61 locations in 22 States, including 5 new Illinois spots. 18 international locations in 8 countries, I went to the newly opened Bolingbrook location
The Wing Joint:
With the 2015 NCAA Basketball tournament kicking off tomorrow morning, I wanted to tell you about my recent trip to Wing Zone, the wing joint that delivers. Yes, delivers. Hot tasty wings on demand delivered to your door step without missing a minute of tournament action. You don't see too many wing places that offer delivery. For me, I am out of their delivery zone but I took a drive out to Bolingbrook and checked out this newest location. This location looks like a typical mall store front, but inside a wing chain that is rapidly growing. I never heard of Wing Zone until a few weeks ago and they are about to open a 5th Chicagoland location already. You read correctly above, there are 18 locations in 8 other countries. Going to Moscow, Russia, Panama, Saudi Arabia, or Malaysia any time soon? Well they are there for those wing cravings. Inside, the dining room area of about 20 tables, has a new sleek modern dining look. Ok, maybe that's over kill, but its comfortable and clean, like really clean. Staff was very friendly. They even have wall mounted TVs with sound on for the games. I love the fact that Wing Zone doesn't consider their wings as fast food. The sign on the order counter reads that Wing Zone prides themselves in fresh never frozen wings and all food is cooked to order. Wing orders may take 15-20 minutes. I have no problem waiting for steaming hot wings. The wall painting says, "flavorholics unite" so let's put these flavors through my taste test.
The Wing Review:
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| Hot Shot Buffalo |
The Bolingbrook menu offers 17 different wings flavors. Each location has a separate online menu so I wonder if some flavors are not offered at all locations. They use a heat index rating for each sauce, rated 1-4 peppers on the menu which helps select the heat level for you. I ordered Hot Shot Buffalo, Mango Fire, and Blackened Voodoo which is a dry rub. Hot Shot and Mango Fire each have a heat index of 3 and Blackened Voodoo is a 1. To be honest, I only tried the Blackened Voodoo, because I was heading to New Orleans just weeks before coming here and this flavor is described as a New Orleans Cajun dry rub.
Lets start with the wings. Like I mentioned, before they are cooked to order so they came out of the kitchen steaming hot. The sauce coverage was nicely done. I love seeing that puddle of extra sauce at the bottom of the basket. The wings were cooked well, exterior had a nice crunch. The wings are medium in size and clearly aren't the meatiest, but at least they wwere tender.
The Blackened VooDoo dry rub wings were cooked just right, tender and juicy with an excellent deep fried crunch. I think the dry rubs are starting to grow on me more and more, every time I order 'em. The flavor dry rub described as "Cajun flavors of New Orleans" was just ok. A little bland. I failed to find that Cajun spice New Orleans style taste they described. Looking up close you can see the salt, pepper, and spices so I expected a tasty flavor blast that just didn't come. After returning from New Orleans this week and eating all sorts of cajun inspired dishes, this flavor definitely needs some work.
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| Mango Fire |
Holy butter Hot Shot Buffalo sauce. At least that's what it should be called. Did they add an extra stick of butter to the sauce? The butter taste over powers this everyday average buffalo sauce. The 3 heat index rating was generous. I would rate the heat of this sauce more like a 2. There is some heat but not enough to get my taste buds warmed up. I wouldn't order any of the buffalo flavors here after having this taste test, there are to many other flavors on the menu to choose from.
The Mango Fire was the my favorite and made up for the disappointing buffalo sauce that lacked heat. These wings have a nice spicy kick, which would make the average wing eater sweat. The taste ain't too shabby either. These wings are nicely glazed with a sticky mango sweet orange chicken flavor sauce. In comes the heat kick which makes this is a great combination. Must try.
Wing Night: None
Side Notes:
+ Wing Delivery! Where has this been all my life?
+ Cleanliness and customer service go a long way in my book.
- Not sure how good a burger could be at a joint specializing in chicken wings and tenders.
- Stay away from the buffalo sauce.
Moment of Truth and Why:
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| Blackened Voodoo |
Overall: 3.5 Star Wings
Temperature: 4.5
Size & Texture: 3
Sauce Amount: 4
Flavor: 3.5
Heat: 3.5
Individual Sauces:
Hot Shot Buffalo: 2
Mango Fire: 4.5
Blackened Voodoo: 3.5
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| 17 Wing Sauce Creations |
Clean, friendly customer service, and cooked to order food are the smaller things that often get over looked but goes a long way. This is what stands out at the Bolingbrook location. This is a wing chain that's clearly trying to cater to every wing eater with a great variety of sauces. So many times I have come in to these wing chains types, that offer a dozen sauces that all sound so good, but serve just average buffalo hot sauce. Here is no different. Look, the buffalo sauce isn't terrible but come here for the unique sauce creations they offer and leave the buffalo hot wings for another day and another wing joint. Mango Fire was seriously good and highly recommended. Ill definitely be back for those Mango Fire wings again. I am curious about the Nuclear Habanero sauce too. March Madness is upon us, so stay in, watch 12 hours of basketball a day, and order some wings for delivery.
Website:
http://wingzone.com/
Follow me on twitter @chicagowingman
Always looking for a new wing joint, got a favorite wing joint? Tell me about and I'll check it out. Hope this helps and enjoy. Eat more wings!
