February 9th, 2009 by Stinkhead
As I mentioned earlier, when you’re alone with the kid, you can’t always run out and grab Buffalo wings for dinner. You need someone who will deliver. I wanted to determine who had the best wings and delivers… the only way to find out was to do a side by side blind taste test. We ordered wings from Pizza Hut (Wing Street), Papa John’s, Dominos, and a local place called Armands’. I invited a handful of friends over and ordered Hot and Medium wings from each place. We placed each delivery on a plate with a table tent. See below to read our findings, and you’ll be as surprised as we were.
We ordered and paid for these wings ourselves. No restaurant had any knowing participation or sponsorship of this privately held event
I placed each order online around 5:00pm, with an advance delivery time of 6:30, to try and guarantee that each arrived on time and could be eaten all at once. Dominos arrived at 6:20, so we put them in oven to try and keep them hot while we waited for the others. Papa Johns and Pizza Hut (Wing Street) arrived at the exact same time, which the drivers found a bit odd. I found it pretty funny, but they did not. The Papa Johns guy was actually kind of put off that there was another company delivering to the same door. Armands (local to DC/MD/VA) arrived at 6:33.
What’s in the Bag
The drivers each had insulated heat bags, and each of the deliveries came in a cardboard box, with the bundle of wings wrapped in foil inside. (Armands actually had a snap-close plastic box with foil). Only Wing Street had stickers signifying which was Hot and which was Medium. We had to guess/taste on the others. Which is ok if you’re eating them all anyway, but it was something we definitely found lacking on the other. I also want to ding Wing Street for not including any sauce at all. There wasn’t an option on Wing Street’s web site (though I hear you can order sauce for $.50 a tub on the phone) and on Armands, I had requested Blue Cheese in a text form for special directions, but they sent BBQ as default. In comparison, Papa Johns let you choose two tubs per order of wings, so we got blue cheese, cheese, garlic butter, and honey mustard. Dominos‘ came with Blue Cheese, (which you could change to ranch) . Ok Wing Street gets one point for including ONE Wet nap… one? Come on… I guess its the thought that counts. Note to wing companies, give me a ton of wet naps, and I’ll stick them in my car, my diaper bag, and all over the place to have in case of emergencies… I will then be reminded of your delicious wings, and probably place an order soon after.
I would like to point out that I did purchase a cooking thermometer so I could register their arrival temps… since one was a bit early, and one was a bit late, all of them had about 5 minutes in the oven (in their packages) at around 350°. Arrival temperature was one of my big complaints in the past… but the thermometer was one of those that you’re supposed to leave in the entire time, so I didn’t get an accurate reading (well shit, we’ll have to do this again!) Anyway, the positive information to pull out of this experience is, if you do get wings delivered, and they’re not hot enough, they can be made fantastic with a few minutes in the oven.
How do They Taste?
Here it is, it’s what you really want to know. We had 5 testers and 72 wings. I tried to do a Hot and a Medium from each place, so there would be some contrast to judge on, but in one or two instances I ordered “traditional and hot” or “BBQ and hot” (Armands had “Southern and BBQ”) so that threw off the comparisons a little bit. We placed each order onto a plate with table tents that had a letter for each restaurant. Each plate had a Hot and (well, not hot) side. This was to eliminate brand loyalty… and it’s a good thing we did… because the entire time, whenever someone had a crappy wing they said “This one has to be Pizza Hut, right?” and they were wrong. So five sets of taste buds, 8 different flavors, let’s see what they said. I have gone through their notes and replaced A B C or D with the actual names. But we didn’t reveal (I didn’t even know, my impartial wife did the assigning) the names until after all the notes had been collected.
Here’s the break down of testers with their results in order of preference
Catherine:
- Papa John‘s (Mild)- “Yum”
- Dominos (BBQ) – “good, but lots of skin… but very yummy”
- Wing Street (Pizza Hut) (Hot*) – “good wing, but way too hot”
“I’ll let you know when I can taste again” - Armands (medium) “Meh. Tasted more like fried chicken than a hot wing.”
- Papa Johns’ (BBQ) – “pretty good, but nothing like [Domino’s] BBQ”
- Dominos (Hot) – “Didn’t taste cooked [all the way]”
- Armands (Hot) – “didn’t like it, dry”
*We got bone in and boneless from Wing Street, one was labeled medium, the other labeled hot, but they appeared and tasted exactly the same. We did want bone-in for both, but the default choice is boneless in the online ordering system, so that was my fault.
