REYNOLD's RESTAURANT - Ottawa ON

It was a gorgeous day outside, and I was in the neighbourhood of Carlingwood getting some work done on my car. The area is heavy on industry, auto-shops and commercial development. There aren't a lot of food options, but one of them is Reynolds Restaurant, and my car appointment happily coincided with lunch.

Reynold's is an old house from a neighbourhood from a time long ago (it's the only house in several blocks now, but I'm willing to bet there used to be more over 50 years ago). Inside it looks like, well a diner in someone's house. The place probably hasn't changed in decades, and I don't think customers care. The clientele is a mix of blue collar workers from the various industries surrounding Reynolds, seniors, occasional guys in suits, and randoms like me. The place was packed on this weekday after 11am and I had noticed that the patio was empty and it was beautiful out.

When I went in, I only saw one waitress and she was HUSTLING. She was serving, taking orders, ringing up bills at the register, cleaning. I actually felt a little bad when I asked if I could sit on the patio, and then she said she'd be out in a minute to clean up. I kind of thought I was going to get spit in my food for unintentionally making her do more work, but she was super friendly and looked after me very well - I don't even think she would spit in someone's food even if they were the worst. She said she had to clean up out there because the road construction nearby kicked up a lot of dust.

I was the only one the entire time on the patio which I thought was crazy because it was so beautiful out; sunny, but not humid, clear skies. Specials are out on the front of the deck (wing day was Tuesday, just missed it by a day! but only after 3pm).

 The menu is all over the place - it's advertised as Canadian Italian with pasta dishes, but I'm pretty sure it's run by Lebanese folks and they have shawarma on the menu (under exotic sandwiches). You can get steaks, burgers, fish and chips, or hot chicken sandwiches and toasted westerns. I mostly see people getting breakfast dishes here or what they are most known for, club sandwiches.

The first time I came here was because I had read they were the best Club Sandwiches in Ottawa. Quick personal story, when we would go on family vacations as a kid, there were 3 things I used to order all the time: wings (obviously), nachos, and club sandwiches. I love a good club sandwich - it's the combination of chicken, crispy bacon, and mayo. Ohhh, so good. Back to Reynolds, I do believe they just might be the best Club's in Ottawa. Fresh ingredients, packed with good chicken and crispy tasty bacon. But I've never had the wings here, so it was time to try.

I didn't trust that the wings would be very big, or enough, so I also ordered a side of onion rings. I also ordered them just to give some diversity to my meal.

These onion rings were perfection. Per-fec-tion. First, I prefer these classic battered onion rings to the large, breaded rings (which are good too, but this is my preference). Second, they were deep fried just right - biting into them they had a crispy snap, you know when you can hear that crunch? The onion also broke when you took a bite, so that it didn't all come out in a single string, I like that. I added some ketchup and I was just pleased as punch with this side.

Would the wings be as good as the rings?

Wings here come in $9.99 for and order of 10 wings but they also come in 20 or 30 wings. Nothing comes with these wings - no dip, no veggies, no sides. Wing night is Tuesdays after 3pm for $0.35 a wing, or Friday is 10 wings and a 20oz draft beer for $9.99, also after 3pm.

I got 11 wings in my 10 wing order by the way - someone likes me!

The wings were a small to small-medium wings. The photos make them look a bit bigger but they were small. They were also not all that meaty but they were pretty tender chicken, despite being frozen chicken.

The wings are deep fried and are pretty crispy. There's a decent amount of sauce on them and they hold up without getting soggy. Several of the wings must have been damaged at some point before frying because a few of the flats had broken bones, and slashes in the skin that created little canyons as you can see in the photo above.

I ordered Hot wings and they were Frank's Red Hot. Simple, nothing special, but it got the job done. Tasty. They were wet, with not too much sauce, but the flavour was good.

