Best Wings in Buffalo

[Livinginthepast]

On 7/26/2021 at 4:51 PM, The Dean said:

 

If you find yourself in the Falls again, try La Hacienda Pizza on Pine Ave. Still one of my favorites in the country. (No relation to the Buffalo area La Hacienda.)

 

If you find yourself in the Falls again, try La Hacienda Pizza on Pine Ave. Still one of my favorites in the country. (No relation to the Buffalo area La Hacienda.)

 

 

Two foods I always order "Crispy" are wings and pizza. My brother in law (and some others) regularly complain their pizza or wings are undercooked. My first question is usually, did you order them well done/crispy?  I just can't leave it to chance anymore.

Hacienda has amazing pizza and wings! 

[TroutDog]

I absolutely love Bar Bill. Duff’s are good as well. The only thing I don’t like about the latter is their claim of how hot their sauces are…they’re not. 

[Clyde Smith]

You can basically go anywhere in Buffalo and get good wings. Hell, some of my best wings came from hole in the wall bars or local corner stores deep in the E and W side.

Edited August 29, 2021 by Clyde Smith

[The Dean]

1 hour ago, Clyde Smith said:

You can basically go anywhere in Buffalo and get good wings. Hell, some of my best wings came from hole in the wall bars or local corner stores deep in the E and W side.

 

 

Agreed. Too many great places to focus on just one, IMO.

 

On an entirely unrelated point:

Understand I'm an old timer, but back in the day (don't you hate that expression?)  honey mustard wings were NOT "real" wings (meaning classic Buffalo wings). Many, if not most of the alternative flavors aren't Buffalo creations at all. Now I'm not saying I don't enjoy some of the different flavors of wings, I just would never refer to them as Buffalo Wings. Buffalo Wings have Buffalo style sauce on them. Pretty simple, when you think about it, no?  

 

Getting flavorful wings isn't a problem outside Buffalo, IMO. Getting great BUFFALO wings is the tough part. Especially if you like your wings "suicidal" hot.

[davefan66]

Duffs.

 

Unless you have a shellfish allergy as I do.  They cook their wings in the same oil as shrimp.  Can’t touch them as of 6-7 years ago.

 

That being said.  Picasso’s are really good, ask for them crispy.  Pesci’s is good, like their sauces.

[R. Rich]

Duffs and Gabriel's Gate are two of my favorites.   Usually hit up one, or both, on every trip to WNY. 

[The Dean]

3 hours ago, davefan66 said:

Duffs.

 

Unless you have a shellfish allergy as I do.  They cook their wings in the same oil as shrimp.  Can’t touch them as of 6-7 years ago.

 

That being said.  Picasso’s are really good, ask for them crispy.  Pesci’s is good, like their sauces.

 

 

I'm not doubting this happened to you. But do you know if they typically cook the fish/shrimp in the wing oil? Or could it have been mistake on that day? Or something they used to do?

 

That's a horrible thing to do, even if people didn't have  the allergies. It makes the wings taste terrible. Fries, too. A place as big as Duffs should definately have a separate fryer. I must say, I don't remember their wings ever having an off flavor.

[SECRET SQUIRREL]

Bar Bill is awesome, I go to the Clarence location often.... I also think that Dwyer's Irish Pub in North Tonawanda is easily one of the best in the North towns, they have 30 flavors.... the hot raspberry BBQ there are absolutely lights out! 

[HOUSE]

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

2 minutes ago, HOUSE said:

You have to go to the ones with the quick oil change bays.  No oil change bays, no oil for the deep fryers.

[Doc]

Went to Duff's after training camp.  Wings were great.  Son said they were the best he's ever had. 

[goober]

15 hours ago, Giuseppe Tognarelli said:

Cajun honey butter BBQ.

Is that just a random flavor there but regardless of flavor you consider them the best wings overall?  I don’t get back to Buffalo that often and when I do it doesn’t typically involve trips to East Aurora.  But I constantly hear about these bar bill wings on this board.  As others posted above I just want traditional Buffalo wings in Buffalo.  I don’t care who has the best bbq wings , dipping sauce selection, smoked wings etc just as I don’t care who has the best Chicago style pizza in Buffalo.  
 

(and always felt original Duff’s personally, don’t know about branch franchises.  )

Edited August 30, 2021 by goober

[Giuseppe Tognarelli]

41 minutes ago, goober said:

Is that just a random flavor there but regardless of flavor you consider them the best wings overall?  I don’t get back to Buffalo that often and when I do it doesn’t typically involve trips to East Aurora.  But I constantly hear about these bar bill wings on this board.  As others posted above I just want traditional Buffalo wings in Buffalo.  I don’t care who has the best bbq wings , dipping sauce selection, smoked wings etc just as I don’t care who has the best Chicago style pizza in Buffalo.  
 

(and always felt original Duff’s personally, don’t know about branch franchises.  )

I tried Duff's on this trip as well and they weren't very good. The traditional mild Buffalo wings were completely sauceless.

