I’m getting tons of inquiries asking - “What happened to Wingsday?” - so I thought I’d let you guys in on a secret.

Wingsday is on a break.  4 weeks.  Starting now.

Oh, don’t worry - we’re still eating wings.  We just won’t be reviewing them (for public consumption, anyway) for the next month.  You see, as we’ve gotten further into this, we’ve realized there are a few holes in our review “net” - so we’re taking this time to fix ‘em.

Check back with us after the 4th of July, and we’ll have a review waiting for you . . .

In the meantime, enjoy some heat, as part of the summer and on your wings!

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Howdy folks, Scott here. Travis is on sabbatical from his Wingsday duties for the time being, so in lieu of my normal amazing reviews, I’ll be editing this week — inserting my own comments here and there. So I guess I’ll be your tour guide for today… I hope I don’t screw this up.

Anyway, this week we visited Wingstreet, inside of Pizza Hut on S. Florida Ave in Lakeland. So, on to the reviews:

“I must admit that I was not very excited when I learned where we were going for Wingsday on this day, Pizza Hut. I thought to myself, ‘They can not make pizza very well, what makes them think they can make wings?’ To my amazement I was surprised. There were several different varieties available and all of them seemed good. I ordered Spicy Asian and the Honey BBQ. When the wings arrived I was amazed, temperature-wise they were very hot and had just the -right amount of sauce. The Spicy Asian were exactly what they said, the sauce was a sweet and sour mixture with a shot of peppers. The Spicy Asian were a treat to have after eating some of the other flavors because it helped cool the mouth. (Agreed… a good palette cleanser, like that little pink stuff you eat between sushi rolls to quench that wasabi-burn.) The Honey BBQ was good as well, my least favorite, but good. The BBQ sauce was not very thick and contained a hint of smoke flavor which no other location has done.

Others at the table order Buffalo Burnin Hot, Garlic Parmesan, and Cajun. When the Buffalo Burnin Hot was ordered our waitress warned us they were extremely hot, I laughed. We were at Pizza Hut, how hot could wings be? She was right. The Cajun wings arrived and had a strong pepper smell. I have tried Cajun wing at several locations now and how decided I am not a fan of these so to me they were okay. I was very optimistic of the Garlic Parmesan. When this wing arrives on a table most of the time it looks like a wing that has been dipped in some sort of Alfredo sauce. Thank goodness these were not. These wing had a good buttered glaze with garlic on top and what looked like fresh Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top. These wings were excellent, overall these were the best.

I would visit Pizza Hut again for wings and would not have a problem ordering any of the above flavors.”
-Jason

“This week we went to Pizza Hut for Wingsday, that’s right: Pizza Hut. Well it was actually a WingStreet Pizza Hut that served pizza and wings. I arrived a little late and asked some of the other reviewers to order on my behalf. When I arrived I noticed that the waitress seemed a little stressed and might have been the only one serving with a full blown lunch crowd in the dining area. Both the food and drink seemed to take a little while to arrive with the wings coming out in stages. (Yes… I believe I probably waited 20 minutes overall for my drink — AFTER reminding her 3 times. What do you expect from a “Fast Food Waitress?”) Since there was quite a bit of confusion about what wings belonged to who we basically put them in the middle of the table and started sampling each flavor. All of the wings were medium size, non-breaded and cooked to a good consistency. (Kudos to Wingstreet for labeling the plates with stickers denoting each wing flavor.) Below is a summary of each wing that I sampled:

Buffalo Burnin’ Hot – Probably one of the hottest wings we’ve had so far. Although the heat was top notch; the flavor of the sauce was just average.

Garlic Parmesan – These were excellent wings and there’s nothing more I can really say outside of the fact that they were probably one the best, if not the best, Garlic Parmesan wing I’ve ever had.

Cajun – These were OK nothing special or great about them.

