St LOUIS AYCE Boneless Wings January 2020

It's becoming an annual tradition: St Louis AYCE Boneless event:

Every January you can eat all the boneless chunks of meat tossed in your sauce or rub of choice. This year, it was actually cheaper. CHEAPER! $13.99! Last year it was $17.99. It was $16.99 back in 2018. $13.99 is an awesome price and seems just a little inconceivable.

I went in early January but have been behind on posting, as seems to be the case every year. The event is all January long though so you still have time.

My server was Kristin, who is just fantastic. She's been at St Louis for several years. When she came to take my order, I told her I was getting the AYCE Boneless and her eyes lit up "good choice!" I like that encouragement. I already knew, but I asked her how it worked just to clarify:

• $13.99 you start with an order of 15 boneless bites, blade fries, and dill dip.
• you can split your first order into 2 flavours
• once you finish that order, you can get another order of 5 boneless bites
• everyone at your table must get the AYCE  

Sounds good to me. Actually it seemed like they took some of my suggestions from last year: you can split those 15 bites up into 2 flavours, and fries weren't required with each order. Beautiful.  Now all I had to do was pick my flavours.

St Louis is now up to 30 different flavours, 7 dry rubs and 23 sauces. I was hoping they might have added some exciting new sauces since I had been last, but no they hadn't. I decided to try some different flavour than I usually get this time.

I technically did 3 rounds, but it was only two. Round one I split the 15 pieces starting with the Chipotle Mango Dry Rub, and Medium Saucy. These also came with my fries, which were ok, but nothing special. Filler. Then I went for round 2 with the Sweet Sriracha Hot Sauce, and Kristin came back after I had given my order to see if I might as well put in the 3rd order (Mississippi Honey BBQ), so they came at the same time.

The chicken pieces are not uniform, cookie cut out pieces of chicken. They are all unique cuts and sizes. They have a thick breading, and are fried till they are crunchy. Some came out tender and soft meat, others were dried out and hard. All came out hot and fairly well coated in their respective sauces or rubs.

After I had the 4 different flavours, I was full. I cannot eat as much food as I used to. Kristin almost seemed disappointed, but I said while I could probably squeeze in another 5 bites, I wouldn't enjoy it and I was happy. I asked her what was the most she had seen someone eat and she said it was tough with the boneless because it's all meat. She thought around 35 (starting off with 15, then 5+5+5+5) but with bone-in, 5lbs. I had 25 so I felt accomplished enough. Considering a 15 piece order is $18.99, I was way ahead in my money's worth.

We chatted about competitive eating and people downing wings or hot dogs in crazy quantities. I also asked what was the most common flavour people ordered and I loved her response: "oh, because people don't like to try out their palates, honey garlic." I love that we both scoffed at honey garlic! But other than that she said everything else pretty equally. Interesting.


ROUND 1

CHIPOTLE MANGO DRY RUB

Something different, I took a chance on these. Shouldn't have bothered. While they were well coated, this was just a very weak flavour. I could barely get a flavour over the breading and the chicken. It wasn't bad, just very weak. Did a lot of dipping in their dill sauce with these. These were also very dried out and tough so it would be a big pass in the future.

MEDIUM SAUCY

Sometimes, sometimes, I don't get hot when I go out for wings. Not because I can deal with the spice, but sometimes Medium sauce is just a much more flavourful sauce. This was not the case with the Medium Saucy. It too was kind of week. Again, not bad, just I want a more punched up flavour experience.


ROUND 2 & 3

SWEET SRIRACHA HOT SAUCE

So these came out really hot/fresh from the fryer and sauced well. I took a bite, and was surprised that these actually bit back! It wasn't crazy spicy, but these were much spicier than I expected, considering they are "sweet" sriracha. It also had an Asian flavour (no I'm not confusing the sriracha flavour) but almost a sweet and sour sauce in there. It actually didn't taste like a real sriracha sauce, but it was still good nonetheless.

MISSISSIPPI HONEY BBQ

I love this sauce. I always get this sauce. It's sticky, sweet, smokey. Everything I wanted in this style of BBQ sauce, and it just goes so well with the boneless bites. These too were hot, fresh, and crunchy chunks of chicken. A great way to end off my boneless experience.

Do you use a fork or your fingers for your All You Can Eat Boneless? Get this awesome deal for only $13.99 all month long! pic.twitter.com/iMyJhCZh3i

— St.Louis Bar & Grill (@stlouiswings) January 19, 2020

So overall I had a pretty great meal. In the future, I will not bother with the Chiptole Mango and the Medium Saucy. Sweet Sriracha was tasty, and for sure I'll be ordering the Mississippi BBQ again. Fries were fine, I had free refills on my pop, and the Signature Garlic Dill Dip was also refilled upon request. For $13.99 I for sure got my money's worth of boneless chicken, plus I had some excellent service. Thanks Kristin!


St. Louis Bar & Grill
1331 Clyde Ave #101 Ottawa ON (and other locations)
stlouiswings.com