WILD WING RESTAURANTS: Ottawa

There's a chain on the prowl and it serves one thing: wings. Wild Wings, in fact. This Canadian born chain of wing-themed restaurants are spreading across the province, with many more on the way. The Ottawa Citizen even did an article on WINGS , trying to find the best in the capital, (HERE they really liked St Louis, which gives me doubts to their judging ability) and specifically one on WILD WINGS, discussing how they serve Canadian chicken that is not frozen, and done quite well in their opinion.

I actually checked out the Donald location here in Ottawa about a year ago - but the photos, the review info and more have been lost. So, I had to pick up my boots and head back. But this time, I went to the South Ottawa location. Hidden in a small plaza in the middle of suburban homes, this place was pretty busy on a Friday night, but not so busy that I felt awkward siting solo.

The decor inside has a wild west saloon theme to it - wood paneling, cowboy memorabilia - but even a neon palm tree that sits in the middle of the eatery (you can see it in the photo below) doesn't seem out of place in this tacky but fun environment. It's family friendly (with a lot of the patrons I noticed they had small children/babies) but the young and elderly come here to for wings and beer too. Flat screens are all over showing various sports events, and the staff, at least my waitress Dominique, was very friendly, attentive, and willing to answer any questions I had.

This chain is truly about wings. At each table is a tool box caddy stuffed with everything a wing eater needs: roll of paper towel (as much as you need!), wetnaps, wing bucket, ketchup/vinegar/salt & pepper for fries and even a couple of bottles of hot sauce in case the sauce on your wings isn't enough.

The two sauces at my tables include Lime Ricky, and Arizona Heat. I was going to do a sauce review on these sauces, but A) I don't know if they are commercially available for purchase, and B) They weren't that great, so I didn't bother.

The Lime Ricky's first ingredient was lime juice, which definitely came out in the flavour, but begs poorly for a hot sauce. The taste was basically a lime-Tabasco sauce. As for the Arizona Heat, it was a Tabasco and butter flavour. I wouldn't use either on wings. I wouldn't really use either for anything to be honest.


But enough of these bottled sauces, on to the wings!

2008 THE SCORE 3.0: Wild Wing ~ Ottawa (South location)

STYLE:	breaded, deep fried
PRICE:	$8.98 for 10 (one flavour) $17.36 for 20 (one flavour) $24.98 for 30 (one flavour) $32.58 for 40 (two flavours) and on and on . . .
SAUCES:	101 flavours to choose from – I had Ketchup chip Wild Bubba’s Backfire	1/1
HEAT:	For all the ‘warning flames’, wild wasn’t that hot
SIZE:	large	2/3
WETNAP FACTOR:	Wet for the sauced wings	2/3
CRISPINESS:	Very crispy, good crunch	3/3
FLAVOUR:	Good – but each sauce is different	2/3
SIDES:	Veggies, no dip, and veggies didn’t come with every order despite menu saying otherwise	.5/3
CLEAN UP:	Paper towels, wetnaps, wing bucket - everything	3/3
WING NIGHT:	No – but lunches are $4.95 for 5 wings & fries	.5/1
OTHER:	Patio, hot sauce at table, free refills on Pepsi
TOTAL:	Lots to choose from, but lacks in personal touch with bottled sauces	14/20

So the chicken itself. The wings are all pretty uniformly large in size. According to the article, these are fresh wings, and I'll be honest, they were meaty, white and cooked well making me believe they are fresh. The breading added a nice crunch to the wings. They weren't the biggest, but they were done well. They also came out piping hot - so much so I had to wait for them to cool down to try. So they could be cooked right, lets see about the sauces.

WILD: These are billed as their hottest wings at 6 flames - but they were not the hottest I've had by far. Its a drier heat - in that they don't really strike at you, but burn long and slow. The flavour was ok, but it really didn't hit what I wanted in a 'suicide' wing. Not a great flavour, not a painfull heat. The sauce was also not very wet - I almost get the feeling that they don't think I (or people in general) could handle it and didn't sauce it as much as they could have.

KETCHUP: This is one of their "Feeling Chippy" chip flavoured seasonings. The wings are deep fried naked, then tossed in the chip seasoning. Now I love ketchup chips, and Dominique personally recommended these. So did I like these wings? Kinda. The concept is great, but the flavour turned out to be really weak. There was lots of ketchup 'dusting', but the plain (but tasty) wing itself overpowered the seasoning. But a winning idea for sure.