Spicy Asian - As the menu explains these wings have a sweet sauce with a little bit of kick. I’m not a big fan of really sweet sauces on my wings so I thought they were just average.

Most of the wings were more than adequately covered in there respective sauce and there were no containers provided for us to place our eaten wings into so we placed them on napkins. The waitress made up for this snafu by bringing us warm moist (cloth like) paper towels to clean up with afterwards. Forget the moist towelettes that come in the little square packets — this is the way to go. Overall the price was right (20 wings for $10.99) and the wings themselves were pretty good. I’m pretty sure just about everyone has been to a Pizza Hut so that environment and service is pretty much what you would expect from past experience. (Yeah, it wasn’t great… but they did turn up the A/C at our request!)”
-Shawn

“This week we went to WingStreet. I have heard really good things about this place, and even saw the awards they won last year, but still wondered how good wings could be from a Pizza Hut. The restaurant was pretty slammin’ for the pizza buffet. I think we were the only ones with wings in that whole place. First and foremost, our waitress sucked. (Again, I stress that I cannot agree more.) It took her 20 minutes and about 4 requests before she even brought me my glass of water, then another 5 minutes before I could get a straw. (SEE?!) More on her later. The wings came out by orders of 10. We all pretty much shared everything. So here is the wing breakdown.

Hot - These were really good. I can’t remember the last time I sweat from eating wings. The heat really grew on you.

Spicy Asian - These were not spicy, but very nice anyways. They had a subtle citrus flavor to them.

Garlic Parmesean - Nice and crispy. The flavor was very well dispersed throughout the entire wing - not just on the surface.

Cajun - These were just kind of peppery. I wasn’t a fan.

Honey BBQ - Someone finally got it right. They had a nice smoky flavor, not just doused with K.C. Masterpiece.

Overall I was very pleased with the wings. They were pretty large, very flavorful, and cooked really well. Also, I liked that they didn’t skimp on the sauce. The environment was pretty nice, as much as you could expect from a Pizza Hut. The restroom’s floor was sticky. That’s negative points for me. Our waitress was never around. Our cups were always empty. When she was around, however, she made me very uncomfortable by somehow managing to always place her 50 year old left breast on my right shoulder. (Watching that happen each time actually added points for the rest of us.) How thoughtful of her. She topped the day off by taking my debit card off the table (before I could even react) and charging me for the wrong meal. I then had to go through the entire process of voided my purchase and ringing up the correct ticket. Thanks for making me arrive late to work.”
-Mike

“It’s weird for me to be on this side of the proverbial table, writing a review rather than sprinkling my witticisms throughout the entire post, but I’ve got confidence Scott will hold down the fort/make fun of me admirably. (I’ll try my best… but sometimes it’s too easy.)

What do you say about Wingstreet? They have Pepsi products? Their pizza buffet is second to none? No, we do wings, and Pizza Hut’s entry into the wing market gave us plenty of choices – Spicy Asian, Parmesan Garlic, Burnin’ (their apostrophe abuse, not mine) Hot, Honey BBQ, and Cajun (there may have been a few others we didn’t get to). I was very impressed with the sauces they used; not overpowering, but plenty of flavor. That said, the wings were small, occasionally broken, and not overly meaty (that’s what she said!) (Jeez, stop writing parenthesis jokes! That’s MY job this week!). I’d recommend the Parmesan Garlic or Spicy Asian as the best of the crowd.

