“They have the best fries since Checkers.”
My lunch date Rory needed to say no more — with my slight addiction to fries, especially some that reminded my dearest friend of our much beloved and long-defunct Kingston hangout Checkers — I was immediately hooked on the idea of going to Big Ugly’s Sports Bar & Grill in Wilkes-Barre.
Walking into the busy establishment, I was not surprised by the admirable amount of memorabilia from helmets and jerseys to banners — it’s definitely a football fans’ heaven.
We sat ourselves at a high table toward the front, one of just a handful of tables without an attached TV showing the latest happenings in sports. Our server Amy, clad in a black and white referee outfit, came over to drop off menus and take our drink orders.
The menu board just inside the entrance boasted a Pittsburgh salad special, as well as a roast beef and cheddar hoagie with soup for $5.95 and the soups du jour, vegetable beef barley and cream of tomato. Good to know.
Rory and I perused the menu — which offered a lot more than I had expected — split into sports-related sections, naturally.
The appetizers under Pre-Game Warm-up gives your regular sports bar fare: wings ($6.95), mozzarella sticks and jalapeno poppers (both $4.95) and nachos and quesadilla (both $6.95).
Spectacular Spuds is where I focused my attention first. This is where addicts like myself can find fries and onion rings ($3.50) as well as Walter Payton sweet potato fries for $4.25, to which you can add melted cheese chili, honey mustard or wing sauce for 50 cents. Wing sauce on fries? Finally, a restaurant catches on to one of my favorite couplings! The $4.95 Double Hitter consists of half fries and half onion rings while the Bon-Fire tops fries with blue cheese or cheese wiz topped with mild buffalo bites. The final offering was the Fighting Irish Nachos for $7.50, with waffle fries covered in chili, Cheese Whiz, black olives and jalapenos. Be still my beating heart!
Big Ugly’s has a wide array of salads like Caesar, chef, antipasto and Buffalo chicken, but the monster Panther steak salad ($8.95) definitely isn’t for the faint of heart (or those on a diet): it has fresh chipped steak over greens with mushrooms, sweet peppers and cheddar cheese topped with onion rings.
Obviously, there are a ton of hot and cold sandwiches, subs and wraps like turkey, tuna, ham and cheese and chicken and Philly cheese steaks. There are also more than a few burgers, which I though I might be in the mood for, like the BLT burger or the Go Blue burger topped with bleu cheese, both $6.95.
Despite the many choices, Rory went with her standby Champion Chicken cheesesteak ($6.95) but sans the onions, peppers and mushrooms. And even though I could have gone for that BLT burger, that roast beef and cheddar hoagie with soup special sounded too good to pass up.
Seemingly minutes later, Amy returned with my cup of vegetable beef barley soup. It could have been just a little hotter, but it was very flavorful with lots of barley, peas, carrots and beans and hefty chucks of beef.
Soon after I slurped the last drop, our gigantic lunches arrived.
I had though my roast beef hoagie would have been lunch meat and sliced cheese. What it was, however, was thinly sliced chipped beef — almost like brisket — slathered in Cheese Whiz. I was in heaven because it was delicious and almost like a non-greasy Steak-umm. Instead of regular fries, I had to go with the sweet potato fries and I am glad that I did — they were crispy and the perfect blend of slightly salty and sweet.
Rory’s chicken cheesesteak was just as huge, with very flavorful cubes of chicken that tasted like they might have been grilled in teriyaki sauce before being covered in gooey cheese. Her sandwich was also not greasy at all, which is a rarity this chicken cheesesteak lover told me. And the fries were definitely as my memory served — perfectly crispy and golden brown.
We each had a decent portion of fries, and both monster sandwiches were on fresh hoagie buns accompanied by a large, crisp pickle and creamy coleslaw. And, despite their sizes, we both came very close to finishing our sandwiches (but I will have you know I didn’t have to eat for the rest of the day).
All in all, our lunch at Big Ugly’s made our bellies deliciously bigger without a big cost. The service was great, Amy was friendly and attentive without being overbearing.
There is no doubt that whenever we feel a big hunger coming on, we’ll definitely bring on Big Ugly’s.
• Big Ugly’s Sports Bar & Grill
165 North Wilkes-Barre Blvd., Wilkes-Barre
570.825.8459
Hours:
Sunday-Thursday until 11 p.m.
Friday/Saturday until midnight