SERIOUSLY - Please do not go out. Stay at home. Make your own wings and dye your own beer. Please don't gather in crowds.
PSA from your friendly neighbourhood Lord of the Wings.
Tuesday, 17 March 2020
HAPPY ST PATRICK's DAY 2020!!!
SERIOUSLY - Please do not go out. Stay at home. Make your own wings and dye your own beer. Please don't gather in crowds.
PSA from your friendly neighbourhood Lord of the Wings.
LOTW Meme Monday = Suicide Wing Hand Sanitizer
* so I thought this was published yesterday but it did not get published. Sorry for it being a day late
No but seriously wash your hands before AND after eating. This isn't a drill.
Also, to all the places that serve us up our wings and have to close right now, hang in their. We'll be back soon.
No but seriously wash your hands before AND after eating. This isn't a drill.
Also, to all the places that serve us up our wings and have to close right now, hang in their. We'll be back soon.
Sunday, 15 March 2020
Thursday, 12 March 2020
FITZ's CLASSIC GRILL BBQ SMOKEHOUSE - Ottawa ON
This review is from January. Better late than never right?
When I first moved to Ottawa back in the late 2000's, I came across a place that made amazing chicken wings. Loved them. The place was called PJ Quigleys, and not only did I have good wings there, I not only participated in a wing eating contest, but the next year got to judge it too. It was pretty good but after I moved to Ottawa, I think the owners retired and it closed. Sad, I know. But many years later, the joint is now Fitz's Classic Grill BBQ Smokehouse. That sounded like somewhere I wanted to try.
I spoke to a lady on the phone and she proudly listed off the specials for wings (as well as the other nights). I didn't fully hear what she said, but what I knew was that Monday was wing night, but Monday-Thursday they had Happy Hour specials with wings. Good enough for me!
I went on a Monday night hoping to take advantage of the wing special, but then I noticed online earlier in the day that their wing special didn't start till 8pm, and I wasn't going to be available for that time, so I ended up going for Happy Hour between 4-6pm. The place looked pretty much as I remembered it as PJ Quigley's, but with more Southern/Country decorations. The place was pretty busy, but with what seemed like mostly solo diners. Lots of seniors, a family or two, a couple or two. Actually it was pretty busy for a Monday night.
My server was Josh, and he was very busy acting as host, server, bartender, bus boy etc. He was on his own and quite busy. He did seat me, but at an awkward small table right near the door; it was awkward because I was either going to be sitting facing an older gentleman by the windows and every patron walking in the door, or have my back to them but immediately face a dude sitting at the bar - or more clearly, his legs. I chose the window view. There were a lot of empty booths and tables on the other side and I was kind of frustrated that I couldn't sit there, but later discovered it was closed off for an event later that night.
I had noticed the board outside the restaurant advertised the Happy Hour 1/2 price apps and to "ask server for details" so I asked Josh when I got a chance (because he was super busy doing everything). So Josh points out the 4 appetizers that are 1/2 price - wings not being one of the four he pointed to. I ask about the wings and he says "oh ya wings are 30% off". Still better than nothing but 1/2 off is better.
I figured the wings must be pretty big or a generous serving or something because they are $14 normally. Josh then asked me what sauce I wanted. There's only 4 sauces, and while I had read a few good things about their Jerk chicken, I went with Hot.
Josh took my order and maybe 15 minutes later I had my meal.
Right off the bat I was slightly disappointing in my wings - they just looked small for what normally would have been $14. There were about 8 or 9 wings in the order, split pretty evenly drums and flats.
There was a lot of thin carrot sticks though and dip which was nice. And I had a choice of dip: blue cheese, ranch, and sour cream *shudders*. I went with the blue cheese and it was really good. Creamy, chunky, tangy. I also had a bone plate, napkins, and a wetnap for cleanup.
As I said, I was not impressed with the size of the wings. They were mostly medium, maybe on the smaller side of medium. They weren't especially meaty either.
The wings are deep fried and were nicely crispy to start, but were soggy by the end of the dinner. The meat was ok tender, the bones pulled away ok but I suspect these come from frozen.
The wings smelled amazing though. They were tossed in enough sauce to be wet, but not generous amounts. The sauce was just good old cayenne hot sauce. These were just a good bar wing. Not hot, but good.
