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

St Louis AYCE Boneless Wings 2019 - Ottawa Clyde

It's become an annual event. All-You-Can-Eat (AYCE) Boneless Wings at St. Louis Bar & Grill. ALL. YOU. CAN. EAT. I went last year, documented the event, then never posted (maybe one day I will in a Lost Review). But I was determined to post this year and to eat a lot of chicken. Yes it's not chicken wings, but it's chicken and sauce and that is still very good.

LJ and I went on a weekend afternoon after running some errands. It was cold, snowy, and having worked all morning long I was ready for a feast. We went to the St Louis on Clyde ave in Ottawa because it was the closest for us and it's a nice location (not that the other isn't, to be honest, I've never been there to know).

The promotion is all over the restaurant. This location is clean, still looks new, and has a wide variety of customers; there were seniors playing cards, college dudes watching the game, a girls afternoon out. And then us. It was a lot busier than we expected for the middle of the afternoon. Our waitress was also the bartender, was taking care of everything. There was another waitress who was clearly on break, reading a book in a booth in the corner. There was another staff that was just chilling at the bar (maybe she wasn't staff, just wearing St Louis clothes?).

I had seen the AYCE "All-Meat-Treat" special on social media that has been going on all January long. It took a while before we could get to go.

How does it work?

For $17.99 ($1 more than 2018) you start with an order of 8 Boneless Bites which comes with their blade fries and Garlic Dill dip. Then, when you order the next time, you HAVE to get the fries and 8 more boneless bites (this was different from last year when it was 8 bites & fries, and then like 4 bites in every order after that with or without fries). It's dine-in only (obviously) and you must purchase a large drink. We were also told that everyone at the table needs to order the AYCE so that people don't sneak and share.

There are 29 flavours to choose from (really? 29? Couldn't have had one more to make it an even 30?) and really, the big advantage of AYCE is getting to try as many sauces and rubs as one can. To spoil the ending, LJ only did 2 rounds and I did 3, giving us a chance to sample 5 different flavours.

We waited a while for our first order to come - it seemed to take forever, but then again, everything does when you are hungry. We were given cutlery, plates, extra napkins and wetnaps for cleanup. We also both got water and I think Diet Pepsi's (with free refills). Generally when you are trying to successfully do an AYCE, you want to avoid water and especially pop as this is just filler. However, this is a salt heavy meal so drinking lots was unavoidable.

The fries that come with their signature fries, which I know the cut as blade fries. They are thick yet almost wavy cut, frozen, then fried on site. They aren't bad fries and are great for dipping. Our first batch that came were terrible though - over cooked and too hard to chew. Subsequent batches were nice, crisp and fluffy potato inside.

Round 1 we didn't eat them all because they weren't very good. Round 2 we ate more but planned on not eating so many to not fill up, but because we waited in between orders for a long time (not due to St Louis purposely delaying but because of business of the establishment) we ended up snacking too much.

You also get their Garlic Dill dip. This stuff is awesome. Move over ranch. Blue cheese, meet a real contender for a great creamy wing dip. It's mostly dilly, a slight hint of garlic. It's just really good. Perfect for the fries, and necessary for some of the boneless wings. Last year our server brought us soo many containers. This time it was one per order, but she did bring an extra one when requested.

The actual 'boneless wings' or 'all-meat-treats' are obviously not wings at all, nor are they chicken fingers or tenders. These are a range from nuggets to chunks. What I mean is that they are not uniform cut (say like a McNugget which has 4 shapes) but range in size from small pieces to large chunks. From the photo above you can see this is a relatively large chunk bigger than a fork - the smallest morsels you can pop in one bite, but the above I would need to take 2-3 bites. They are all breast meat as far as I can tell, and they are quite meaty.

Each piece has a not-to-thick seasoned breading on it. They are very salty, even before the sauces. They have a light crispiness to them. The meat itself is tender. I would say that in all our orders they were deep fried just right, although the longer they sat out, the tougher they got (not a fault of St Louis, just when we were slow or saving some into the next round).

We had 2 rounds in which we each got a different flavour, plus I did one extra round before I had to give up. The sauces or dry rubs we got varied in how well they were coated. Round 1 we got Spicy Garlic Parm & Buffalo Ranch. Round 2 was Chili Lime & Mississippi Honey BBQ, with Round 3 being simple Hot.


