MIGHTY GOOD from The GROCERY OUTLET frozen wing review

A long time ago I heard that there was a store in Whitby/Oshawa that sold food from commercial operations that were good, but didn't look perfect to sell normally. Chocolate bars that were misshapen, or items slightly damaged, all for a discount. This was under the banner "Naturally Imperfect" and I wanted check it out when I was in town, but for years, never had the time or made the effort. Well I decided the time was now (this was in December of 2018) and so I went.

I knew roughly where in Oshawa the store was, but when I pulled up to the strip mall, I couldn't see "Naturally Imperfect"; turns out it changed it's name to The Grocery Outlet.

So they still sell the oddity products, discontinued or over produce stock, but they also just have grocery items. I wondered the store, not finding any of the damaged items, but I did find quite a few sales and items for cheap or reasonable prices. As I wondered around, I came across their frozen food section, and found chicken wings. So I bought two of the three or four varieties they had. They looked big, and at $8.99 for 1kg, they seemed like a good deal.

Over the last month for a few meals I decided to sample first the Buffalo Glazed, then the Hot & Spicy. The 'brand' is Mighty Good, which I can't find any reference to online, other than The Grocery Outlet.

I grabbed the Buffalo Glazed wings first, because, well I like Buffalo wings. But I could see these were breaded, but at least they labeled them as Buffalo Glazed. The packaging is super simple - it's just a ziplock bag with the info on the bag. Why can't more companies use less wasteful packaging???

The other flavour I debated getting, but ended up getting, is the Hot & Spicy breaded wings. These were sauce-less, and because more and more I like dry style wings, my interest was piqued. I highly doubted they were spicy, but it was worth a shot.

1kg of wings worked out to be about 14 or 15 wings in the bags. I really like the red colour on the wings.

The size of the wings were crazy big. Mutant. Huge!

The Hot & Spicy seemed to be about the same size and number in the package. A little frost on the wings though.

Each meal I did up about 6-7 wings, about half the bags, for sampling.

I placed the wings on a baking pan with parchment paper, and baked them from frozen for about 20 minutes, flipping them half way.

There wasn't too much oil, fat, or sauce that came off from the Buffalo Glazed, surprisingly.

The Hot & Spicy came out much more crispy and even less oil/fat on the parchment.

As mentioned before, the wings were monster sized. Big in length, but huge on height and the meatiness factor on these wings are big too. Now there is also a LOT of breading on these wings, so that contributes to the size.

The breading on these wings acts like a big shell covering the chicken, especially on the Buffalo Glazed. You can see in the above photo the barrier wall that separates the breading/skin to the chicken. You can also see the reddish oily grease inside. The glazed wings have no real sauce on them so after the baking process, they are a bit oily, but not saucy at all.

The texture on the Buffalo Glazed was all over the place as a wing experience.

1.  You do kind of have this crispy, crunchy, spongy shell of a breading. My first big bite into a wing and all I got was breading. 
2. The fat and skin have not properly rendered in the original cooking process. This makes the middle layer kind of gooey. The collagen sticks to the teeth. It's not pleasant.
3. The meat was not very tender. Pulling the bones apart was some work. 

After all the texture, when it came to the flavour the wings were ok. There was a hot sauce marinade feel to them, but there wasn't a specific Buffalo sauce taste. I would have no idea these were supposed to be Buffalo and I suspect they just used the name.

The Hot & Spicy wings were completely different. The texture of these wings were crispy/crunchy breading but the fat was completely rendered here. The meat was tender and the bones pulled out easily. 

These aren't sauced or glazed, but there is a spice in the breading, that actually gave off a small bite. One wing wasn't too hot, but you eat a few and there it was. These were ok on their own, but they did really well when I added some Wing Sauce. The crispy breading held up well, added some heat, and a lot more flavour.

Would I get them again?

No and Yes.

I would totally pass on the Buffalo Glazed. Too much breading, unrendered fat, tough wings and no real Buffalo flavour (Hot yes, but not Buffalo). So no deal.

But the Hot & Spicy wings I would get again. Crispy, spicy, tender and holds up well with sauce. These wings are still really big, and at $9 for 1kg, not a bad price.

