The Gryphon Gazette

By Will K. ‘28

Whenever I ask a student at Crystal where I can get the best wings in the Bay Area, I am always met with the same answer, “Fire Wings.” But I wondered, is this really the case? Is there really no better place to get a good buffalo wing? Well, I had to get to the bottom of this important question: what place in the Bay Area, if any, had mastered the wings just like the original home of the wing, The Anchor Bar in Buffalo, NY.

The first stop I made, of course, had to be the highly praised Fire Wings. I had heard so much about this place and knew I would have to give it a try. Next, I would review one of the most widespread wing chains in all of America, Wingstop. Another chain I would need to try was Buffalo Wild Wings, which I knew would provide a good scenery, especially to watch sports. The last two spots I wanted to hit I knew would need to be less popular, so I could show everyone where the true best wings are. The first of these locations was Alice’s, a place up in the mountains in Woodside that provides a totally different environment compared to your classic wing place and also has a great menu other than wings. The final place I would hit would be a trek, but I knew it would be worth it: D&N Hot Wings. The five-star wing restaurant is located all the way out in San Francisco, but I had a feeling these wouldn’t disappoint. So I set off on my journey to find what place could get the recipe like a true buffalo wing.

Wingstop, San Mateo

The worst of the five locations was very easily Wingstop. The restaurant was very small, with few seating options, so my group of three was forced to sit at a table clearly designed for only two. On top of this, the soda machine was broken and there seemed to be no rush in trying to get it back to running. The restaurant’s trashcan was flowing over top and had trash on the floor. This caused me to already be skeptical of this restaurant. We proceeded to order our wings and sat down at our table. It was late at night and we were in a time crunch; however, with only one other party in the restaurant, who had already received their order, we thought we would be out in no time. To our dismay, this was far from the case. It took roughly 30-40 minutes for us to receive our relatively small order. The wings visually looked quite impressive. The vibrant red color of the wings showed me that the sauce they were using was most likely a true Buffalo sauce, and they were well covered in the sauce with no dry spots showing, however, there was a lower amount of meat on the wings compared to most wings, but it wasn’t enough to ruin the wings. In contrast to the visuals, the wings were very disappointing. The wings had a rubbery texture and the meat quality was not a choice option. The poor wings accompanied by the sub-par restaurant made this option the least favorable out of the places I went.

Buffalo Wild Wings, San Jose

Buffalo Wild Wings was not much better, at least wings-wise. They took a long time to come out, which was probably due to the fact that there were just two waiters serving the entire restaurant. When our food finally came out, they were under-sauced and required us to ask for more due to just how little there was. On the contrary, the setting was quite nice. They had almost every sports game you could wish for playing, however it was hard to enjoy them on an empty stomach. When the wings came for the second time, they were well sauced, but, they were now cold which was quite disappointing. It is also worth noting that the wings took another ten minutes just to sauce again, which is something that should take no longer than three minutes. Now for the actual wings. The wing size was impressive, however, as what usually happens with large wings, the wings were very rubbery and the meat quality was not optimal. On the bright side, the wing sauce was actually very close to the flavor of a true buffalo wing, it tasted like a mixture of Frank’s Red Hot paired with a slight amount of butter. I was disappointed with the use of butter, but this is a very common occurrence in the west coast when making a buffalo wing. Thankfully, it wasn’t enough butter to ruin the flavor, thus keeping the sauce still good. To conclude, if you want a decent experience while watching sports, this is the place to go, however the service was disappointing, and so was the wing. If you want a better wing, this is not the place to go, however the sports viewing is optimal.

