WINGERS Restaurant & Alehouse — Restaurant in Meridian

VERDICT: An excellent stop for a good lunch of boneless wings, bottomless fries, and a soft drink.

FOOD: The boneless wings (called "sticky fingers" here) are excellent. The breading is present with a crunch but thin so as not to overwhelm the chicken. The meat here appears to be actual stripped chicken breast, retaining its "grain" instead of the ground chicken standard of other restaurants. The Cajun garlic butter balanced the deep buttery flavor with bits of spice mingled in the mix. Together with the breading, it had a cohesive flavor, preventing the boneless wings pitfall of being a sauced nugget (feels like a product dipped in a sauce instead of a singular, balanced recipe). The fries were excellent as well, with a sharp crisp yet not being saturated in oil. The whole meal was $18 for 8 sticky fingers (picture shows 7 because I was quite hungry), bottomless fries, and a soft drink. This is a lunch special, so you have to order it before 4 PM.

SERVICE: The service was great but overly involved to the point that I got interrupted 2 times mid-sentence to ask if i wanted a refill on a not-empty glass. I feel weird knocking a star off for too much service, but that's my preference and when the interruptions comes during an empassioned explanation of a security protocol for work with a collegue, it can be a bummer. Glasses stay full, and I am not interrupted mid-sentence. Additionally, the bathrooms were out of hand towels at both recepticals. Again, it's not a huge faux pas, but it does make your company wonder why the sides of your pants are wet. "The hand towels were out. I swear." These two items are worth noting to me as to why I don’t give a perfect score, but the visit was still quite pleasant, and this should not deter anyone.

ATMOSPHERE: Lunch time was quite pleasant. Not too loud, not too quiet. I couldn't hear the TV despite being one of the tables next to the bar (major plus), and I wasn't distracted by other distractions despite two neighboring parties adjacent to us. I had no issues carrying a conversation at a normal volume either. The bathrooms were absurdly clean, and I watched a soap opera while using the urinal, so that was strange, but better than staring at tile, so a plus.

SUMMARY: Great place. Two very minor issues prevent me from giving a perfect score (one might say, "by technicality"), but I have no doubt they'd score perfectly in my books on...

Britt was the waitress and the table knew it before I did because the chair leaned a little to the left when she placed the menus down like the air itself had already ordered. The menu had words, yes, but the words were not what they said — chicken was numbers, wings were directions, fries were memories from a summer I don’t think I lived but somehow tasted anyway. Britt asked if we were ready and I was but also wasn’t, because readiness is not a point in time but more like a hallway with too many doors, and she held the key but never used it, just smiled like the lock was optional.

The drinks arrived in glasses that might have been full or empty depending on the angle you remembered them from, and the ice clinked in a rhythm suspiciously close to the song playing overhead except I don’t recall there being music, only silence humming louder than noise. Britt set down the plates, but they weren’t plates, not at first. They became plates after she left them there, which suggests she either carried them from the kitchen or conjured them from the absence of kitchen. The wings themselves had heat, but not temperature heat, more like the kind of warmth that comes from a thought you can’t finish, lingering just behind the teeth.

When the napkins touched the table, I thought about paper, and when I thought about paper, I thought about checks, and when I thought about checks, Britt appeared again, holding one. But the numbers weren’t numbers, they were shapes, and the total was exactly equal to whatever I already had in my pocket before I even looked, which meant I didn’t pay so much as complete a circle.

Walking out, I couldn’t tell if Britt had ever really walked away, or if I was leaving her behind, or if leaving was just another way of staying in the same...

Went in to order to go and was told my order would be ready in 15 minutes so I let them know I was just going to run to the Jackson's right by there and come back... I pay and then leave. I come back 20 minutes later ask about my order and a lady working up front said "we just had a big party come in and we are running behind" so I asked how much longer 20 more minutes is what they said. I ordered it before this party came in so I was pretty annoyed. Oh and I even tipped pretty well for a to go order but obviously that doesn't matter to them and they didn't deserve my tip at all and I wish I could take it back this lady was rude but obviously that doesn't matter to them and they didn't deserve my tip at all and I wish I could take it back cause really tipping is for Good service. Like literally all they had to do was make my food and bag it no waiting on me so my tip was because I was trying to show appreciation for them and all I got was waiting way longer than should have just to get home and my chicken sandwich had something on there that I asked them to leave off. And then an item I paid extra for was not in there. I don't usually feel like I have to check my order before I leave a restaurant but obviously here you do. I will never be back to this establishment. Just because I'm a to go order shouldn't matter but this place obviously prioritizes sit down customers my guess is tipping is not normal for her to go customer Even though I tip they just don't care unless you're sit down....