Show-Me's

I've been going to this place since 96. Back then the wings were incredibly good. Back in about 2000 or 2001, they changed the wings and the recipe. It's still not a bad place to eat, it's just the wings are sometimeing. There good some weeks and bad on some weeks. Some times the wings are big, then some days there small. The waitresses are cool and all good looking. Other than that its a good place to chill out.

ShowMe's has great service, they are very attentive there and that is good. The chili is delicious and the wings are good. I do however, wish they could expand on their beer selection a bit more. What they have for imported beers are not even imports. Of course if they do add craft beers, I imagine that they would charge a lot for them.

One thing to keep in mind, the appetizers are a little overpriced for what you get. $7.95 for less then 7 fried shrimp? Thanks but no thanks. I can go elsewhere for better shrimp at a lower price and get a lot more in return for what I pay.

Otherwise it was not a bad place to go and I look forward to when we can bring our Great Dane there to enjoy lunch with us outside.

The rating for two stars on Yelp states, "Meh. I've experienced better." I've been going to this Show-Me's in Fairview Heights for over 12 years, and unfortunately, I've experienced better at this same establishment than what they have recently offered in the way of the chicken wings.

The real reason anyone should fo to Show-Me's ifs for the chicken wings, and that's the only reason myself and friends have gone for, as previously stated, the previous 12 years of our lives. However, the wings have taken a nose-dive as of late. To confirm this, we went to get some on Sunday at about 7:30 PM and then during "dime-time", where you get 10 wings for 4.50, which is a pretty good deal, especially if you're getting delicious wings.

The bad part is, the wings are no longer delicious. Something about how they are now made, they are NOT FRESH. The chicken wings themselves seem like they have been precooked, and have that flavor like a chicken wing that's been sitting on a buffet all day - crispy, but with that old fried-chicken taste. There was a time when Show-Me's brought out glistening, moist, fully sauced wings, but alas, this is no longer the case. To prove my point, I offer up the following evidence:

On Sunday when we ordered wings, I ordered 10 hot, and my friend ordered 10 with the jerk sauce, with an order of fries. The first thing I noticed when the wings came out was that it appeared the sauce was more poured over the hot ones than shaken. One wing looked like it had NO SAUCE at all on it. The server stated that this was because the sauce soaks into the wings. Well, do you know WHY the SAUCE SOAKS INTO THE WINGS!? Because they're stale and dry! They're NOT FRESH. My friend's jerk wings were, to me, an insult. Plain wings were on the plate, and for these, the sauce was LITERALLY POURED OVER THE WINGS. They weren't shaken or anything, the sauce was just poured over some regular chicken wings. That kind of defeats the purpose of why you go out to a restaurant to get chicken wings in the first place.

To further the issues, I ask for some extra sauce, and as the server goes to the window to get it, I overhear her telling the cook to "put it in the microwave". MMMMM, nothing like microwave hot sauce that taste's eerily similar to Frank's Red Hot Wing sauce. This not only indicates that the wings were too dry and/or undersauced, but also that the kitchen staff is more than willing to send out cold sauce to a customer. I poured the sauce over the wings and tried to continue eating, but that taste of old stale slightly burnt heat lamped buffet chicken couldn't be hidden by any amount of sauce, which I was to find out on my next visit:

during 45 cent time, when I ordered HIRO (HIROSHIMA) WINGS. Someone else ordered HOT, and someone else ordered MEDIUM. I was with different people this time, but, without my mentioning, they all had the same problem: The SAUCE SOAKED INTO THE DRY, STALE FRIED CHICKEN WINGS. The person who ordered HOT had to ask for MORE SAUCE, and as I ate my HIRO wings, each one progressively soaked in the sauce and lost more flavor. By the fifth wing, all I could taste was that damn stale chicken. There was a time when you would order HIRO WINGS at Show-Me's, and your nose would run with that great spice flavor, the ranch cutting it perfectly, but no more.

BOTTOM LINE: Show-Me's needs to review it's policiies regarding the QUALITY OF THE PRODUCT. In the past, I would take anyone I knew who was coming into town to Show-Me's for the best wings they would ever have. Now, I can't do that, because the quality of their main draw, CHICKEN WINGS, is no longer there. I can go to Home Town Buffet and get the same chicken wings with hot sauce on them. That's bad.