MOOSE MCGUIRES - Ottawa ON

This is another #lotwsummercatchup

Back in 2017 I tried out Moose McGuire's down on Hunt Club (they now have another location in Orleans). It was super crowded and I didn't do a full review, just a post on Instagram.

I had sworn I took more photos and that I just hadn't had a chance to do the review, but I was wrong. It was just the above photo. Well it was a Wednesday night, I was on my own for dinner, and it was wing night, so I decided to go back and do a proper review.

Moose McGuire's used to be a Wild Wing restaurant. I remember coming here in 2008 and I think it was my first review of a Wild Wings. Eventually this location was on Undercover Boss Canada and I remember watching it and the franchisee was caught doing some shady stuff and, well, this stopped being a Wild Wing (edit, found that episode HERE). Eventually, this became Moose McGuire's pub.

When I came back in 2017 it was a Wednesday wing night in January, and the place was packed. PACKED. It was so crowded that the only seat I could get (without sitting at the bar, which I don't do) was a one chair table surrounded by other tables. It was a bit awkward and taking food photos just wasn't possible. Well, I figured coming in the summer on wing night was probably a bit quieter. Nope.

The place was packed again, AND they have a big patio which was also packed. I was told there was one table left on the patio so I took it. I had the table to myself, but all the other chairs had been scavenged already by other patrons. There was such a mix crowd - regulars (your day drinkers that are there all day), families, kids camp staff, college aged kids, seniors. Clearly this place appeals to a wide demographic. Cheap wings don't hurt either.

Everyone was getting wings. Behind me was a table of a family with some of the kids friends, and they were ordering pound after pound for the table to share. I think wings is all anyone ordered. Well, when in Rome ...

There was an army of staff on hand, but my server was Tanya. She was super friendly, but efficient and always on the go. She asked for my drink order; I asked for a Diet Coke or a Diet Pepsi and she said 'yea'. I didn't know what I was going to get, but once I tasted it I knew it was Pepsi and my receipt confirmed it was Pepsi products

She also took my food order at the same time. I said wings, and she asked what flavour I wanted. As you can see on the menu they don't list the sauces. This is a big pet peeve of mine. It says tossed in my 'favorite sauce' , but I can tell you right now they don't serve my favourite, but that's not to say these aren't any good. It's just, put them on there. Because, there are 10 flavours to choose from. 10. And Tanya did list them all off, but she shouldn't have to.

So I went with two orders of wings. Tanya went away, and in the amount of time for me to set up my tablet and note pad to do some work, my wings were at the table. Woah.

The wings come by the pound, which is about 7 or 8 wings. There's also a pretty equal mix of flats and drums.

The menu says that the wings come with veggies and house made ranch dip, but there wasn't any on the side. I assume that is because it is wing night. Tanya also brought me a bone plate, napkins, and a wetnap for clean up.

These wings were a very decent size. They were about a medium+ to large wing in length, but they were also pretty meaty which made some of them pretty plump.

They are also breaded and deep fried, but unfortunately were not crispy. That really bummed me out because, well they could have been really really good wings. The meat was very tender and the wings easily pulled apart from the bone. Almost too tender. The wings were cooked, but I wondered if a few more minutes in the fryer wouldn't have improved everything.

The sauce coverage was pretty good as well. Most wings were wet and fully covered, but there were some that didn't get tossed enough and there wasn't a lot of extra at the bottom.

I had mulled over my sauce choices, but I went simple with one order of Hot and one of their BBQ.

HOT

So the hot was good, but it wasn't anything special. Just classic cayenne hot sauce (probably Frank's). Just simple hot wings.

BBQ

When the BBQ came, I really liked the look of it. It looked sticky and viscous. The flavour was unlike other BBQ sauces I've had, which was very sweet. Like, almost like how jam is sweet. A fruity sweet. I asked Tanya and she told me it was homemade, but that it was spicy. I didn't find this spicy in any way. It was good, but I liked having the hot to contrast with this sweet wing.

FINAL SCORE:

For $3 for a pound of wings, you can't go wrong here. Yes you don't get the frills of sides or dip and you are going to have to fight some crowds, but these wings are a good size and have some good sauce. I wish the wings were crispier, but if you come on non-wing night I'm sure they are better. You can also probably order them a bit crispier too, but maybe not on wing night. I'll definitely go back, especially with the great service and the cheap wings. 9.5/15

Moose McGuire's Pub & Grill
Ottawa ON (Hunt Club location)
moosemcguiresottawa.com