McCabe's Irish Pub and Grill- Guelph

Location:
9 Wyndham St N, Guelph, ON N1H 4E5

Date of Visit:
December 29th, 2015

Menu
http://www.mccabesirishpub.ca/Guelph/menu/MCG_menu.pdf

Price per pound: $3.6/lb (10 wings)
Price per wing: $0.36/wing
Price without discount: $9.97/lb (12 wings)
Price per wing without discount: $0.83/wing

Quick Notables
-36 cent wings! Three Pounds for 10 dollars!
-Great bar, great service
-Medium sized wings but the sauces were fantastic

In between 2 and 5pm every day McCabe’s offers 36 cent wings, which I think is a great way to get people in during that usually slow time. Even if you miss that deal though, the wings are still only 83 cents/wing, which I believe is the best deal I have written about so far. Not only are the wings reasonably priced, they taste very good and the bar has a great atmosphere.

Cajun Butter

I ordered Slow Heat, Honey Garlic and my girlfriend got Cajun Butter. Some of the wings were a bit fatty unfortunately but many were meaty and delicious. A medium sized wing, they were cooked well and falling off the bone, but the ends were crisp. There was a separate subsection on the wings section on the menu for butter sauces, which my girlfriend loved. She is not a big fan of very spicy sauces, but I convinced her to try a very different type of butter sauce that I have never seen before.
I tried three of my girlfriends Cajun Butter wings and was overloaded with flavour on my palate. The rub was a fresh wet rub that included paprika, fennel, garlic and rosemary. They were very flavourful and I cannot say I have tasted a wing like this ever before. The classic butter taste was delivered but it was missing the vinegar tang expected from a classic butter sauce. The Slow Heat sauce was like a sweet, tangy Buffalo sauce with a warm, medium heat aftertaste and they did build on each other living up to their name “Slow Heat”. They really get a good kick to them over time! I was pleasantly surprised to find you could actually taste the real honey and fresh garlic in the Honey Garlic sauce. This sweet Honey Garlic paired well with the savory Slow Heat. Both these wings were slathered in sauce like I like them, with a crispy breading underneath.

Honey Garlic (Left) and Slow Burn (Right)

Overall, these wings are losing some points due to their size and the fattiness, but the price and the sauces are fantastic and almost outweigh the cons. The bar is classic, has good view of TV’s, and during the summer the garage door windows are lifted up for the fresh summer breeze to roll in. If you have a chance to stop in between 2-5pm or any other times, get the wings and a beer, it will be hard to be disappointed.

Chicken Wing Score 3.5/5

Heat Level 3/5

Overall 4/5

Shoeless Joe's- Guelph

Location:
5 Clair Rd W,
Guelph, ON N1L 0A6

Menu:
http://www.shoelessjoes.ca/daily-specials/
http://www.shoelessjoes.ca/menu-wings/

Dates of Visit:
December 7th, 2015
December 22nd, 2015

Price per pound: $8.99
Price Per Wing: $1.12

Quick notables
-Many Locations
-Great wings
-Half Price Tuesdays

I have been coming to this location for Half Price Tuesdays for many years. Their chicken wings for me are my baseline for my grading among others. They have large wings, crispy outside, juicy inside, great sauces and they allow you to choose between breaded or original. The only downfall to this location is that their hot sauce is more of a medium heat and not as hot as I would like. On the plus side though there are locations all over Southern Ontario so you can depend on this joint for good wings even when out of town. They also do fight nights and hockey games on their big screens.

The wings as previously described are excellent, the sauces including honey garlic, Frank’s red hot sweet chili, Joe’s signature buffalo butter and Frank’s red hot extra hot, are all fantastic choices for a wing. If you want a wing that tastes very like the original Buffalo wing from the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, try Joe’s signature buffalo butter with no breading. You will not be disappointed!

Chicken Wing Score 4/5

Heat Level 2.5/5

Overall Experience 4/5

The Fat Duck- Guelph

Location:
The Fat Duck Gastro Pub
210 Kortright West
Guelph, Ontario N1G 3Z1

Dates of Visits:
October 31st, 2015
December 5th, 2015

Menu
http://www.fatduck.ca/menu

Price Per Wing: 1.86 when buying seven jumbo wings
Price Per Wing: 1.67 when buying twelve jumbo wings

Quick notables
-A strange fusion of South-East Asian and high end English Pub’s cuisine
-Good service
-An ever changing menu

Hot, hot, heat!

My girlfriend’s family visits this pub quiet frequently and often takes me out for dinner there. It is very close to their home making it very easy to walk down and have a pint or a bite to eat. A cozy pub, it’s menu sports a very bizarre mix of Indian Cuisine and Pub Food that confuses me, but it works. My girlfriend says this combination of cuisine is very common in Irish and English pud fare.This fusion transfers itself into the sauces they serve with their wings. Unfortunately, they do not allow you to try more than two or more sauces unless you buy two sets of seven wings (which in my opinion is a little ridiculous). The wings are very expensive compared to most other pub wings.

When going to this pub on Halloween I bought seven wings with the Honey Hoisin sauce. The wings themselves were large, crispy and perfectly cooked. The sauce was mediocre to my taste but then again I do not know much about what an Asian hoisin sauce should taste like.

On my most recent visit to the Fat Duck I was feeling brave. I had just visited Wild Wings two days before where I got very hot wings at the restaurant, this made me feel confident enough to try suicide wings from the Fat Duck. When receiving the wings and taking my first bites I could not believe how much they hurt my mouth, even drinking beer was painful. I was definitely sweating, but I got through four of my seven wings before I could not continue! I took them home with me to finish the next day. The server and I joked about how hot these wings really were. She said that the suicide wings are always changing their heat levels depending on whatever the kitchen has that day. That night ghost peppers were the hottest things they had on hand! I can honestly say it was as hot going in as it was coming out, which I have never felt that before.

Overall, this pub is a good place to hangout but the wings are a too expensive to be more than a rare treat, unless you really enjoy having a burning good suicide sauce on your wings and holes burned into your pockets.

Chicken Wing Score: 2.5/5

Heat Level: 4.5/5

Overall Experience: 2/5