The Ugly Moose
443 Shurs Lane
Manayunk, PA
On Saturday afternoon my cousin, his wife, my brother and I went into Manayunk to get some wings, beers, and watch some playoff football. Obviously we were not the happiest football fans in the world since the Eagles lost last weekend, but we still enjoyed watching the Ravens and Steelers slug it out. We decided on the Ugly Moose, which my cousin and his wife had eaten at once or twice while his wife lived in Manayunk a few years ago. They told us that the burgers were good, but that they had never tried the wings, so we took a gamble and decided to try it out.
They had a pretty cool list of beers on tap, most of them I had never heard of, and I love that about a bar. It was fairly dark inside, with a couple big TVs and very few people. They had a wood burning heater that I thought was pretty cool, but very got when I got too close. And I cannot forget that being named the Ugly Moose, they of course has a moose head on the wall. I was not surprised by the amount of people however because we went at about 3:45 in the afternoon.
I started off the afternoon with a beer called Palm. It was a very smooth beer, and it was everything that I look for in my favorite beers. It was perfectly carbonated and had a smooth aftertaste that was not very hoppy. I tend to lose interest in beers when I feel like I just had raw hops in my mouth. It was a bronze color, which I usually prefer to lighter beers. They served it in a special glass that was much like a courvoisier glass and that only enhanced the experience.
When we ordered our food, we decided to get a large order of Moose wings. They were basted and slow roasted, and then flash fried to order. By standard they are served with medium heat sauce, blue cheese, and celery, but you can increase the spice of the sauce if you prefer. I love spicy stuff, usually the hotter the better, but to accommodate my cousin’s wife, we all just ordered the same large plate of medium wings. When we finally got them, the bartender had forgotten our food order originally but made up for it by giving us 3 free rounds of drinks, we were all pleasantly surprised. The wings were superb! They did not have much sauce on the outside, but instead they must have been dry rubbed before they were slow roasted. I could definitely feel the heat from the cayenne pepper, the black pepper, and perhaps a bit of chili powder. They had the perfect amount of heat, and the wings were a very good size. We finished them up rather quickly, and we had just finished when they brought us the burgers that we had ordered.
I had ordered the Big Sky Burger, which was a ½ lb of choice steer, topped with cheddar and jack cheeses, applewood smoked bacon, onion, and lettuce and I finished it off with some ketchup and grey poupon. The burger was very good, the perfect thing to eat after a good amount of wings already down. It was a pretty standard cheeseburger, perfectly chargrilled, covered in gooey cheese and crisp lettuce and onion. The things that really made this burger unique were the bun and the bacon.
I have had a lot of bad experiences with bacon cheeseburgers because many restaurants that I have been to do no cook the bacon properly. It needs to be extremely crisp so that it adds an element of crunch, saltiness, and smoke, and boy did the Ugly Moose nail it. The bun was perfect as well, but it was completely unlike anything I had ever seen on a burger before. It was a buttery French roll, large enough to support the burger, and tasty enough to compliment it, but not take away from the burger taste. It was sweet and delicious. A dish I would order again and again.
The Ugly Moose was really my kind of place. I like to eat all kinds of different things, but a restaurant can always win over my heart with a great beer list and a great burger. The Ugly Moose nailed both, and I recommend you get out there and give it a shot!
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