Are You Feelin’ Lucky?

After attending the Home and Garden Show at the Mohegan Sun Arena, I met a friend for a late lunch/early dinner at Lucky’s Sporthouse in Wilkes Barre. As the name implies, it is a sports bar and grill complete with numerous flat screen TV’s and boxy remote controls that allow you to listen, at your table, to whatever game suites your fancy. The inside of the restaurant is clean and spacious with the bar area separated from the dining room. With 19 beers on draft and over 40 by the bottle, the game’s libations are numerous.

My friend and I were looking for something to eat, rather than a bona-fide game night out. At 3:30 on a Sunday afternoon, there were few people there, but by the time we left, around 5:30, the place was filling up with families, couples, and friends looking for a casual bite.

I had the chicken wings, a quintessential staple of bar food. They come in four flavors, classic buffalo, Thai peanut, spicy honey mustard, or makers mark BBQ. All of which come with carrots, celery, and a gorgonzola-based dipping sauce. This sauce tastes more like dill than anything, and functions as a substitute for the normal blue cheese. The Thai peanut flavor (my selection) was sweet and caramelized. The wings were of normal size, but the Thai spices were not there. It was more like sweet and sour sauce meets general tsao sauce.

Also tasted were the tilapia fish tacos. The tortilla was crisped on one side, and the fish itself was slightly blackened, not burnt. The slaw had a light dressing with a slight twang and was composed of large chunks of cabbage. Topping this was a “smoked chilli cream,” which tasted more like mayonnaise, chili paste, cayenne, and a little ketchup.

The salads are all as big as they claim to be. They are generously topped with whatever the menu says they come with, but offer no surprises, twists, or offer anything out of the ordinary.

Pizza comes on elevated trays. The hand-tossed, thin crust is blistered from the oven and is easy to eat without a fork and knife. The pomodoro sauce (Italian for ‘tomato’) is made in house daily (or so the menu says) and is neither sweet nor heavily spiced.

Lucky’s is a great place if you want some dependable food at a reasonable price while you’re watching the game.