East Coast Wings + Grill — Restaurant in Winston-Salem

Bottom Line: They desperately want to be a high-volume sports bar instead of a dine-in restaurant, and it shows. Inconsistent, noisy, tiny and busy. Wings are great when good, but bad or incorrect around 50% of the time. Other food is mediocre.

Pros: Best variety of wing flavors in the area. When they do them right, they do wings better than anybody else in the Piedmont.

Cons:

Atmosphere: Absolutely sucks, among the worst I've experienced at sit-down restaurants. The building is a repurposed bank branch office, and is WAY too small for the crowd they get, even in off hours. Expect a 10-15 minute wait on any night of the week, and expect a LONG (45m-1.5 hr.) wait on Friday and Saturday nights, and they don't take reservations. If you want a booth, too bad: they've got precisely two, and they're always filled. The rest of the tables are tiny, shaky and tightly packed. I've had beer spilled on my shoe from the next table over, I've been accidentally smacked in the back of the head by an overzealous basketball fan, and I've been told to STFU when I asked my neighbor nicely to stop elbowing my chair. When any more than half full, the place is VERY loud, enough so that there's no hope of conversing with your guests or speaking to your waitress unless you want to shout. By comparison, Buffalo Wild Wings on Hanes Mall Blvd. is much quieter due to the high ceilings, spacious interior and many high-backed booths. Seriously, I'm not a sensitive guy, but I stopped trying to eat-in at ECW after numerous ruined meals due to the noisy, tiny, overcrowded building. Forget about nights when Wake Forest or the Panthers play: you won't even get in the door, the standing-room at the bar spills completely over into the dining area, and you can hear the roar from the sidewalk after every play. I can't say it clearly enough: the place desperately wants to be a high-volume sports bar, and it shows.

Staff: staff is very young, very busy and very hit or miss in their service. 85% of the wait-staff are friendly female teenagers doing their best in a very busy environment, but I've had multiple take-out orders and dine-in orders messed up, and if you complain (even politely) they tend to either be too busy to get right on it, or get the deer-in-headlights I'm-under-attack look and tend to forget what you just sent them to get. They are very quick with bar drinks, which is really more of a problem than an asset if you're there for the food instead of gulping tall Coors Lights and shouting at the sports on TV; in fact, if you're there for food only on a Friday or Saturday night, you can tell they want you to hurry up and get out so they can seat more booze+sports patrons who will be there ordering drinks for several hours. It's really a drag and I wish they'd concentrate more on staff training instead of pushing bar volume and pretty waitresses. The place desperately wants to be a high-volume sports bar: seeing a trend here yet?

Food: Great when it's good, awful when it's bad, and made in a kitchen clearly operating at 120% capacity. Do not order anything other than wings or other fried chicken products; the burgers and sandwiches are mediocre at best. If you fail to ask for your wings "extra wet", you can expect them to be nearly bone dry around 50% of the time. Learned that lesson the hard way. Also, always carefully check your take out orders before you leave the store, as the high volume (both of customers and sound) often means they heard you wrong or simply forgot something. Again, happens around 50% of the time to me these days.

Overall: ECW gets 5 well-deserved stars for the wings themselves when they do them right, but 2 stars overall due to all the major unresolved atmosphere and consistency issues. I've given up on ECW for dine-in, and I only risk take out on days and times when I know they won't be busy and will be available to quickly fix my order if they mess it up. Which is a shame, since busy, noisy sports bars are a dime-a-dozen, but these wings are...

CHARLOTTE NC NORTHLAKE CENTER PARKWAY I come there three to 4 times per week and maybe one out of the three to four times per week my order is correct. The only person that is nice and pleasant and shows concern is Kristin ............. I call back sometimes or come back to get my order reI comeplaced and to let the manager know that its an issue or that I am not satisfied and the first response I get as if I am accused of or maybe trying to get something free or get over on staff .....The mangers first responses is always WELL we have to have the order back in order to correct/fix or remake the food ........Every customer shouldnt have to be treated as if they are punished for complaining the order is incorrect or if something is missing .....as a business owner /manager We know there are dishonest people But as a business and as a manager or staff we cant treat every customer in a defensive way ....I know the goal is to make money and save food cost and to have a great revenue for your location and also for the brand East Coast Wings ....But not known for being rude or always defensive as if all customers are trying to get something for nothing especially if a regular customer and as a business we cant assume or make these such accusations .... thats a personal perspective not a business perspective ....The goal is to make sure each customers orders are correct and not be in a rush to get off the phone or waiting customer out of the to go area or seating area as fast as possible without good service and accurate orders...when in to go area bags are rushed to customers and whe nyou check your bag and it isnt correct you then have to wait til manager comes and inspects it and assume you are trying to get over or extra condiments without paying and smart comments or defensive comments . We all arent perfect and not espected to get every order correct .But also as a customer we dont want to be felt like we are criminals also and trying to get over and get something for free and first responses from manager is defensive We nee whole order back or to see in bag to make sure we are giving honest answers......This isnt Good Customer Service at All and I will not recommend this Store to anyone in the area I will drive all the way to the New Store in HarrisBurg to be valued as a Good honest customer and not always treated like you are not honest or trying to get something for nothing and making customers feel bad for expressing when the orders arent correct ., i also will be contacting the Corporate office also because I love East Coast Wings But will not accept disrespect from workers as well as the customers shouldnt disrespect...

Just your typical Lunch at a chain wing restaurant... Our waitress was MIA most of our visit, when she was there we was nice and attentive. Poor thing was overwhelmed, it was no fault of hers, I think they were understaffed. There was another waitress though, she was ON IT! She was scooting around the place refilling everyone's drinks, even tables that weren't hers. We heard here interacting and conversing with her tables having alot of fun. She stopped a few times to check on us, honestly...we should've tipped HER too in hindsight. The food was mediocre. We have had great wings from other East Coast Wings but for the time we waited for our food to be served...you'd think the wings would be hot and crispy. Instead they were soggy and warm. Salad was fresh and as usual the ranch was on point! (Yall know I love a good ranch!) They were out of several flavors and had to settle on trying something new, I like my new flavor but my hubby didn't care for his. They used to serve bread with the wings, I'm not sure when they stopped but it's definitely missed by us!! We will eat at East Coast Wings again because we have had many good meals with them but I do hope their not following the trend of other chain restaurants and cutting corners to make a buck. It sure seemed that way to us. (No photos, because there wasn't anything that stood out...