BUBBA'S BACKFIRE: This is one of their 'Frankenstein' mixtures of various other sauces combined together - this one being BBQ & Frank's Extra Hot. This was a good wing flavour to end the night off with, partly because they were very saucy, but I love a good spicy BBQ. Sure the sauce was pretty generic (you can make it at home, plain BBQ and Frank's Extra Hot!) but it was good.


FINAL SCORE: I'm happy to see not only a Canadian chain rise up, but one that is wing focused. My complaints are: bottled sauces instead of making their own, inconsistency of side veggies (and no dip), and no wing night! (how can you have a wing place and no wing night?). The pros: well cooked wings, lots of flavours to choose from (even if they are commercial sauces), and you gotta love the wing accessory caddy. So definitely worth checking out, but will never replace a great local non-chain wing. 14/20




Wild Wings Restaurants
3320 McCarthy Road, Ottawa (South) and other locations
wildwingrestaurants.com

Click HERE to go to an update on sauces

KINGSTON BREWING CO. ~ Kingston, On

On business in Kingston Ontario, I tagged along with LJ to this historically significant city. I didn't have much time to tour, but enough to drive past Fort Henry, visit Sir John A MacDonald's grave, and drive through Queen's university. I also had time to check out a pub to see what Kingston could offer in the way of wings.



I hadn't been to Kingston since I was a kid, so I wasn't super familiar with the place or its eateries. I asked chowhounders about where they suggested, and while not a lot of people responded, the onese that did suggested the Kingston Brewing Company. Fortunately, LJ's business was about a block away, so I convinced her to go and check the place out.

This pub has a great colonial feel to it. Outside was a really cool delivery truck painted up. There was also a patio out front, and I later found out, another courtyard patio inside. The street its on isn't very spectacular, plus there was construction, so sitting inside was a must.

Inside, the atmosphere was very much British pub. Lots of wood, dart boards and old style wooden barrels adorn the walls. The place filled up quickly with a mix of people from old men, families and the university crowd. Our waitress 'Tia' was friendly and a great server.

LJ decided to try the "Torpedo Steak Sandwich", a hoagie with chopped steak, cheese, grilled onions and served with "Ghetto" sauce; a bbq style sauce that is really hard to describe. LJ wasn't a fan of the sauce, but I'll talk more about it because that's what the wings are served in. The meat was tender and came with a giant side of freshcut fries.

I went with the wings, which only came in one size and one flavour.

2008 THE SCORE 3.0: Kingston Brewing Co. ~ Kingston, On

STYLE:	grilled
PRICE:	$10.25 for 10
SAUCES:	“Dragon wings” with “ghetto” bbq sauce	0/1
HEAT:	No heat
SIZE:	Small to medium	1.5/3
WETNAP FACTOR:	Saucy for sure – sticky too	2/3
CRISPINESS:	Grilling gave a different texture – not so crispy	1/3
FLAVOUR:	Very interesting bbq-style sauce – good, but not my favourite	2/3
SIDES:	fries	1/3
CLEAN UP:	Wetnaps and napkins	2/3
WING NIGHT:	none	0/1
OTHER:	Patio, courtyard, trivial pursuit at table, in house beer, home brewed pop, cool delivery truck
TOTAL:	Different style of wings –good, but I wouldn’t order them again	9.5/20

The wings came out and immediately I knew they were going to be different. The 'Dragon Wings' are charbroiled, then tossed in the Ghetto sauce. The wings weren't all that big - some small, some medium. They were slightly charred, which gives the wings a rustic, camp-like feel to them. They weren't particularily crunchy, but they were grilled well.

The Ghetto sauce was quie unique. Although the closest definition I can give to it is BBQ sauce, it is a sweet yet dark sauce. It reminded me of the Manhatten Capone wings at Allen's. They were good, but I couldn't eat a lot of these wings.

FINAL SCORE: The wing itself was good, and if your going to grill, they did a good job. There was no heat to them, but the ghetto sauce just didn't inspire me. I do think these wings would be popular for those who normally don't like wings because there is no heat, appealing more to the honey-garlic crowd than the hot wing crowd. Great pub overall though. 9.5/20

The Kingston Brewing Company
34 Clarence Street, Kingston, On
613-542-4978

Click HERE at the WING BUCKET
for more reviews on the sides, desserts
and drinks at KBC

Laredo Hot Sauce: Sauce Review

LJ had been to Costco and said she had a surprise for me. I opened up the bag and inside was a 1.9 litre of chicken wing sauce! The gift that keeps on giving.



