TOMMY's DINING LOUNGE - Kanata ON

 On the run in Kanata and looking to grab a quick bite, I was feeling wings. I was looking to support local and try someplace knew. I checked out my delivery app to see what was in the area, and Tommy's came up. 

I had come across Tommy's back in pre-Covid 2020 online, but never followed up. Then earlier in 2021, I was looking at a food sub and saw people posting some photos and talking about Tommy's has great pizza and wings. Then, that fateful April day I saw Tommy's pop up in Skip the Dishes, and I decided to order some pick-up.

The app said that wings were $14.10 (10 cents?) for 10 wings, which seemed overprice for a pizza joint's wings. Maybe the app was upselling them (they do that) so I checked the website and their take-out menu listed wings at $12.25, but who knows how old that is. Plus Covid and who knows anymore.

I picked wings, picked my sauce, and was told it would be ready in 15 minutes. That was good because I was 15 minutes away.

Tommy's is kind of out of the way, in a business park area that is nestled between the 417 highway and homes. You wouldn't really come across it on a regular basis without working nearby, but in the plaza it's in, it's very well advertised. You shouldn't be able to miss it. I parked in Tommy's parking, and went to walk in, but the outside entrance said to enter through the other door. I went into the office tower, and kind of expected a bigger entrance, but it was just a door with Tommy's on it.

Before I could even reach for the door, a tall young dude in a mask was handing me my order. Wow! They must have been waiting and not have a lot of pick up orders these days. The order was a styrofoam container in a paper bag, and I was a little suspicious as it felt quite light.

I opened up the container, and was excited by the smell and the wet wet wings before me!

Wings come in an order of 10, and I got 10 wings. There were no sides (no veggies and no dip) and there was no napkins or anything for clean up. Thankfully I had a stack of napkins in the car.

The wings were a little small; not small, but on the smaller end of medium. They were relatively meaty to their size. The skin was dusted and deep fried, and they would have been crispy, if they weren't in so much thick sauce. The wing meat was tender enough, and it wasn't that difficult to pull apart the bones.

As mentioned above, the wings were well sauced. Really well sauced. This is how I like my wings. Your fingers are going to get sauce on them, and there is going to be extra sauce at the bottom. 

I went with Suicide, and was expecting something like 3rd Degree or Frank's Xtra Hot, but I got something else. It was a homemade sauce (or modified anyway) and that's awesome. The smell and the flavour totally reminded me of the suicide sauce from The Copper Mug in my hometown.

The sauce is chili-peppery, with a sweetness that is very subtle. I find it so very tasty. I don't find it that hot though - not a true suicide but it has enough of  a kick for those wanting to try hotter but aren't there yet. The sauce is thick and rich, and it just brought me to a place of nostalgia, warmth, with a little kick.

FINAL SCORE

Tommy's was one of those little surprises I'm happy to come across. While the wings weren't the biggest, I liked the texture on them, and I loved the suicide sauce. The price was a bit high for the amount of chicken, but the flavour really came though on that sauce. Will have again. 9.5/15

Tommy's Restaurant

260 Hearst Way, Kanata ON

tommyskanata.ca

#tbt = Sriracha Lime Dry Rub & Hot Wings from Kelseys

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#tbt = Sriracha Lime Dry & Hot wings from @kelseysroadhouse last month. Really dug the dry rubbed Sriracha Lime, & the Hot is always good. Also, Thursdays are wing night! #lordofthewingsblog #lordofthewings #wings #chickenwings #hotwings #roadhousewings #srirachalimedryrub #kelseysroadhouse #kelseyswings #613wings #ottawawings #kanatawings #kanataeats #kanataford #ottawaeats #ottawafood #throwbackwings #throwbackthursday #wingnightthursday #latergram

A post shared by LORD of the WINGS (@lotw_wingking) on Mar 19, 2020 at 7:22pm PDT

Big Bone BBQ & Wicked Wings - Kanata ON

Still doing #lotwsummercatchup

Picture it, Ontario, July, National Chicken Wing Day 2019. I had a lunch feast of wings at St Louis, but wanted to celebrate with more wings someplace different. I was also going to be celebrating with LJ. There's a BBQ joint out in Kanata I've been wanting to check out for a while, and it being a Monday and all I knew they had a Monday Madness special that involved wings. So off we went!