FINAL SCORE

Reynold's kills it in the breakfast and club sandwich games. The wings are just simple - Frank's Red Hot on crispy fried wings. They aren't big, they aren't fresh, but when you are waiting for your car to be repaired, they were the right thing to get. The onion rings were awesome. My waitress was great. I'll be back, but I might just stick to the club & rings unless it's wing night. 8/15

Reynold's Restaurant
874 Clyde Ave, Ottawa ON
reynoldsrestaurant.com

LOTW Meme Monday: Jean Luc Picard Wings

As a life-long Trekker, I am excited at the announcement by Sir Patrick Stewart of his return to TV as Captain Jean Luc Picard. Star Trek has been killing it back on TV with Discovery, so I can't wait to see what this new Picard show will be about. I hope the rest of the crew of The Next Generation will get to join or at least we can see them in guest spots.

Anyway, to honour the new Star Trek: Picard, here are 3 Picard-wing themed memes.

Wing Long & Prosper

#nonwingsunday = I Love Fire

#nonwingsunday = grilling goodness. I love fire. #lordofthewingsblog #lordofthewings #bbq #grill #firepit #charcoal #lumpwood #fire #chicken #grilledchicken #sausage #grilledsausage #grilling #lordofthefire #civiclongweekend #longweekend #nightgrilling

A post shared by LORD of the WINGS (@lotw_wingking) on Aug 5, 2018 at 5:42pm PDT

Happiness Happened Here: "Sauce Fan"

"Sauce Fan"

#fryday = Re-purposed Suicide Crispy Wings

#tbt = Reilly's Pub circa 2009

#tbt to August 1st 2006 & one of my earliest wing reviews: Reilly's on Yonge Street. Cheap ($0.35/wing), tasty, but tiny pidgeon wings. Great view of Yonge. They closed many years ago & now it's Salad King Thai. To see that original review, go to the blog (lordofthewings.blogspot.com or link in bio @lotw_wingking ) and search 'reillys'. My reviews have come a long way in 12 years! #lordofthewingsblog #lordofthewings #wings #chickenwings #hotwings #suicidewings #pidgeonwings #lotwremembers #wingmemories #wingreview #throwbackwings #throwbackthursday #2006 #torontowings #416wings #torontoeats #reillys

A post shared by LORD of the WINGS (@lotw_wingking) on Aug 2, 2018 at 9:38am PDT

Reilly's was quite the hang out for Ryerson students back in the day. Cheap bar on the second level, dance floor on the third. I know a lot of people were sad when they closed down, but I think more people were happy when Salad King, forced to move due to their building collapsing, moved in.

Anyways, go HERE to see the original review.

DINGaLING's - Kingston ON

In the last 3 years I have had a lot of travel back and forth to Toronto and Ottawa, and Kingston is the half-way point (it's about a 4 hour drive total, and Kingston is the 2 hour mark). Originally it was me living in Toronto visiting LJ in Ottawa, now it is mostly going back to the GTA to visit family. But LJ also often has business in the 'Limestone City'. That means brief stops for bathroom breaks, but also for grabbing some grub.

One spot I have stopped at frequently and have come to love is Dingaling's but because I started going here during my 'dark period' of the blog, I never did an official review. I did a mini-review for my 2016 Year in Review post, but after taking an evening with the wife to stop in, I decided to do the full review.

Dingaling's is primarily a take-out wing joint that also does dine-in. The space is dark (although at the time of evening the setting sun was barreling in blinding us) and kind of sparse. It's too bad because they have space, but the place needs a renovation to make it more. Owner Shahid took over a few years ago from the previous owner (apparently a bad dude) and he cares about the business and about wings (I've chatted him up every time I've been in).

While I was going for wings (the main focus of the menu), LJ decided to go off script and try something else on the menu. The rest of the menu is appetizers and fried food (and at this point I think they have fried chicken too) as well as salads. We've had a few apps in the past, so she wanted to go with the Munchie Platter.

The Munchie Platter is 16 pieces (4 different apps with 4 pieces each) and 3 dips. She went with Breaded Pickle Spears, Mozza Stixs, Stuffed Spuds, and Mac' N Cheese Bites with sour cream, blue cheese and ranch dips.

Everything was fresh fried, crispy and tasty. The pickles and mozza stixs were what you expect: dilly, cheesy, crispy. The Stuffed Spuds are mashed potato with some jalapeno (not that noticeable) - its a creamy inside with a crunchy exterior. The Mac'N Cheese Bites are macaroni and cheese breaded and deep fried - to me they are ok but LJ and others like this kind of app.

