March 11, 2014

Sports Grill South Miami

beer

When you live in Miami for long enough, there are a couple of things that you start to become proud of. Those things include our culture, our music, our climate, our food, and (some of) our sport teams. Everybody knows that the best place to watch sporting events is at a sports bar, because who isn't having a good time watching sports while eating some bar food and drinking some beer. I have a couple of sports bars that I can recommend, but none serve chicken wings like the ones coming from Sports Grill. In fact, Sports Grill might be serving the best wings I've ever had. I may be a little biased, since I have been coming here for as long as I can remember, but if you ask a true local where their favorite wings come from, they will most likely say Sports Grill as well.

This restaurant is a local chain with locations throughout the county that has a special technique for its signature item. While you can get various flavors of wings, you can never go wrong with the Special House Grilled. This is their signature style, and it is a combination of a fried chicken wing that is then grilled. This slight deviation in preparation pays off because the flash-fry provides the outside of the wing with a crisp exterior and the grilling provides it with a smoky and balanced flavor. Throughout the process, the wing is doused in their special sauce and spices that combines flavors that hit every part of the tongue. You get sweetness, some spiciness, tanginess, and saltiness with no one flavor overpowering the other.

I've always gone to the original location on Sunset and 100 ave, but I recently changed my preferred location to the one by Sunset Place because they offer craft beers. Seeing as I am into the craft beer scene at the moment, it is only logical to feed my wing temptations with some delicious beer. I do prefer the ambiance and hominess of the original location, but beggars can't be choosers.

It'd be a mistake if I didn't mention the waffle fries that Sports Grill offer, as I deem them to be one of my guiltiest pleasures when paired with some of their cheese sauce. The cheese sauce tastes like liquid velveeta, and I mean that as a compliment. Although some may consider this to be off- putting, I think cheese sauces should taste like this at a sports bar since no one is trying to be fancy, It is just decadence at its finest. The fries are perfectly crisp and salted the perfect amount. Not once have I gotten fries that are not fresh out of the fryer, and that is the deciding factor between good and great fries.

The service is probably the only downfall when it comes to Sports Grill. For some reason, there is something that is always wrong with my order or when it comes to paying the bill. Not that this would keep me from coming to eat wings, but I wish I didn’t have to settle for any part of the experience. They are probably relying on the fact that they have what many consider to be the best wings in Miami, but this may be enough to steer some away. As far as I am concerned, I am willing to suffer through these issues to experience these wings.