The service was poor, perhaps because there was one waitress for a very busy lunchtime crowd. As for value, this ranked near the top - $5.99 for 10 wings. Add in the fact that you could conceivably have them delivered to your door, and WingStreet’s a win. Not the best I’ve had, but a surprisingly tasty wing for a chain restaurant. (That’s what she… oh, you already ruined it.)
-Travis

“Today we went to Pizza Hut, I mean WingStreet for lunch. I tried hard not to be biased based solely on my low opinion of their pizza. I shrugged off the server’s warning that the Buffalo Burnin’ Hot wings were “very hot.” Yeah right, like Dave Thomas (of Wendy’s fame) makes a spicy chicken sandwich. (He does make a mean Frosty, brother.) Wingstreet’s wing sauce is a very unnatural red no. 5 colored capsaicin sauce that definitely brings the funk and the noise. That is to say, they were flipping hot. (Steve nearly got an open-handed smack because I think I saw a tear forming in his eye…) There was a strong vinegar acidic burn as well, and not in a good way. I tried the spicy Asian and honey BBQ flavors as well. They were much better. The atmosphere was exactly what you’d expect from a dine-in homogenized, generic, franchised \ chain establishment. Service left something to be desired as well. I doubt I’d go back to the dine-in restaurant, but I’d probably be okay with a delivery order of any flavor other than hot. They missed the mark in my humble opinion on the standard hot wing flavor, but did well in the artisan flavors. Coming in at about six bucks for ten wings, the value is hard to beat. For the technically savvy chicken wing lover, you can even order online. On the upside, I learned two new terms at lunch; the iron cross and the log cabin. Since this is a wing review I’ll leave those for you to Google on your own. (As the person who introduced these new phrases to the table, I recommend NOT googling them, especially prior to lunchtime.)”
-Steve

Overall, I’d pretty much agree with everyone: The waitress would have been better off had she not come in to work that day. The “special” flavors were halfway decent. The price was a good deal. The Buffalo Burnin’ Hot made my tounge feel like I had just licked a Solar Flare (with less flavor). The wings were medium-to-small sized, but had enough meat on them to satisfy. See, then I coulda said “that’s what she said” here. It fits so much better. That’s what she said. Crap. Thanks, Travis. See ya’ll next week!

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This week, we went to the mother of all wing establishments. Without Hooter’s, the wing industry would not even be an industry. This is where many a man is first exposed to, ummm, chicken wings. We’d kept pushing this venue back on our schedule, believing it would provide us with a new baseline. It did.

“It was inevitable. Wingsday must review all chicken wing establishments in the area and we couldn’t leave out Hooters - a giant in the wing business (and another business!). Hooters’ reputation was the only thing giant about it. Well, almost. Hooter’s chicken wings are as bulimic as their waitresses. Each could stand to put some meat on their bones. I tried the 911-hot chicken wings, naked. They are the second hottest wings on the menu. Only three mile island are said to be hotter. They were small, dry and lacking in meat. After consuming 11.5 wings (one was severely damaged) I’m starving (I was too - it’s sad to spend fifteen dollars on lunch and then need to get dessert on the way back to the office). The sauce was a deep red paste smeared on as an after thought then dehydrated, possibly via heat lamp. It tasted more like a tomato based spicy pasta sauce. Thankfully, I borrowed a Cajun and a parmesan wing from fellow wingmen. The Cajun were good, the parmesan were gross, dripping in cream sauce. I doubt I’d miss Hooters (the restaurant) if I never laid eyes on them (ummm, it?) again. I’m surprised how poorly the major wing establishments are measuring up against the hole-in-the-wall unknowns (Word - this is the most amazing thing to me; no-name places killing the big names. It’s like David and Goliath, only, if like David and Goliath were both chicken wings).”
–Steve

“Today we visited Hooters on the South side. Overall I must say that I was not impressed, in fact it sucked (I love the bluntness of this statement). Here is a breakdown of the day:

1. Arrived at 12:30 PM
2. Very busy
3. Service was extremely slow (Unbelievably slow. We were with a large party, but still, it was ridiculous)
4. Iced tea was watered down
5. Ordered 10 Spicy Garlic/Cajun wings
6. Food took approximately 45 minutes to come out
7. Wings were very greasy
8. To much sauce on the wings
9. Wings were also salty and to much pepper
10. The wings were so small I thought they were pulled from a Cornish hen
11. When I was finished I was still hungry
12. Even with the inside decoration it was not worth the price I paid, money or physically

