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

CHARLEY RONICK's PUB & RESTAURANT - Whitby ON

#lotwwintercatchup

"Come in and enjoy the most delicious wings you’ve ever had. Everyone loves our wings and this is why we’re known as having the best wings!"

Back in January I had to travel to Whitby and back one weekday. My business was concluded after lunch, so I decided I was going to stop for lunch. It was a Thursday and after doing a quick search of the web for "Thursday Wing Nights Whitby ON"  I found that there was one place that fit the bill, Charley Ronicks.

I had never heard of this place before or even seen it before. I've been in the plaza before but never noticed it. All of the windows are frosted, which I find odd. It looks as if they are closed up or like a medical office. On the inside there's enough light coming in, but you can't see out. This place just doesn't seem that welcoming.

The inside looks like a chain pub/casual restaurant even though it's an independent establishment. The place is quite large on the inside with the restaurant kind of split into two sections; the bar side and the dining side. The bar side was quite busy, but the dining side was less so. I sat on the dining side and was given a two person booth.  Some of the booths have flat screens right in them for sports events I guess.

On their website they state their specials, but I was happy to see them posted not only on wipe boards around the restaurant, but also at your table. Charley's has a LOT of wing specials - basically it sucks if you come on a Wednesday (unless wings are included in the apps, but I don't think they are). Just to be clear, the wing specials are:

• All Day
• With a beverage purchase - no free refills
• No doggy bags
• No take-out
• No Coupons

All fairly reasonable. When I asked my server (Tanya) about this, the only part she mentioned was that I had to get a drink with EACH order of wings (ie if I was ordering 2 pounds of wings, I needed to buy 2 drinks). I later read about the no doggy bags, and I'm glad I did.

Wings are pretty prominent on their menu too taking up 1 page and a bit of another. There are a lot of flavours to choose from (25!) and I had a hard time figuring out what I wanted. I had to ask my waitress what the dealio was with the flavours. She tried to explain but just lacked an ability to explain. For example, I asked about the Mexican Hot and she told me it was "... with Mexican spices". Ok. Then I asked about the heats, and she said "Buffalo was a bit more hot, but the medium is pretty hot". I don't understand their/her heat scale at all.

I ordered two pounds of wings, and while the special comes with fries, she said I could get onion rings. Normally I would not hesitate to switch my fries for onion rings but I was kind of craving fries. Then without missing a beat, she said she could do one order fries and one order of onion rings. Yes please! Thank you Tanya.

 She brought me out my first drink (they have Coke products), as well as a bone bowl, napkins and a wetnap for clean up. Things were off to a good start.

Then after a small wait, my food came out. I was both excited and a little worried - this was going to be a lot more food than I think my stomach was going to handle ... and there were no doggy bags allowed!

Each order came with a large carrot stick and celery stick, but no dip. Normally you can get Blue Cheese, Ranch or even Dill, but not with the wing special. This sucks because I don't really care for eating the veggies without the dip.

The sides were very plentiful. The fries were battered (I don't doubt a frozen product). They were hot and crispy, but pretty meh. I definitely salted & ketch-upped these. The onion rings were pretty big rings, and they were crispy enough, but the inside onion was soft and when you took a small bite, the whole onion came out.

The wings come by the pound, and there were about 8 wings in a pound. They were split pretty evenly between the flats and drums.

The wings were large (when you only get 8 in an order, they have to be bigger). They were long, tall and fairly meaty.

The chicken wings come dusted, then deep fried, giving a crispy skin. That crispy skin held up to the sauce pretty well. They were relatively tender - not super tender, there was a little effort in pulling apart the bones, but not difficult either.

I went with two flavours. I really debated because I knew I wanted a hot/Buffalo type wing, but they also had 4 flavours of BBQ, and I do like a BBQ. Plus they have a dry rub of Roasted Garlic? Or Cajun Ranch? In the end, I went with the Buffalo as well as the Mexican Hot.

The wings came nicely sauced. Not a lot of overflow sauce on the Mexican Hot, but lots on the Buffalo. Each wing was coated well though. I like that.

BUFFALO

My first taste of the Buffalo was that it was good. It was not hot (a medium at best) in spice. I can tell it is a commercial Buffalo hot sauce (not homemade) because there is an artificial taste to it, but as far as artificial (as in not home made hot sauce and butter) Buffalo sauce goes, this was good. It was rich, kind of buttery. It was really good ... until it wasn't. By the end of my meal, it just became too much. I at least could alternate between flavours, but it just got so strong by my last wings I wasn't digging it as much.

