Wings (on Granville) -- Big Disappointment

1162 Granville Street, Vancouver

Food: 2
Service: 2
Price: Moderate

Unless you had a reservation or snagged a table early, dining out on a Saturday night in downtown Vancouver was almost impossible a few years ago. These days it's the complete opposite. On a free Saturday during prime dining hours, you can likely point to any
restaurant and get in without a problem. This proved a perfect situation for me and my jovial friend Y. We got together at the last hour and had no idea where we wanted to go, but with so many options available we eventually settled on Wings at the end of the Granville strip. Though niether of us had been there before, i suggested to Y. that we try it because I've heard endless raves about their chicken wing options from friends over the years.

Wings, by appearance, is a sports bar fit with flat screen televisions at every angle you turn. It's dimly lit, loud, with lots of high tables and booths, set before a large focal bar. Judging by the crowd and its menu we quickly realized it's actually an all ages restaurant, but this proved to be only the minor deception of the night. (Other deceptions will be highlighted in red.)

What to expect:

·         20 varieties of chicken wings, based on specific tastes from other parts of the world

·         a 3-level spiciness range for certain chicken wings

·         chicken wings are ordered by the pound: 1 lb. ($7.69) to 5 lbs. ($33.49)

·         other menu options to satisfy the general public: salads, pastas, burgers, fish, steak, and stir-fry

·         a vague beer menu

·         lack-lustre service

·         dominant crowd of very, very young adults/teenagers

Wings: Maui Lime (1 lb.) and Louisiana Sweet (1 lb.), with Ranch and Blue Cheese Sauces (Prices noted above)

·         crispy on the outside, and moist and well-cooked in the inside

·         lots of meat on the bones on each and every wing or drummette

·         each lb. served 10 wings

·         came with a tin bucket on the side to throw your bones into

Maui Lime

·         taste not well-described on the menu: “Sunset luau with every bite”; thought it was going to taste like pineapples with a hint of sour lime

·         just tasted like a sweet honey glaze L...that’s it...the promise of a taste of Maui didn’t come through

Louisiana Sweet

·         mildly spicy designated by a single chilli pepper on the menu

·         supposed to taste chilli infused honey on the wings – there was no honey taste at all!

·         not really sweet at all

·         spicy for my palate

·         Y., who loves spicy food, said it wasn’t spicy enough for her

Sauces

·         6 flavours to choose, but we went safe with cooling flavours such as Ranch and Blue Cheese

·         Ranch was fine and the more flavourful of the two

·         Blue Cheese dressing sauce was a thin sauce with little flavour at all



Where our bones went :)

Jug of Kokanee Beer (can’t remember the price, but should’ve cost around $12.60)

For a restaurant named after its specialty item, its wings should have been out-of-this-world. Unfortunately, this restaurant fell short of its implied promise. The wings we ordered just did not taste the way the menu described they would. And to boot, the side sauces weren’t impressive either. Just from this experience I have no desire to try the rest of their chicken wing menu on another day. Furthermore, the service was pretty bad too. We were first welcomed by a bored and disinterested hostess, and later we were subject to a server who would disappear for 15 to 20 minutes at a time. He was a nice guy and admitted at the end of the night that he was new, but if management was on the ball other employees could’ve helped him along. Overall, I do not know what chugs this restaurant along. Whatever it is, me and Y. totally missed it.