HOOPS SPORTS BAR & GRILL ~ Toronto ON

RIP - This location is NOW CLOSED

I'm still catching up on reviews here at Lord of the Wings, so bear with me as this is a few weeks old. Tuesday late afternoon I was out on Yonge running some errands. Walking down the street, I see Hoops, a sports bar that for years I walked passed without going in. Well this time, I was going in, dag nabbit!

Hoops is sports bar, plain and simple. They have a few locations around the city and they heavily feature sports. Lots of screens and tvs with all manner of games going on. Beer and sports. I was interested in neither. I was interested in wings though.

 

I walked in and there were four or five hostess/waitresses at the podium at the front. The place was not that busy (it was early) so there was lots of places to choose from. The back section was super dark though, and knowing I was going to do a review, I asked if I could take a window seat - I wasn't crazy that it was high chairs but the light was good and I could watch people on the street.

My waitress Alexis was friendly, but a little confused. When I was ready to order, I said I saw that it was wing night and I would have the wing special. She nicely corrected me that it wasn't wing night. I politely pointed out on the specials menu and the regular menu that it said Tuesdays were wing nights. She concurred. But looking at their specials, they have wing specials all the time:

Other than that little hiccup, she was great, checking in on me and answering questions. Actually she sold me on the double wing platter which ended up being cheaper ($8.49) The other staff were a little off a bit. I watched two hostesses jump on a guy who walking in with a Tim Horten's coffee. "You better finish that off because you can't bring that in here you know!" He turned around and left, and returned 10 minutes later sans coffee. Maybe they have dealt with him before, but I found the pouncing a little off putting.

The place started to fill up with patrons, and it wasn't long before I had my wings.

There were a lot of sides with these wings. Carrots and celery with ranch dip is the first, classic accompaniment.

But Hoops also threw in fries. Fries, on wing night. These were fresh cut, a little limp, but good. I still can't get over that you get fries and veggies.

A single order of wings are about 8-10 wings for $9.99. But on wing night you get them for $4.99. I like wing night.

I got a double wing platter - because I wanted to do some sampling. But that was a pretty big basket.

The wings ranged in size from a hefty medium to large wings. The chicken itself was a medium meatiness. They were a good size all around. The wings had a nice crisp on them, and the wings themselves were nice and saucy.

As I said before, I wanted to do some sampling, so I ordered two types of wings, Hot and BBQ with Suicide on the side.

HOT

Hot was a classic Buffalo hot wing. Comforting good old Buffalo wings.

The label said hot, but these weren't really. But the cayenne flavour was there and I couldn't complain.

BBQ

BBQ was a good bottled BBQ sauce. It was more sweet than savoury. Actually it would have been really good mixed with the hot . . . hmmmmmm. . . .

I like that it was a thick sauce that really stuck to the wings. Gooey and good.

SUICIDE

On the side I had suicide. While the other two sauces were bottled (I'm pretty sure) the suicide was a house mix. It had a nice, peppery kick. A dryer heat that built as one ate. The flavour was strongly peppery (like black pepper). I wasn't crazy about the taste, but I was happy with the heat.

THE SCORE: If your looking for a sports bar with good wings and lots of wing specials, Hoops might be for  you. Good size, crispy, saucy wings. And for $8.49 I got lots of wings, veggies, dip and fries. My waitress was nice and I had a great view. Not living far, I'm sure I'll be back. 6.5/10

Hoops Sports Bar & Grill
1212 Yonge Street, Toronto ON (and other locations)
hoopssportsbarandgrill.com