MEXICAN HOT

This was a nicely spiced sauce. I've had the flavour of this in a suicide sauce before, no idea what it is, but it was not hot like a suicide. A little more peppery in flavour. If I didn't know it was Mexican Hot I would not necessarily associate these with Mexican (ie I could detect a 'Mexican' spice to it), but it is full of flavour spice.

Also salt. It's a very salty sauce. And like the Buffalo, by the time I got to my last wings, the flavour was just too much. This would have really have been aided with a creamy dip for sure.

FINAL SCORE:

So Charley Ronick's (no idea who this is if anyone real) really brought their wing game to plate. Lots of wing specials to start. Big wings, crispy wings, saucy wings. The flavours are big - nice spicy flavoured Mexican Hot and rich Buffalo wings - that started off really good, but were a bit much by the end. I had to eat them all because of the no doggy bag rule on specials, but I didn't really want to.
 I would go back again to try some of those other flavours too. Too bad I'm not in Whitby that often to try more often.   11/15

Charley Ronick's Pub & Restaurant
3050 Garden Street, Whitby ON
charlieronicks.ca

POUR BOY - Ottawa ON

#lotwwintercatchup

Please Note: for this review the location lighting was extremely low and my photos turned out blurry and dark. Sorry!

Social media has been great for me to find out about new wing places and wing deals. Fellow food reviewer Eat This Town (if you aren't following him, do! on his blog http://ottawa.eatthistown.ca/ or @eatthistown ) sent me a heads up that Pour Boy has a Monday wing night. I wasn't following Pour Boy before (I am now) and was excited to try out their wings.

Located in Centretown, I thought this place was familiar to me before, and it was. Turns out Pour Boy is what used to be the second location of Jean Albert's that I reviewed back in 2011. It's an old house that has been totally converted into various restaurants over the years. It's hard to miss these days with their giant mural of Bob Dylan out front that at one point the city tried to have removed.

They have all sorts of specials throughout the week, but I was glad to see confirmation that Monday was indeed wing night. I went inside and the place has a cozy, bohemian feel to it. The crowd was a mix of students, millennials, and a few old guys all enjoying libations and grub. There's one flat screen tv, but nobody was watching it. They were also hosting some sort of event on the second floor (which I had to quickly crash as the washrooms are on the second floor).

My server was Anthony, who I found out later is the owner himself of Pour Boy! He was friendly and attentive and I really appreciate his hands on approach to his establishment. He took my drink order, and confirmed that it was wing night. I asked him about their sauces, specifically if Hot was just Frank's hot. He said ya, but that they could add some sriracha and spice it up. I thought that was awesome, but I went a different way with my wing order.

I didn't have a long wait and my plate of wings were hot and hot from the fryer.

The wings at Pour Boy don't indicate the size of the wings on the menu, but on their social media they indicate it's a pound. That works out to be about 8 wings. Of those 8 wings I'm pretty sure it was even steven 4 flats and 4 drums. For cleanup I was given napkins and wetnaps.

The menu says that the wings come "on a bed of fries" and I had no fries, but I did have two carrot coins. I'm assuming this is because of the wing special and that if I had ordered them on a Tuesday, they would have come with fries.

The wings were on average a medium+ to a medium in length, and they were medium in meatiness too. So not huge wings.

So while the wings may not have been big, this allowed them to be deep fried perfectly. The skin was crispy and just rendered so well. The meat itself was also pretty tender, with the meat pulling away from the bones without much resistance.

While I didn't go with the modified hot that Anthony had offered, I did get the wings served in Spicy Dry Rub, with a side of the Regan's Suicide Sauce.

SPICY DRY RUB

I had debated between getting my go to Cajun dry wings, but the spicy just sounded more my thing. The wings were pretty well coated in the dry rub - you could feel the grit of seasoning when you picked up the wings. It was good, and paired well with the crispy skin. It was salty, a little garlicky, but I noticed that it wasn't spicy. As in hot burn spicy. It was season spicy, but not heat spicy.

REGAN's SUICIDE SAUCE

When I saw my side bowl of dark red sauce, I knew it was going to be hot. I could smell it. It was thick. It was clearly homemade. It smelt like chipotle in adobo sauce. I dove in.

I took a bite and thought it was good but not that spicy, but then, then the heat came at me bro. This was a real suicide sauce. Like I needed a drink it was nice and hot but it was also tasty. Just right. I asked Anthony about it and he said the basis was ghost pepper. Well that made sense where the heat was coming from. He said there was also a mix of chilies and spices as well. These were definitely hot, but I could still enjoy them.