The main focus here is chicken wings. The wings are all deep fried and come breaded. They then have a 4 point system to ordering your wings:

1. Sauce 'Em: Pick one of 14 sauces
2. Slop 'Em: put on extra sauce, or add a second sauce to mix
3. Dress 'Em: they will drizzle Ranch, Caesar, Sour Cream or Blue Cheese over the wings
4. Top 'Em: add one of their 10 spice mixtures over the sauced wings

For my tastes, I just do steps 1 and 4. They come pretty saucy to begin and I'm not interested in mixing, so Step 2 is out, and I don't generally want extra on top, so so is Step 3.

When dining in, the wings are served with fries and a pop - I switched my fries for waffle fries (I love waffle fries) and upgraded to a bottle (for LJ and I to share).

It took about 10 minutes for our food to arrive. My sit-down wings came in a long little plastic tray pilled with waffle fries, the wings, and the veggies and dips.

The waffle fries were very good - like everything else, crispy, but also pillowy potato in the middle. Great for dipping in the dips.

The veggies that came with it were two small celery sticks and 2 large carrot coins. The blue cheese dip is thick and creamy.

The wings come in orders of 1/2 pound, full pound, and 1 1/2 pounds. Above is the 1 pound which is about 9 wings.

The chicken isn't very big length wise - I actually thought it had shrank since last time but when I reviewed my 2016 review, found them to be about the same. So while they aren't long, they are very meaty.

The wings are breaded, and deep fried. The wings are deep fried just right - the skin is crispy, crunchy and has those little bits that fall off and are tasty to eat. The wings are also very wet (not a lot of extra sauce but each wing is well coated) and the breading holds up pretty well, but after a while the wings become sauce saturated, but not so soggy that you lose that crispiness.

I basically go for one sauce, Butter-Face. This is their hot sauce mixed with butter, essentially Buffalo wing sauce. This sauce is so rich and buttery, I could drink it. I love it. The combination of the decadent sauce and the crispy wings puts it on the top of my wing lists. I've only ever tried one other sauce which was 9-1-1 and I had it and it was very hot (and also destroyed my digestion for a day) I didn't care for the flavour since I had Butter-Face.

I always get the dill spice added, but to be honest, I never really taste it. Either they forget, or its not strong. Next time I'm going to ask for double sprinkling.

FINAL SCORE:

These wings are really, really good. Crispy, crunchy, saucy, decadent. The butter heavy sauce mixed with the hot, the breaded crispy skin - so good! The meat is tender and it's a meaty wing, but I wish they were bigger. Sides are good and the apps are all deep fried goodness. I only wish they were in Ottawa!

DINGaLING's
2511 Princess Street, Kingston ON
dingalings.ca

Family Guy's Brian get's Domino's Wings

In S16E08 Brian's suspects murder in this Rear Window nod. As Stewie investigates things go very wrong but Brian gets chicken wings at least. Bonus points for the blue cheese. #lordofthewingsblog #lordofthewings #wings #chickenwings #takeoutwings #hotwings #bluecheese #pizza #dominoes #dominospizza #dominoswings #familyguy #briangriffin #stewiegriffin #brianandstewie #stewieandbrian #rearwindow #wingsontv

A post shared by LORD of the WINGS (@lotw_wingking) on Jul 31, 2018 at 12:46pm PDT

LOTW Meme Monday: When Someone Doesn't Like Wings

Celebrating National Wing Day with Crispy's Wings

Damn those were good. These wings are great sauced and tossed fresh, but I was taking these home for the wife and I, so I ordered them with sauce on the side. LJ enjoyed them dry with some dipping in the Frank's Red Hot and I tossed them and ate them very wet. Simple, but so good.

HAPPY CHICKEN WING DAY 2018!!!

Hear ye hear ye - today is a day of worship of all things wings! Eat at the bountiful horn of the wing platter, wipe copious amounts of wing sauce from thy face, and drink mighty stein's of blue cheese dressing! Happy Chicken Wing Day, July 28th 2018!!!

