Wings Reviewed: “Hot”

Genre: Place That Serves Wings

Overview: Sandrina’s was the official after-party bar for the week for the Ultimate league I play in on Mondays. I feel like I need to put this next part in caps: THEY DON’T HAVE WINGS ON A REGULAR BASIS. Wings are a special. And when I asked the bartender who was also serving as my waiter how often they had wings as a special he said “Not very often.” For this reason, I feel a little silly reviewing these wings… but here it is.

They offered 3 varieties of wings: Hot, BBQ & Tahitian. I don’t know what tahitian wings are and I didn’t ask, but some other people suggested they might involve pineapple, and this recipe for Tahitian Chicken confirms those suspicions.

I am unsure about the exact price of my wings because I didn’t pay very close attention to the tab. I believe they were about $7.50 for about a dozen wings. Sandrina’s is casual, or at least casual enough that a bunch of sweaty people in athletic wear can go eat there. They also had a pretty good selection of beers on tap.

Hot

BAD • FAIR • GOOD • GREAT • BEST

You don’t see wings as a special at many restaurants, and that’s probably because wings just aren’t that special. There’s nothing exotic, seasonal, or even that interesting about a chicken wing, as they are served by most bars in America at this point. So, when a bar does offer them as a special, I’d hope that they would stand out and be worthy of their artificially induced scarcity.

What I got instead was a perfectly non-special order of chicken wings. They were crispy enough, well covered in a Franks & Butter type sauce, and the chicken was just chicken. For me, there was a little too much meat in the meat/skin ratio, but not too too much. The wings were just above what I’d consider to be average spiciness for a hot buffalo style wing. They wouldn’t be prohibitively spicy to those with average pallets though.

If I went to Sandrina’s again and wings were available, there’s a good chance I’d order them. They are a testament to how good a well-prepared but uncreative take on the dish can be. Maybe next time I’ll see what those Tahitian wings are all about. The over-abundance of average chicken on these wings is too high for any wings from here to reach best status, but maybe a unique pineapple sauce could be great.

Visited at 9:10pm, 7/29/2013, 5098 Arsenal, 63139