Hot n' Saucy Wings

Abington Ale House - Abington, MA

Once in a while I like to take a break from the traditional buffalo wing dish and try something else that is buffalo wing inspired.  I did so twice on a recent trip to the Abington Ale House.

First up was their Buffalo Chicken Dip, a cheesy dip with hot sauce and chunks of chicken served with tortilla chips, carrot sticks and celery sticks.  It was good in a comforting Velveeta-sorta-way.  Basically it was Nacho cheese with some hot sauce and chunks of chicken in it, which isn't too bad of an idea.  I wish it had been a bit hotter though.

Then I went for the complete buffalo chicken meal and had their Buffalo Chicken pasta.  This was penne pasta with sauteed chicken pieces, tomatoes, and a spicy cream sauce.  Unfortunately, it fell far short of my expectations.  The sauce was thin and watery and just wasn't that great - not enough spice, not enough creaminess, and relatively bland chicken.  It didn't help that when I asked the waitress for more hot sauce, she brought me a bowl with more of the sauce the pasta was in.   

If they reduced the sauce some more and/or thickened it with some roux, added more hot sauce, served it with grilled chicken instead of the bland lightly sauteed chicken, then  sprinkled some blue cheese crumbles on top to finish it off, they would have a winner.  As it is, it is a watery chicken scampi with hot sauce instead of garlic. 

Wendell's Update - Norton, MA

Wendell's is one of my favorite places for wings, as mentioned over a year ago.  I've been back several times since and they have been consistently good.  It has been interesting spreading the word about Wendell's - most people seem to love it, but every once in a while, you come across someone who doesn't quite "get it."  Sometimes they weren't prepared for the long wait for the food, but more often, they don't care for the wings.  The most common thing you hear is that the wings are "too crispy," which is a befuddling complaint.  Maybe there's more people out there who like fatty and flabby wings than I ever would have thought.

Anyway - I like Wendell's so much that I chose it as my birthday dinner destination this week.  I had my usual 3.25 wings with some additional Sissy wings on the side, which are among my favorite wings ever, even if they aren't spicy.

This update is really thanks to my friend Eric (Erock) who went up a few notches on the heat scale and went with the "Extra Spicy."  The difference between the levels of heat is obvious when you have some "Regular" "3.25" "3.5" and "Extra Spicy" all lined up.  The Regulars look like a pretty traditional Buffalo wing sauce - a creamy sauce that is a fairly light red in color.  The 3.25 and 3.5 wings go a few shades darker and there's a maroon colored oil floating around in it - clearly there's too much hot pepper oil to be absorbed by the other ingredients in the sauce.  And then the Extra Spicy are the color of that oil itself - a much darker color, closer to entirely maroon.  It isn't quite as spicy as the color indicates, but it IS a significant step up from the 3.25 or 3.5 wings.  What is nice is that Wendell's doesn't sacrifice flavor for heat - the same base is there, providing a flavorful backdrop for the hot sauce.

After numerous visits to Wendell's and having leftovers for the first time that I reheated the next day, my thought is that they are creating a base wing sauce of margarine, garlic, and onions that is cooked and pureed until it turned into a mush.  That makes the sissy wings.  Everything else from there is simply differing levels of peppers and pepper sauce added to make it hotter.  I base this upon reheating the wings, which caused the sauce to separate, and leave behind the pulp-like base of the wing sauce. 

Boneyard Barbecue - Seekonk, MA

Recently tried the new Boneyard Barbecue & Saloon in Seekonk, MA.  The entire experience was a disappointment, which I chronicle in my Yelp.com review, but of course, here we'll just be discussing their wings.

The wing selection looks promising: over 20 sauces, some of which sound extremely interesting.  Several of them are marked as "award-winning" sauces as well.   After much consideration, I went with an order of wings in their "award winning and "signature" house sauce and an order of tenders in their buffalo ranch sauce, a combination that is usually a favorite of mine.

Let's start with the wings: fairly large in size and well cooked.  But coated.  Ugh.  Why serve coated/breaded wings when you're going to cover them in sauce?  You just end up with soggy skin and soggy breading.   The sauce itself was very interesting though - it starts off sweet and ends with a healthy dose of heat.  I wasn't able to quite place the sweetness - I think there was some honey in there.  Possibly some mustard contributing to the heat as well, which would help explain the delayed heat.  It is a remarkably complex sauce on an unfortunate choice of wings.

