In the world of chicken wings, Buffalo Wild Wings (BW3) was always on the top of the heap in my mind. My favorite location in Chapel Hill closed down years ago so cravings for their wings would come and go but there were no convenient locations near home! Thankfully, two new locations opened up in Durham and Morrisville. Finally after years of waiting, it was time to get my chicken wings on. So on a chilly September night, we headed out to Morrisville in search of wings and some Monday Night football!
Located in one of those huge strip plazas that dot the Morrisville landscape, it’s hard to not miss this Buffalo Wild Wings location because it’s BIG! We step inside and the place is aglare with neon lights, large high-def panels and more. Young waitstaff in outfits that look like ref uniforms bustle about and we head on back to the bar area. TV’s dot the entire back area along with some trivia games and video machines. BW3 is bright and noisy, a mix of sports and Top 40 from the speakers overhead. With the domestic beer specials, this is about as Merican as you can get! We grab a seat at a large, round high-boy and try to figure out the menu.
I put in an order for some pretzels to get things started. With the 30 or so flavors and dry rub options at BW3, it may take you a while to figure out what you want. I go with my fave garlic-parm wings, mango-habenero wings along with some pretzels to get things started. It takes about 10 minutes before the pretzels show up and they look quite nice. Three steaming, hot, plump pretzels with some Southwest sauce and more. A good and fattening start to the meal!
About 10 minutes after that, our wings show up. I’ve got about 16 in my medium order ($14.49). I bite into my garlic-parm wings and they are good, a bit different from what I remember, less garlicky! But still solid. And the wings at this location are well-fired and a good size. They’re well-sauced so they are coated but not dripping, wing pro’s in action here! I bite in the mango-habanero wings and there’s fruit on top with some sweetness. Waiter had warned me they were spicy and he was RIGHT. After 5 or 10 seconds, the heat kicks in on the back of your throat and it keeps on going. I reach over for my beer knowing that it won’t douse out the heat but I don’t have any milk at the table! I eat three or four more of these wings and everyone agrees that they are H-O-T, hot. Probably about a 8 on a scale of 1 to 10, the only thing that saves me is that I had some Bida Manda wings recently that were probably 10 out of 10.
A basket of onion rings finished off the night along with the Kansas City Chiefs finishing off the New England Patriots, boo! We ask for the checks and it’s time to go home! Service at Buffalo Wild Wings was ok but the place was nearly empty so it should have been. My tab come out to about $38 which is the kicker. While I love my wings from time to time, at this price point I could have gone to nearly any restaurant in the area ($25 entree, app, beer) for about the same price. i mean I really was glad to have gotten my fave wings but the equation for eating at chain restaurants was reinforced for me. Passable food in corporate surroundings with usually, below average service. That’s the formula for chain restaurants and every single time I give one a shot, the end results are about the same. Buffalo Wild Wings, I missed ya. I’m glad you’re back in the area but outside of a night when you’ve got some real specials, I don’t imagine I’ll be back in anytime soon…
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