Geno's Steaks!!!!

The place can be seen here: http://www.genosteaks.com/
Location: Philly, Pa

For those not in the know, this is one of the two most famous cheese steak places in Philly. This place isn't exactly a "motorcycle friendly" joint...it's more of a tourist type joint. Who cares though? :)

A friend of mine and I went on a motorcycle tour back in may, and ended up lost in Pennsylvania. Way off our route, and not knowing which direction to go, Jason said "Lets go to Philly for some real cheese steaks!". With me liking food as much as I do, who am I to say no? :D

We wake up the next morning, and drive something like 2.5 or so hours over to Philly. Let me say that I've never been to a BIG city. City traffic was an eye opening experience. Parking further opened my eyes. Once we got to Geno's I circled the block several times trying to find a spot, and finally one opened up directly in front of Geno's (curb side parking only).

When we got there, there was probably 60 - 80 people in front of us. I was thinking it was going to be ATLEAST an hour before we gave anyone our order. 15 to 20 minutes later, we were sitting down, eating our food! AWESOME!



The above makes my mouth water just looking at it. Geno's Steaks has the best damn cheese steaks I've EVER had in my life. You WILL NOT find one as good, anywhere outside of Philly. Period. It's not going to happen. If everything else about our 7 day sucked, the trip to Geno's would have made the entire trip worth while.

Now, normally a place like this you wouldn't really rate on service. It's a tourist, fast food joint. That said, with only having to wait 20 minutes (at most) for food, when ~70 people were ahead of us, the service was damn good. As good as the food itself. I'm rating this place a perfect 10. Nothing could have been better. The ONLY thing I wish were different about the place, is that I'd like for them to be about 500 miles closer to me. ;)

Wild Wing Cafe - Take 2!

Location: Briar Creek in Durham, NC

So after my last review on Wild Wing Cafe, I was told by several people that I was WRONG. The place simply could not suck, and they had some of the best wings around. Period.

I decided last Saturday that I'd give them one more shot. I HOPED the food was going to be good, but was expecting more of the same junk I got the first time.

This time, a couple friends of mine and I went on a Saturday afternoon. As soon as we walked in the door, we were seated, and within 5 minutes we had our drinks. MUCH better than last time!

We order our food and had it within about 10 minutes. Tony (one of the guys that came with me last time), Random (sorry, I forgot his real name), and I all ordered wings. I ordered the hottest wings they have (Braveheart), Random ordered 3 steps down from that (Chernobyl), and Tony ordered ...umm....I forgot what flavor he ordered. :)

Upon receiving them, all of us noted that they looked like they didn't have enough sauce on them, and it appeard the sauce was cooked on them. However, after eating one, I decided my wings had just the perfect amount of sauce on them. This time, the wings tasted GREAT! Not overcooked and the sauce wasn't burned onto them. Last time the wings simply tasted "HOT", with not much other flavor. I also noted last time, they were the hottest wings I've EVER had. This time however, they didn't seem as hot, and they had an awesome taste to them! Very suprised, and was definately glad I gave this place another shot!

Random seemed to come to the same conclusion as I. While his wings weren't as hot as mine, they still made him sweat. I'm pretty sure he thought the sauce was just right, cooked just right, etc. I got no complaints from him, and he was glad he tried them out (For the first time) as well.

Tony had a couple comments/minor complaints on the place. First was even after trying them, he wanted a little more sauce on them. This didn't seem to slow him down from eating them though, so I didn't take it as a major complaint. The second note he made was that Buffalo Wild Wings wings were "easier to eat". He further elaborated and said they were more "tender".

Overall, this place was nearly great. The service could have been a hair better, and the wings MAYBE could have used a touch more sauce. For the total experience, I'll rate this place a 9.1. A hair better than BWW... mainly because the service was better than BWW (I never ran out of drink). As of now, this place comes second to Quaker Steak and Lube for some awesome wings. I'll definately be going back soon.

Locked and Loaded

Location: Garner, NC

Locked and Loaded is a motorcycle specific sports bar/restaurant. Their menu is similar to that of Scooters Bar and Grill (Hamburgers, wings, misc. sandwiches, etc). Primarily a Harley joint, but like Scooters, I've always felt welcome.

Both times I visited the place, I ate a hamburger. Both times, the quality was the same, and food tasted the same. Their burgers are pretty good...not the best in the world, but not bad either.

They've got home made chips that they call "buffalo chips". They're thin sliced potatoes, deep fried, just like you'd expect a home made chip to be. After frying, they put buffalo wing sauce, and parmesan cheese on it, if you want. I tried them this way the first time, and they were terrible. Quite possibly, the worst thing to ever go in my mouth. Ugh. The second trip I made to the place, I got them plain. This was was MUCH better than with the other stuff on it.

Both times I went, I went with a group of my buddies. I didn't hear any complaints from them about the food.

Their service one time was average, and the next trip it was slightly above average. Good enough that I'd go back, but...

For some reason, I haven't went back in a while. It's probably been 3 months or so since I've been. Normally anytime I'm on that side of town, I want wings, so I go to BWW. If I'm in the mood for a burger, or similar, I go to Scooters. L&L is a pretty cool place, with average service, and decent food, but it just didn't leave a "I've gotta go back there!" kind of impression on me.

Overall I'd rate this place a 6 out of 10. Slightly above average, but nothing to write home about. Definately worth checking out though if you're in the area, and I'd probably eat there more if they were a little closer to me.