Backyard Ale House

Basic Information:

• Backyard Ale House Podcast – A Revival - 12/13/16

  We’ve got another one for you! This time, we visited the Backyard Ale House. Listen to our podcast review at the bottom of this post.

  If you read our last review of Backyard Ale House, you might remember that it definitely was not the best experience. It was strange because we always have such a great time at this place. Well, let me tell you, Backyard Ale House has definitely made up for that one experience. Everything was on point this time – fantastic service and delicious wings! We knew that the one bad visit was just a fluke.

  Head over to the Backyard Ale House Review Page to check out all our previous visits, but definitely do them a service by listening to the latest podcast so you can see that they are just as awesome as always.

  
  

  

  Backyard Ale House - 12/13/16

• Bad Visit to Backyard - 08/19/15
  Overall Rating: 60

  Lynch Serniak

  Lynch's Rating: 29 out of 50

  Environment: 4
  

  I love Backyard Ale House. It is easily one of my favorites places to go in downtown Scranton for some great food and libations. They provide a huge selection of draft and bottled beer along with some outdoor seating in the back, hence the name of the place. There is nothing better than sitting outside on a warm summer evening enjoying food with friends. As The Wing Men, we provide a rating as though it was our first time there and, unfortunately for Backyard, this visit was mired in a series of bad events that dampened the overall experience for everyone in our party. I will say we had a bigger group with us this time, so I knew there was going to be a bit of a lag in food and drinks coming out. That wasn’t the problem though. Our server was unfriendly and unapologetic. They ran out of wings on their wing night, so a couple people had to cancel or reduce their orders, and when the wing orders did come out, there was a wrong order in the bunch. When told about the mistake, the server barely acknowledged the issue and still charged us for the wrong order. Other food orders came out wrong or didn’t arrive at all. Serniak and I ordered 25 wings, but due to the shortage of wings, had to reduce the order to 20. We were told the wings would be cheaper as a result. When the check came, it was still the full price. Eventually, when our server did come around again, we pointed out the issue. He said he would take a certain price off. When the new check arrived, it reflected less than what he indicated he would take off. Finally, when asked at the beginning to split checks, he said that wouldn’t be an issue. What this meant to him though was that he would bring us the full check and we would be the ones who would have to go through the check and write our individual orders on a separate piece of paper for them. Will I return to Backyard Ale House in the future? Absolutely! I understand this was an unfortunate, one time experience and future visits should be much better.

  
  Wing Size: 7
  

  Backyard Ale House only offers wings on their wing night, which is Tuesdays. They provide two options to enjoy your wings. For the light eaters, you order 10 wings of a sauce of your choice for $7. If you’re feeling hungrier and adventurous, they offer 25 wings for $15, which includes 5 wings of each sauce they are offering that week. This is always the option we choose so we can taste every flavor. On this visit, the wing size ranged from average to large and meaty.

  
  Wing Flavors: 8
  

  I really enjoy how Backyard runs their wing night. This is the only time they provide wings, and they always have a rotating selection of flavors. You will see Traditional on the menu every week. It comes with the option of Mild, Hot, or Gnome’s Nightmare, which is an extremely spicy sauce. From there, the flavors are always changing and are always unique. For example, the Fat Elvis wing offered during our visit was a mixture of peanut butter, bacon, and banana. What they offer on their wing night may not appeal to you, so look for them on Facebook every Tuesday if you want to see what flavors they have for that week.

  
  Wing Taste (x2): 5
  

  With the rotating selection of flavors, the taste can be hit or miss. For example, the last time we went to Backyard for wings, the options and wings were fantastic. Hear all about it in our Backyard Ale House Podcast on our website. This time around, I felt as though the wings were decent, but nothing blew me away. The Traditional is their basic hot wing sauce. It is full of seasoning and spiciness that is pretty enjoyable. It is a thicker hot sauce, almost like a spicy spaghetti sauce. It is a definite safe bet. We ordered Gnome’s Nightmare on the side because I’m very interested to try it. Unfortunately, we never received it, so it is very much still my white whale. The Hot Caesar were very similar to the Traditional, with a slight hint of Caesar. I personally could have done with more Caesar because it tasted too much like the Traditional. The Sweet & Sour was exactly what you’d expect. The sticky sauce has that sweet flavor up front with a slight hint of tanginess. It reminded me very much of the sauce of the same name that you get at Burger King. The Mango Habanero BBQ may have been my favorite wing of the night. The sweetness from the mango flavoring and the hint of spiciness from the Habanero really mixed well with the BBQ sauce. I’m not even a huge fan of BBQ sauce, and I would order this wing again if I saw it. Finally, I had high hopes for the Fat Elvis wing. The idea of peanut butter, bacon, and banana on a wing is oddly appealing to me. In our order though, these wings didn’t have any sauce on them at all. These just tasted wings fried in oil. I don’t know if they forgot or they ran out of the sauce. I tried this flavor at Wings at the Waterpark. I remember it being a drier wing, but not like this. I’m not sure what happened here.