FINAL SCORE:
For a place that's a "Classic Grill BBQ Smokehouse" - I didn't see or smell any smoke. I also didn't try and BBQ food either. The wings were good in a classic bar food sense, but on regular price these would be a total rip off. Nothing special about these wings - they aren't breaded, there's no special sauce. They're good, but not $14 good. I appreciate they still came with veggies and dip for Happy Hour though. 8/15
Fitz's Classic Grill BBQ Smokehouse
250 Greenbank Road, Ottawa ON
fitzscatering.ca
Happy International Women's Day
A little late posting ...
Big shout out to all women today. You make all the difference.— LORD of the WINGS (@LordoftheWings) March 9, 2020
Wing long & prosper!#lordofthewingsblog #lordofthewings#wings #chickenwings #womenwithwings #internationalwomensday #theblackwidow #sonyathomas #womenrock #IWD2020 pic.twitter.com/UyJs2ka5zD
Wednesday, 11 March 2020
SIZZLE N'GRILL - Barrhaven ON
This review is from back in January.
Back in the fall, I had to go to Barrhaven (one of the surrounding towns outside of Ottawa) to run some errands, and I had decided to go and check out what kind of wings they had to offer. I was checking out what Google had to offer and I came across Sizzle N' Grill.
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| This is Ali A's photo from 2018 |
But I said I would return ... and I did. In 2020. And they were open this time.
Sizzle N'Grill is located not far from the 417 highway passed the Costco shopping plaza. It's in it's own plaza with three mixed use towers surrounded by suburbia. The bottom two levels are businesses while the top level is housing. There are a bunch of eateries (Gabriel's Pizza, Burger & Shakes, Cafe Crystal) but I was interested Sizzles.
Originally there was a restaurant called Delish Grill, but Sizzle N'Grill replaced it around 2018 I think. Inside the place still looks brand new. It's clean, it's bright. I like it. While it seems like more like a take-out joint, there are several tables and booths to sit at.
It's kind of hard to nail down the cuisine here: it's kind of Mediterranean/Middle Eastern with wraps of kebabs and gyros, but then they also do burgers, poutine. Of course I was interested in the wings on the menu.
I asked Sizzle Dude about the wings, and then he said he had to check to see if they had them. This kind of surprised me. It's a Friday, and they may not have wings? I mean, I know wings isn't their main focus, but I would think you get more people ordering wings on a weekend than a weekday. Anyways, they had wings.
I could hear them in the deep fryer. That's a magical sound. Then I heard them come out of their oil bath and into a metal bowl. I love tinging sound they make hitting the bowl. Sizzle Dude sauced and tossed the wings. He took a heavy white plate, put the classic wing food paper down, then plated the wings. Then more hot sauce was applied to the wings. I was ready to eat!
Wings come in orders of 12, 24, 36 etc. There are no sides or dips that come with the wings. They were pretty evenly split between flats and drums.
There were no special clean up items for me other than napkins. But the napkins are the cheapest, thinnest possible napkins you can get. I'm not that messy an eater and usually get through maybe 2 napkins a wing sitting, but I needed a ton of these especially with such saucy wings.
The size of the wings were pretty decent. The length on these were a medium-medium+ but the height on these were large. They made for stubby looking wings because of this. They were also pretty meaty so a good width on them as well.
The wings were dusted before frying, giving the skin a very nice crispiness to them. They didn't look as nice as the photo Ali A took on Google, but they were crispy enough. The chicken was from frozen I'm pretty sure, but the meat was still relatively tender. Actually, a few wings were almost not cooked long enough and a bit red, but they were still ok to eat.
The wings were very well sauced. As mentioned above, they were tossed in sauce, then had even more sauce poured over top. I was happy to have lots of sauce to work with. The extra sauce did break down the crispiness of the wings in time, but the texture was still good.
The sauce was your standard cayenne based hot sauce. Probably Frank's. It was good. Nothing special, but good vinegary hot sauce.
FINAL SCORE:
The wings at Sizzle N'Grills were pretty good. Meaty, crispy, saucy. Size was a little unconventional, but still good. Tender enough too. While I wouldn't make the trek down to Barrhaven just for these wings, if I was local I would have them again for sure. 8/14
Sizzle N'Grill
200 Kennevale Drive, Barrhaven ON
sizzlengrill.com
Thursday, 27 February 2020
Wednesday, 26 February 2020
Self Imposed Social Media Break
Hey folks,
So basically this past month I went on a self imposed social media break. Stopped blog posts, tweets, Instagramming and the such. That's why there hasn't been much new lately. After a few weeks, I feel a bit more recharged and am back at it.
Just wanted you to know and remind you that it's ok to do the same once and a while.
Cheers,
Wing King
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