We read about the Winking Lizard on the Cleveland.com website.  They had been selected as the “Wing King” of Cleveland, edging out Quaker Steak & Lube, among others.

With numerous locations around the Cleveland area to choose from, we selected the original Winking Lizard in Bedford Heights, Ohio.  Located next door to Wing House, the Winking Lizard Tavern is a large establishment with three main dining areas.

We weren’t overly happy to have to walk through the smoking section of the bar to get to the hostess stand, but we did anyway.  We were seated near the lizard, housed in a large, glass cabinet.  We studied the menu, and found 9 different salads to choose from.  Fortunately, there was no pasta salad on the menu.

The menu is HUGE!!!  Everything from wings to appetizers to pizza to steaks to sandwiches to burgers to wraps to chicken to ribs to desserts.  Wow.  The menu also listed Lizard Style Chicken Wings, your choice of a Twelve Pack or a Basket (24) of Wings.  The wings do come with celery and blue cheese.

We ordered a house salad, a Twelve Pack of Hot wings, fries and a side-cup of 911.

We couldn’t help but notice how noisy the place was.  A table of eight beside us and a table of six in front of us made it impossible to hear anything.  We did notice a large number of antiques hanging from the ceiling, along with a great number of TV screens.  Fortunately, there was no NASCAR memorabilia present in the tavern.

The wings arrived, and we noticed that a Twelve Pack includes two whole pieces of celery, along with a container of blue cheese.  The wings were WAY too big, and the sauce coverage was thin and weak.  Good thing we had ordered a cup of 911 sauce.  Although thin, the 911 sauce had a good flavor in spite of the salt level.  After the meal was over, we did achieve a 10 minute plus afterburn. 

The fries were nothing to write home about – big and thick and square.  We prefer a crisper potato – and there were only about 10 fries in the order.

We were not impressed with the wings or the fries, but the sauce was good.  The best news was that they didn’t charge us anything for the cups of sauce.

We’re not sure that we would return to the Winking Lizard for wings, but we might come back to try the ribs.  We all know that there is an unwritten law that you can’t have a restaurant with great wings and great ribs.  Maybe there’s still hope for the ribs…

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