  Serniak's Rating: 31 out of 50

  Environment: 5
  

  The atmosphere at the Ale House is one that should instantly put you in a good mood. Whether it’s their amazing selection of craft brew or creative menu, you certainly won’t be able to be one of those mopes at the bar. Surprisingly, our service wasn’t the best we’ve had there. Some mix-ups with what people ordered, to figuring out the exact total for the bill, made for a confusing evening. These things happen. Michael Jordan had off nights, just like the rest of us.

  
  Wing Size: 7
  

  The Ale House certainly gives you options when you order on wing night. You can either pay 7 dollars to get 10 or you can pay 15 to get 25 wings, which ends up being 5 of each flavor. Just be a pro about it and over indulge. However, beware, these wings are pretty massive. They are potentially the biggest we’ve ever encountered.

  
  Wing Flavors: 7
  

  What’s really interesting about the Ale House, is that they rotate out their flavors every week. I think that’s a real progressive idea to keep things fresh. This week they had their regular hot, sweet and sour, fat Elvis(bacon, peanut butter, banana) mango habanero bbq and hot Caesar. I know there are only 5 to choose from, but their creativity and uniqueness stands out to me. Even with only 5 flavors, 2 of them are ones I’ve never seen before.

  
  Wing Taste (x2): 6
  

  The biggest reason for this rating is because the fat Elvis wings barely had any seasoning added to them, to the point where they were essentially naked. The hot were flavorful and brought a comfortable heat that all can handle. The sweet and sour were exactly that and they did it well. You could taste everything that you’re looking for with this flavor. The mango habanero bbq, I thought was lacking in heat that I figured I was going to get with the habanero. The sweetness of the bbq side of the flavor was dominant. Finally, the hot Caesar, delivered the spice of their hot sauce, with soothing zestiness of Caesar dressing. They did that well with the hot Caesar.

  
  
• Backyard Ale House Podcast - 03/25/14

  Good evening and what a great Friday this is! What we have for you is another podcast. This time, we recorded a review for Backyard Ale House. This place has some awesome wings, which you can hear all about in the latest podcast. You can listen to it at the Backyard Ale House Review Page. We even have the podcast below. Listen away!

  
  

  

  Backyard Ale House - 03/25/14

• Backyard First Visit - 12/12/13
  Overall Rating: 72

  Lynch Serniak

  Lynch's Rating: 33 out of 50

  Environment: 7
  

  Backyard Ale House is new to the food scene. They’ve been serving food for roughly only a month, and this was their second time ever having a wing night. The place is mainly known for being a bar with an outrageous beer selection. If you want to try new beer, here is the place to go. In addition to the restaurant, they attached a bottle shop as well. There are two main sections with a long bar at each. The front section is indoors. The second section is behind the building. It is a large, open area for some outdoor drinking. This time of the year, they do have it covered with plenty of heaters to keep it warm. It truly is a great place to hang out. As for the wait staff, it left something to be determined. Maybe they’re trying to get into that restaurant groove, but it did take a while for the wings to come out and the waitress wasn’t always the best at staying on top of our needs. It wasn’t busy, either. Additionally, they have a sign out front that says please wait to be seated, but then the bartender said seat yourself. Nothing major, just a little odd. Additionally, the wing situation is a interesting. If you get 25 wings, you get a sampling of all flavors, but if you get 10 wings, you can only get one flavor. I did like the way the wings were served. They were served in tiny buckets and each bucket was labeled with the flavor.