Fire Wings, Downtown San Mateo

Now for the renowned Fire Wings. When I arrived, I had high expectations; I had been told by almost everyone at Crystal that this was the spot to go. This makes sense being that the restaurant is located so close to the campus in Downtown San Mateo. When we arrived, I could tell that the place was popular as there were many people sitting both inside and outside the restaurant. We proceeded to order our wings and they came out in about ten minutes, which was a very good start. The wings color was a little off putting as they resembled the color orange more than they did the traditional red. This already showed me that the wings had most likely been mixed with an abnormal amount of butter. This was either the case, or they were made with a different sauce other than Frank’s Red Hot. In my opinion it would be a little odd to use something other than Frank’s considering it is the hot sauce used by almost everyone in Buffalo. The sauce did cover the majority of the wing with only a small amount of space missing on a couple of wings, which is still not ideal, but it wasn’t the worst that I have seen. It was also more acceptable by the fact that the wings did have a good amount of meat on the bone. I promptly tasted the wings and was pleasantly surprised that the location didn’t disappoint. The wings were only a little bit rubbery, but the amount of meat on the wings made up for this fact. The restaurant itself was nice and the service was pretty good. Overall, I would say that the location was a good place to get wings, especially if you want to go somewhere located close to campus. However, they are not as good as the next two on the list.

Alice’s, Woodside

The next place I went to was Alice’s, conveniently located near my home in Woodside. The restaurant is located in the mountains and provides a very different feel compared to the other restaurants as it is not a primary wing place; however, the wings are very delectable. The restaurant has a variety of options on the menu, making it a good spot to go with your family as not everyone will want wings. When we got there, we made our order and sat down. One of the many employees was quick to notice that we had a dog with us and got our dog a bowl of water. The wings came out very quickly but came on top of fries. Unfortunately, there is no option on the menu for wings without fries, although I am sure you could ask, judging by how good the service is there. The wings had a very solid crunch on them despite them not being breaded which was a very good start. The sauce was a very accurate sauce to Frank’s Red Hot (the sauce used in Buffalo), and most likely was Frank’s. The meat was of good quality. On the other hand, while the sauce was good, the wings were not fully covered in the sauce, which was quite disappointing.

D&N Hot Wings, San Francisco

When my dad came home and told me that he had driven by a wing restaurant on the way home from work with a five-star rating, I almost didn’t believe him. But when he showed me the restaurant online, I was shocked. Both my dad and I knew that we would need to make our way out to the city to see if these wings were truly Buffalo-certified. After a long drive, we were met with a rather empty-looking restaurant, which was a little confusing to me as the restaurant had amazing reviews. Nevertheless, we went up to order our wings. The man taking our order asked us how we had heard about the restaurant, and when my dad told him he drove by it on the way home from work and wanted to give it a try because I was writing a wing article, he was very interested. The conversation continued, and soon enough we were on the topic of how my dad is from Buffalo and the man at the register said that he had learned how to cook a good wing while working at the Anchor Bar, a very famous wing restaurant in Buffalo. It turns out that he was the founder of the restaurant and we learned that he hand-crafted every sauce used in his restaurant. Everything was gluten-free and dairy-free, which was interesting to me as this meant no butter could be used. I was curious about how these handmade sauces were, so he kindly gave us a small sample of every sauce we requested. The wings came out very quickly, and they consistently were large and had a good amount of sauce covering them. I took a taste and was pleasantly surprised. The handmade sauce had the perfect mix between spice and this new inventive flavor. I must add that the flavor did not stray too far from an original classic Buffalo flavor. So it was still a good Buffalo wing, but with a refreshing inventive twist. They appeared to be breaded, which is usually something that takes away from the meat quality and can alter the flavor, but this was not the case here. We later asked him what he used to bread them, and he told us that he uses rice flour. He used this in order to restrict the amount of change it causes on the wing while greatly increasing the quality of the deep frying. If I were forced to pick one thing that wasn’t ideal about this restaurant, it would be the loud kitchen. It was an open kitchen leading straight to the dining area which caused a good amount of noise, but not enough where we couldn’t have a good conversation. In all, it was very impressive to see someone be so inventive and have such a passion for making wings. If you want to try the best wing in the area, while it might stray a little from a classic Buffalo wing, this is the place, by far. So while it might be some ways away, if you are ever in the area, stop by on the way home, and I promise you, it won’t disappoint.

Final Rankings:

Worst Overall: Wingstop

Best for Viewing Sports: Buffalo Wild Wings

Best Near School: Fire Wings

Best Family Dinner Location: Alice’s

Best Overall: D&N Hot Wings