Tracy & Scott’s quest to find the Philly area’s best Buffalo Wings

homeslice1
Address: Rte 73 & Fork Landing Road, Cinnaminson, NJ 08077
Price: 10 Pieces for $6.95, 55¢ for celery, 55¢ for Blue cheese dressing

Tracy’s Overall Review: I have to say it, these wings were bad. When they placed them in front of me I just knew they were not Buffalo wings, they were fried chicken wings dipped in an reddish buttery substance. They were heavy and made me feel gross afterwards. You had to pay $1.10 extra for celery and bleu cheese dressing. The ordering process was weird. This place was a big disappointment, if it had great wings it could have been a perfect dive bar. Plus it was sad to watch Scott have his good childhood wing memories of this place dashed before my eyes.
homeslice2
Scott’s Overall Review: Walking in to the Jug Handle seemed like any other time but it wasn’t. Looking past the awkward cattle call of an entire table ordering at a bar separately, things weren’t starting off well. It was lunch time and not busy but the service besides the bartender was not good. I have had very good memories of jug handles awesome wings but something was way off. After ordering at the bar we waited around for 20 minutes for the wings to actually come to the table. When the wings finally came I was given the check and hovered over to pay quickly before eating. After just handling dirty money I looked at the sad, sad, sad wings I was about to eat. They didn’t look like what I remembered. These were my favorite wings in the area and I swore up and down how great they were. What I got was some small, room temperature butter wings. The “Hot”, “Buffalo” wings I had remembered were a lot more saucier, bigger and less buttery then I remembered. I hope that my recent visit was some fluke mistake or new cook. Right now though, I can’t recommend going there until service and/or quality of wing drastically changes. Sad, sad, sad………………… One bite ruined my childhood memory.
wings

Authenticity: On their menu they write “Famous Buffalo Wings (originated in Buffalo, perfected here).” Either they don’t really know what real Buffalo wings are or by claiming they “perfected” them they are implying that real Buffalo Wings are no good. These wings totally failed the authenticity test. They were breaded and and covered in a sauce that wasn’t Buffalo Wing sauce. If you take a peek on the Web a lot of people love the wings there, so maybe they are great to people who like the taste of a more fried chicken-style wing, but for Buffalo Wing enthusiasts we say take a pass.

Wing size: The wings were a little on the small side. They also kept the tips on some of them.

Sauce: The sauce did not taste like Buffalo Wing Sauce. It was very buttery and didn’t have any other distinguishing flavors. The sauces come in mild, medium, hot and extra hot. Tracy had medium, Scott had hot and neither were very hot.

Accouterments: They offer bleu cheese dressing and celery, but you had to pay extra for it. For the price of the wings they should be included. The celery was fresh enough and the bleu cheese dressing was alright.

Atmosphere: The restaurant is located on a jug handle in Jersey. It looks like someone’s house with neon beer ads in the windows. It’s an unpretentious, old man bar with no flat screen TVs. We went there at lunch time and there were a few alcoholics at one end of the bar and a couple groups of people eating lunch, otherwise it was pretty empty. The service was weird with the staff having varying degrees of friendliness. You seat yourself then you go up to the bar to order your food and drinks. You pay for your drinks right then at the bar and when your food is served at your table you pay for it right then and there. I guess it wouldn’t be that weird if it didn’t feel restaurant-like with so many big tables.

Rating: ★½☆☆☆☆

homeslice1
Address: 1030 N. American Street, Philadelphia, PA 19123. Located in Liberties Walk.
Price: 10 Pieces for $7.00

Tracy’s Overall Review: These wings were perfectly pleasant and would quell a wing craving, but they weren’t spectacular. Like Scott says “it’s all about the sauce” and the sauce was ok, but not great. I personally prefer the non-drumstick pieces, and in my batch they were almost all drumsticks. They could have also stood to be a tad bit crispier. However, it is definitely worth the trip for the ambiance and pizza.
homeslice2
Scott’s Overall Review: Homeslice was very clean and the service was great. I think you have to keep in mind that the main word here is “Pizzeria”. The wings are kind of a side note on the menu and kinda scared me at first with such flavors as BBQ, Poblano and Thai. The mild and hot flavors where pretty good and a buffalo style wing. The wings where good and the sauce was good but had a certain pepper taste that I couldn’t quite figure out. There was no celery or carrots but the blue cheese was good. Would I go back? Yes. Would I order wings again? Yes. The search still continues though with Homeslice have a pretty much standard wing in taste size and sauce.

Authenticity: They had no extraneous ingredients, but they served them with NO celery.

Wing size: The sizes varied a little, but they averaged out to a decent size.

Sauce: The sauce fell a little flat. They have “hot” and “stupid hot” and neither tasted all that hot. They also have other sauce flavors, but we wont talk about that.
wings
Accouterments: They had bleu cheese dressing and….nothing else. That is a little weird because it leaves you with only the wings themselves to dip into the dressing. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I imagine many Buffalo Wing connoisseurs would find that taboo. At the very least they get a red X for not including celery. The blue cheese dressing was pretty good, we dipped our fries in it.

