Original Buffalo Wings

Original Buffalo Wings, in San Carlos
Pizza, burgers, cheesesteaks, and, of course, buffalo wings

The oddity of Original Buffalo Wings, located on Holly Street between 101 and El Camino (just before El Camino, on the left as you're coming from 101), is that it serves exclusively American food in what appears to be the living room of a Thai family(*). There are Thai-themed decorations all over, a bookshelf with pictures, a corner that appears to be a child's activity area, and the doorway back to the restrooms is surmounted by a wooden relief that wouldn't look out of place in a Thai restaurant.

The decor notwithstanding. OBW turns out to be a pretty good pizza/burger/cheesesteak diner. We tried the half-dozen buffalo tenders, which were tender as advertised. The buffalo sauce was rather mild, but nicely vinegary, and the dish was served with celery and blue cheese dip (rather than the oft-substituted ranch). The cheesesteaks and chicken steaks were both quite good, only lacking in the roll department. The flat sesame seed buns split all the way across did not really adequately contain the sandwich, though they tasted okay.

The interesting thing was that both the chicken and beef had a distinctly Asian flavor to them that we think might have been soy sauce. Whether or not this has a place in a Philly steak, it tasted pretty good. The fries also passed muster: hot and crispy, not too greasy. The main drawback to the meal was the $0.55 charge for refills of fountain drinks, which caught us all off guard in this age of free refills. We managed to nurse our small sodas through the meal and left quite sated.

It's not haute cuisine, but for a quick lunch, Original Buffalo Wings is pretty tasty. Definitely worth a repeat visit.

(*) The consensus among the luncheoners during our visit was Thai; I apologize if we, in our ignorance of Asian cultures, misidentified it.