MIMO'S FRIED & GRILLED CHICKEN - Ottawa ON

= Mimo's Fried Chicken is NOW CLOSED - RIP =

So almost 3 weeks ago now I was casually perusing social media, semi-specifically the Ottawa food scene, when I came across @roughchopottawa's posting:

A new fried chicken joint?  Since it had just opened up I wanted to be one of the first to see if they did wings. I had intended to expedite this review from right when I had them, but things got busy, and now it's a few weeks later.

 I had no idea where Lola and Queen Mary's was so I looked that up and saw it was in Vanier. I also tried to do some digging on the Internet to see if Mimo's had a website, a Facebook account, or something, but I found nothing.

I did a drive-by to scope the place out. It's in a small oasis of small businesses surrounded by homes. There's a couple of pizza places, convenience stores, barber shop, real estate, a Caribbean restaurant, even a Christian store? Centre? Mimo's stuck out with its clear and big sign and I saw that it was open for lunch.

The place didn't seem new, but I have no idea what was there before and how much it had changed. They have very clear signage, and lots of photos advertising their food. I looked trying to see wings, and I was pretty sure I did, so I went inside.

Mimo's is very much a take-out joint, with just some counter seating for a few folks. The colour scheme is very white, which gave me the feeling of like a butcher shop for some reason. I was the only customer there, and I looked around. There were no staff visible, but I did see a take-out menu on the counter and grabbed it to check for wings.

Bingo! Wings. Now to order.

I peeked behind the counter and could see a staff member busying doing prep work. I made my way to the far left of the counter so he could see me as I'm weird and didn't want to call out to the guy. He turned and saw me and apologized for not seeing me sooner. No worries, I knew he wasn't ignoring me.

He was super friendly and told me they had just opened and were excited to get started in the area. He took my order for wings and we chatted a bit about the new business. They had sort of a soft opening for a week before they start to advertise and he said walk-in business was pretty good so far.  The Dude went to go fry my wings and asked if I wanted them breaded or regular, so I went with breaded. He said it would be about 15-20 minutes though because they cook them fresh to order. I like that and said no problem, so I took a walk and let the man work.

When I came back, the wings were almost ready. I could hear them frying when I came in, then I could hear the tell-tale sound of wings clinking in a metal bowl being tossed in sauce. He boxed them up and told me to let me know what I thought of them. He wanted feedback on his wings and I totally respect that. That's when you know someone cares. I was about to walk out with just the chicken when he said to grab a pop. I was one of his 'first' customers and take a pop on the house. I did and thanked him. Super friendly service - I like it.

I opened the paper bag and found my take-out box already stained with wing sauce. That meant they were going to be saucy, and while not aesthetically pleasing, suggested I was in for something good.

Wings come in orders by the pound. What shocked and delighted me was that they were whole wings - drummette, wingette and tip. So that 1lb was about 7 whole wings, or 14 pieces in total. There are no sides or dip. I did get a napkin for clean up.

Because the wings come whole, the size at first is hard to gauge; but once you tear these wings apart, you have about a medium in length and they were about medium in meatiness.

When The Dude asked if I wanted breaded, I expected a thick coating of breading on the wings. Instead these were very lightly breaded or more likely dusted, with a very thin layer. Unfortunately these were completely soggy due to a LOT of sauce. And I literally walked out the door, went to my car and ate them. That was a little unfortunate.

Although I think the wings came from frozen, they were SUPER TENDER. The bones were easily pulled apart/out and splitting the whole wing was a breeze.

The wings were SUPER SAUCY. Sauce was everywhere (you saw it on top of the box already), it was all over the inside. My hands got stained, and because they were in a box that was more vertical than horizontal, I had to get my hand in and covered in sauce just to pull wings out. I was very happy with this amount of sauce, but the next time I would get sauce on the side to prevent them from getting so soggy.

The flavour of the sauce was straight forward Frank's Hot Sauce. It was good, but nothing special. I do have to say that the chicken itself was really good. It tasted fresh, it was tender, it was just really good chicken. I'm pretty sure the chicken is Halal too if that is important to you.

FINAL SCORE:

Mimo's is a really friendly place that seems to really care about their food. The wings were served whole, were super tender, and super saucy. Standard Frank's that unfortunately made the wings soggy and not crispy, but the tenderness and good flavour was more important. I hope these folks do well and for a soft opening, things seem good! 6.5/14

Mimo's Fried & Grilled Chicken
289 Queen Mary Street, Ottawa ON
no website yet