#Fryday = BPSP

#tbt = 2009 and wings from O'Connor's Irish Pub

#tbt & RIP to July 2009 & O'Connor's Irish Pub in Kanata (now closed). Back then these wings were $9 for 1lb or about 8 meaty, dusted wings. They were tossed in Frank's and they were good. #lordofthewingsblog #lordofthewings #wings #chickenwings #dustedwings #ripwings #throwbackwings #2009 #throwbackthursday #kanata #kanatacentrum #613wings #kanatawings

A post shared by LORD of the WINGS (@lotw_wingking) on Jul 26, 2018 at 6:03pm PDT

For the original review back in '09, click HERE

PC Dry-Rubbed Hardwood-Smoked Chicken Wings

I see sales as the time for experimentation. On wing night I love maximizing my dollar to try as many different sauces as possible. When wings are on sale at the grocery store, I'm up for trying some new frozen wings I've never had before.

This was the case not long ago while at the grocery store. I've noticed President's Choice Dry-Rubbed Hardwood-Smoked frozen wings before, but I wasn't going to pay full price to try. Well they were on sale, and so here we are. My hopes were pretty low because I've been disappointed lately with other frozen wings.

It sounded intriguing - a frozen wing that was dry-rubbed and hardwood-smoked? I have to give it to President's Choice, they will try all sorts of flavours out and I find many do work.

There are 14 wings at minumum in the package, and it lists it as 800g, but that is with the sauce pack inside. I find the wing ingredients interesting as well:

water, salt, brown sugar, herbs and spices, garlic powder, mustard, onion powder, flavour, smoke flavour, smoked sugar (water, sugar, smoke), sodium phosphate, smoke, acetic acid

It sounds good, but what is 'flavour' as an ingredient? Also, there was a lot of smoke in there: smoke flavour, smoked sugar, and just smoke. These just might taste smokey after all.

I was just doing a test run, so I put in half the wings, which worked out to be 10 wings. They had almost a freezer burned frosting to them, but they weren't freezer burned.

I was mostly interested into the wings, but I did decide to try the Maple BBQ sauce that came with them. It's frozen, but you just toss it in some warm water and pretty soon its liquid again.

I cooked these in the toaster oven, and I was impressed with the wood smoked smell that was coming off of them.

Well, they weren't anything too special to look at, but they did go kind of crispy. But they smelled really good. Literally the kitchen smelled like I had a small smoker.

Interestingly, they were mostly light in colour, but a few went mahogany like a truly smoked wing ...

Looking at the wings, they kind of look like they came off a smoker and not out of the toaster oven.

Look at that wing, that looks pretty damn good.

They weren't big but they weren't the smallest wings either. Length and meatiness were both average. The skin was, crispy is not the right word - slightly rubbery but not in a bad way, just crispy-ish? It was a nice texture for these wings.

The meat was pretty tender, which hasn't been my experience with most frozen wings. I still can't get over that hardwood smoked flavour.

I tried the Maple BBQ sauce, and it, tastes like Maple BBQ. I don't go for that flavour usually, and this was ok. Its savoury and sweet but the maple is a hint rather than overpowering. Not my thing, but others might be into it.

FINAL SCORE:

I've had a string of dissapointing frozen wings lately, some from Presidents Choice, but this was actually a swing and a hit for me. The wings aren't big, but they are tender and the texture on the skin is not classically crispy, but it's doing something I kinda like. The smell and the flavour of these wings are on point. If I was wearing a blindfold I would think I was eating a truly smoked wing. The smell, the flavour - these wings are there. I would pass on the Maple BBQ sauce and either go natural or use my own sauce. 8.5/14

PC Dry-Rubbed Hardwood-Smoked Chicken Wings

Impractical Jokers at Buffalo Boss

I love the show Impractical Jokers & this episode they were at Buffalo Boss in NY serving up wings. Never been but I'd love to try them! Have you been? Could you prank like these guys? Swipe right to see the whole clip of Joe & hos voice command terminal! #lordofthewingsblog #lordofthewings #wings #chickenwings #buffalowings #hotwings #wingsontv #impracticaljokers #joegatto #salvulcano #brianquinn #jamesmurray #buffaloboss #wktv @joe_gatto @salvulcano @jamessmurray @bqquinn

A post shared by LORD of the WINGS (@lotw_wingking) on Jul 24, 2018 at 12:55pm PDT