The tenders were also coated, but it appeared to be in a different manner than the wings and they held their crunch a LITTLE bit longer than the wings.  However, the sauce wasn't nearly as much of a hit as the house sauce, primarily because the "ranch" portion of "buffalo ranch" was underwhelming, leaving it tasting more like just a toned down creamy buffalo wing sauce, rather than adding a deeper dimension of flavor.  I detected a distinct mustard tone to the sauce as well.  Arizona Ranch from Quaker Steak & Lube these ain't!

Like all the food at Boneyard, the wings left me disappointed but not completely horrified.  They weren't undercooked or bad tasting... they just aren't executed very well.

RATING: 2 out of 5 stars

Hard Rock Cafe - Orlando, FL

The Hard Rock Cafe is obviously closely related to Planet Hollywood, at least in concept - take a part of pop culture and exploit it in a restaurant setting, creating a destination venue.  However, not only has the Hard Rock had greater success in America and Internationally, but the restaurants simply execute their themes and food better than Planet Hollywood.

Case in point: their wings... the HRC Hickory Smoked Chicken Wings with Classic Rock sauce came as part of the Jumbo Combo we shared at our table.  While not the best wings I've ever had, they blew the Planet Hollywood wings away.  They have a more interesting sauce with a greater depth of flavor and a pleasantly light smoked flavor to the meat.  More sauce and crispier skin would have made them better, but they were satisfying as is.

RATING: 3 out of 5 stars

Planet Hollywood - Orlando, FL

Planet Hollywood is a weird chain that has struggled through the years and has only a few left in the United States - only five of their 18 restaurants are in North America.  Apparently people elsewhere are more obsessed with Hollywood than we are, which is scary considering how obsessed American are.

Anyway - as one of our appetizers, we got buffalo wings.  Nothing to get excited about here.  They weren't bad, but they weren't particularly crispy, unique tasting, or different in any way.  The skin wasn't very crispy and the sauce was more hot than flavorful.  If I ever went back to Planet Hollywood again (and based on the average meal we had and the sheer chaos of the restaurant, I can't say I'll be rushing back), I wouldn't get them again.

RATING: 2 out of 5 stars

T.G.I. Friday's Ancho Chile Wings - Everywhere

I had high hopes for these wings.  Just read this description: "Our buffalo wings are tossed in Ancho honey-glaze.  Served with a side of green chile sour cream sauce."  Mmmm.... ancho and honey.

Unfortunately, they just didn't live up to expectations.  They weren't bad.  But they weren't very good either.  The flavor was a bit strange - really couldn't put my finger on it.  They weren't that spicy and they weren't sticky sweet.  They are very middle of the road and therefore kind of uninteresting.  Looking back, it may be the fault of the Ancho itself, which has more of paprika flavor and I shouldn't have gotten so excited.  Chipotle honey glaze... now that would be interesting!

However, the wings are a virtual mouth party compared to the "green chile sour cream sauce" which tastes like leaky sour cream with flavorless little green bits in it.

Friday's needs to take a clue from its own "Wicked Wings" that I reviewed just about a year ago.  I've also had their buffalo flavor and they are quite good.  This was a miss for Friday's.

RATING: 2 out of 5 Stars

Mill Street Brewpub - Toronto, ON

On my second night in Toronto, I visited a well-liked brewpub located in the old "Distillery District" by the name of Mill Street Brew Pub.  I was pleased to find IPA on cask draught, and a ESB regular draft option available.  As a starter, I had to try the wings.  Mill Street offers 3 levels of hot wings, plus a "Honey Garlic" and a "Soya Ginger."  Speaking with the bartender, he told me the hot wings were your standard buffalo wings - a.k.a. Franks and margarine - so I had to choose between the Honey Garlic and Soya Ginger.  I really wanted to try both, but the minimum order for a flavor of wings is 10.  I was craving a soy based sauce after the previous night's wings, so I went with the Soya Ginger.

The sauce didn't disappoint at all, with plenty of flavor and a nice glaze-like sauce.  I think I detected some Chinese Five Spice in it.  They were particularly large wings, and were also breaded, which is perhaps "the thing to do" in Toronto?  However, like the other wings in Toronto, non-breaded wings with more sauce would have been better, but also like the previous night's, these hardly disappointed.

RATING: 4 out 5 Stars.

