BRIXTON's PUB ~ Ottawa ON

It was November 2017 (I'm slowly catching up on my review logs as I go back in time with my wings) and my wife was at a work function. I took it upon myself to sample some wings on a wing night at a place I've been curious to try for years: Brixton's Pub.

Brixton's Pub is located on Sparks Street, a former street that for a long time has been a pedestrian pathway, home to many restaurants, festivals and bars. It's steps from Parliament and government, the business district, and lots of tourists.

Walking down the strip I saw their street board advertising their wing specials - Tuesdays are "half price jumbo chicken wings all day only $6.99." Well I was going in for sure now.

This place is just a chill, British style pub. The crowd was dominantly government suits relaxing with beer and wings after work. My server was Courtney who was doing it all on her own: hostess, waitress, bartender. She seems like a vet at this, friendly but efficient.  I didn't see her much, but she was handling the entire place by herself.

Courtney told me upfront about it being wing night. I pretended like this was new information and that I hadn't planned this in advance.

I decided to go with an order of Hot, an order of Cajun dusted, and a side of BBQ sauce.

Wings are served in a single pound, which comes to about 7 wings. It says they are breaded, but they are actually just a light dusting, which leads to an extra crispy skin when fried.

The board out side says the wings are jumbo; they aren't jumbo, but they are a large wing. Not terribly meaty, but they are definitely large.

The skin was very crispy. In fact, it created a shell around the meat. In the photo above, you could see where I was able to de-bone the wing, and the skin was able to keep it's shape. That's magic. Or witchcraft.

HOT

The hot wings were probably Frank's or some similar cayenne based pepper sauce. They were good, but they got absorbed into the skin. I would have liked them to have been much saucier.

CAJUN

The Cajun wings were great because they were the super crispy wings. The downside was that there was almost no seasoning to these wings. You can see in the photo above that there is a dabbling of spice, but it was really weak. They were salty and again I loved the crunch of the skin on these.

BBQ

I ordered a side of BBQ just in case the Cajun wings were too dry or in case they had a great BBQ sauce. It was good, but clearly a commercial sauce - simple, sweet, tomato based. Made for a good dip on the side, but I don't think I would go for them on their own.

FINAL SCORE:

I enjoyed these wings but I have a bunch of constructive criticism: when I go back next time, I would order the wings Cajun but ask for double seasoning, and a side of hot sauce (to preserve the crispy skin). I would also only go on wing night - at $14 regular price, 7 wings is not much. Yes they are big wings, but wing night makes them worth while. 8/13

Brixton's Pub
210 Sparks Street (& Bank), Ottawa ON
brixtonspub.com