W Burger Bar ~ Toronto ON

So the gang (Ricky, Brad and Amanda) came down for a weekend filled with film, theatre, and of course food. We saw Tornado Alley in the Omnimax (an awesome theatre due to the domed screen, worst theatre due to no drink/snack policy). Later that night we saw a reenactment of War of the Worlds with Don McKellar, Nicholas Campbell and Marc Bendavid (which was awesome by the way).

 In between movie and theatre and chilling at my place, we went out for dinner to one of the many gourmet burger joints that have sprung up in the city: W Burger Bar.

We had attempted to go to W the last time the gang was in town, but Brad was out cold by supper and the rest of us couldn't get in because it was so busy (the hostess offered to take our cell numbers when a space opened up, but we just went elsewhere). This time we a) booked a reservation and b) booked a reservation early - which was good because they soon filled up.

This place is not what you expect from a burger joint. Actually it is a chic-like place. There are flat screens that show the game du jour, black and white colour schemes and all black uniforms for all the servers and bar tenders. Speaking of servers, ours, Courtney, was wonderful. Friendly, helpful, she was just excellent.

We went through the menu, picking over all the burgers and exciting looking dishes. Courtney took our order on her fancy arm-mounted BlackBerry devices. We waited for a bit, chatting, catching up. Before long the first dishes started appearing.

Ricky ordered up some deep fried pickles ($7.99). They were dilly, crispy, well seasoned. Really good.

The panko breading worked well. The dip was good too. Really creamy and clearly home made.

I ordered up an order of their 1/2 Fresh Cut Fries 1/2 Sweet potato fries ($5.50). The fresh cut fries were good - crispy, thin. The sweet potato fries were the same. Both needed a dip, so I tried to sneak some from the pickles spears.

W Burger Bar has a variety of burgers to choose from beyond the standard beef like lamb, salmon, chicken etc. And like most people, Brad was really curious about the Kobe beef burger. Kobe is supposed to be really good, but how do you justify a burger that is $18.99 (no sides)!? Especially as this isn't truly sourced Kobe (from Japan)? Fortunately they have a slider option in the starters for $4.50.

Well, let's just say it was truly a slider. It really made me think of the old commercial "Where's the beef?!" And according to Brad, there was nothing special about it - tasted just like any other beef. It's a good thing he went with the Lamb burger as a main. He said it was good, but had to wait a while for his mint sauce.

Amanda, our vegetarian, went with the Veggie Burger ($7.99). She normally doesn't care for veggie burgers with veggies in side, but she did like this burger.

She also got a side of sweet potato fries that didn't last long.

Ricky and I both went with the Bison Burger ($9.99). I enjoy a good Bison Burger, not only because it's leaner but because it often has a meatier taste. First off, not only are there a lot of burger options, and not only are there a lot of topping options, but you also have a cooking option too: over flames or on the flat top. Immediately I chose the flames, but when Ricky asked Courtney and she recommended flat top for the Bison. So I switched my order.

 Ricky went with a much simpler toppings than I and his sauces on the side to taste the burger. I went for lots of my favourite toppings:

This was a good burger. My first thought was that the toppings were fresh (great pickle) the burger meaty, the sauces tasty. The burger had a little more crust than I prefer, so next time I think I would go with the flame grilled. The patty was thick and meaty - not too moist but not quite dry. The bacon was nice and crispy. The next time I would probably go with the classic beef burger, but pretty much the same toppings.

To finish off the meal, Amanda ordered the WBB Cheesecake ($6.99). I sampled a bit and it was pretty good. Tall too!


I think everyone was pretty happy with their meals. The service was great and there is a lot of burger variations to keep one interested in trying something different each time.

W Burger Bar

10 College Street, Toronto ON

wburgerbar.com

Some photos were taken by Amanda but on my camera - thanks Amanda!

WWWWWW #39 - Hello World

Yes, World Wide Web Wacky Wing Wednesday. WWWWWW. This is where I will surf the Web, and find other people talking about chicken wings. The world is full of chicken wing stories, wacky and otherwise. Recipes, restaurant reviews, eating contests or whatever. Today's Blog relating to wings in some shape or form:

Hello World: I'm Joe. Writer, runner, biker, daily internet user.

Joe Beutel. Awesome photo pose taker. He's a funny guy. I know almost nothing about him other than he wrote this:

Yes, the Book of Chicken Wings. I love that logo and wish to read that book. All 80 pages.


That is all.

Home of Hot Taste ~ Toronto ON

One of the great things about being back in the city is meeting up with old friends. Lucky for me, I got to go back to work with my good friend Dave who you might remember from a Chestnut Report back in 2007. We had a meeting a while ago where he was telling me about a Korean restaurant that serves a super spicy chicken dish. Recently we decided we should go. So we did. 