Big Bone BBQ and Wicked Wings is a chain of 9 BBQ joints that exists mainly around Toronto (not in Toronto mind you) with this location being the farthest away. When I was last living in Toronto I had wanted to go check them out, but never did. So this was the perfect opportunity. I mean, the place is a BBQ joint (love BBQ) AND they are about wings! How could you go wrong?

This place is located in a strip mall, surrounded by businesses like an Asian take-away and a music store. Inside it very much has a BBQ feel. There's the smell of BBQ smoke. There's all sorts of kitschy BBQ stuff on the walls and some good blues and rock and roll on the stereo. We got there sometime after 5pm, but the place was pretty busy and continued to be busy the whole time, which is pretty good for a Monday night.

There's a big ordering counter, and we weren't sure if you order and sit, or just sit and someone takes your order. The waitress came out (she was the only one, and it seemed like there was just one guy in the back cooking as far as I could tell) and she told us to find a seat since we were dining in, and she brought us our menus.

Now Big Bone's wasn't celebrating National Wing Day, but I was aware of their Monday Mania special. It's the closest thing they have for a wing night. It's $28.25 (taxes in) for 1 rack of ribs, 1lb of wings, with a large fries or salad. It sounded good, but we didn't go this route after all. We decided to get 2lb's of wings so that we could try more wings. But to get some more BBQ in there, we took a look at one of their other specials:

They were highlighting their homemade sausages, and that just sounded good to both of us. We went for the Sausage Dinner with 3 links and sides.

When it came to the wings, we had a lot more decisions to make. First, Big Bone does wings 2 different ways. Smoked, and fried. Fried is my fave, but I do love a smoked wing. Since were were getting two pounds, we figured we'd get one order fried and the other smoked. But then, you have to choose the sauce, and that's not easy because there are 23 flavours. How do you choose?!

So here's what went down. The waitress, who was friendly, but also no-nonsense, stopped us before we started to order the wings to explain the wings. She explained that the Smoked wings are marinated, then smoked, then thrown on the grill in their Signature BBQ sauce, so any sauce you order for them is on the side. So we ordered 1lb Smoked wings with their Alabama Slamma on the side (she said she likes it because it has a kick, but isn't too spicy) and an order of Fried wings in Wicked Hot.

We didn't wait long at all and our two platters arrived. The feast looked really good, but when she brought them, she put the wings down first stating "Here are your smoked wings, and fried wings with the Alabama Slamma". LJ and I looked at each other and were a bit confused, because that's not what we ordered, or at least, not the right combination of what we ordered.

But I'll come back to that.

On the Sausage Dinner, there were three very nice looking links waiting for us. I liked them, but LJ wasn't a fan. The texture was great - they had that crispy snapping skin when you bit into them, and the pork itself was tender and ground well. The flavour was, well, kind of mute, but then you got hit with this like maple syrupy sweet flavour. It tasted ok, but I'd much prefer a spicier sausage. They were ok, not bad, but we both would order them again.

The beans that came with them were pretty good. They taste like they are just canned beans with a bit of smoke and maybe bbq sauce, but mostly cold beans. The coleslaw came warm, which is not cool, especially since it's a creamy coleslaw. It was much better as leftovers the next day once it had sat in the fridge. Again it tasted creamy, but I think it had some apple cider vinegar in it for a sweet-tart kick. The fries that came with both of our orders are battered and crispy. Good texture but not much flavour. They came out hot at least. Finally, the platter came with a slice of corn bread, which was literally a slice from a corn bread loaf. It was ok - it wasn't sweet or really corn flavoured either. There was a hint of like granular sugar actually but it goes away quick. It was a really nice texture to it though.

So the other food was kind of hit or miss, but would the wing-mix up end up being ok?

So the wings come by the pound, with about 8-9 wings in that pound. Each order does come with fries but no other sides. We were brought a bone bowl, lots of napkins, and I'm pretty sure there was some wetnaps also included.