ROUND 1

SPICY GARLIC PARM

This was LJ's first choice. This is a creamy garlic and Parmesan sauce with some hot sauce mixed in. They were not that well covered in sauce (the photo shows one bite on the right with next to no coating, while the one of the left is pretty wet). LJ found them pretty flavourless, and I found them just creamy with some heat (because my bites had no heat - see Buffalo Ranch).

BUFFALO RANCH

So I was surprised I ordered this as much as you. It wasn't what I thought it was; I've had this before and I forget what it is, which is why I have this blog - to record to know the next time! See I knew what I wanted the Mississippi BBQ flavour at some point, but I wanted something saucier and in the realm of hot first. At the last moment after my waitress asked what I wanted, out came Buffalo Ranch. I was thinking this was Buffalo sauce with ranch drizzled over it. It is not. It is Buffalo AND Ranch mixed together.

They were ok. They were barely sauced so I really couldn't taste anything. Not very buffalo, kinda ranch bland. It was not a good start.

Also, don't tell anyone from Buffalo NY about this - they get testy about Ranch and Buffalo being in the same sentence.



ROUND 2

CHILI LIME

This was one of the Dry spice options, a mix of chili spice and lime. It had a slight oily quality (maybe to help the seasonings stick?), and the dominant flavour was black pepper. There was a little chili heat, and almost no lime flavour to be found. And salty. Maybe that oiliness was lime juice, but even if it was, it was hella-weak. They were not bad, but would have loved more lime flavour.

MISSISSIPPI HONEY BBQ

This is one of my favourite flavours at St Louis by far. This BBQ sauce is sweet and tangy and savoury. It's a lighter BBQ sauce, and it has no heat. It's sticky and it just oozes over the chicken. It just pairs with the boneless bites so well. Each nugget was well sauced this round, but I would have loved a pool at the bottom for extra dipping.


ROUND 3

It was at this point LJ was really debating on a third round. She still had some chili lime bites left, and she was curious to try the Thai Coconut, but didn't want a whole order. In the end, she gave up. I was going for round 3 for sure, but I didn't know if I was going to do a 4th round or not. But I'm not a young man anymore and knew 3 was my last. So what would I get for my last round?

HOT

OK so I didn't go very adventurous. I went with Hot because I wanted a wet wing and something simple and spicy. It was good, and it was Hot level spice.

I used to be mad at St Louis back in the day at their Hot, because they weren't the Hot I was used to. I wanted a hot Buffalo wing, or standard pub wing, and this hot is different. It took me a long time to appreciate the flavour of this wing not because it wasn't good, but because it was different. It has a spicey, peppery flavour that is deep, and savoury. There are subtle spices I can't identify, that work really well on the wings. The sauce works well with the bites as well though.

They were good, but shamefully I couldn't eat them all (close, but just couldn't). I know why St Louis doesn't allow take-out - otherwise everyone would be taking home a free order home - but it's a shame because of the waste. I hate wasting food.

We were too stuffed for dessert, but I scoff at their menu stating "Man cannot live on wings alone". Yes, yes I can.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

I had lots to eat. The event was hit or miss, with some bites not sauced enough, or some fries overcooked. But overall the chicken itself is good. The sauces were a mix, some I would get again, and others overlook in the future. I will be back to do this event again, but probably not this year.

TIPS

• A regular order of Boneless with fries is $14.49 and an order of 15 is $18.99, so as long as you get two orders, you've made the AYCE deal worth the money.
• Bring a few people with you so that you can each order something different and share and sample.
• Plan your flavours - know what you want next before your order arrives so you can tell your waitress right away because you don't know how long your next refill may take.
• Don't drink a lot. It's hard with all the salty food, but don't fill up.
• Try not to fill up on fries. They are there to get in the way of the meat treats
• Come HUNGRY

TO ST. LOUIS

• Don't make the fries mandatory. We all know they are filler, but it just leads to wasting. Give a big order to start, but don't make it mandatory with refills. Push water and drink refills instead if you want to slow the chicken consumption down.
• Add free veggie sticks to give a cleanser for all the salt, but also to act as filler.
• Make the first round 8-10 bites, but allow those 8-10 to be split into 2 different flavours like you used to. Then make refills 4-5 at a time or again 8-10 with splits allowed.

