Wild Mike's

With three locations on the west side, if you live over there or, as we were, just passing through, you can probably find one near to where you are. We ventured to the one in Green Township (4498 Harrison Ave. at Race) but there are also locations in Delhi (5043 Delhi Pike) and in Miami Heights (7587 Bridgetown Rd.). You can also find them on line at http://www.wildmikeswings.com/.

This was the first visit to any of the Wild Mike's for either of us so we can only speak to the one location. But if the others are as fun and friendly as this one then they should be must stops for folks in the area.

The restaurant is small and when we went in for lunch was pretty crowded. Still, it didn't feel cramped as there was room to move around among the booths and tables. There were a number of TVs hung on each of the walls and, with the possible exception of where Josh was sitting, anyone could see several without really having to turn their head very much.

Service was prompt and extremely friendly. Our server chatted with us, joked and even laughed at an exchange we had concerning how it was going to be many, many years before Josh ever picked up the tab.

We each ordered the half pound burger (yeah, we were hungry) that was run through the garden. Josh chose American cheese, Mark provolone. For mid-September the garden wasn't terribly bad. The tomato wasn't a tasty as those coming out of our garden but then again, few are. The burger, chargrilled, had the scent and the flavor of that flattop with edges seared just right. The burgers were cooked a little more done than we prefer but the overall flavor was there.

The Kaiser roll on which it was served was firm but not hard the way some can get. We weren't sure but it seemed to be something that was made this morning.

Along with the burgers we each ordered up a small curly fry. Big mistake. We could have easily split one order, especially with the size of those burgers (they didn't shrink very much from their original half pound). The fries were nothing special, pretty much standard frozen restaurant curly fries but they were cooked properly and, without a doubt, they were plentiful.

Wild Mike's is primarily a wings joint though they have a pretty complete menu with a number of burgers, sandwiches and even complete dinners. The place is filled with the perfume of a tasty wing sauce. We were almost tempted to order those wings and will probably stop back to give them a try. In the mean time we did enjoy the burger. No, not the best and not going to make our Best Of list but still a good substantial burger at a heck of a price. And the people were friendly, too.

If you live on the West Side you've probably already visited one of Wild Mike's locations. If you don't, toss caution to the wind and drive up Harrison Ave. one day and aim for one of the three locations. You're bound to be glad you did.