Cuisine Review

Typically I wait a decent amount of time before trying a new restaurant. But recently my children were hungry for wings and I did not want to fight the traffic on Airport Boulevard to go to Wings Sports Grille.

This provided a convenient opportunity to try out WOW Café and Wingery in the strip center across from the “Crack Dixie” at Government and Catherine Streets. Formerly Tijuana Flats, the place has been redone – new booths and chairs, and they painted over all that crazy stuff on the walls.

The large space is now filled with booths along the side and in the middle with tables interspersed among them. The booths are comfortable and large with wood and colorful tile separating you from the other side. Many of the booths have their own flat-screen televisions along with a great deal of enormous flat-screens on the walls and above the bar playing every sporting event imaginable. I did note that one booth was catching an episode of Andy Griffith while the patrons chowed on some wings.

You are greeted and seated when you enter the door, and service is tableside. The old order counter from before was removed and an ample sized bar is now in its place. The crowd was mixed, some singles, older couples and people like me with children. The menu is large and has much more than wings (thus the café title).

Their motto is “New Orleans inspired, globally desired” and the franchise was founded in Big Easy by people who are “passionate about the sauce, sound and spice that represent the soul of Southern Louisiana.” All of their sauces and dressings are made from scratch. It is an aggressive menu with appetizers, quesadillas, fajitas, chopped salads, wraps and sandwiches, Texas toast burgers, ribs, some seafood and of course wings. In the appetizer section there are the ubiquitous cheese fries, fried mushrooms, chips and salsa and nachos. I selected two items, the southwest egg rolls and cheese dip with chips.

The Southwest egg rolls ($7) you have likely seen in other restaurants. Deep fried flour tortillas are stuffed with chicken, pepper jack cheese, jalapenos, red and chili peppers, black beans, spinach, corn cilantro and garlic and served with southwest ranch dressing. A platter of them arrived piping hot, crunchy and full of flavor. They are also rich and filling, and the dressing has a peppery spicy taste. I saved some of the leftover dressing for my fries.

We really liked the cheese dip ($4.30), it is much like I have made at home. The dip is full of cumin, coriander and a spicy cheese. Viscous in consistency, this is no crappy Mexican runny cheese dip or Velveeta with Rotel.

They have a soup of the day and a Baja enchilada soup and a long listing of chopped salads. Any of the salads can have chicken added for $2, shrimp or beef for $4. There is a taco, Greek Caesar, Club and regular green salad all in the $6-$7 range. The more creative ones are the Bangkok. Which contains crispy wontons, carrots, cucumbers, peanuts and Thai peanut dressing, Monterrey with tortilla strips, jack cheese with honey-lime vinaigrette and Thai peanut drizzle; Chicago Blurs with bacon, bleu cheese crumbles with Italian vinaigrette and drizzle of honey-lime vinaigrette and of course the Buffalo salad. Of the quesadillas, I have heard the cheeseburger quesadilla ($8) is quite good, with mixed cheese and Angus beef served with choice of sauce, homemade salsa and sour cream. I did not see any fajitas, but they range from $11 for the chicken to $13 for shrimp, beef or a combination thereof.

The wraps and sandwiches have either grilled or fried chicken or Angus beef and served with fries or a side. You can substitute shrimp or steak for $2. The most interesting ones to me are the Memphis with cheddar jack cheese and honey mustard coleslaw with Kansas City honey BBQ or the Kentucky – cheddar jack topped with bacon and honey mustard. You can also have any salad as a wrap. These range from $7 – $8 in price.

The burgers sound great and are made with 100 percent Angus Chuck and served with fries or a side. They come in either a wrap or on Texas Toast. I love Texas Toast, which is why these appeal to me. A couple are the Philly with grilled onions, peppers and mushrooms with ranch, or the El Paso with chili, cheese, jalapeno rings and spicy mayo.

The Big Easy is a one-pound burger you can have for $13. Shrimp or catfish fried or a combination of the two with a side will set you back $9 for a half order or $14 for a whole. The ribs are basted in any of the 17 sauces offered for wings.

We all wanted wings, and like most wing-dedicated places, there are some sauces that are almost required. Some different ones are the Australian (raspberry), Bombay (coconut curry) and the Key West (citrus salsa). You can order wings, or have their chicken fingers tossed in any wing sauce. The wings come in sizes ranging from eight pieces ($6.50) to 100 ($50.00). You can also order a wing sampler, 25 wings and five sauces for $17. All sides are extra.

My daughter ordered the children’s wings ($4.30, four wings with fries and drink). Children eat for $2 on Tuesdays which is good to know. My son ordered eight wings, and like his sister, selected the Buffalo II sauce – fiery without burning your mouth. I selected eight wings with Jamaican jerk sauce. You can ask for your wings to be fried and served with sauce on the side if you wish.

The wings came out hot off the grill – they were so hot we had to wait a minute or two to begin. It was nice to know the wings here are not sitting under a red light all day. All of our wings were plump and tender with no dried out meat. My sauce had a slight sweet initial taste with a kick at the end. Some sides you ought to try are the sweet potato fries, onion rings or honey mustard slaw.

I believe that this place will make it – we need it down here in MiMo/LoDa. It is an excellent place for a crowd to watch a fall ballgame.

Kinnon Phillips is Lagniappe cuisine editor. Contact him at kphillips@lagniappemobile.com.

Archives