Combined average score of 9.5/14

The Grocery Outlet
133 Taunton Road West, Oshawa ON (and other locations)
thegroceryoutlet.ca

THE PATTY SHACK - Oshawa ON

* The Patty Shack is NOW CLOSED*

Having a bit of business to attend to in Oshawa Ontario and not having a lot of time for lunch, I happened to stumble upon a burger joint downtown.

Patty Shack seemed like a decent looking burger joint, but then I saw that they are also a wing place. Burger and wings? Yes please!

Inside the place had a different feel - it was quite large inside, but a lot of wasted space. There is an upper level and a lower level. It`s fast food style, but orders are placed fresh and it takes a reasonable amount of time. I was there well after lunch, and it was pretty empty in there, but by the time I left more and more people were coming in.

There was so much to decide when picking my order. There are 14 different flavours or wings and there are something like 40 toppings for the burgers. Crazy. Choosing was not easy but I was up to the task. The girl at the counter was very helpful with all my questions. When it came to sauces I was asking her to describe so I could get an idea, but she asked if I wanted to just taste them - so I did. Then I ordered my burger. After a few minutes, my order was ready and brought to my table.

Two small orders of wings, veggies and dip that came with them, and my 4oz burger. And a drink. Good times.

Here is the fresh celery and carrot sticks (nice healthy, crunchy) with dip. What kind of dip is it? Ranch? Blue cheese? Nope, its gardillic (garlic and dill).  It was good, but it tasted a little weak in both garlic and dill.

The burger. They have three sizes, I went with the smallest, the 4oz ($4.49) since I was also having wings. I added old cheddar cheese ($0.99) and bacon ($0.70). When I said bacon, I was asked "regular?" and I assumed streaky bacon as opposed to peameal bacon . . . but they in fact have different 'regular' bacon, like jalapeno smoked (a fact I saw on the menu board later).

The deal on their burger is summed up on a big poster on their wall:

"The Patty Shack patty is seasoned, hand formed, made fresh daily and accompanied by over 40 toppings.

We use farm fresh beef from the Ontario farming communities. Their cattle have zero growth hormones and have less than 14% fat content (these cows are in great shape!!)"

I watched my burger be assembled and pointed to each topping I wanted. The burger was wrapped up. When I opened it up, it was a messy delight. Here are the toppings I put on my burger: (I think I also had BBQ sauce on here too).

Wow. Simply wow. I really enjoyed this burger. It was meaty tasting, cooked just the way I like it. The bun was fresh, as were the toppings. The one topping that really set the burger off was the spicy onions - it was a little kick and smokey flavour. The bacon was good, but I would like it crispier.

At the same time, I was also mowing down on wings.

I asked the girl at the counted how the wings were made. Apparently they are marinated before frying to give the meat an added level.

As a big poster indicated on the wall:

"Our wings are locally raised in Ontario and they are never frozen.Our sauce portfolio boasts 12 unique home-made sauces that you simply won't find at any other wing joint ... Our unique cooking method combined with our home-made sauces, really seal in the flavour"

I went with a regular order of wings (8) and they let me split that into 2 flavours, which is awesome, because lots of wing places won't.

Size-wise, we weren't dealing with monsters. They range from small to medium, with some wings being super meaty, and others the meat had pulled considerably away from the bone. The meat itself was also inconsistent. Some pieces were tough and pulling the bones apart was a chore, while other pieces were tender and soft. The skin was somewhat crispy. At first I thought the wings might be smoked, but I was told fried.

Now as for the sauces, I went with Southern Cajun BBQ and Hot (7 Pepper). The problem I had was that I don't really know which wings were which. Not simply because they came on the platter and I couldn't see a difference, but I also couldn't tell which was Cajun and which was Hot. Both were mild in heat. Both had a smokey flavour to them. Both were good. The hot that I sampled at the start seemed to be more distinctive on its own than being tossed with the wings.

So below are the wings and what I think visually looked like their respective flavours:

I liked the flavours, but again I'm embarrassed to say I couldn't which was which. They didn't taste the same, but they were similar.

FINAL SCORE:
I wish I lived closer to The Patty Shack. The wings were good. Unique flavours, fresh wings with levels of flavour. The quality and size was a bit inconsistent, but I would have them again for sure. The burger on the other hand was awesome. Super messy, juicy, flavorful. 6/10

The Patty Shack

24 King Street East, Oshawa ON

pattyshack.ca