Peter S.
Yelp
The wings were very overdone.
The perfect wing is crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. These wings were crispy on the outside, but dry and tough on the inside. The meat was clearly overdone.
Wings: C+
The french fries were OK. I can tell they were seasoned with spice, maybe creole seasoning. But they are the soft floppy french fries, not the crispy on the outside french fries. Good. Not great, but good.
French Fries: B
The sauces were good. We got Honey BBQ, Bourbon, and Garlic Parmesan. Again, they were good. No artificial / transfat flavors. I liked them, but again, none of them really stood out to me.
Sauces: B
Now, if it were just the food, I'd probably rate the restaurant 3 stars ("OK") but even if the wings were halfway decent, which they weren't, I still wouldn't come back.
Service was good, but slow.
Ambiance was very nice. There's a pic of Miles Davis in the back, which is pretty awesome. It's a fun place to eat.
While my family and I were waiting, a tatted up woman who looked strung out walked in with a baby pitbull. Two other people right at the door's entrance were walking some big dogs, and the pitbull started to attack the larger dogs. My wife and I ushered the kids into the back of the restaurant while the dogs went at it. I clearly heard the strung out woman yell "Any dog that barks at my dog is a dead dog!" When the fight subsided, my wife took the kids out and they waited in our car.
Some other customers walked in that were clearly on something. Some where blitzed, some were mellow, others hyper. Just yuck. There's a church across the street, and I'm wondering if there's a methadone clinic nearby because there were a bunch of people walking around who had that look, if you get what I mean.
So if the wings had been spectacular, or even just very good, we'd probably order in advanced and come back to pick the order up, and not wait in the restaurant. But the wings were just very meh. The meat was dry and somewhat tough, so I don't think we'll be back.
Why do people rate the restaurant so highly?
Two theories. One, wings are like pizza -- even bad wings are fun to eat, and you can overlook their quality because wings have to be VERY bad before someone refuses to eat them.
Two, the place specializes in wings, and I think the expectation of a "hole in the wall" that specializes in wings is high, so when people eat the wings, they expect them to be good, so they're good. I do think if you gave any reviewer a wing from here and a good wing from NYC, the difference would be palpable.
