I was driving home from the gym the other day and my route takes me right past a Steak ‘n Shake restaurant.  I was glancing out the window and saw the sign in the picture above advertising All You Can Eat Pancakes for $3.99. 

After my initial shock, I started chuckling.  Is all you can eat pancakes the new thing that restaurants are using to get business?  I know of several places (not all confirmed) that offer the same deal in the same price range, so it’s apparently become a new “big thing.”  Here are some of the ones that I know about:

1.  Aforementioned Steak ‘n Shake promotion for $3.99.

2.  Denny’s All You Can Eat Pancakes for $4 (I’ve actually had this one twice; the first time I went by myself and downed seven pancakes.  The second time, I went with some friends and each of us downed nine pancakes.  It was so funny that the server told us that all three of us broke the restaurant record for pancake orders.  We were so proud.).

3.  IHOP All You Can Eat Pancakes for $4.99.

4.  Apparently, although I don’t know if this is true or not, Philadelphia Steak & Fries (site of wibia’s review last week) has all you can eat pancakes for either $2 or $4.  Can anyone confirm this?

Anyone know of any other places that do this that I may be missing?  By the way, I’m do not mean the typical buffet places like Golden Corral, etc.  Like I said, the whole thought of there being Pancake Wars is amusing to me, so I’m interested to see how widespread this actually is.

-IndianapolisEater

Everyone knows about Hooters wings.  They are breaded and up until recently were available in just the normal flavors of naked, mild and hot.  But, Hooters has recent debuted some new wing flavors such as Cajun, Samurai, Spicy Garlic, Parmesan Garlic and BBQ.  WIBIA and I decided to make a visit for $10.99 All You Can Eat Wing night (this is a running promotion on all Wednesdays) on a recent Wednesday night to give a couple of these new flavors a shot.

And since it is Wednesday and some of you may be having these same thoughts of going, here’s our “timely” review:

Samurai Wings

First up was the Samurai wings.  These wings were the standard Hooters breading coated in a layer of teriyaki sauce.  What was odd about this sauce is that it was VERY thick and mildly sweet, yet somehow also very bland.  Personally, I thought these wings were just okay, but if you don’t want to have sauce everywhere and don’t generally like thick, sweet sauces, this is not something that you want to order.

Cajun Wings

Next up were the Cajun wings and these were unlike any wing that Hooters serves.  Normally, Hooters wing breading is very compact and tightly held together.  These wings had a flaky and greasy breading.  It was so greasy in fact that WIBIA was using paper towel and squeezing the grease out of the wings before he ate them.  That’s not exactly the most appealing visual to have before you eat the wings, but hey, that’s why we try these things for you!

Anyway, despite the disgusting visual, I will say the taste wasn’t all that bad.  You could obviously tell that they had used one of those spicy/hot dried creole seasonings like you would buy at the grocery store, but the taste of the seasoning was not overpowering at all.  I felt odd sitting at Hooters eating these wings because this is definitely not something that is normally on their menu and they just seemed out of place.  Despite this, the taste was somewhat appealing.

Would I Buy It Again? If I was there on another night that was not all you can eat wing night and was only having a regular meal, then I would not buy these again.  If I was there for all you can eat wing night and had the option of mixing it up with different flavors with no additional repercussions (a higher bill), then I would maybe order a plate of these just to fulfill my curiosity.

Regardless, I will still go back to Hooters because there’s one thing that you can’t match anywhere and that’s the old reliable hot wings.  Often imitated, but never duplicated, the Hooters hot wings are the best.

Hot Wings

WIBIA can add his feelings in the comments because I know he had a differing opinion on at least one of these flavors, so you can check that out once he posts.

-IndianapolisEater

Ran across this article on USA Today. Buy your ticket and you have all-you- can-eat access to the concession stands.

My favorite line:  “Almost all the customers in the designated seats were young guys.”

Indianapolis Indians, take note.

-EatHSE