The size of most of the wings was medium to medium-small. This was both in length and width, and applied to the meatiness of each wing.

The fried wings were saucy, but they also came out cold and soggy. The lack of crispy skin was sad. The meat on the wings were also tough. After biting into them they seem to come from frozen stock, which is strange considering that they state the smoked wings are from fresh.

The smoked wings were a bit more tender. I find most smoked wings are tough and leathery but these were not thankfully.

So as stated before, I don't know if we got the right sauces or not. But the waitress said the fried wings had Alabama Slamma, and then there were just Smoked wings and no Wicked Hot was actually applied? I don't know for sure.

SMOKED & GRILLED

So the wings came out and they looked like they should with little bits of char coming from the smoking process. I'm not crazy about the texture of smoked wings on their own, so whether you deep fry them after or grill, they need something.

Now the wings as described to us both on the menu and in person was that the smoked wings are finished off with their Signature BBQ sauce. I don't know if that was what was on here, but it was clearly there was a residue of sauce leftover. It was not killer in heat. The flavour of the wings was overwhelmingly smokey, but it wasn't a nice Hickory smoke, more like some sort of fake smoke that tasted more like campfire. It was ok, I guess. I could look past them and found them ok but LJ did not like them.

FRIED with ALABAMA SLAMMA

So we ordered the Fried with the Wicked Hot. I don't know that this was the Wicked Hot or the Alabama Slamma for sure. It could have been the Wicked Hot because it was 3rd Degree sauce with a bit of sweetness, but then that's how our waitress described the Slamma. If it was Alabama Slamma, I was expecting a spicier Alabama BBQ sauce, a more creamy, white sauce. This was not that. The sauce was good, and I rubbed the smoked wings in it to boost their flavour. But since these wings came cold and soggy, I wasn't impressed. At least they were saucy?

FINAL SCORE:

By the end of the meal, neither LJ or I was full or satisfied. The place kept getting busier and busier and so waiting for the only waitress to get a bill and pay took forever. Not her fault, she's waitress, bartender, dealing with tables, take-out orders, and delivery orders. I don't know if it was an off night but it wasn't a great experience. Ok BBQ food, soggy cold fried wings, less than tasty smoked wings with sauces that we had no idea what was what. Here's the thing, I'd go back to try the wings again. I would like to sample more but I'm not in a rush to do so anytime soon, but I have faith they could be better. 6/15

Big Bone BBQ & Wicked Wings
701 Eagleson Rd, Kanata ON (and other locations)
bigbonebbq.ca

HURLEY's NEIGHBOURHOOD GRILL - Kanata ON

For some reason sometime last year I found myself driving in the Bridlewood-Emerald Meadows area of Kanata, just exploring an area I was unfamiliar with. It's all suburbs and schools in this area, all looking the same. Then I came across a little strip mall; it has a Works Burger place, convenience store, Chinese restaurant, Gabriel's Pizza, a bank, Dentist office, daycare, pharmacy, and a physiotherapy clinic. What caught my eye was a little pub called Hurley's Grill, or Hurley's Neighbourhood Grill. I didn't go that night, but logged it into my head for places to go in the future.

This brings us to March of this past year. It was a Tuesday, LJ was out at a work function, so I decided to take advantage of a wing night somewhere. I checked my rolodex of wing nights and found that Hurley's has a Tuesday wing night. Great, wing night and trying out a new place. Sounded like a win-win to me.

I headed back to the Kanata location (there is also a location in Stittsville ON). I had low expectations going in for some reason; I think I thought it was a pub that really wanted to be a chain and that the food would all be frozen commercial product. It might be (I just had wings), but for whatever reason, I had a mild prejudice going into this review.

As I walked in, I was struck by how big the place was. From the outside I thought it was a decent size joint, but I noticed on the right there was a long bank of booths and tables. That side was also blocked by an awkward projector screen where some sports (hockey?) were being shown. Not sure if this is a regular set up or something special, but I found it odd and cumbersome. The next thing I noticed was a sign pronouncing a new wing sauce - Spicy Caribbean Jerk. Not my thing but cool.

