little and saw Big Wangs. We had no idea what to expect. We walked in and found a sports bar with quite a nice menu. Usually we don’t frequent sports bars but the U.S. Open Tennis Tournament is on and I am a fan so we decided to stay and my mood began to improve. It improved even more when very quickly we were asked what we wanted to drink and we got our Diet Cokes, very large glasses, rather quickly.

As I perused the menu, I saw some very unusual items. Cheeseburger quesadilla as well as other fillings but no plain cheese or chicken - buffalo chicken they did have. They had about 4 different kinds of sliders. B picked the meatball sliders which come with fries. Since this is a wing place, I chose the wings without any sauce. They had 7 different sauces. I sat and pondered these for quite a while – quite a while since it took quite a while for the waitress to come and take our orders. I decided on Teriyaki sauce on the side.

We also waited a bit longer than usual for our meal but it was hardly noticed. I had a second huge glass of Diet Coke and watched the tennis matches while B played with her iPhone. My mood was now curmudgeonly as usual. B’s meal came with 4 very good sliders filled with Italian meatballs which she loved. She said she would go back there and have them again tomorrow. The fries looked very good as they were the thinly sliced ones. However, B said that some of them were crispy but many were somewhat soggy. She said they needed to change their oil. OK. I have no knowledge that old oil causes soggy fries but she knows.

My wings consisted of 6 of the leg part, none of those parts that have no meat. That was a big plus. They were very good, not very greasy but also not very tasteful. I think that is because all of their sauces are very tasty. The teriyaki was and that helped the wings considerably. My meal was an appetizer so it came with two pieces of celery and two pieces of carrots and some nice ranch dressing. I chose the wings with the bone in but they also have boneless wings.

They have two soups – chili and French Onion. They have some salads and some wraps and sandwiches as well as pizza and the unusual quesadillas. It is a sports bar so there are TVs all over. Prices are reasonable enough. Many things had double entendres – such as the name of the restaurant – their motto, “size matters” - the restrooms called cocks and chicks – this is a macho rather sexist restaurant but there were plenty of women in there. I would go back at lunch if I was in the neighborhood but not anywhere close to happy hour because I think the place will really be jumping and loud. I left there feeling much better than I did when I came in.

Web site: http://bigwangs.com