American Deli v. Buffalo Wild Wings v, Wing Stop v. Taco Mac

Chicken wings aren’t cheap. You want to get the best bang for your buck, and I do, too. That’s why I decided to do a ‘blind’ comparison test between some of the most popular chicken wing spots. I know there are hundreds of local wing spots that people swear by, but I wanted to give a comparison list that could be used by as many people as possible. I’m pretty sure that most states have at least 3 of these wing restaurants, so that’s why I chose them. Feel free to let me know which other wing spots are your favorite, maybe I’ll do a version 2 of this test. In any case, this is how the test was set up: My sister and I went to pick up the wings, each of us going to two locations which happened to be very close to each other, which made the pickups more convenient. Despite this, and us returning home at the same time, the wings were not still hot by the time they were tasted. I got 4 plates and put 4 sticky notes labeled A-D on the bottoms. I wrote a letter on the box of wings corresponding to the plate that I placed the wings on. I then had my sister, who was out of the room during the previous steps, place the plates on the table in a random order. Each tester was given a piece of paper and writing utensil to take notes on each wing they tasted and give them a rating out of 10 and guess which location they thought the wing was from. The tasters could eat the wings in whatever order they liked. The plates were arranged in a line and given numbers 1-4 in the order they sat on the table to keep track on the sheets. All wings tested were the restaurant’s mild flavor. Here are the Results:

Tester 1:

Wing 1: Good Spices, yummy, crunchy part, very meaty- 8/10 (Guessed: BWW)

Wing 2: Not as much spices, milder flavor, less meaty, not as good texture- 6/10 (AD)

Wing 3: Taste like popcorn jelly beam, buttery flavor, not spicy, weird- 3/10 (WS)

Wing 4: Tough, hard to chew, ok flavor, little spice- 5/10 (TM)

Tester 2:

Wing 1: Good texture, strong smell, subtle flavor, medium heat- 7/10 (Guessed: BWW)

Wing 2: Good texture, flavorful, no grease flavor, no heat- 8/10 (AD)

Wing 3: Good Texture, low flavor, off taste, old chicken, no heat- 2/5 (WS)

Wing 4: Good Texture, not much flavor, slight hear, clean, no oil flavor- 5/10 (TM)

Tester 3:

Wing 1: Crispy, hotter than expected for mild, hint of sweet- 5/10 (Guessed: BWW)

Wing 2: Slight Crisp, good flavor, more like mild- 7/10 (AD)

Wing 3: Slight heat, barely any flavor- 3/10 (WS)

Wing 4: At 1st ehh, but got better- 6/10 (TM)

The Recipe Analyst:

Wing 1: Nice crisp bits, despite being sauced and cold, still kinda spicy (spicier than expected), good flavor along with spice and slight sweetness- 8/10 (Guessed: TM)

Wing 2: On the soggier side, not as crisp (some parts had some crispiness), very little spice, similar to 1 in flavor, more chickeney, less sweet, more vinegary/tanginess- 7/10 (AD)

Wing 3: Very light flavor, more greasy than the others, even crispiness, but not crispiest. Needs more sauce/flavor- 5/10 (WS)

Wing 4: Most interesting sauce flavor, w/ least spice, not very crispy- 7/10 (BWW)

Score Totals:

Wing 1: 28/40 pts

Wing 2: 28/40 pts

Wing 3: 13/40 pts

Wing 4: 23/40 pts

So, based on the scores, there’s a tie between wings 1 & 2. Let’s take a look at the pricing to see if that helps us decide a winner.

Wing 1: $9.53 for 6 wings = $1.58/wing

Wing 2: $8.26 for 6 wings = $1.37/ wing

Wing 3: $12.71 for 10 wings = $1.27/wing

Wing 4: $13.43 for 6 wings = $ 2.23/wing (there was a 99 cent take out fee, so $2.07/ wing without it)

With price taken into account, it appears wing 2 is the winner. Let’s see if our guesses were correct.

Wing 1 was Taco Mac.

Wing 2 was American Deli.

Wing 3 was Wing Stop.

Wing 4 was Buffalo Wild Wings.

Analysis:

American Deli is the winner of this taste test. Consistently scoring the best or second best on each score card, plus being the most economical, American Deli seems like it should be the go to wing spot for most people. I know it’s hard to say that definitely, since we only tasted one flavor, but I think that if they can get mild right, it’s a good sign for the rest of there flavors. If you haven’t tried American Deli’s wings, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed unless the service is bad or they’re having an off day

Taco Mac is going to take second place. Just because they are a little more pricy than American Deli, they had to lose a point or two. It’s hard to say that the additional price is worth it when the flavors were so similar. In any case, I don’t think you’d make a bad decision by going to Taco Mac.

Buffalo Wild Wings takes third place with the most expensive wings. BWW definitely isn’t the value option here. I’ll give them credit for having the most interesting sauce flavor, so maybe there’s something there that’s worth a few cents extra per wing, but not 70 cents per wing better than first place. It’s hard to win with higher prices and wings that don’t stand out more than they did.

Wing Stop takes last place in this test and boy was it a distant last place. Everyone ranked this wing the worst with similar complaints. There was next to no flavor and the flavor that was there was on the off putting side. Sure, these were the cheapest per wing, but that can’t make up for being so much worse than the rest.

In conclusion, while there was a pretty big difference between last and first place, the top 3 were all fairly close. I know that the results may be different if we went with a different flavor, but I wanted to go with something that almost everyone who eats wings is familiar with. Plus, as I said earlier, I think if you can have a decent showing for mild, the rest of your flavors should be at least decent, as well. Mild should be a good indicator flavor. While I would love for this to be a guide for others to help make a purchasing decision they will be happy with, I completely understand that we’re all different and that what we liked might not be what you like. If you swear by something else, don’t let me stop you from enjoying that.