Sauced Texas Kitchen

After doing some Christmas shopping in Allen, Texas, I decided to look for a place in the area to grab a late lunch.  Going from store to store to find that perfect gift for the wife can work up an appetite.  I was in the area of Bethany Drive, so I pulled into the parking lot of Sauced Texas Kitchen.  I really didn't know much about this place, but I had driven by it on several occasions and thought I would give it a try.  

Inside Sauced Texas Kitchen

Since it was a Saturday afternoon, I was please to see that it was a sports bar and had several television tuned to college football.  I started with an order of boneless wings "sauced" in Caribbean Jerk and an order of bacon cheese fries.  The wings and cheese fries arrived very quickly and I dug into my appetizers.  The boneless wings were not impressive at all.  They had the look and texture of chicken nuggets, while the sauce was very thin and didn't have much of the traditional flavor of Caribbean Jerk.  The cheese fries were a little better, but not much.  While they had plenty of cheese, they were lacking in the bacon department and I had to look very hard to find any underneath the cheese.

Boneless Wings with Caribbean Jerk Sauce

Bacon Cheese Fries (Bonus points if you can find bacon)

For my main meal, I ordered the bacon cheeseburger with onion rings.  When my order arrived, it looked like a million bucks.  My mom always said that looks can be deceiving and this was certainly the case here.  The burger itself was very dry, tasteless, and looked to be cooked from a pre-formed frozen patty.  The onions rings had an excellent looking batter with good flavor, but the onion rings themselves were very tough and chewy.

Bacon Cheeseburger with Onion Rings

While I was there, very few customers were dining at Sauced Texas Kitchen and now I know why.  The food was some of the most disappointing I have had in quite some time.  The service was decent, but it did not make up for the horrible food that was  pricey for the quality that I received.  This place will most certainly not be added to my lists of quality restaurants in Allen.  I should have stayed and grabbed a bite to eat while I was shopping at Watters Creek, because I know they have several quality restaurants to choose from.  

Sauced Texas Kitchen
http://www.saucedtexaskitchen.com/index.php
Livin the Good Life Rating=1

Pluckers Wing Bar

I recently had a craving for some spicy food and decided to go out for wings.  I usually only have a craving for wings about twice a year, so I usually go to wing joints that are familiar to me.  This time, I decided to try Pluckers Wing Bar in Allen, Tx.  This wing joint is located at The Village at Allen shopping center.  I had never been here before, but I know a couple of people that told me that this place was the best place to get wings in the entire Metroplex.

TVs everywhere

The first thing I noticed when I walked in was that they had about a million TVs on the wall.  The next thing I noticed was that there were a lot of families having dinner here.  It is definitely a family friendly environment and also one that would be a fun place to watch a game during football season.  Pluckers has specials where kids eat free on Tuesdays and teachers get free appetizers on Fridays.    

They have a lot more on the menu than just wings, but I was here for wing and liked the fact that they had about twenty different wing sauces to choose from.  Since we had not been here before, the waitress also brought out a plate with samples of their most popular sauces.  While we were checking out the menu, the waitress gave us a free order of fried pickles since it was our first visit to Pluckers.  Unlike most fried pickles, they were fried as spears.  The batter was great and I liked them much better than the typical fried pickle slices.  

Fried Pickles

For my meal I ordered the Monster Boneless Wing Basket because I was tired on this night and regular wings seemed like too much work (feel free to substitute the word tired for lazy in this sentence).  I had my boneless wings tossed in the spicy Mandarin Sauce.  They also give you the option of having your fries "sauced" and I had my fries tossed in the garlic Parmesan rub.  The order was huge and came with eight very large boneless wings.  The spicy Mandarin sauce was very spicy with a little bit of a sweet aftertaste as well.  The garlic Parmesan waffle fries were tasty as well.  I am not usually a fan of waffle fries, but these were very flavorful.

Spicy Mandarin Boneless Wings with Garlic Parmesan Waffle Fries

Overall I enjoyed my visit to Pluckers Wing Bar.  The food was about what one would expect from a wing bar.   The service was great as well and the entire staff was very friendly.  Since this place is just a short drive from my house, I can see myself going back here next time I get the craving for some wings or boneless wings.

Pluckers Wing Bar 
http://www.pluckers.com/posts/location/allen/
Livin The Good Life Rating = 2