Crown & Dragon Pub - Toronto, ON

The first international review on Hot n' Saucy Wings!  While in Toronto on business, a friend took me to the Crown & Dragon Pub knowing that I enjoy wings.   The selection here is extensive - over 20 styles of wings, many with an Asian or Indian influence, reflecting the tastes of both Toronto and the pub's owners.  I went with a fairly traditional type wing, their "Dragon Wings" which were listed as "Hottest." 

The wings were nice and meaty, and perfectly cooked.  They were of the breaded variety which I don't usually like as much as the non-breaded versions, but they were smart enough to serve them quickly and not drown them sauce.  The sauce itself was very close to a traditional buffalo wing sauce.  Supposedly it is an original recipe that they "stumbled upon" and is very hot.  There was definitely heat - but moderately hot - and the sauce tasted fairly traditional to me.  The lose a few points for not living up to the billing, but overall, very satisfying wings. 

My dining companion went for their sesame-soy variety, called "Turning Japanese." A sucker for soy-based wing sauces, I had to try one, and they were very good, with a pronounced sesame flavor.  A bit more sauce might have made it better.

On a non-wing related note, try the hand-cut yam fries.  The fries themselves are really good, but the dipping sauce is fantastic.  I don't know if they serve wings in the sauce, but if they don't, they should!  Loaded with red chili flakes, soy, and what I think was fish sauce, not only did it compliment the fries, but the onion rings and both wings on on the table.  If the beer hadn't been so good, it might have even made the beer taste better!

Dragon Wings RATING: 3 out of 5 stars

Turning Japanese RATING: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Dipping sauce served with yam fries RATING: 5 out of 5 stars!

John Harvard's Brew Pub - Framingham, MA

I'm a long-time fan of the John Harvard Brewpub in Harvard Square, but until recently, hadn't been to the one in Framingham.  Located in a strip-mall saturated area of Route 9, the interior is surprisingly warm and comforting, reminiscent of the original in Cambridge.  I walked in with my "Hophead" t-shirt on from BeerAdvocate.com, looking forward to a nice IPA.  I sat down to see that they had an extra hoppy version of their IPA available, but my hopes and dreams were dashed by the bartender who came over and said "Hi folks, just wanted to let you know that we're out of both IPAs tonight."  He went on to explain why, but I didn't hear anything as I found myself lost in a cloud of disappointment.

After that blow, I was determined to have buffalo wings, which I was looking forward to, as the last time I had them at the Harvard Square restaurant they were cooked to perfection and very hot and spicy - bordering on too hot.  I had them long before I started this blog, so I was looking forward to revisiting them.

Unfortunately, they turned out to be slightly disappointing.  Not that they were bad - they were just average.  The wings were cooked well, and the sauce had a kick - but wasn't anything great and they certainly weren't generous with it either.  The chicken was actually a little tough - possibly cooked before fully thawing - and I think the bartender may have let them sit for a bit on the service window, as you could tell they WERE crispy, but weren't starting to get saturated in their own spicy sauce.   

They wouldn't have been really disappointing if I had no expectations, but I did, so they were.

RATING: 2.0 out of 5 stars

Archie Moore's - Milford, CT

When you're wing addict to the point of having a blog reviewing them, you do some silly things in pursuit of good wingage.  You do things like go out of your way to get to a recommended wing restaurant for lunch, even if you have to spend 15 minutes in the car and another 15 minutes walking around a rather small and nondescript downtown area, waiting for the place to open.  And once you get inside, you suffer through indignities like slow service since the staff is still getting ready for the main lunch crowd, and watching your dress shirt get ruined as you drop a wing down your front and watch it leave a huge orange-red greasy streak.

However, if the wings are good, its worth it.  And these wings were worth it.  Archie Moore's has five locations throughout southern Connecticut and claims to have wings "Voted Best Wings in CT."  Now, there was no explanation of WHO did the voting, and I haven't eaten wings in that many places in Connecticut, but Archie's certainly sets the bar pretty high.

Like any good wing, these were perfectly cooked.  Crispy and cooked all the way through, while still being moist on the inside.  The sauce is pleasantly spicy - a good amount of heat but a lot of flavor, with a delicious glaze of orange spicy oil floating around.  They remind me of the wings at Quaker Steak & Lube or Wendell's and I mean that as a compliment of the highest order. 

They aren't anything unique or breakthrough, but they are perfectly executed and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. 

The blue cheese dressing that accompanies the wings is quite chunky, which I like, though it is less thick than you usually find with a creamy dressing.

RATING:  5 OUT OF 5 STARS!!