COMINO'S PIZZA & WINGS - Whitby ON

Back in April or May we were in Whitby and I had the chance to try a local pizza joint out called Comino's. I had seen online photos and reviews of their pizza and wings and the pizza looked like the type I love and can't get in Ottawa. I was right, and the pizza was very good. But the wings, the wings were "righteous". I didn't do a full review, but I vowed if I got the chance again I was going to get the wings again and do a proper review.

Well this past November I got that chance. I was on the road and made a quick lunch stop to my new favourite pizza place.

This is just a standard take-out pizza joint with only some stool seating at the window. It's run by a South Asian family (mom, dad, son - I assume, that seems to be the arrangement working in the back). They are very friendly and seem to have a good time preparing the food together.

They have lots of combos advertised, but on this particular occasion I wasn't getting pizza. I was here for wings, and wings were what I was going to get.

What I love about this place is that they make their own sauces. There are a ton of varieties, and in my limited experience, if they say something is hot, it's hot. There is no advertised list of sauces but you can see the sauces in containers in their front display case. They do have Heinz pizza dips (so like, Ranch and Cheddar etc) but the wing sauces that I'm aware of are:

• Medium/Hot/Red Hot (I don't know what the difference between hot & red hot)
• Buffalo Style Hot Sauce
• Suicide
• BBQ
• Honey Garlic
• Jerk
• Sweet & Spicy

That's an awesome list. Respect for the love they give for their sauces. Just to be clear, these are extra sauces you can dip - there seems to be waaay more sauce on the wings than one of these little cups. I asked for 2 orders of wings, and then picked Buffalo Style Hot Sauce and Suicide - the dad(?) warned me they were both hot, but I told him that was what I wanted. He smiled. I waited about 10-15 minutes and soon I had my wing feast.

Spoiler alert - I am so glad I stopped here for wings again.

Wings come in increments of 10 with 10 costing less than $9 which is a good price. When I see that price I expect tiny wings, and these were not. Nothing came with the wings, so don't expect veggies or dip.

The wings were packaged in two Styrofoam containers lined with checked wax? paper. They didn't even give me a paper bag for my take-out which is a little odd. I also didn't get napkins, although I could have grabbed some from the dispenser inside, but they have those small weak ones and I had better ones in the car, where I went to town on these wings.

The wings were BIG - like near jumbo wings. Long, wide, thick. The skin is dusted and the wings are deep fried, which gives them a wonderfully crispy skin. They can hold up to a lot of sauce, but overtime that crispness breaks down, but not to the point when they get soggy (I know because I had leftover wings and they weren't as crispy, but still good). The meat was relatively tender under that skin.

The two wings were sauced very differently - one was moist, but more dry in it's distribution, and the other was wet and had had globs of sauce all over them. No way that came from just one of those cups.

I got the two flavours mixed up (they weren't labeled) when I finally got to eat them. I thought the orange-y more dry looking wings were the Buffalo and I bite into them and I was like, whoa, those are really spicy. Then I had the saucy wings and they were clearly less hot and I realized they were the Buffalo after all.

BUFFALO STYLE HOT SAUCE

Right off the bat I have to say, I was not happy with the name of these wings. There is nothing Buffalo about them. They are not cayenne sauce with butter and vinegar. No. So no idea why they call it that and they shouldn't. What you can call them is awesome.

I love this sauce. I could drink it. I had a hard time describing the sauce. It was so good. It reminded me of one of my favourite wings - Moose Winooski's, but hotter. It's almost like a BBQ sauce in that the texture is thick and it's kind of sweet, but it's not molasses or even tomato based in flavour. It's just good.

SUICIDE

Wow - these were a true suicide. As I said, I thought they were the Buffalo but boy did they have a kick. The heat caused me to cough well after I had eaten a few. It was a stinging heat that went right to my lips, and my throat.

The flavour was hot. Bam! It's got a very sour taste to them (in a good way). There are chili flakes there that add to the heat. I don't know what they use, but it tastes very familiar to me. If you want to sit around enjoying multiple levels of flavour, this is not your wing. If you want fried wings with missile precise heat, this is your wing.

FINAL SCORE:

These are excellent wings. Big, crispy, saucy. Suicide is actually very hot, and the Buffalo Style is nothing like Buffalo, but it is thick and tasty. So impressed with these wings and so very frustrated I don't live nearby. Kudos for a take-out pizza place making all the effort on their sauces and showing their wings love, it really shows. 12/14

Comino's Pizza & Wings
1910 Dundas Street East, Suite 124, Whitby ON
cominospizza.com