The place is called Bonga Buldak, or Home of Hot Taste. This is actually a chain of chicken restaurants from Korea. Dave first tried this when he was teaching in Korea, so I let him do all the ordering.

Home of Hot Taste certainly caters to the young Korean demographic as 99% of the patrons there at the time fit that description; Korean pop videos play constantly on the flatscreen, posters, pictures and menu boards are all also in Korean. There is no indication in English what these specials are.

I was glad Dave was in charge because I had no idea what was going on other than that I would be eating some spicy chicken. He did all the ordering and explained what we were getting and why (basically something hot, with something to cut the heat). I was just happy for the ride.

 To begin carafe's of water with a Korean model and writing came to the tables to start things off. Then came a salad to share. I don't know what it was or what was on it, but it was fresh and crisp, and the dressing was light ginger/vinegerette of some sort.

The next side dish was Ddok-bok-ki (I believe, but I could be wrong), which is Korean rice cake and fish cakes in a sweet and spicy sauce. Now for those of you who are not familiar with Korean cuisine, you might be looking at the above photo and be wondering where the rice cake is . . . well the cylindrical tubes above are the rice cake. Unlike a Western rice cake with is crispy and flakey, the Korean rice cake is spongey and doughey. The fish cakes are thin and not strong (thankfully). I love the rice cake and the spicy sauce combo - so unique.

Dave also ordered a cauldron of Rice Crust Soup. This was another dish he said would help cut the heat from the spicy chicken.

The flavour of this soup reminded me of puffed rice cereal (of course it tastes like rice, duh) with just a hint of being burnt. This isn't a soup I would ever eat on its own, but it just seemed to work on some level with this meal.

Dave said we should have gotten a banchan or side dishes, so he asked them, and shortly we had this little side dish. I looked at these glistening white cubes and I tried to figure out what they were. Potato? Pear? So I asked Dave and he said it was white radish. Now I am not a fan of radish, but when in Rome right? Well I was glad I did try it because I really liked it. They were pickled radish, so they tasted vinegary and sweet at the same time, with a soft crunch. Very refreshing.

Finally the main dish arrived. Home of Hot Taste is famous for their spicy chicken. There were two dishes to choose from: "Blazing Fire Chicken" and "Tearful Blazing Chicken". We asked what the difference was and one of them was ordered. I don't know which it was. Actually they have a third dish that is covered with cheese which is supposed to be very good too. We just stuck with the spicy chicken.

The chicken looked like hunks of bloody lava. I was excited. The meat was super tender. Soft and very easy to chew. By looking at it I thought it might be crispy, but it wasn't. So no deep frying. I thought it might have a little bark from the sizzling style plate but no.

So how was the taste? Good. The heat was a slow build - the more you eat the hotter it got. The dominate flavour that Dave identified was Korean pepper paste, but there was a lot more going on. This is a dish that has heat, but flavour as well.

This was a large portion and definitely appropriate for sharing. In retrospect I think this dish needs accompaniment if you were to eat it on its own. Rice, noodles or any of the sides we had would have worked. The meal was good, and I see they have chicken wings too, so I will be back. It was great hanging out with Dave - an awesome and generous host. Thanks Dave!

Home of Hot Taste
710 Yonge Street, Toronto ON

WWWWWW #38 Ryan Hohman is the Ultimate Wingman

Yes, World Wide Web Wacky Wing Wednesday. WWWWWW. This is where I will surf the Web, and find other people talking about chicken wings. The world is full of chicken wing stories, wacky and otherwise. Recipes, restaurant reviews, eating contests or whatever. Today's Blog relating to wings in some shape or form:

Ryan Hohman Is The Ultimate Wingman: Follow my journey to eat 2,011 chicken wings in the year 2011!

First off, I'm always happy to be on the web and come across another wing blogger. Second, I like someone on a mission, a wing mission. Ryan Hohman is keeping it simple:

"In honor of the year of 2011 I am going to eat 2,011 wings. That’s roughly 5.5 wings a day or 167 wings a month. For the next 365 days, I will be counting down every wing I eat on right here and on Facebook and Twitter. Follow me on my journey to wing heaven!"

And at the time of press, Ryan is at 590 and it's only April!

Ryan is based in the US and I believe Brooklyn specifically. Just running through his blog there are some tasty looking wings. Above are wings from his visit to The Penny Farthing Bar & Restaurant. Look at that lake of dip!?

He's not just hitting restaurants. Above are some homemade wings that brought him to his 500 wing count. Slow clap. Wonderful.

And on top of all this, he's weighing himself every Wednesday to answer the question of how this is affecting him physically.

He's been at it for 103 days. I can't wait to see how the rest goes. He's on the radio, on the Internet - so go over and watch and support his quest to eat 2011 chicken wings.

