Ice House Pub

Basic Information:

• Ice House Pub – The Review that Time Forgot - 07/20/16
  Overall Rating: 72

  Lynch Serniak

  Lynch's Rating: 38 out of 50

  Environment: 9
  

  he Ice House Pub is a bit of a trek from our home base location of Scranton, but I was willing to take the trip after seeing the menu and hearing many good things. Ice House Pub is located right off 81 in Mountain Top. The place is larger than I expected with a big bar area, and an even bigger dining area complete with a pool table, plenty of seating, and a small arcade section. We sat at a high table in the bar section where our waitress immediately brought us menus and told us about their specials. Little did she know that’s exactly what we were there for. Our waitress was great. She was quick to take our orders and was always checking up on us to make sure we had everything we needed. There was a small wait for the wings, which was surprising as it wasn’t overly crowded. As we waited, we passed the time by playing some darts by the bar and enjoying one of the many craft beers offered by Ice House Pub, which our waitress said we could sample before we buy. We also discussed how much we love all the different special nights they have, such as a build your own pizza night or a build your own mac and cheese night. Overall, I liked the place. It had a welcoming atmosphere and great service.

  
  Wing Size: 8
  

  Wings come in orders of 12 at The Ice House, but they do allow you to split orders to enjoy two different sauces if you please. On wing night, which is Wednesday, wings are $6 for a dozen. If you’re one of those genius mathematicians, you probably immediately realized that comes out to 50 cents a wing. These wings are pretty large. I ordered 24 because I wanted to try as many flavors as possible. Let’s just say I struggled to put down my normal number of 15.

  
  Wing Flavors: 9
  

  I love the number of options for wing flavors at the Ice House Pub. They have your typical fare of Hot, BBQ, and Garlic and Butter. On top of that, they offer some variety like Bacon Chipotle Ranch, Spicy Thai Peanut, and Dill Pickle Dry Rub. They allow you to add Blue Cheese to any sauce or mix any sauce you want for an additional 50 cents.  That greatly expands your wing choices. It seems that they also offer a weekly wing special for wing night. For our visit, we were treated to something like a Sweet Garlic Barbecue. I didn’t quite catch the name, so I’ll leave it to Serniak to fill in the space.

  
  Wing Taste (x2): 6
  

  For the wings themselves, I felt like they were a little hit and miss. The Spicy Thai Peanut was definitely interesting. It had a strong spicy Thai flavor with a slight hint of peanut. Honestly, I wish the peanut flavors was amped up in the sauce. The Fire House Habanero definitely brought the heat. It seemed to be sprinkled with the sauce, which you would know was intentional once you tried one of these wings. It had a strong habanero heat that lingered in your mouth. If you order these wings, save them for last as you may not be able to enjoy your other wings. The Cajun Blue Cheese was another wing that I felt could have amped it up a bit in flavor. The seasonings and taste were there, but they seemed to be on the backburner. I wish it had a stronger Cajun and Blue Cheese taste to it. Finally, the best wing of the night was the Bacon Chipotle Ranch. If this was the only wing I tried, Ice House Pub would have received a glowing 10. This sauce was fantastic. It was full of great flavor with each part of the bacon, chipotle, and ranch somehow standing out. If you try one wing from this awesome establishment, go with the Bacon Chipotle Ranch.

  Serniak's Rating: 34 out of 50

  Environment: 7
  

  They call it the pride off of the Nuangola exit. Go ask them they’ll tell you that. Alright, I’ll tell you that. Probably after this, they’ll all start calling it that. I’m talking about the Ice House which is located right off the Nuangola exit. Don’t tell me that it’s to far because it’s not. Unless you live in New York or something, then it’s far. The Ice House gave the vibe that it’s all tame and low key during the week, but when Friday night hits, it’s time to get wild. It’s equipped with a big bar and a big area for seating that I’m guessing gets pulled for dancing or some kind of activity. At least I hope that’s what happens. The size of the inside is one that I would classify as a Roadhouse size meaning there is a lot of room but with less 40 year old adolescents, felons, power drinkers and trustees of modern chemistry. Tons of specials to choose from and every night is a different menu item that they specialize in. Wings, burgers, pizza and other items can be had on different nights of the week. Our server was really nice and made sure we were always comfortable.

  
  Wing Size: 6
  

  Don’t get bogged down with the score of a 6. It literally means that they fall in line with the average size and price for wings at wing night in the year 2016. Wings are $6 a dozen, feel free to do the math on your own time. They were even a bit meatier than typical wings thus getting an extra point. Not many places fall under the 50 cent mark anymore. Ice House is no different.

  
  Wing Flavors: 9
  

  The Ice House really delivers the spice of life, which of course is several options for wing flavors. Keep up. With 16 flavors on their menu and also a few that aren’t that are there feature sauces of the week, the Ice House keeps your brain toggling between many out of the box flavors. Flavors such as bacon chipotle ranch, cajun blue cheese, taco dry rub, old bay dry rub and dill pickle dry rub will have you making the tough choices in life. Now you may be thinking that some of these flavors I listed are becoming more common. I would say I agree and I would also say you’re welcome.

  
  Wing Taste (x2): 6
  

  I’m greedy. And I always want more. Maybe my expectations were to high, but the wings at the Ice House were good but nothing out of this world like I hoped. I wasn’t feeling like my gluttonous self and only ordered 15. I got the cajun dry rub, chipotle bacon ranch and the bourbon glazed garlic, which were the feature, off the menu sauce of the week. The cajun dry rub were cooked very well, and were loaded with seasoning but it somehow wasn’t loaded with flavor. It was truly baffling. Visibly, it seemed like it was going to blitz my taste buds out of orbit, but they didn’t. Strange happenings. Next the feature sauce, the bourbon glazed garlic were a healthy attempt at something you don’t usually see, bbq and garlic, and it was just alright. Nothing that encouraged me to tell our server to make sure they should always have it on the menu permanently. Again, it’s not that it tasted bad, it just was decent. Finally, the chipotle bacon ranch were the bell of the ball. This sauce had it all. It had a beautiful appearance with its deep yellow color laced with bacon bits. It had had a ton of sauce, which is always a plus. And it simply tasted great. The spiciness of the chipotle ran up against the ranch with a great ground attack then from the top rope came the bacon which sealed the deal and made me the winner of this flavor showdown. Gotta get this flavor. It’s a must!