No matter what, this was a tasty excursion that led to a desperate need to nap after eating.

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

Chestnut's BATTLE of the WINGS 2013

This past January was once again the epic Battle of the Wings at work - and the competitors really brought their A-games.

Last year's winner was Fitzroy, so he was defending champ. And the other Chef's wanted the win this year.

"Who's Wings Reigns Supreme?" This year it was all up to straight vote - no influence from my choices.

Food and Beverage Manager Glenn was on hand, getting the line-ups of students hyped up and ready to take their vote on wings.

This year the chef's were laid out equally out front, talking smack and promoting their tasty creations.

No matter who got the vote, it was clear that we were the winners with lots of tasty wings, well worth the line-up.

EDDIE'S SWEET SPICY WINGS

• Breaded, deep fried.
• Tossed in a sweet/spicy sauce.
• Squirt with lime wedge, add creamy sauce on the side.

JACO's OLD SCHOOL WINGS

• Dusted, deep fried.
• Tossed in a suicide sauce (7lbs of scotch bonnet peppers for 32 litres of sauce, 8 litres of Frank's Red Hot sauce .

• Enhanced blue cheese dip on the side to cut the heat.

OLIVIA'S QUEST to the ISLAND WINGS

• Marinated in coconut milk, chipotle, lime, salt and pepper and cayenne.
• Rolled in panko, shredded coconut and flour.
• Roasted in oven.

• Island jerk sauce (sweet chili, lime, coconut milk, molases) applied when ready to serve.

FITZROY's GLUTEN FREE MANDARIN ORANGE WINGS

• Wings tossed in white cornmeal and Parmesan cheese.
• Baked.
• Sauce: stewed down mandarin oranges, blended with smokey flavoured BBQ sauce, grenadine, ginger, garlic.

EDDIE's

The first in the line up, these wings had so much going for them. First off, deep fried with a nice breading that was crunchy and had an excellent texture. The sauce was more sweet than spicy but was just plain love as far as I was concerned. The added lime gave a great acidity to the sweetness. The cream sauce on the side definitely complimented the whole thing, but was unnecessary in my opinion.

I hate to play favourites, but this was my vote. It just had everything going for it.

JACO's

These wings had a special place in my heart, because these were a suicide wing. It was a bold move because apparently there are a lot of people out there who can't eat hot. It's 2013 and people still have a hard time eating heat. I was also told by a source that part of Jaco's strategy was to burn people's mouths so they couldn't taste the other sauces. I like that.

I found this to be an excellent suicide wing. It had a lot of heat, but you could still taste the sauce. I wish this was a standard for hot wings. The blue cheese dip on the sauce was doctored up, so it was extra creamy, chunky, and oh so good.

OLIVIA's

What I really like about Olivia's wings is that she really goes outside the box and delivers something completely different. I mean a coconut and panko coated wing? This is mad scientist realm, and I really dug it. Even though it was baked, it was still crispy. This was a sweet wing, and it reminded me of coconut shrimp, except with chicken and not shrimp.

The Island sauce was also slightly sweet and slightly spicy. It succeeded when added at the last minute as was being done, because I think the wing would have suffered if it had sat in the sauce for a while. This was a wild card wing, and if you don't like coconut or sweetness, this might not be for you. But otherwise, I thought such a really unique idea that flavour-wise, paid off.

FITZROY's

Fitzroy was really going the extra mile to try some new ideas. First off, going for a gluten free wing (after talking to students who suffer from gluten allergies) really brought a different dimension to this offering. There was also a ton of preparation that went into these wings.

I enjoyed the wings but felt it suffered from the baked coating that became mush from the very sweet and gooey sauce. I normally prefer my wings tossed, but I think these should have been dipped for better structural integrity. Don't get me wrong, I still had seconds. Maybe even thirds . . .

Here are some of my staff, former staff and my boss all enjoying their wings. Lots of different opinions on what everyone liked, but there was a general concensus: this is an awesome event.

The votes came in, and Eddie's wings were the winner. But really, we the eaters all won.

 Congrats Eddie!