Return to DUFF's 2020 - Toronto ON

#lotwwintercatchup - this review is from March 2020.

"WARNING - Medium IS HOT - Medium Hot is VERY HOT, Hot IS VERY, VERY HOT"

Me and Duff's have a looong history. I've been coming to the original Canadian Duff's for just under 20 years. I won't go into all of those visits here, but if you go to my last post in 2017 you can see the links. It's a fave, even if my last visit wasn't the best, but it usually is.

Let me set the stage, as this is probably my last in-person review since Covid-19 hit us all. Actually it was in the early days of Covid-19 starting to really spread world wide. LJ & I were off to Toronto to pick up her father from the airport; he was returning (as planned) after being in India for 2 months (don't worry, he didn't get Corona virus and has been in isolation ever since). Social distancing wasn't even a thing at this point. LJ and I were arriving to Toronto too early to pick him up, but with time for us to grab lunch. We had a small debate but we were both on board for wings at Duff's.

We went to the original Canadian location on Bayview ave because it was the easiest for us to get to. And nostalgia kicks in and I love this place, even if it is a bit small. I remember going here and there was almost always a line outside to get in. We were there mid-week arriving after the lunch hour, so it was pretty quiet (parking was still a pain though).

The place hasn't changed I think at all since I first went in the early 2000's. I mean it doesn't look dated. Actually one thing was missing - years ago they removed their siren - they used to have a siren that would go off when someone ordered Death or Armageddon wings, but no more.

The wing menu hasn't changed much either - there are a few more flavours than there used to be (Bold BBQ, Lemon Pepper, S&P) but aside from the prices it's pretty much the same. To get an idea, in 2006 it was $8.95 to get 10 wings that came with only celery and dip, but also coleslaw. No more coleslaw these days.

Our server (didn't catch her name) was pretty chill. She looked after us but also wasn't bubbly or very talkative. She took our orders, brought us waters, pitcher of pop, veggies with dip, bone bowl, plates and all the rest. It didn't take long before we had our fries and our wings.

Back in the day Duff's used to only give celery sticks, so having carrot sticks was a nice addition. Both were big, crunchy and fresh. For LJ's dip she went with Blue Cheese and I went with Dill. The blue cheese is good; it's creamy and got some chunks. I love the Dill - it's creamy and well, dilly.

The fries are pretty decent. I don't think they are fresh cut, even though they do have some skins on them. They are perfectly crispy - you bite and you hear the crunch. The inside is sufficiently soft as well. They are under or not seasoned at all, so there isn't much flavour here. That's where ketchup, vinegar, my hot sauce and dill dip came in to save the day.

Of course, we were here for the wings ...

Wings at Duff's back in the day used to be served 10 to an order, but they've since shifted to a pound of wings, which looks like about 8 these days. They state on the menu they cannot guarantee even flats or drums, but we got even flats and drums. I've already talked about the sides, but for cleanup they give you a bone bucket, napkins, and wetnaps.

The wings were large as they used to be. It's a long wing, with a good height, and is relatively meaty to this size of wing.

The skin is perfectly crispy. For a wing that is just straight up deep fried, you have that crispy/crackly skin that crunches when you bit into it. It's almost, almost, deep fried too much but not really. This means the bones are a little hard to pull apart in some cases, but other wise they pulled away clean.

I love me some saucy wings, but back in the day Duff's served their wings in a lake of sauce. Like the wings seriously drowned and I love all that sauce, but by the end, the wings are soggy and no longer crispy. So I started ordering them sauce on the side. LJ loves Salt & Pepper wings, so we got these S&P with Hot on the side.

SALT & PEPPER

Duff's does dry seasonings now, but we weren't crazy about their take on Salt & Pepper. At other places its big salt granules and big chunks of pepper, but these didn't seem to be like that. It wasn't very salty or peppery. I also think personally that a S&P wing goes better with a breaded fried wing. But hey, they were still very crispy. 

HOT

The hot on the side is a very generous bowl; I've gotten this amount of soup at other restaurants! I should note that the sauce is pretty much a pure orangey-red sauce; the flakes of pepper and salt came from the wings being dipped into the sauce.

Duff's is known for being a strongly vinegary Buffalo wing. It's very tangy. And they know their heats. Normally I get Superhot - it's a great suicide wing with a lot of bite - but I didn't want to go too hot for LJ's sake. She likes heat, but not like I do. But this Hot was still pretty hot - in fact it reminded me of Superhot. It stung my tongue and lips and when drinking the sauce, it went for my throat. Ya I drank the sauce. It's good!

FINAL SCORE:

It was good to go back. I love these wings - large, super crispy, super saucy, spicy wings. They are so tangy and spiky. Salt and Pepper was a bit underwhelming, the fries are decent, but I love their dill dip too. It's good when a place still lives up to nostalgia and memories. It was also fitting if these happen to be the last wings I had out at a restaurant ...   12/15

Duff's Famous Wings
1604 Bayview Ave, Toronto ON (and other locations)
duffsfamouswings.ca

RETURN to LOCAL HEROES (2020) - Ottawa ON

This review is from Feb 2020 #lotwwintercatchup


I first went to Local Heroes back in 2006. LJ was coming to Ottawa to interview for positions, and I came along with her (she was living in Windsor, me in Toronto. It was my first real year of reviewing wings, and I was excited for the chance to go outside of Toronto for wings. And this was THE chicken wing place in Ottawa. They had done well for themselves, being rated best wings in magazines, expanding to at least 7 locations. But the self proclaimed King of Wings definitely took a hit over the years, and they are down to just their original location.