FINAL SCORE:

Wow, these were some good wings. Perfectly crispy, tender, and flavour in both the rub and the suicide. I don't know who Regan is, but boy they do not mess around. I really liked the wings and will definitely back again on wing night. Next time I might just try their modified hot but I will be getting another side of Regan suicide sauce for sure. I'll also try and take better photos too.     11/15

Pour Boy
495 Somerset St, Ottawa ON
pourboypub.com

D'ARCY MCGEE'S RESTAURANT PUB - Ottawa ON

#lotwwintercatchup

So LJ was out at a work dinner, so I decided to grab some grub nearby. There were no particular wing nights or other places in the area, but then I remembered D'Arcy McGee's (or is it Darcy's as the name out front suggests) on Kirkwood Ave. A few years ago I had some D'Arcy McGee's wings in a party platter and they were good, so it seemed like a second time around would be good again.

This location is not like the other D'Arcy's - it's half Darcy's and half East Side Mario's. See originally this location was a Swiss Chalet, but for some reason, it closed. Then in 2017 this hybrid split the building in half and remodeled into a pub/family restaurant mix.

I have actually eaten at the East Side Mario's (ESM) before, and thought it was the smaller half of the two, but after entering Darcy's, ESM is clearly much larger. Not only do these two share an address, they actually share a menu. Well, ok not share exactly, but when I came in my waitress Kelsey offered me a choice of either ESM or Darcy's menu. So you can eat what you want in whatever environment you want.

Darcy's is a really nice pub atmosphere. It's lined with brick and dark wood accents. It's dark inside, but not so dark you can't see what's going on. One end is a beautiful bar, the rest is tables and booths for seating. Kelsey, my friendly and attentive waitress, had given me the option when I came in to sit at the bar, a table, or a booth (I chose booth). She took my drink order - I asked for a water and a diet pop (they serve Pepsi). I never got my water, but I did get my pop. That's ok I like pop better.

I had never seen anything about a wing night at Darcy's, but I took a chance and asked Kelsey about it. While they don't have a wing night, they do have 1/2 price apps Monday to Friday during 'appy hour' which includes wings. I was here after 6, so bollocks.

I was a little disappointed at the menu when I saw the price of the wings - $14.99. Woosh, that's pricey. But I have an addiction to feed.

I asked about the Buffalo Medium, because I was curious if they were really a Buffalo sauce, or just Medium, but Kelsey assured me they were a Buffalo. Wanting flavour over heat, I went with the Buffalo. I did find it interesting that they had Garlic Parmesan wings, as that is an ESM flavour and I don't think it is on other D'Arcy McGee's menus. Also interestingly named is the Sri-Rancha. Get it?

I didn't have to wait long and my wings came out. And I won't lie, I was miffed. But I will get to that.

Wings are not measured on the menu by quantity or weight (you know, 10 wings, or 1 pound). It just says wings. I got 8 wings, 3 carrot sticks, 3 celery sticks, and some blue cheese dip. The wings were evenly split drums and flats.

The veggies were fresh, and the dip had some chunks of blue cheese and was decent enough. At first I thought I had a lot, but in the end, I would have wanted more. Oh I also was given a bone plate and some napkins.

So remember when I said I was miffed? That's because the wings were small. I actually looked at my plate and said WTF. I can deal with tiny wings (I much prefer larger for sure), when you have to have a lot to make up for their size, but all I could think about was how they were $15 for 8 tiny wings. Even with these wings being breaded, they were still small.

The next #wingcrime was that these wings were soggy. They were not crispy at all and they came out hot and fresh. The only redeeming quality of these wings is that they were super tender. I mean the bones just pulled away like nothing. But c'mon, there should be some sort of crunch.

The wings were also not saucy. The sauce was all absorbed into the wings. That sucked. There was no extra sauce lying around either. There also wasn't much flavour to the sauce that was on them. It didn't taste like Buffalo sauce.

It's not that the wings tasted bad, it's just that they didn't taste like much at all. They reminded me of cheap grocery store frozen wings. Sure they are ok if you are desperate for some wings, but I couldn't help coming back to the fact that they were $15.

FINAL SCORE:

These wings were just frustrating. Small wings, soggy breading, lack of sauce, lack of flavour. The only good thing was that the wings were tender meat. But they are just too small and too expensive to warrant having again. I don't know if this is what these wings are like at other locations or this is just due to the East Side Mario's connection. Who knows. 6.5/15

D'Arcy McGee's Restaurant Pub
675 Kirkwood Ave, Ottawa ON
darcymcgees.com