Midtown Lunch

If you like to eat, chances are you like to drink (read: a lot of you are freakin’ lushes), so I thought maybe it was time to introduce a happy hour column to the site. Every week, our Happy Hour Correspondent “Mamacita” will post about a different bar in Midtown that fits the Midtown Lunch mentality: unhealthy food, not lame (unless it’s lame in a cool way), and most importantly… cheap. This week Mamacita decides to check out Hooters, in an attempt to make up for the past few weeks of posting photos of male bartenders. Enjoy!

We all know about Hooters for their babalicious waitresses in tight short shorts and skimpy tank tops, but I’ve heard many say, in that typical “I read playboy for the articles” kind of way, that Hooters crispy hot wings are where it’s at- and might even be the best in town! I figured I had to try it for myself, after all if I could handle lunch at a strip club this should be a walk in the park right? So off I went to find out if these wings where really as good as everyone says, thus validating it as a bona fide Midtown Lunch happy hour.

Upon entering I could see that Hooters was basically just a typical sports bar and grill. Lots of TV screens in a large well-lit restaurant with the titillating addition of young, rail thin, and big boobied (god bless push-up bras) waitresses. Laura was our bartender for the night. She was a medical school student during the day and could easily make a man holla “Helloooo Nurse!” With her help she rounded up all the girls for a couple group photos.

Unfortunately, you pay the price for a touristy themed restaurant. Drinks were about $15 for top shelf margaritas, $8 for regular margaritas, $13 for martinis, $6 for well drinks, and for the potable connoisseur the special for the night was $2.50 Bud-Select. The best weekday to visit is Wednesdays when house margaritas are only $6 all day and you can get 10 boneless wings, with fries, for $9.99.

Drinks in hand we took a look at the menu and ordered the wings in the hottest sauce ($9.99), chicken fingers ($8), curly fries and fried pickles ($7.95 each).

The wings were not spicy at all, but they did have a great crispy bite to them. Definitely a good hot wing but probably too pricey for what you get. The winner by far was the fried pickles. They were thinly sliced with a perfect thin batter. The end result was a tangy, crunchy and salty pickle chip that was made even more perfect with the addition of the red bell pepper sour cream dip. This I would come back for without hesitation. So maybe people actually do come to Hooters for the food?

THE +

• Very good bar food, wings and amazing fried pickles
• Wednesday wing and margarita special is a good deal
• Hot babes in tight shorts
• Very friendly and fun waitresses

THE +

• Expensive drinks
• Food is pricey too
• No eye candy for the ladies, unless you roll that way (not that there’s anything wrong with that)

Hooters, 211 W 56th St (btw. B’way+7th), 212-581-5656‎

Post and photos by Mamacita