I've been back since 2006, in 2007, but even since then, but for some reason I didn't do a follow up review. Back in February I was jonesing for wings for lunch, and decided to take advantage of Local Heroes all day wing day on Tuesdays.

 The old location hasn't changed much since that first review in 2006. Other than the menu looks different, I couldn't tell you if anything had changed. If you haven't been, it's a sports pub. It's decked out with mainly Ottawa Senators sports paraphernalia, with lots of tv's showing sports shows and such. There are three-ish areas inside: the bar, the bar dining room, and the dining area which is mainly booths and bigger seats. 

I was told that I could sit where I want, so I tried to strategize where I could take some photos with light, not be near anyone, but also be able to stretch out to do some work while I sat. The place was busy-ish. I went to the dining side because of the light and it was a little more stretched out. The crowd was mixed from a big work lunch group, to a woman on a laptop working, to seniors to twenty-somethings.

My server was Kelsey, who was professional, super friendly, and helfpul. She took my drink order bringing me a water and my Diet Pepsi. She's the type that refilled both my drinks without prompting, which is just great in my opinion. Kelsey was also helpful in explaining the wing situation such as telling me that wings were 25% off today, and she was able to answer my wing questions. First off she explained the chicken itself. Local Heroes does two types of chicken wings:

1) Famous Local Wings - whole wings (that can be split on request) that are served unbreaded and are fried up.

2) Roaster Wings - smaller than the Local wings, these wings are breaded and are already split (tips removed) and deep fried.

I decided to get 2lbs, one order of Roaster and one of the Local. For the Local, she said I could get them split on request, and I did request.

She was also able to answer my sauce questions. I asked about the heats; I usually ask "what is the difference between say Hot or 911? Is it the same sauce just more spicy or what?"  Kelsey explained Hot is Frank's Hot and 911 of Frank's Xtra Hot. Ok got it. I also asked about their Dante's Inferno, a commercial sauce I've had before - it's really good and has a nice bite to it. The other was Sweet Julius Heat, which I've never heard of but she told me it was sweet and spicy.  They don't have a crazy amount of sauces (20) but they do have a nice balance of flavours to choose from.


 Oh and after she took my order I remembered that this was an Ottawa wing joint, so I was probably doomed to sour cream. When she passed by to check on another table, I asked her if it came with dip; she said yes, sour cream, but I could have blue cheese or ranch if I wanted. Uh ya I'll have blue cheese!!!

I didn't have to wait long until my wing feast arrived and I was already happy.

Before my order arrived Kelsey did bring me a bone bowl, napkins, wetnaps, and my blue cheese dip. There were a ton of napkins, and I used a ton of napkins. They were those cheap, super thin type that are usually given out at take-out pizza joints. This should not be the napkin of choice at a wing place.

The blue cheese was good - chunky, creamy, and just the right amount of sour. I got two dips because I had two orders of wings. Can't believe the default is sour cream though - thank goodness I asked!

The size of the wings is dramatically different between the Roaster and the Local, but enough that there is a number difference. Roaster = approx 9 wings where the Local = 6 (although I got an extra 7th one). It's only supposed to be six because the wings are usually whole, so 3 whole wings in an order, split into 6. Also, I love that I still get the tips left on. Little messier to eat but a little extra is great.

The Local wings are large; they are a bit longer. They are fried naked and the skin is nice and crispy.

The Roasters are about a Medium+. The Roasters are also breaded (although it seems more like a good dusting rather than a thick breading) which adds to the size of the wing a bit. This also gives them more of crunch compared to the crispier Locals.

The Local wings were tougher and more dried out. Pulling the bones apart was difficult because of this. While both orders came at the same time, the Locals were barely warm, suggesting they got made first and sat out a bit.

The Roasters were very tender and more moist on the inside. These pulled apart easily. These were also a bit more meaty than the Locals, especially the drums. Speaking of drums, there was a roughly equal distribution of flats and drums among the wings.

Both sets of wings came well sauced. Each wing was wet, with extra sauce on the plate. I had a slightly tough time choosing sauces but I went with classic Hot on the Locals, and tried something different, the Sweet Julius Heat for the Roasters.

HOT

I chose Hot for my Locals wings because I had a feeling that this was just going to be a good classic pub wing experience: deep fried wings and hot sauce.

And that's what it was. Nice and crispy fried chicken skin in Frank's Hot Sauce. Nothing above and beyond, but just a good flavour. And look at the extra sauce just sitting there for smearing a half bitten piece of chicken into, mmmm good.

SWEET JULIUS HEAT

I had never heard of this flavour, and assumed it must be some sort of commercial sauce like the Dante's Inferno it's listed with, but I cannot find any record of it. This tells me it's made in house. This sauce was a lot more sticky and thick than the Hot.

The flavour was very sweet, sour, with some light spice. My guess is that it's their Sweet Chili Thai sauce mixed with something else. It did go well with the breaded wings, and I liked it as it contrasted to my Hot wings. I don't think I would get an order of these by themselves.

FINAL SCORE:

After years of coming and going, Local Heroes still stands out as a good place for wings in Ottawa. I liked the simplicity of the Local wings that were crispy and tossed in Hot. The breaded/dusted Roaster wings were crunchy, tender and went well with the Sweet Julius Heat. Blue cheese was good, the napkin situation while plentiful, was woeful. And an all day wing day is always aces in my books. I had a really good lunch here, but I don't know if the crown for King of Wings is still at Local Heroes. They are still royalty though! 10/15

Local Heroes Bar & Grill
1400 Clyde Ave, Ottawa ON
localheroesrestaurants.com

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