Atmosphere: The restaurant is located on the hipster stroll Liberties Walk in Northern Liberties. The place itself is pretty awesome, decorated in decoupage and giant tomatoes painted on the walls. The people that work there are very nice. It also has a very cool bathroom. It is really loud in there from the ducts, it was hard to hear each other talk. But where it’s lacking in wing sauce quality it makes up for it in pizza. Their pizza is some of the best in Northern Liberties.

Rating: ★★★★☆☆

m1
Address: 1116 Walnut St Philadelphia, PA 19107
Website: www.moriartyspub.com
Price: 8 to 10 Pieces for $8.99

Tracy’s Overall Review: These wings got off to a good start but quickly degenerated into a dry, salty pile of chicken arms. I don’t like having to dismember wings before I eat them. By the time I ate a couple wings the remaining were so dry they actually grossed me out so bad I couldn’t finish them.

Scott’s Overall Review: The atmosphere was nice. The place is very clean, has an extensive bar and nice people.
m2 The wings?!? The wings are a little confusing. A little different at first glance since the wings aren’t cut. The first couple wings were really good, but something happened. Maybe there was a change in the earths gravitational pull, I don’t know. The wings were very crispy and the sauce  good but sparse. I think the goal here was to get a nice crispy no mess wing. They accomplished that but as time passed the wings dried out and were not as good. They could have been a contender. They just needed to give more sauce even if it was on the side. The worst part of the order had to be the bleu cheese. I am not even sure if its allowed to be called bleu cheese. The taste is reminiscent of mayo and rubber with barely any chunks of cheese. For a nice size order of wings there was also very little celery and carrots. All in all okay but the search continues…
m3
Authenticity: First off they serve the wings whole (inedible wing tip and all) and unchopped. That’s not how they do ‘em in Buffalo. They seemed not to use any extraneous ingredients in the sauce.

Wing size: The sizes varied, but they averaged out to a decent size. The downside was the smaller wings got a little overcooked. They say you get 8 to 10 in an order. We got 9.

Sauce: The sauce was good when the wings first came out, but then within minutes it became this dry, salty, orange wing coating. It kept your fingers cleaner than usual, but it was pretty nasty. Also it only comes in one (pretty mild) variety.

Accouterments: Pretty lame. We got only 3 celery stalks and some carrot sticks. Also the “bleu cheese dressing” was just gross. It was like a cup of mayonaise with some bleu cheese crumbles in it.

Atmosphere: Quintessential Irish Pub, complete with Irish music playing nonstop on the speakers, a zillion beer mugs lining the walls and a giant Bufflao head behind the bar. It was super busy with the lunch crowd when we first got there, but by the time we got our wings (it took them 25 minutes) it was just us and the alcoholics. The waitress was super nice. This place is also the recipient of a few Philly “best wings” awards (although we’re not feelin’ it).

Rating: ★★★½☆☆

mrwings1
Address: 500 Oregon Ave Philadelphia PA 19148
Website: www.mrwingsinc.com
Price: 10 Pieces for $6.96 (Tax Included)

Tracy’s Overall Review: These wings were good, but they didn’t blow me away. They were a good ratio of crispy to tender. They didn’t leave me disappointed, but they’re not wings I’ll be dreaming of later.

Scott’s Overall Review: At first the glance place was a little questionable and a little dodgy. I was pleasantly surprised though. The hot version of the wings weren’t “HOT” but enjoyable.  I must say Mr. Wings were actually the best I have
had in awhile. There wasn’t any fancy take on these wings, no chives or honey,
thank god! The celery was crispy and fresh and came with carrots. mrwings2I usually don’t
enjoy carrots at all but I actually ate all of them. To put it simply Mr. Wings was
the ”Meat and Potatoes” of wings in the area so far.

Authenticity: Passes the authenticity test, no breading or extraneous ingredients.

Wing size: Average, not too small, but could stand to be a little bigger.

Sauce: Not bad, but not amazing. It was missing a little bit of that Buffalo Wing tangyness that tastes so good. They DO, however, make their own sauce and make the claim “we use natural ingredients in our sauces” so that gets big points with us. They offer a choice of mild, medium, hot and nuclear. Scott got the hot and Tracy got the medium and the heat meter seemed a step below their labels.
mrwings3
Accouterments: This was a big surprise, not only did they include carrot sticks along with the celery they were both extremely fresh. And the bleu cheese dressing was tasty with plenty of chunks of bleu cheese. Our only complaint is we wish they gave you a little more celery.

Atmosphere: A sketchy-looking place in a South Philly strip mall. Looks like it could either be scary or an awesome gem in the rough. The few seats and no tables sends the message “we want you to be able to sit while you wait for your wings, but we don’t want you eatin’ here.” Which is too bad because wings are best crispy hot out of the fryer, you may have to sit and eat them in the car like we did. The woman who took our order was very nice. This place is also the recipient of a few Philly “best wings” awards.

Rating: ★★★★★☆

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