In honor of the upcoming Super Bowl and of course my love for all food that is fried, I decided my first review back would be on chicken wings and what better place to start than a new wing restaurant: Big John’s Crumpy’s Wings and Things?? Check out my Restaurant Review below!
4021 Southside Blvd.
Jacksonville, FL 32216
(904)738-8154
Location: It’s on Southside Blvd between Touchton and Beach Blvd. Right down the street from Tinseltown.
Food: First off, let me say that they have a wayyy bigger menu than I was expecting. I was thinking it’s would mainly focus on wings, but there are many other options too (fish, ribs, fried okra…). That was a nice surprise. I wanted to try the wings of course, so I ordered the “cut” wings (the standard flats and legs) that I’m used to. I had half Big John’s Spicy Ranch and half Big John’s Ragin Cajun, 20 wings in all ($16.99). This comes with 2 dinner rolls, celery and carrots along with a dressing of your choice. I went with Blue Cheese. Below are pictures of the wings. I will say I was surprised and caught of guard that they toss EVERYTHING in the sauce that you picked. And by everything, I mean the celery and carrots along with the wings. At first, I didn’t think I would like that, but I was wrong.
I loved the sauce on it! Anything to disguise the taste of something healthy right? The wings were pretty damn good. Cooked just right, the sauces were tasty and the meat came right off the bone. The only thing I didn’t “love” about the wings was the blue cheese dressing. It wasn’t anything special, I like the blue cheese at Wild Wing Cafe. Now, on to the fried mushrooms ($4.95). Two words….FRIED AWESOMENESS! This are the biggest fried mushrooms I have ever had and these were cut in half! The mushrooms were super fresh tasting, nice and crunchy outside and of course they were served nice and hot. These are hands down, the best I have had to date. All in all, it was a good experience and I will definitely be going back. Oh! I almost forgot….I got to try the shrimp and grits and they were AMAZING. The best EVER. They were perfectly seasoned (Cajun of course) and cooked just right. LOVED IT. I’m getting hungry just thinking about them.
Extras: Being that the place is has Big John’s in it (this is the John Henderson that played for the Jacksonville Jaguars) I think it will get a lot of support from the Jaguars fan base. I hope see maybe a Bold City Brigade meetup happening there someday…hint hint! Also, I spoke to the owner and he said they have plans for a total of 8 locations in the Jacksonville area within a year. A couple of other things: if you notice in the pictures, the food is served in to go containers.
That’s cool…sort of. Cool because you can just get up and leave with your food if you don’t finish it, without asking for a container. Not cool if you are eating your wings there but don’t finish them all….where do you put the bone carcasses? I’m a fancy man, I don’t want them mingling. And the other cool thing is all the John Henderson stuff hanging up. If I had to describe the feel of the place, I would say a shrunken sports bar. Just right in my opinion.
The Good:
– Wing sauces
– Fried Mushrooms
– Shrimp and Grits – Food served in to go containers
– They are open for breakfast
The Bad:
– No wifi (they said it should be available soon)
– Closed on Sunday (A football themed wing place closed on SUNDAY?!?!?!)
– Food served in to go containers