Review: Quaker Steak and Lube

One thing I have always thought of when somebody mentions Quaker Steak & Lube is fancy, decked out cars or motorcycles.  I remember while living in Columbus seeing this restaurant, and there was ALWAYS dozens of old cars that had been refurbished or rows and rows of motorcycles.  Needless to say, I really never heard much about this place and didn't know anything about it, until recently.  There aren't really any locations really close to my house, which is why I have never gone.

Over Christmas Break, my co-worker, Michelle and I talked about meeting up for dinner and drinks.  She lives in Harrison, which is a good 30 minutes from my house, so we were trying to think of a place to go that is half-way between her place and mine.  We decided that somewhere on Colerain Ave. would be a good middle spot, so we decided to try Quaker Steak.  This location is off Colerain Ave. but you can't really see it from the street. You can see it from I-275 though.

We went on a Tuesday night and the restaurant was packed!  There were groups of teens, adults, families, and couples.  A wide variety of people.  The restaurant as a whole is loaded with decor. The theme of the restaurant is cars and racing.   The walls and ceilings are covered with this decor, which was actually really cool!    Michelle and I brought our husbands, so the four of us had a drink before deciding what to order.  They do have a good selection of beers on tap and bottled beers.

The menu was fairly large.  There is a selection of pretty standard appetizers with the "car" theme names, such as the "Four Wheeler" and "Stick Shifters".  There are flatbreads, salads, ribs, steaks, shrimp, burgers, sandwiches, and of course, wings.  This menu was too big in my opinion. It just kept going.  They are known for their wings, so I would think they could put more focus on that part of the menu.  Tuesday night was all-you-can-eat wing night, which may have been part of the reason it was so packed.  My husband decided to go for the wing special, Michelle just wanted an appetizer of soft pretzels, Jimmy got wings, and I went with the grilled chicken tenders and broccoli.

Michelle's pretzels were okay.  They seemed like the frozen soft pretzels you can buy at the grocery store and pop in the microwave, not really anything special.  She just thought the cheese was okay also. We have definitely had way better pretzels and cheese before.

Ross first order of wings he ordered with "Hot" flavored sauce.  He thought the sauce was pretty good.   After the "hot" he ordered wings with "Arizona Ranch" sauce that he didn't care for as much.  These wings also were more dried out and didn't have very much sauce.  It looked like they had been sitting under a hot lamp or something.  When you get the all-you-can-eat special, your first order of wings comes out with 8 (I think) and fries, then you could order more in smaller amounts after.  I tried the wings, and overall, I didn't think they were that good.  They were dried out, didn't have that much meat compared to other wings I've had, and they didn't give enough sauce at all.

Jimmy had ordered boneless wings.  Well, the waitress brought out bone-in wings, so he had to wait and have the correct order brought out.  This was quickly fixed and wasn't a big deal; however, he had hardly any sauce on his boneless wings too.  He had to ask for more sauce and wasn't impressed overall.  

My grilled chicken was fine.  I had ordered the "Golden Garlic" sauce, which was fine, but once again, there wasn't very much on it.  I couldn't really get a good flavor of the sauce because there wasn't very much on them at all.  The broccoli was good!  Can't really mess that up too badly.

After another drink or two, we left feeling very full but not loving our meals.  Service was fine as a whole.  Quaker Steak seems like it could be a fun place to go and watch sporting events or gather as a group, but I wouldn't be going for the food. For a place that claims to have the "Best Wings in the U.S.A." I expected much better.  They also state that you can mix sauces to make your own, but when you can't even taste the little sauce they put on it, I don't know why you would bother.  They really should focus more on doing a couple things better and get rid of half the menu, it was just way too much.
~Kate

Food: 2
Service: 2.5
Overall Experience: 2.5