CASEY'S BAR & GRILL

(Casey's Yorkdale Mall location is NOW CLOSED)

On a day of errands, location scouting for filming (SEE THE NEW BLOG HERE) and after agreeing with Sabrina from Toronto.com, decided to go back to an old wing favourite, Casey's to do a proper review. I also happened to go to the Casey's at the Yorkdale mall.

I've never liked Yorkdale mall - it seems pretentious, posh and too large. There are also no real stores that I like there, and most of the times I have gone to the mall have been at Christmas time, and I HATE shopping at times like that. Today however, the mall is under renovations, and between the new support pillars I found my way into the just opened, nearly empty eatery to see if the wings here were the only real reason for me to go back to this mall eatery.

Casey's is a chain of pub/grills that have been around for a long time, and evoke early memories of chicken wing consumption, like Kelsey's and Carrey's (hmmmmm, the "k" sound is a little to coincidental in these pub chains . . .). It, like Kelsey's and Jack Astors, has undergone the change from family grill to chic-like 'grille'. But throughout all the changes, the food has maintained it quality and traditional feel.

THE SCORE

SIZE of WINGS: large (some wings were definitely jumbo)
HEAT: hot was 6/10, more like medium
WET NAP FACTOR: 3/4, not so much for the wet factor, but the stain factor
PRICE: $8.49 1 lb (approx 8 large wings), $15.99 2 lb, $22.95 3 lb

EXTRAS Info

SAUCE CHOICE: mild/medium/hot/Cajun
SIDES: large veggies and large blue cheese dip
WETNAP: no wetnap, but a sealed
DEEP FRIED, GRILLED, BATTERED: classic & dusted, deep fried
WING NIGHT: none advertised
OTHER: free refills on coke, mint with a chocolate in the centre

Casey's advertises itself as the "Guardians of the Buffalo Chicken wing sauce". Thats a bold argument, and while I wouldn't consider Casey's wing sauce an exact Buffalo Wing sauce, it is good. The sauce left over at the bottom formed oil droplets much like Jack Astor's butter wings, but unlike Jack's, they treated the wings after frying, not just before.

The wings were large, some clearly jumbo wings which were juicy and had lots of flavour. They come in two varieties, dusted and classic. I went with a bit of both to see the difference. Classic was wings simply deep fried with sauce, which were traditional, but I believe the dusted were much better. You can kind of see the difference in wings in the pictures, but it was much more clearer in person.

The service was good; getting refills on my drinks without even asking always makes me happy. I got a wet towel to wipe my face and hands afterwards (very much appretiated with these red-staining wings) and napkins that I thought were cloth, but were actually paper. Because I entered just after the joint opened, it was pretty empty, but by the time I had my food the lunch hour business crowd was in there. The fajita special of the day was also tempting (sizzling meat and veggies always makes my head turn!).

So in the end, the wings were good. The heat was weak, but there was a lot of flavour in these not-quite-traditional-buffalo-sauce. Thumbs up on Casey's.

Casey's Bar and Grill
3401 Dufferin Street North, Yorkdale Mall (and other locations)
caseysbarandgrill.com