Hot Seat Sports Bar

Hot Seat Sports Bar is -- you guessed it, a sports bar -- located in Tualatin, Oregon.

Being the heat seeker that I am (I love Food Network's "Heat Seekers," as a note!), I came here to try the bar's habanero chicken. They do wings and chicken tenders (white meat). I was more of a chicken tenders dude on my visit, so I went with a half-pound of their unbreaded chargrilled chicken tenders, laced with their habanero sauce ($5.95).

They even say "Eat at Your Own Risk"...lovely

Unbreaded chargrilled habanero chicken tenders

Oh good grief, what the hell was I just served? Frankly, that has to be one of the worst dishes I've seen in terms of appearance. Chicken unprofessionally cut into strips with sauce poured on top. Yeah, I guess I just had to choose one of the least appetizing ways to get a meal served to me.

The chicken was overcooked and dry. It's better than it being raw, but come on now. The serving size is pathetic. I'd rather get a couple of large juicy chicken breasts with the sauce on it and pay double the price than receive 20 crappy-looking strips of overcooked chicken -- any damn day of the week.

I'll give credit where credit is due: that habanero sauce is killer good. I got the great fruitiness from the habaneros. The spice definitely creeps up on you and will continue to hit you long after you're done. I'd seriously give it about an 8 to an 8.5 in terms of heat (on a 1-10 scale). I downed four large glasses of water there and couldn't stop sweating. Love it when that happens! The only reason why that score wasn't any higher...no post-spicy food pain, if you guys know what I mean.

The female bartender did give me (and other people in the bar) some free popcorn. Lightly salted and lightly buttered...no burnt kernels. Good snack.

Free popcorn

I did go in the early afternoon, so the place was pretty dead when I walked in. A few of the regulars were present (bartender seemed to know them by name already). It looks like a decent place to watch sports and grab a beer, if you're into that stuff. And Hot Seat seems to have an impressive-looking menu. They have an "Express Lunch" Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. for $5.95. Happy hour is daily from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Hot Seat does salads, burgers, sandwiches, various appetizers, and even "pizzadillas" (pizza condiments in a tortilla instead of on pizza dough). Pretty cool stuff.

But damn, that dry chicken and the presentation really just sucked big time. A measly point for the chicken (at least it was cooked), and a couple of points for the great spicy habanero sauce. The female bartender provided relatively average service overall. She filled my water glass several times and offered the popcorn, but really spent more time schmoozing with the regulars than pay much attention to me. Whatever, I guess. 3/10