Justin
- Wing Street/Pizza Hut – “Good sauce, nice kick”
- Dominos – “Very good BBQ (the pineapple [chunks] are a nice touch). The Hot weren’t hot at all”
- Papa Johns – “ok, nothing special, average”
- Armands – “ehh”
Nasser
- Wing Street / Pizza Hut (Bone-in)
- Wing Street / Pizza Hut (Boneless)
- Dominos (BBQ)
- Dominos (Hot)
- Papa Johns (Hot)
- Papa Johns (Medium)
- Armands (Hot)
- Armands (Medium)
Dave
- Wing Street / Pizza Hut – “Best flavor, lots of juicy sauce, good amount of meat” (did not like the boneless)
- Dominos (BBQ) – “Good flavor, meatiness and amount of sauce”
- Dominos (Medium) – “ok”
- Papa Johns (both) – Not enough sauce [on the wing], but good texture though”
- Armands (Medium) – “No flavor, bready crust”
- Armands (Hot) – “kind of dry, not much flavor”
Mr. Stinkhead
- Dominos (BBQ) – “this was delicious”
- Wing Street / Pizza Hut (bone-IN) – “this is a fantastic wing, but you definitely need the bones, never order the boneless”
- Dominos (Hot) – “not a memorable wing, but pretty good”
- Papa Johns (Hot) – “it’s good, but it’s not burning my mouth… sure…”
- Papa Johns (Medium) – “this is a decent size, but just an alright wing”
- Armands (both) – “was really no different that fried chicken… go for a more flavorable sauce… but I do like the size… will fill you up.”
So, this actually put Pizza Hut / Wing Street (yes, PIZZA HUT) at the top of this taste test. This was an amazing finding, because in my original article, I was really pissed off with what they brought me, but the bones and sauce make all the difference when it comes to wings.
Conclusion
The groups’ favorite was Wing Street / Pizza Hut. They have a lot of options and flavors, and the price is decent, but if you’re ordering online, be sure to get the bone-in variety. Seriously, everyone was trying to guess who was Pizza Hut based on taste, and they were wrong. No one guessed that the ‘Hut would deliver the winner. But remember, they don’t deliver dipping sauces unless you ask, and then its $.50 a tub. You can order online from Pizzahut.com/wingstreet. (it was $18.41 for Medium Buffalo bone-out WingStreet® wings – 10 piece. Burnin’ Hot Buffalo Traditional WingStreet® wings – 10 piece.)
Also note that they won best wing, despite that they messed up the order and brought the same flavor for both orders, and they didn’t include any sauces… If yours arrive cold, sticking them in the oven for a few minutes really helps.
Dominos, whom I only order pizza from when I want a large quantity actually has a fantastic BBQ wing. There was no punch-in-the-face kickin’ hot sauce, but the little bits of pineapple thrown into the BBQ mix was a wonderful treat. These were good, and they send (at least one) tub of dippin’ sauce per order. You can order online at Dominos.com (It was $18.94 for 1 10-piece Buffalo Hot Wings w/ Blue Cheese – 1 10-piece Buffalo BBQ Wings w/ Blue Cheese.)
Papa Johns wasn’t terrible by any stretch, but compared the others, it just wasn’t memorable. However, they were just running a sale of 40 wings for $25… in a lot of cases, cost can contribute a lot. So if you need more bang for your buck, this is a good option. The variety of included sauces was another nice touch. You can order online at PapaJohns.com. (The order was $18.82 with delivery charge (20 wings))
Armands, who is local to the DC/VA/MD (and DE) region actually lost. Maybe it was the flavors I picked, but traditionally, I have loooooved the Armands wings. Its a good thing we did the blind presentation, because I still wave a tiny, bbq-stained flag for them. They’re not totally off of my list for future updates, but jeez, they kind of let me down this weekend. You can order from ArmandsPizza.com (It was $6 for 6 Buffalo Wings, and $6 for 6 piece Southern wings. Plus $1 delivery fee and tax.) There wasn’t a “hot” option.
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We were very surprised that Wing Street did so well. Call me a convert. One other note to point out, this was very expensive. With most of these places, it pays to order in bulk… so definitely order your wings all from one place. But the next time I’m alone with the kid, and I have to have wings… I’m going Pizza Hut.
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Posted in advice, article, cooking, cringe, event, how to, kids, picture, review, toddler, wings | 1 Comment »
February 10th, 2009 at 1:21 am
I want to thank you for this important, yet controversial, research.