Restaurant Review

Wingnutz
Orem Utah

Drew got a bead today on a new wing place up in Orem, we went today for lunch to check it out. When we got there at quarter to noon, the place was empty. We thought this wasn't a good sign. They don't carry Diet Dr. Pepper. They bake their wings instead of frying. All interesting choices. I suppose it's the 'healthy' way to eat wings, but who's really in it for their health, anyway? All not great signs...

Anyway, they had about 18 different wing flavors you could choose from, I choose "hot". I figured baked wings could still be crispy if they dried them out enough and baked them at the right temperature, I've seen Alton Brown do it, but he's no expert on wings, either.

Anyway, the wings came, and they were ok. The texture was sort of like the texture of wings you get at the bottom of a box of wings, the ones you get to that have been steamed from all the ones on top of them for 45 minutes, and you've already eaten 20 of them, so you should have stopped already. Good wings, just not quite the right texture of the skin. (The really good wings are crispy on the outside, if you didn't know.) Added to that was the taste, they were plenty hot, but the flavor was different. Or at least a bit different than what I would expect from a traditional "hot" chicken wing. I think they used too much cayenne pepper, or paprika, or something along those lines, plenty hot, just too much seasoning. I still ate mine.

Long story short - WingNutz - don't go expecting an authentic wing, but it's good enough, especially around here. The wings are a little bit expensive, but they are plenty big to make up for the cost. The place was packed when we got done, they had a pretty good lunch rush today it looks like, and that was during quite a bit of snow that was falling. (But not sticking.)