OA 2007- The Honest Lawyer

RIP - The Honest Lawyer is now Closed

Well, while in Ottawa, my Birthday came up. LJ wanted to take me out for dinner where ever I wanted. Well, she and I both were pretty sure wings were going to be involved. I searched the Internet, newspapers and other information to find the one thing I wanted: all-you-can-eat wings. Having discovered that Ottawa, like Windsor, has an Honest Lawyer which has AYCE made it the definite choice.

Located in the East end of the Byward Market area, we popped into this relatively empty pub. They were so empty, they had a guy dressed up like a chicken canvass the market with balloons to attract business on wing night. Like the Windsor location, this one was full of sports games like electronic basketball. What this place didn't have was low tables. All of the chairs were high, which I do not really find comfortable. We sat in the middle of a strange bench-like seating area.

Unfortunately, the Honest Lawyer no longer does AYCE wings. What they have now is 24 wings for $10. That's still a good deal, but its just not the same thrill. We asked how we could choose our wing sauces to sample. She told us they do them in batches of 6, so if you want 6 at a time, 12, or all 24 at once you could.

Now I know I have already done a wing review on the Windsor location, but we took the opportunity to try some new flavours and the prices are different now and it wasn't done under the New Score.

The NEW SCORE

STYLE: breaded, fried
SAUCES: Caesar/dill/Texas gold/1st,2nd & 3rd Degree/Frank's Red Hot
honey garlic/Cajun/Caribbean Jerk/Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ/
Parmesan/ pineapple curry/salt & vinegar/plain
SIZE: large 1/2
HEAT: 3rd degree 6/10
CRISPINESS: 3 /3
WETNAP FACTOR: 3-4/5
PRICE: $7.90 for 6, $13.82 for 12,
$19.29 for 24 (split 2 flavours), $33.11 for 36 (2 flavours)
SIDES: veggies and ranch/dill dip on some orders 2 /7
WETNAP/NAPKINS: 8/8
WING NIGHT: Monday nights 24 wings for $10 with drink purchase ****
OTHER/SPECIAL: games I guess.
TOTAL: 24/35

Let break these down by sauces:

LJ ORDER #1

Cajun: crispy, Cajun seasoned wings. A few wings were tasty, but a whole order would dry the mouth right out. Hint of seasoned spice, but nothing a real Cajun would guar-on-tee.

Caesar: wet and gross. These were just breaded wings tossed in Caesar salad dressing. Only the dressing didn't take. The flavour was pretty gross too.





WK Order #1

3rd Degree: Good old 3rd degree. Wasn't really that hot, but damn tasty. These were the way to go.

Dill: I thought this was very exciting. Then, I was just as disappointed as the time I tried to make dill wings. Like the Caesar wings, they were just breaded wings tossed in dill dip. It was gross because they got soggy and I forced myself to eat them fast, just to get through them.



WK Order #2

3rd Degree: I decided to just get 2 more orders of the good stuff. The experimenting was just not working out.



LJ's Order #2
1st Degree: this was like ketchup and hot sauce mixed, or something very close. Did not taste like 3rd Degree sauce at all. LJ barely ate one.
Salt and Vinegar: Literally just vinegar poured over top and salt sprinkled on. But here's the thing, don't let it have any real flavour, like it almost evaporated. Oh, and make it taste like fish the next day when you have the leftovers. Gross.

LJ has pretty common track record of getting hosed with dinners. Its nearly guaranteed that if you order something good, her meal tastes like crap. Unfortunately, her wings were no different. She did not enjoy her wings at all and had some extremely negative thoughts she wanted in this review.

I expected wings like Caesar, Dill and Salt and Vinegar to be dry seasonings, not goupy messes. The first two would have been somewhat better if the dips were just on the side. As for on the side, LJ didn't get veggies and dip, and I did. My 3rd degree was good and in the future, that is all I would try. It may not have been AYCE, but I definitely filled up on over 20 wings, most eating LJ's terribly tragic experiments.



FINAL SCORE: So, I got a fill of wings, and LJ at least got something to eat from our order of fries and garlic bread (2-4-1 appetizers Mon-Fri 4pm-7pm). After a walk though the market and a trip home where a homemade creamcicle cake awaited, I reveled in having such a good birthday thanks to LJ. Too bad the Honest Lawyer couldn't have been brought to trial for some terrible wings. But when they do them right, they are good. 23/35 for the good ones, and pretty low for the terrible ones

The Honest Lawyer
141 George St, Ottawahonestlawyer.com

***** !!!! UPDATE!!!! *****

We have since been back to the Honest Lawyer 3 times where:
A) they have AYCE eat wing buffet, with an actual buffet where a server gives you 6 wings at a time. There wasn't the whole wing flavour menu available, but it was a fun option
B) they didn't have the buffet but our waitress brought each order for the AYCE. All flavours available, but service was really slow. Also, we had a few wings left and they would not let us take them home, even after I offered to pay for them.
C) walked in, made contact with a waitress upon entering. Sat down and waited for over 10 mins without menus or wait staff attending us. We decide to leave and as we are getting up, a waiter starts to come over, but then decides to not try and intercept us. Also, did not see the buffet set up so it must have been delivered by staff. We were pissed off - it takes a lot for me to leave a restaurant.