The sauce was Laredo. I've never heard of it - but at 1.9l hopefully it would be! She got me the 'Chicken Wing Sauce' , but according to a website (that I can't find any more - I remember when I actually tried this sauce weeks ago, I really had to search for information on them . . . now I can't find it. Dang I should have saved it) in one photo I found, hey also have 'Louisiana' sauce and 'Suicide' sauce.



The sauce ingredients started with Cayenne Peppers, which suggest that there was going to be some heat, but it wasn't going to be killer in pain. It did sounds like a traditional Buffalo wing style sauce.


It was quite and orange coloured sauce when I poured it out. This is common with a lot of bottled wing sauces - which can be good or bad.


I followed the instructions on the bottle for the wings - baking them, then basting with sauce.


The basting process kept the wings in an orange glow. But I'm really not a fan of baking the wings.

2008 SAUCE SCORE v1.0: Laredo Chicken Wing Sauce

BOTTLE INFO
TYPE:	Chicken wing sauce
PRICE & BOTTLE SIZE:	1.9 litres
SAUCES:	Others from website include: Louisiana Red (177 ml, also a jug) Suicide Sauce
INGREDIENTS:	Cayenne peppers, vinegar, soybean oil, natural butter flavouring, salt garlic, xantham gum
CLAIMS/SLOGANS:	“Frankly Better”
THE SENSES
APPEARANCE /TEXTURE:	Orange colour, runny but slightly viscous
SMELL:	Very buttery traditional wing sauce
FLAVOUR:	Buttery cayenne sauce – salty
THE PAIN
HEAT:	Tingle= I can feel it, but barely. The pain is concentrated on the lips mainly.	1/3
BURN CHRONOLOGY:	Beginning Burn Middle Burn After Burn The tingle is there to start, lingers, and stays for a little while. It’s not strong but it stays on the lips	X X X
TASTE:	Ok – very buttery flavour and a tingle, but this would be a good base for a mixed sauce, or for marinating before cooking the wings.	1/3
FINAL SCORE		2/6
OTHER:

I tossed the wings once more in the sauce to make sure they were nice and wet. With the wings being baked, I wanted to make sure the sauce was going to compensate for the lack of deep fried wing goodness. The butter flavour was certainly dominant. Butter and salt.


What really surprised me about this sauce was the heat. It didn't knock my socks off, but as soon as I took a bite, I could feel the tingle on my lips. Then it stayed on the lips. And even after I finished my wings, the tingle lingered for a while afterward. Nothing hit inside the mouth, or at the back, but I was impressed for its staying power.


FINAL SCORE: So overall, the sauce was decent. It didn't score very high as a sauce to go on its own. However, I think it would make an excellent base in which to add sauces to, or to marinate the wings in before cooking, and then saucing. For a sauce that seems to play on Frank's Red Hot with a slogan "Frankly Better", they still need to keep trying. 2/6


Laredo Chicken Wing Sauce
ucfg.ca
PS: Thanks LJ!

Summer Updates at the Blog!

There's been a lot going on lately keeping me busy, away from the blog (again) and complications. BUT I have been working to upgrading the blog too!


RECOVERED:

• I have my USB key again!!! It was not lost on a bus (as I had feared) but hidden behind a table leg against a wall. Wheeewww! This means some reviews that should have happened about 2-3-4 weeks ago can now get done!!!!

THE WING BUCKET:

• The sister site that used to be LOTW PHOTOALBUM is now called THE WING BUCKET: The Leftovers from Lordofthewings.blogspot.com. When I rebooted the blog 2 years ago, blogger was not uploading my photos into the reviews, so I started a new blog to just have photos. But then I started adding menu's there, and other misc info. It really became a support blog and so I decided it needed a little face lift and some respect for itself. So gone is the photoalbum moniker, and in with the Wing Bucket.

LOTW SAUCE REVIEWS:

• Sure, we have always 'reviewed' hot sauces here on the blog - but in a much less scientific method than the wing reviews. So now, we've looked at a new system in reviewing. It too will probably go through various changes, but now you can get a much better idea of what the sauces are like.