Wing It! on 49 has been in business since 2018 at the Gold Country Center on the northwest corner of Highway 49 and Clinton Road. This section of Gold Country Center is right on that corner and includes Excel Physical Therapy and Gold Country Tire Clinic. You may remember this location hosting other restaurants in the past, including Quizno’s Subs and Starbucks Coffee franchises.
Wing It offers chicken wings, of course, and they also offer hot dogs, tacos, salads, chicken and macaroni bowls, sides including fries, tater tots, and chips, as well as special sides including lumpias and fried Oreos. What’s more, they not only have Pepsi products but also offer select beer and wine.
Wing It currently doesn’t offer dine-in service, but they accept phone orders, online orders, on-site ordering, and patio dining. They also deliver orders that meet a certain minimum order amount. The delivery fee and minimum order amount depend on where you live in Amador County. (You’ll find that information listed on their website.)
On June 11, I ordered dinner on the Wing It website. My mother ordered a six-piece boneless wings combo meal for $12.00. Combo meals come with a side of either fries or tater tots and a small drink, so she ordered a side of tater tots and a small MUG root beer.
I ordered a Philly Cheesesteak Taco combo with a side of garlic parmesan tater tots and a small Diet Pepsi. Since fries or tater tots with any topping is considered a “gourmet side,” Wing It charged me an additional $2.00 on top of the $11.00 combo price.
The website said our meals would be ready 20 minutes after I ordered it. 20 minutes later, I called Wing It once I parked in the parking lot. The cheerful employee came out of the restaurant with a large bag of food and two small plastic cups that contained our drinks. The cups weren’t marked, so I had to resort to the smell test.
My Meal
My meal came in two large Styrofoam containers. The Philly Cheesesteak Taco came open-faced with ribeye steak, grilled green peppers and white onions, provolone cheese, and garlic aioli in a flour tortilla.
The second Styrofoam container had at least a half-pound of tater tots with lots of minced garlic and sprinkles of parmesan cheese.
The taco itself was medium-sized, and there wasn’t so much food that I couldn’t fold it or would cause the tortilla to break. The tortilla itself was fresh and firm, and it held up well from the first bite to the last.
I was pleasantly surprised that the steak itself had little fat and was easy to eat. The steak had the right amount of spice, the vegetables had the right amount of crunch, and the garlic aioli provided a good amount of flavor without being overwhelming.
There were noticeable large chunks of garlic in the tater tots, but not as much cheese as I expected. The tots were crunchy and definitely flavorful, though I had a lot of garlic aftertaste afterward. (I knew what I was getting into.)
Mom’s Meal
My mother’s six pieces of boneless chicken spiced with salt and pepper came in her own Styrofoam container. The chicken also came with two small styrofoam cups of ranch dressing.
After she took the first bite, she said the chicken was juicy and flavorful, but the crunchy breading was a bit thicker than she expected. In fact, the breading made the chicken harder to eat as she finished the last two pieces.
She also enjoyed the tater tots, which were hot and crunchy. She also got a full Styrofoam container of tots that she saved for later meals.
The Verdict
I’ve never had a Philly cheesesteak taco, and I was glad I had one. Eating a cheesesteak in a tortilla instead of a French roll was an easier eating experience. The taco didn’t fill me up too much, either.
My mother said there wasn’t anything special about her chicken, and said she didn’t detect any difference between the chicken wings at Wing It and the ones at Kentucky Fried Chicken.
The tater tots tasted like what you’d get in an Ore Ida bag, though I enjoyed the garlic topping. The number of tater tots was a good value because all those tots could have fed a group of four people.
Since we had tater tots for days, we were able to get a good idea of how well they held up as leftovers. They did hold up, but the garlic clumping didn’t provide for a consistent flavor experience. And my garlic parmesan tots helped me realize that my stomach doesn’t like a lot of garlic over a period of three days.
Though the items on the menu include taxes, there were some non-discounts and fees tacked on when you order online:
- I ordered on Taco Thursday, so the online ordering page said I would get $1 off any taco. I discovered after I ordered that the discount didn’t apply to a taco combo meal.
- I made a mistake with my order, but I couldn’t change it. I had to cancel the order and start over.
- There was a 10 percent tip listed with the order. I thought I cancelled this when I clicked the Cancel button on the order page, the tip was applied anyway.
- The online order included a 75-cent card service fee and a 30-cent convenience fee. These fees were easy to overlook in the online ordering system, but we definitely saw them in the printed and online receipts.
Though we’ll probably go back, we won’t do so unless we’re in the mood for a hot dog, a custom taco, or one of the other. And we won’t order online. Thumbs flat.
The price of our food was just short of $29.
Want to Try Them?
Wing It is open from 12:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., Thursdays through Sundays. You can visit the Wing It website to view the menu and order online. Or you can call them at 209-614-3287.
Amador Business Ticker food reviews are adventures in local dining with Editor Eric Butow and his mom.