  
  Wing Size: 7
  

  The wings are massive at Backyard. Now, depending on your order, you’re paying $0.60 a wing for ten wings, or roughly $0.48 a wing for 25 wings. The price is a little on the higher side, but these wings will fill you up quite a bit. If you usually handle 15, 10 will get you through just fine.

  
  Wing Flavors: 5
  

  I know what you’re thinking. How does this place get a 5 for wing flavors?! They only have 5 wing flavors. Well, flavor is a factor the amount of options, and originality. While they don’t have a huge selection, they do offer some very unique options. For the most part, they were flavors I haven’t seen anywhere else. Apparently, from a dude who works there, they do have other flavors, but they feature different ones every Tuesday.

  
  Wing Taste (x2): 7
  

  We decided to get an order of 25 to sample each flavor. The Backyard Traditional were a decent wing. It was very run of the mill stuff. Mango BBQ were awesome. Generally, I’m not a huge fan of BBQ, but the addition of the Mango really added flavor to these wings. The sauce was a sweet, sticky sauce with a smokiness to it from the BBQ. I highly recommend these wings. The Dr. Pepper Chipotle were also only a decent wing. I didn’t really get he Dr. Pepper flavoring too much while I was eating them. The Orange Teriyaki were another awesome wing by Backyard. It is very true to its name. The Orange flavor is very prominent, as well as the saltiness rom the Teriyaki. I highly recommend these ones as well. Finally, the Fra Diavolo is very true to its name, too. It’s much like a spaghetti sauce with a bit of spice to it. Personally, I’m not a huge fan of the spaghetti sauce wings, so these wings were not for me. They do offer a unique selection at Backyard, but not all the flavors will be for everyone.

  Serniak's Rating: 39 out of 50

  Environment: 8
  

  The Backyard Ale House, a bar that many people from our area frequent to have a quality brew and to unwind. This all can be had there and now you can now order food. You can also go to their wing night on Tuesdays as well. With 2 areas to get a table, the Backyard Ale House has plenty of seating. Don’t be afraid of going during the winter months, I assure it is plenty warm in the back area. The atmosphere is one of a much calmer one compared to the loud atmosphere you will find on a weekend night. Our server was nice and attentive. She also was knowledgeable on their craft beer, which they have as a good a list as any place around.

  
  Wing Size: 6
  

  You have 2 choices to order wings at the ale house. They are 10 wings for $6 or 25 wings for $12. So if you get the 10 wing option you are paying over 50 cents and if you go with the 25 wing option you are paying more but at slightly under 50 cents a wing. It’s kind of an odd setup that gives options but they such polar opposites of each other that if you wanted something in the middle, you are out of luck.

  
  Wing Flavors: 7
  

  Here’s the deal, on their wing night they only have 5 flavors to choose from. I believe they have about 8-9 to choose from ordinarily but on wing night they only supply 5. They get a 7 from me because the flavors they provide are original and creative. They offer a backyard traditional hot or mild, mango bbq, Dr. Pepper Chipotle, orange teriyaki and fra Diavolo(which is tomato based with spices).

  
  Wing Taste (x2): 9
  

  For only serving food for a few weeks, the wings are damn good. I opted for larger wing option so therefore I got all flavors that were provided. The traditional hot were very saucy indeed. Actually every sauce minus the orange teriyaki were very caked with sauce. It was a big plus. The traditional hot were equipped with good spices that brought descent heat. The mango bbq were very interesting because you had the sweetness of the bbq sauce then you had the added sweetness of the mango so you would think it would be a sugar overload. But it is not. Very well balanced this sauce was. The most surprising flavor of them all was the Dr. Pepper Chipotle. The chipotle heat that you get every bite accompanied by the bite that you only get from Dr. Pepper was a stellar union of flavors from different spectrums. Also, I am a big subscriber of soda meat. The orange teriyaki reminded me of orange chicken that you would get if you ordered Chinese food. It was sticky and the orange accented the salt and sweet flavor of the teriyaki to not make a bitter concoction but robust collage of taste. Finally, the fra Diavolo. Like I put in its description, it is tomato based and you can tell. It’s like a thick marinara sauce but this Italian delicacy features a spices that makes you want to tame it. All the sauces were interesting. It was like the goal of Ale House was to bring many different flavors together, how thoughtful of them.