Mike B.
Yelp
$41.25 for 20 wings, fries, and a pitcher of beer. This works out to about $54.00 after tax and tip.
Just starting off, you know that Duff's is not cheap. Even if we pretend that $20.00 dollars were for the pitcher of beer, you're still looking at $34.00 for some fries, and wings.
On one hand, you get celery and some dipping sauce (either dill, or blue cheese.) On the other hand - you only get three pieces of celery. All things being equal, celery is not really a loss leader. You'd think they could have afforded to toss out, perhaps 4, or even 5, pieces. But no, three.
That alone wouldn't be enough for a 2-star review. What really let me down was when I asked about the Bold BBQ sauce. Now, Duff's is not a place with dozens of difference sauces. I think they had about 12. Most of them were spices (medium, medum-hot, hot, hot-hot, really-hot, and some "crazy hot" things.)
I wasn't feeling the spice, but I didn't want a sweet Kraft-like BBQ sauce. I had hoped the bold would be similar to a hickory smoke. When I asked what it was like I was met with a few stumbling answers, and finally, "there's not whisky in it." Which, you know, is interesting and all - but not really descriptive.
I took a risk and went with it. It was delicious. The Bold BBQ wings are a great flavour, and go really well with the large bowl of fries you get with the combo.
Unfortunately, the wings are smaller than the last time I was there. I'm sure this is universal, across the board, in order to keep costs consistent, they need to make the food portions smaller. But, I don't view $54.00 as a cheap meal, even when shared with another person.
The wings were tasty - but no better, nor any worse, than what you'd find at most wing joins. The prices are not delightful, but they are pretty much what you'd expect these days. Unfortunately, it was the lack of knowledge about the flavours that really let me down.