Anthony had been there a few times with co-workers but he wanted to take me there to check the joint out and it was my first visit tonight.
A few things I noticed immediately after arriving:
*The parking lot is awful. It would be really easy to back into another car.
*The building basically looks the same as it did when it was Chuy's, both inside and out.
*It's not a place to go if you want to have a non-shouting conversation with anyone you're with if they are across the table from you. It's really noisy in there. But, I figured out pretty quickly from the menu that it's not really a fine dining restaurant. It's bar food, bar drinks, sports on TVs, and obviously caters to a clientele that leans male and probably didn't put on a clean shirt or underwear before going there.
I looked up their website when I got home and discovered that they have locations in four states: Montana, South Dakota, Texas, and Arizona. Once I learned that, it all made sense.
Anthony ordered two kinds of boneless chicken wings and I had a bacon cheeseburger that had three kinds of cheese on it. My burger was nicely presented, tasted fine, and the fries were pretty good. I ordered a Diet Coke and was quite excited when it was delivered in a pretty large glass. We also got a tater tot appetizer that had bacon, cheese and sour cream drizzled on it. The bill came to about $35 so I'd describe it as moderately priced.
I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend Native Grill, but I wouldn't tell you not to go. If you're on a first date I would go somewhere else, if you don't mind hanging with a beer drinking crowd who watches UFC fights and demands a menu with 20 kinds of wings, then it's perfect for you. (Note: In addition to wings and burgers, they also serve pizza and other types of sandwiches like chicken and club, so finding something that appeals to you would probably not be difficult).
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| Native Grill and Wings at Speedway and Country Club in Tucson in the old Chuy's building |
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| Bar area as seen from my seat with Anthony sipping some water wearing a fun hat in the foreground |
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| A view of the restaurant seating area as seen from my seat |
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| The wings page of the Native Grill menu. Plenty of sauce choices |
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| Tater tots appetizer with cheese, bacon, sour cream |
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| Anthony ordered two kinds of boneless wings |
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| Here's my bacon cheeseburger and fries. I really liked the bun. |
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| Big ol' soda glass made Ken happy. |