Alpha Tavern — Restaurant in Wheeling

We’ve heard a lot about Alpha, primarily their insanely cheap wing night. So we decided to drive an hour to find out. We’ll start with the best parts. The waitress, Joclyn, was among the best we’ve ever had. Bright and delightful. Interactive, but not excessively. She gets 5 stars and is one of the reasons they received as high as they did. Thank you 😊. We all had a side salad which was extra special. Loaded with mixed greens, olives, tomatoes, cheese and so on. Really good. My wife and her sister both had a Philly cheesesteak wrap. Both wraps were loaded nicely with cheesesteak, peppers and onions. Each of them commented on how good the sandwiches were and said they would definitely recommend them. The restaurant itself was very clean and inviting. Well decorated and lit. The restrooms were clean as well. Now for the bad part; the wings were beyond dry. About half of the portions I had gotten were obviously reheats from, I’m guessing, the night before. I had received mostly drumette portions with only one wingette portion. The wingette portion was over cooked to the point it was inedible. Half of the drumettes were so dry even the sauce couldn’t bring them back to life. The sauce was tasty enough with just the right amount of heat. My brother-in-law had the same experience. The only exception was his contained mostly wingettes and very few drumettes. The ones on top of the dish were properly cooked, but burried beneath were dry inedible wing pieces. Before you ask, no I did not let our server know. I am not a fan of sending food back to the kitchen. Maybe I have trust issues. I will send steak back. I figure the heat can kill whatever. I have seen this before when a restaurant tries to stretch out the previous nights left overs. Which is fine for chili and spaghetti, but destroys wings and ribs. I suggest if you go here, go a little later. Give them a chance to get through...

By far the worse I have seen in a restaurant. It was hard to get any good service . They just kept promising to bring items that never came. They asked if we would like salsa and chips we said yes and then the same waitress was serving all the tables salsa except us. We were told the containers weren’t clean when she went to the back but yet she was serving them to other tables. We finally received our drinks, except the beer that took at least 12 minutes . Then we order our food. Was told the salsa will be out . In the mean while we are left with a salad on the table for atleast 10 minutes and we absolutely no silverware to eat with. At this time the server goes past us and gives another table salsa. The server finally got us silverware. We waited such a long time my daughter had to found us napkins to use and brought them to the table bc the waitress kept saying things were coming. Then we get our food and they forgot the bbq sauce at that time I was completely over it I asked another lady to grab us some. I told her everything that went on she then wanted to know if we wanted salsa and chips . I told her not to worry about it bc we had our food now. So the food was okay, until I found a hair in my salad !!!! I was done!! They did send us home with chips and salsa but it didn’t matter at that moment the experience of that place was ruin !! By far the worse the restaurant experience I...

I appreciate all the updates made to this establishment. However, our experience was a bit underwhelming. Free chips and salsa come to the table first. The chips were unsalted and the salsa didn't have much flavor going on. We ordered the wing splitters as an app and it came after our food which wasn't a big deal but worth mentioning. Also they are a dangerous food to order as there are bone shards all throughout the dish because they are simply just normal wings that are broken in half. The garlic butter truffle oil sauce was AMAZING though and the only reason we risked it. I ordered their Philly with fries. The fries were of the seasoned variety and were perfectly fried and came out hot and crispy. The Philly was, in my opinion, under filled and mostly peppers and onions. Even my spouse commented that he didn't see much meat. The bread was great and the flavor was spot on but just needed more meat! I also must add that our seat placement definitely took away from our experience.. seated right by the bathroom/kitchen door/register and constantly surrounded by people the entire time we are eating, we didn't enjoy that at all. I know its a busy place but I would never sit a customer there, ever. Overall I think we would give it another try in the future and order...