 

Wingnutz are hands down the best, even if you want traditional Buffalo sauce. They offer that (Buffalo Mild), but the best are the Wingnutz Mild. They were ranked the #1 wing in the world. You have to order a day or more in advance though. They usually sell out 5 minutes after opening, if not before opening.

 

To clarify, what I'm saying is that if you just ordered sauceless wings, Wingnutz are the best. I think that's what you really wanted to know. They are huge and they have a perfect crunch.

Edited August 30, 2021 by Giuseppe Tognarelli

[The Dean]

6 minutes ago, Giuseppe Tognarelli said:

I tried Duff's on this trip as well and they weren't very good. The traditional mild Buffalo wings were completely sauceless.

 

Wingnutz are hands down the best, even if you want traditional Buffalo sauce. They offer that (Buffalo Mild), but the best are the Wingnutz Mild. They were ranked the #1 wing in the world. You have to order a day or more in advance though. They usually sell out 5 minutes after opening, if not before opening.

 

 

I'm not disputing your experience or opinion, but the bolded is basically meaningless and I think you know that.  Ranked by whom? When? Against what competition? Who were the judges? What was the criteria?  Etc. 

 

Every bourbon/vodka/etc was voted Best in America!  There are so many competitions and so many awards. It's all marketing.

 

 

Edited August 30, 2021 by The Dean

[goober]

57 minutes ago, Giuseppe Tognarelli said:

I tried Duff's on this trip as well and they weren't very good. The traditional mild Buffalo wings were completely sauceless.

 

Wingnutz are hands down the best, even if you want traditional Buffalo sauce. They offer that (Buffalo Mild), but the best are the Wingnutz Mild. They were ranked the #1 wing in the world. You have to order a day or more in advance though. They usually sell out 5 minutes after opening, if not before opening.

 

To clarify, what I'm saying is that if you just ordered sauceless wings, Wingnutz are the best. I think that's what you really wanted to know. They are huge and they have a perfect crunch.

Not sure.  I have never ordered mild wings at Duffs but am good w/ their medium to hot.  Wingnutz sounds like if I want to order wings w/o sauce that are huge & crispy, and I am getting them takeout, and at home putting my own sauce on them, and they stay crispy during the car ride, that sounds great?  Not everything stays crispy during the car ride, especially when you order a bucket....how do you order a bucket to go and keep them from getting ruined b/c of the steam?  That's what I would like to know.

[Nelius]

On 8/28/2021 at 8:56 PM, hondo in seattle said:

 

That may have been true once upon a time.  But sadly, if I had to pick my favorite wing spot, it probably wouldn't be one in Buffalo.  When it comes to wings, most of America has caught up to Buffalo.  

 

Oddly, though, I still think the average pizza in Buffalo is better than the average pizza in just about any other U.S. city.  

 

Also have to argue against this a bit, at least in my experience. I've been in Denver for 20+ years and have made it a point to try every single new wing place that gets talked about - nothing even touches your B- wing from Buffalo that you can get from any local sub shop. Granted, that's one city, but it's one large, growing city that seems to import everything else well. Wings, nope.

[PrimeTime101]

Duffs and its not close

 

[davefan66]

8 hours ago, The Dean said:

 

 

I'm not doubting this happened to you. But do you know if they typically cook the fish/shrimp in the wing oil? Or could it have been mistake on that day? Or something they used to do?

 

That's a horrible thing to do, even if people didn't have  the allergies. It makes the wings taste terrible. Fries, too. A place as big as Duffs should definately have a separate fryer. I must say, I don't remember their wings ever having an off flavor.

Shellfish allergies are varying in sensitivity.  Mine, unfortunately, I can’t eat anything cooked in oil that had shrimp.  I’ve had 2 reactions from food cooked in that oil - fries and house made tortilla chips.  Both told me it wasn’t an issue.  One of them admitted their mistake after I had a reaction.  Have found only a handful of restaurants that have fryers dedicated for shrimp/fish.  Seems the fryers are a “free for all”.

 

As far as causing flavors to mix?  Most of the restaurants that don’t have dedicated fryers tell me not to worry as they change their oil frequently.  Doesn’t matter for the allergy, maybe taste contamination it does.  

[Doc]

10 hours ago, Giuseppe Tognarelli said:

I tried Duff's on this trip as well and they weren't very good. The traditional mild Buffalo wings were completely sauceless.

 

Wingnutz are hands down the best, even if you want traditional Buffalo sauce. They offer that (Buffalo Mild), but the best are the Wingnutz Mild. They were ranked the #1 wing in the world. You have to order a day or more in advance though. They usually sell out 5 minutes after opening, if not before opening.

 

To clarify, what I'm saying is that if you just ordered sauceless wings, Wingnutz are the best. I think that's what you really wanted to know. They are huge and they have a perfect crunch.

 

They shouldn't be sauceless.  That was a mistake on their part.

[CapeBreton]

Are breaded wings frowned upon in Buffalo? They're my favourite but I feel like they're not the most popular there.