HOOPS SPORTS BAR & GRILL ~ Toronto ON

RIP - This location is NOW CLOSED

I'm still catching up on reviews here at Lord of the Wings, so bear with me as this is a few weeks old. Tuesday late afternoon I was out on Yonge running some errands. Walking down the street, I see Hoops, a sports bar that for years I walked passed without going in. Well this time, I was going in, dag nabbit!

Hoops is sports bar, plain and simple. They have a few locations around the city and they heavily feature sports. Lots of screens and tvs with all manner of games going on. Beer and sports. I was interested in neither. I was interested in wings though.

 

I walked in and there were four or five hostess/waitresses at the podium at the front. The place was not that busy (it was early) so there was lots of places to choose from. The back section was super dark though, and knowing I was going to do a review, I asked if I could take a window seat - I wasn't crazy that it was high chairs but the light was good and I could watch people on the street.

My waitress Alexis was friendly, but a little confused. When I was ready to order, I said I saw that it was wing night and I would have the wing special. She nicely corrected me that it wasn't wing night. I politely pointed out on the specials menu and the regular menu that it said Tuesdays were wing nights. She concurred. But looking at their specials, they have wing specials all the time:

Other than that little hiccup, she was great, checking in on me and answering questions. Actually she sold me on the double wing platter which ended up being cheaper ($8.49) The other staff were a little off a bit. I watched two hostesses jump on a guy who walking in with a Tim Horten's coffee. "You better finish that off because you can't bring that in here you know!" He turned around and left, and returned 10 minutes later sans coffee. Maybe they have dealt with him before, but I found the pouncing a little off putting.

The place started to fill up with patrons, and it wasn't long before I had my wings.

There were a lot of sides with these wings. Carrots and celery with ranch dip is the first, classic accompaniment.

But Hoops also threw in fries. Fries, on wing night. These were fresh cut, a little limp, but good. I still can't get over that you get fries and veggies.

A single order of wings are about 8-10 wings for $9.99. But on wing night you get them for $4.99. I like wing night.

I got a double wing platter - because I wanted to do some sampling. But that was a pretty big basket.

The wings ranged in size from a hefty medium to large wings. The chicken itself was a medium meatiness. They were a good size all around. The wings had a nice crisp on them, and the wings themselves were nice and saucy.

As I said before, I wanted to do some sampling, so I ordered two types of wings, Hot and BBQ with Suicide on the side.

HOT

Hot was a classic Buffalo hot wing. Comforting good old Buffalo wings.

The label said hot, but these weren't really. But the cayenne flavour was there and I couldn't complain.

BBQ

BBQ was a good bottled BBQ sauce. It was more sweet than savoury. Actually it would have been really good mixed with the hot . . . hmmmmmm. . . .

I like that it was a thick sauce that really stuck to the wings. Gooey and good.

SUICIDE

On the side I had suicide. While the other two sauces were bottled (I'm pretty sure) the suicide was a house mix. It had a nice, peppery kick. A dryer heat that built as one ate. The flavour was strongly peppery (like black pepper). I wasn't crazy about the taste, but I was happy with the heat.

THE SCORE: If your looking for a sports bar with good wings and lots of wing specials, Hoops might be for  you. Good size, crispy, saucy wings. And for $8.49 I got lots of wings, veggies, dip and fries. My waitress was nice and I had a great view. Not living far, I'm sure I'll be back. 6.5/10

Hoops Sports Bar & Grill
1212 Yonge Street, Toronto ON (and other locations)
hoopssportsbarandgrill.com

Carl, Professional Wing Critic for Boston Pizza

Last week Boston Pizza launched a new advertising campaign to announce a new menu improvement: chicken wings. And they have a new spokesman, Carl - Professional Wing Critic.

Who ever is the advertising agency for Boston Pizza is flippin' brilliant. For years they've had some excellent commercials that are quirky enough to get your attention, but not annoying to be hated (well, not me anyway). From the Talking Baby to Sasquatch to Finger Cooking with Bill they keep building characters into their restaurant chain.

But their latest with Carl is different. They have taken this to a whole . . . new . . . level.

"Carl" (actor Regan Burns, who used to have a funny game show called Oblivious" is part of  "Flatties & Drummies" a "Professional Wing Critics Association". But Boston Pizza didn't just create a TV character, they created a whole new website for Flatties & Drummies.

This is quite the website.  I love the Wing Cartography section:

I can't believe I'm not a part of this society.

Now for the commercials. Funny, simple, and a lot of chicken wing critics inside jokes.



I have heard stories about the '92 Charleston Incident . . . what a time for wings.





Doesn't everyone know what a Nib and Nub are?




Oh LeRoy Bouchlette, a pioneer in chicken wings.


I enjoyed Boston Pizza's old wings but I will have to review these wings myself and see if they are all the hype that my counterpart Carl says they are.