The Basics:
Name: Coach's Pub & Grill
MKE Wings Crew Present: Frank, Amber, Jeremy
Review Date: Feb 6, 2020
Wing Special? $0.80 wings Monday and Saturday
A south side staple, Coach's has been serving up wings for a long time, but remains an relatively unknown to those not in the area. In my first review of Coach's years ago, I really liked the wings (especially the flaming wings), but never really got around to stopping back too many times since. It's high time Milwaukee Wings pays them another visit! Will the wings be as good as I remembered?
We stopped in on a Thursday night which means no wing special for us. On Mondays and Saturdays you can score a $0.70 a wing special. But, on a non-wingnight, wings can be ordered 10 for $10.95, 20 for $18.95, or 40 $34.95. Something I found odd and disappointing was that no matter how many wings you order, you cannot split the order into different flavors. Want to split 40 wings with 4 people? You best all agree on a sauce, because you can't split up the order! The only way to get multiple sauces is to make multiple orders. So for that 40 wing example, if you want 4 sauces, you'll need 4 orders of 10, and that costs almost $10 more than an order of 40 wings! I completely understand not wanting to split smaller orders due to the extra work. In fact, most places do this, almost every place I've ever had wings has a minimum of 6-10 wings per sauce. While I do not run a kitchen, splitting an order of 40 into 4 sauces doesn't seem to warrant making you place 4 orders of 10 and pay an extra $10 for it. Just fair warning if you're looking to experiment with different flavors.
The wings themselves are served fried and naked (no breading) and were overall very large, I was full after 10 wings, I normally can put away a few more than that. While the size was good, I was disappointed in their doneness. While the wings were not raw or anything, the skin really didn't have any crispiness to it, most of the wings were a bit chewy, soggy, or "skinny" for lack of a better word, the texture was certainly a bit off putting. This observation was echoed in the comments of some of the other people in my group that night.
Coach's has a good amount of sauce offerings on their menu: Sissy, Hot, Flaming, Nuclear, Sweet Chili, Kickin' Honey Garlic, Pineapple Chili, Asian, Sweet Teriyaki, BBQ, Honey BBQ and Garlic Parm.
The sauces I ordered (or others let me sample)
Flaming - this is the one I was most excited for as I remembered loving it years ago. Whether the sauce or my tastes changed I do not know, but I didn't like it as much this time around. The sauce had a good heat without being too not. I wouldn't really call this a traditional buffalo sauce, this has a bit of sweetness (again more sweet) and tangy flavors to compliment the heat, kind of like a Buffalo-BBQ hybrid. I still liked it, but not as much as I remembered.
Pineapple Chili - this was one of the sweetest for me, kind of reminded me of a sweet dipping sauce you'd get at a Chinese restaurant for eggrolls or crab Rangoon. No notes of pineapple, just a lot of sweetness.
Asian - similar to the pineapple chili, but more savory sauce and garnished with sesame seeds which added a nice extra flavor to the wing.
Teriyaki - while this sauce wasn't all to visually appealing, it tasted pretty good. A bit more savory than some of the other Teriyaki flavored wings I've seen, the biggest drawback seems to be the Teriyaki wings were all a bit under sauced.
Garlic Parm - another wing that didn't look like it would be too flavorful but actually delivered, at least in the garlic department. Tons of garlic flavor, but not much parmesan, decent, but nothing to write home about.
Kickin' Honey Garlic - of all of the sweet flavors, this one is probably my favorite. Really didn't taste the garlic, but the sweet honey flavor with just a touch of heat was pretty good.
Wings were served with ranch or bleu cheese and celery, and I mean A LOT of celery, which I enjoy. Solid ranch/bleu cheese, nothing outstanding but certainly not the "bad" bleu cheese dressing I've seen some places.
Conclusion:
While really large, the lack of crispiness of the wings combined with many of the sauces being way to sweet for my taste left me disappointed in these wings. While they have two nights with weekly wing specials, $0.80 a wing isn't that great of a special compared to some other places, and the inability to split flavors on even large orders of wings left me downhearted as well. While I really remember liking these wings years ago, today I found them average at best, and likely won't see myself seeking these ones out again anytime soon.
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