Hurley's was pretty busy for a Tuesday evening. The place is pretty dark inside, and despite having been there for years, it looks pretty good inside. I sat in the front window in a booth and enjoyed the lowering sunset. I had two waitresses, one who was named Katie (via my reciept), but I'm not sure which on she was. One who was really friendly, engaging, and able to answer all my questions. She confirmed it was wing night too. Both were attentive and would bring me refills on my diet Pepsi's.

The menu is pretty standard for pub fare, but I was happy with the wing section with several wing flavours. I was slightly confused because the sign at the door mentioned 'Spicy Caribbean Jerk' while the menu already had a Caribbean Jerk. Was this one not spicy? I didn't ask, but I should have.

I appreciated on the menu they have the weekly specials. Why don't more places do this? I mean, if it's a secret, what's the point? Good job Hurley's. So it's 1/2 Price after 4pm on Tuesdays, with the purchase of a beverage for every 2 pounds. That's about $19.46 for 2lbs and a drink.

It wasn't long before my giant platter with wings came out. I was pretty excited for my little feast to begin!

Wings come in orders by the pound, which in this case was about 8-9 wings. I also was given a bone plate with napkins and a wetnap for cleanup.

The menu stated the wings come with carrot sticks and sour cream. I asked if I could sub the sour cream for something else, and was told I think blue cheese or ranch and I immediately went with blue cheese. Why isn't blue cheese the default?

It came in a huge plastic container. Huge. It was a very generous portion of dip. However, the dip while it had big chunks of blue cheese and was creamy, was just kind of flat in flavour and didn't deliver. Still 100 times better than sour cream. The carrot sticks were also really thin.

Size wise we were dealing with a small to medium. Not tiny, but just not that long at all. They were pretty meaty. The wings were very crispy. Really nice and crispy skin. It was excellent.

The meat itself was relatively tender. They pulled apart with just a bit of effort. Overall, a pretty good textured wing. My dry rubbed wings were lightly seasoned, and the wet wings were individually wet, but there wasn't a lot of extra sauce hanging around.

I went with a double order of wings, one Frank's Red Hot, one Cajun Dusted, with a side of suicide. The funny thing is, this isn't what I had planned. Before coming I scoped out their website and menu to plan my visit. On the menu I had seen "House BBQ (Medium)" and I thought that sounded good, possibly homemade. So that's what I was going to get. Instead I ordered the Cajun with the side of suicide, but then I wanted something hot, and abandoned the BBQ at the moment of ordering. I'm frigg'n weird.

FRANK's RED HOT

So they just come out and tell you they use Frank's. Good. Most places just put Hot, and, well, it's usually just Frank's. It's reliable, classic, unpredictable

CAJUN DUSTED

Mild mild flavour. I mean they were very lightly seasoned to the point you could barely notice they were seasoned with anything. I want my wings to be in a sandstorm of seasoning. They were salty, and that Cajun garlic/pepper/salt was going on, just in the background. But the skin on these wings were so crispy, that was ok.

SUICIDE

If I had to guess, I would say this was Frank's Xtra Hot. It had a nice sting to it, not much depth, but a good sharp white hot bite. I ask one waitress and she said thought it was Frank's, which semi-confirmed my thoughts that it was Xtra hot.

 She asked how I liked it and I said it was good - that it had a nice bite to it, "I know, I love spicy!" she said. Awesome. Overall, I could see the staff interacting with each other and customers and having a good time, and that's a good sign to me.

FINAL SCORE:

I was expecting some low grade frozen fare from Hurley's but I found some wings that were pretty tasty. They weren't huge, but they were fried very nicely with crispy salty skin. Hot was just Frank's, and the Cajun was a little light in seasoning, but the suicide had a nice bite. Pass on the blue cheese (but very generous portion!) and sour cream (ranch next time I guess). Ya, I'd definitely go back on wing night again. Friendly staff, good wings.

Hurley's Neighbourhood Grill
64 Stonehaven Dr, Kanata ON (and other location)
hurleysgrill.com