Driving the interstates between cities in the US means that you pass many small towns/cities with a lot of advertised eateries but with little time to stop and check anywhere out. Driving from the centre of Philadelphia to home should be a four hour run depending on how backed up Route 76 out of Philadelphia is. The only major cities on the drive are the Dickson City/Scranton/Wilkes-Barre conurbation and Binghamton (too close to home to justify stopping). Scranton is about the halfway point on the trip so is a good time to break although the restaurant scene is dominated by national chains. In an attempt to avoid the menus that can be had pretty much anywhere in the country, we opted for Quaker Steak & Lube; a chain that originated in Pennsylvania. The name is a play on Pennsylvania being the Quaker State and on Quaker State Oil and consequently the restaurants and menu have a very heavy automotive theme. This is apparent in the petrol pump door handles, the NASCAR car suspended upside down over reception and memorabilia everywhere. This reaches silly levels when side dishes are referred to as sidecars and the full name of every dish tries to jam in some automotive link. Ultimately, though, the menu is not that different from menus at most mid-price chains, although they proudly trumpet that they have the best wings in America, so that was one of the reasons for choosing to eat here.
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We went with two starters to share and then separate mains. First starter was a seasonal special billed as Backfire Boom Boom Shrimp featuring a colossal explosion of flavor. The reality was somewhat different in that it consisted of six shrimp coated in panko breadcrumbs and deep fried and came to the table on a small portion of iceberg lettuce. Each shrimp was topped with the boom boom sauce and shredded Italian parsley. “Best” of all was the Quaker Steak stamp of individuality where the decision had been taken to serve six shrimp in a polystyrene egg box. Not only did serving in an egg box have humour value but it came with 4 eggcyclopedia facts. Not only did I get an appetizer but now I know that 17 millions eggs are laid each year to provide wings for “the Lube”, there are more chickens than people in the world, the chicken is the closest living relative to Tyrannosaurus Rex and…..a chicken can travel at 9 miles per hour. The shrimp themselves were juicy and the panko breadcrumbs gave them a satisfactory crunch. The sauce had no boom at all and turned out to be a damp squib. Where we’d been expecting spice it offered nothing at all.
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As part of the build up for the wings, the menu features a heat scale and where each sauce comes on the Scoville heat unit scale. This goes up to atomic scale and triple atomic scale whereyou have to sign a release form if you order them. My son went for the more modest medium sauce weighing in at a mere 1,440 SHU compared to 150,000 for the atomic. The wings came in a plastic basket with a pot of blue cheese sauce and celery sticks. The deep-fried wings were good and plump but there was a major problem. There was no spice on the wings at all and consequently the wings were too bland to want to eat many. We confirmed that we’d received the correct order and had to request hot sauce to help boost the wings. This was a severe letdown and it was pretty obvious that the “Best Wings USA” was not based on the medium wings.
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Main course was the Smokin’ Tires BBQ Pork Wrap. I’m a big fan of pulled pork but should have read the menu a little bit more carefully before ordering. The pork filling within the tomato tortilla was okay but had it had too sweet an edge and there seemed to be some unnecessary cinnamon flavour. The smoky bacon and cheeses were fine too. The jalapeno slaw was a really good touch. However, the major error was the inclusion of fried onion rings in the wrap. The breadcrumbs from the rings were totally disconcerting and overwhelmed the onion flavor that would work well with the rest of the wrap. The chips (French fries) were also poor. Pre-packaged frozen chips just don’t work and it would be great to see them disappear from menus.
Overall verdict.
Food was okay, Dickson City was a convenient stopping off point but this isn’t somewhere you’d go out of your way to visit.
Would I revisit Quaker Steak & Lube?
Possibly. It’s just another chain but sufficiently oddball that I’d still rather visit here than its identikit neighbours. Although they’re on probation if hotter wings turn out to be as innocuous.
Overall Rating - 1.5/5
Food was okay, Dickson City was a convenient stopping off point but this isn’t somewhere you’d go out of your way to visit.
Would I revisit Quaker Steak & Lube?
Possibly. It’s just another chain but sufficiently oddball that I’d still rather visit here than its identikit neighbours. Although they’re on probation if hotter wings turn out to be as innocuous.
Overall Rating - 1.5/5