Overall I would have to say that I am not sure I would visit Hooters again.”
–Jason

“Hooters. The name says it all. You know, now that I think about it, that’s all they really have going for them. There wasn’t much of a lunch rush today. In fact, it was a lot quieter than I remember Hooters being back when I frequented the establishment weekly. Oh how taste changes as you grow. I could tell it was going to be an interesting lunch from the moment I approached the table. To say that our waitress was tense/flustered would be like saying people go to Hooters for their quality cooked wings. I digress. The service was crap. The wings were crap. Even most of the “scenery” was crap. I can say, however, I never choose to eat at this place unless I have friends going there, which was the case for today.

Our waitress was totally (not) on top of things, scrambling all over the place, not knowing what plate was which flavor (this has happened to us a few times; if you advertise multiple flavors of wings, and you brag about how well you do it, how ’bout keeping ‘em straight for the customer. I would say that half the time we are forced to figure out the flavors on our own). At one point she blamed it on the cook’s colored toothpick technique. Later, she was complaining how she is usually very organized, but 3 girls didn’t show up for work. I don’t want to hear you complain. I just to eat a good wing. Well, I didn’t eat a good wing. I got 10 hot wings, naked, and an order of curly fries. The wings were the smallest pieces of meat that I had ever seen (that’s what she said) (funny guy! You beat me to it!) and the curtly fries were unseasoned and soggy. The only thing that would have made this experience better was 1) someone else had paid 2) beer would have been involved, or 3) all the waitresses were running around naked. I think the last option wouldn’t have been child friendly, or even a Hooters establishment at all. I think that this wing experience will be my last week with the Wingsday crew. I don’t know if I can emotionally handle another let down like this. (I’ll most likely be back next week)”
–Mike

“I approached this outing with apprehension – in the past I always used Mr. Everyman’s excuse for visiting the establishment: “Honey, it’s just because they have good wings, I swear!” (A similar ploy to “I only read it for the articles.”) However, I knew once my discerning taste buds sampled the food here, I might lose my excuse (What Scott meant to say here: Now that I’ve become a wing snob, I can’t check out the Hooter’s babes anymore, since their wings suck).

And I did. For starters, the wings/drums looked like they came from New York City pigeons more than actual chickens. Smallest wings ever. [Insert “large (chicken) breast” joke here.] (Okay - you know what they say about small wings?)

Moreover, the flavors just weren’t that great. Any combination of flavors was a nightmare… icky, gooey, too much seasoning. A mess. The hot wings were okay. The teriyaki was bad, but I hate teriyaki anyway. The Cajun were okay. Somehow I lucked out and picked (in my opinion) the best-tasting wing on the menu – the Spicy Garlic. That’s not saying much, though. The best tasting wing at Hooters is like being the smartest person to repeat 5th grade… twice.

From now on I’ll have to tell my wife I go to Hooters for the oysters (I would go for the shrimp!).”
–Scott

“The wings were good. Not really the best wings I’ve ever had. My favorite part about lunch was dipping the fries in the ranch. I liked the fries - not the best I’ve ever had, but they were good. I guess I would go back.”
–Christian (age - 8 - filling in for his dad and reviewing wings as part of “Bring Your Child to Work Day”)

Make sure to check Wingsday this week as we unvail our rankings thus far in the “Wing of the Year” competition.  Have a great weekend!

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Due to some very special circumstances, we’re postponing Wingsday until tomorrow.  Make sure to check back for our reviews, and maybe a special guest reviewer!

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This week, we took on Salem’s, at the corner of 92 and MLK. I’ll be honest with you, I wasn’t stoked about Salem’s, as it kinda reminded me of a fast food place. Guess what? It was a fast food place, albeit one with pretty good wings . . .

