Wings Reviewed: Hot

Genre: Known For Wings Place

Overview: Market Pub House is a casual sports-bar in The Loop. It’s been around for 5-10 years maybe? Can’t be sure. I’ve only been there once before, and to be honest, I hated my experience. I just wanted a beer, it was really busy, and the waitstaff seemed overwhelmed and indifferent about it. It also seemed to be populated heavily by a “bro” audience.

Why, you might ask, would I go here again? Groupon. (Or one of its competitors? Groupon is like the “Kleenex” or “Xerox” for “annoying emails you don’t want”, right?) Eating a lot of wings has gotten to be a bit of a toll on the wallet, so in an effort to save money, I’m on the lookout for deals on places that serve wings. This is my first such endeavor of this variety.

I was pleasantly surprised when I got to Market Pub House around 6:30 on a Wednesday and found that there weren’t that many people there. We choose to sit outside as the weather was beautiful, and had prompt and friendly service. We were a bit bummed out that our $20 Groupon voucher wouldn’t be good for our beer or wings because Wednesday is “All Day Happy Hour” and the coupon wasn’t good for Happy Hour priced goods. Understandable, but not great. (Disclosure: I was in a terrible mood for unrelated reasons at the time of visit.)

The wings are $8.95/pound regularly and $6.95/pound under their happy hour pricing. Happy hour is all day on Wednesday and from 3-6 every day of the week. Our pound of wings was 10 wings, and they weren’t particularly large. I think I’d end up a bit wanting if I got nothing but a pound of wings for my meal. They offer their wings bone-in or boneless in 10 different flavors, most of which sounded pretty interesting. They also have a buffalo chicken sandwich and a buffalo chicken dip. All pints are also $3.50.

The other food I ordered besides wings was also good. In particular, get some fries, loaded or otherwise.

Hot

BAD • FAIR • GOOD • GREAT • BEST

When the wings got put down in front of me, I could tell they were going to be delicious. They smelled good and they looked good. They don’t specify how they cook their wings on the menu and I didn’t ask, but they seemed to have some kind of baked component to them. Upon first bite, my suspicions were confirmed. The insides were juicy and the outsides were crisp. In addition to the buffalo sauce, there was some kind of seasoning on the wings as well which complimented the sauce very well. These are wings that I’d be happy eating dry.

On a spiciness level, the wings were on the low end of the heat spectrum for a hot-buffalo, but they certainly weren’t lacking in other flavors to make up for that. The wings were well covered in sauce, but they weren’t drowning in it. The size of the wing was perfect for my liking and definitely smaller than most places.

I will definitely return to Market Pub House on a Wednesday, next time in a better mood and without a Groupon. I look forward to trying their other sauce options, but these Hot wings are good enough that I’d come here just to order them. At nearly 70¢ a wing under happy hour pricing, these guys certainly aren’t cheap, but the quality is worth it. I look forward to eating here again.

Visited at 6:30pm, 9/25/2013, 6655 Delmar Blvd, 63130