 

“Today we tackled Salem’s Gyros & Subs. I had 10 hot buffalo chicken wings with a side of onion rings. I’m not sure why they ask “here or to-go?” because everything was served up in styro-foam ready to take away (Trav: this is pretty convenient). Whatever (Don’t whatever me - it is convenient). From ordering at the counter to sitting down eating took maybe four minutes. Seriously, I’ve seen drive-thru burger joints run slower. The quality of the chicken wasn’t great. Some of the drumettes were very small (That’s what she said!). The wing pieces were better sized. The sauce smelled as though it was going to be very hot, but on the scoville scale, just measured at a normal hot to my taste. Overall I’d say the experience was a good one. Especially for a time crunched lunch. You could get in and out of there in no time and enjoy a decent wing. The sign boasted “open 365 days a year.” I guess now I know where to get a good hot wing meal on Thanksgiving or Christmas. They server platters of 100 wings too. Just what the holidays need (The holidays, do, in fact, need wings).”
–Steve

 

“Having driven past Salem’s Gyro shop many many times, I was confused when I found out that we would be eating there for Wingsday. When I arrived today, upon closer inspection, I noticed it was a fast food style establishment, even equipped with a drive thru. After I parked and walked in, I instantly knew that this would be a better place for take out rather than dine in. The dining area was maybe 20 feet wide by 50 feet long (that’s what she said), with not much room  (It really was kinda tiny, but I didn’t feel cramped.  Maybe that’s just me). Needless to say the tables were a bit crowded when surrounded by four grown men. Anywho, I placed my order. A number 6 platter. 10 wings and fries. I paid my bill and joined the guys while waiting for my food. I didn’t realize that a drink was not included. They should be more specific with that, because I thought “platter” meant everything I need to dine. Frustrated with the situation, I walked out to my car and drove away grabbed a bottle of water and returned to my lunch. The wings were pretty standard. Nothing special, except the ones that were cold (Mike ordered a few minutes after the rest of us - he probably got some of our leftovers). They tasted like every other mediocre wing tastes. They were decent in size. The fries were good. It was better than Ale Gator’s (At first, I disagreed with this - but I think he’s right). I would hardly rate this wing, or establishment, on a top list of places to dine, but I would eat there again (as long as it was take out).”
–Mike

“I’ve passed by Salem’s Gyro & Subs several times over the years. You really can’t miss the building since it’s quite colorful and tends to stand out (Seriously - it’s got flourescent lights and pink and blue accents - it slightly resembles a Miami Subs; are there still Miami Subs?).  It’s not in the greatest part of town, so I’ve never really given any consideration to stopping by, especially after dark. Wingsday occurs mostly during the daylight hours, so we gave it a shot. The restaurant was clean and although there were several people waiting for food, everything seemed well organized. I ordered the 10 wings and fries platter with a drink and paid under $10 which included free beverage refills. This is a fast food restaurant and the food came out in about 5 minutes. Many establishments openly advertise that it takes at least 20 minutes to thoroughly cook wings, so we (I had no concerns.  I’m brave like that) had some concerns about things being prepared so quickly. Regardless, when we picked up the food it seemed well cooked and we dug right in. The wings were cooked to a light crispy texture and had a very distinct flavor unlike any other wing that I’ve had. The sauce had a hint of sweetness and the hot flavor was a little too much on the medium side, but overall they tasted pretty good. The size of the actual wings were a medium large, but the drumsticks were quite small. We also noticed that we got about 12 to 14 pieces of chicken instead of just 10, which was a nice bonus. The fries were good and the shrimp that one of the guys ordered to share was not bad either. Although everything was pretty good about the experience, there was nothing great about it. I would give it an overall rating of 2.8 out of 5 stars.”
–Shawn

I would definitely eat there again, dine-in or take out.  The subs looked good, and the wings were definitely passable.

Stay tuned, as next week, we’ll be releasing the first official rankings from the Wingsday crew.  It’ll be like the BCS, only, you know, without football teams and computers.

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