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What I Ate: June 19, 2009 (Buffalo Wings and Rings)

Posted 19 June, 2009 at 10:21pm by Michael Chu
(Filed under: Food, What I Ate)

Dinner: We were in the south part of Austin, so we went to Buffalo Wings and Rings (9600 S I H 35 # D300, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 291-9464‎). They make 12 different sauces on three different "wings" - boneless, tenders, and traditional. Naturally, I ordered regular Buffalo wings (on the bones - so real wings). I also ordered another set of wings of a different flavor and a side salad. Tina ordered a Gyro pita and added $2 to make it a platter (which comes with cole slaw and a side (which we chose Potato Wedges). Note the menu below: "Gyros & Pitas - Old Chicago style Gyros, served with Saratoga Chips." Tina was looking forward to the chips as well as the potato wedges ("Make it a Platter! Add Slaw and your choice of side to any gyro, pita, sandwich, wrap or burger for only $2.00"). This is important, I'll come back to it.
Buffalo Wings and Rings - Menu

But first, I'm going to complain about the wait. We entered the restaurant at 8:46pm. We waited about ten minutes before a waitress came by to take our order after we had been seated. The kitchen staff looked like they were taking there time - no urgency to any of the food preparation - people wandering around in there with seemingly nothing to do. At 9:23 (25 minutes after ordering it) my salad ($3.99) came out. The buttermilk dressing was overwhelmingly smelly (of buttermilk) - you know the smell, it's the smell of the restaurant size canister of bottled buttermilk ranch that you get from the restaurant supply store.
Buffalo Wings and Rings - Side Salad

Tina's gyro pita ($7.99) came out at 9:28pm - thirty minutes after we placed the order - and the gyro slices were cold. Colder than room temperature cold (but not refrigerator temperature). We were so hungry by this point that Tina refused to send it back - her desire to nourish her body out weighing my need to send bad food back. Then we noticed that next to the tiny cup of cole slaw and the pile of potato wedges was not a single Saratoga Chip. Did they forget the chips? We asked about the chips and we were told that when you upgrade to the platter, you lose the chips. Please refer back to your menu - where does it say we lose the chips? Had we known that we wouldn't have spent the extra $2. The only benefit for our $2 upgrade was that we got the potato wedges which were the best part of the meal.
Buffalo Wings and Rings - Gyro Pita with Slaw and Potato Wedges

My Buffalo Wings ($8.49 for 10 wings) came out looking pretty promising. Unfortunately, they had been cooked to death - dry and tough. The sauce was no good - it tasted like Louisiana Hot Sauce but nothing else - where was the butter flavor?
Buffalo Wings and Rings - Buffalo Wings

The wings came with a small container of ranch dressing (I asked for both bleu cheese and ranch dressing seeing that since I ordered multiple orders of wings that shouldn't be a problem. It wasn't, but when I ran out of bleu cheese dressing and had to ask for more, I was charged and additional 50 cents.) and some 1.5 inch long strips of celery (that had evidently been cut into thin strips first so maybe I got a total of 3 inches of a normal celery stick). Nice.
Buffalo Wings and Rings - Ranch Dressing and Celery

My other bowl of wings - five garlic parmesan wings ($4.99 for 5 wings) were fairly flavorful but also dry as hell.
Buffalo Wings and Rings - Garlic Parmesan Chicken Wings

Here's the half cup of bleu cheese dressing. They're kind of stingy here. Why even bother giving me the celery sticks? They obviously don't want me to eat them.
Buffalo Wings and Rings - Bleu Cheese Dressing and Celery

I'm done ranting. Now onto lunch.

Lunch: Tina made some Chinese food for lunch. She stewed half a cut up chicken in soy sauce and spices (lu ji), sauteed some radish greens, and made a salad of cucumber, radish, mung bean sheets, garlic, and cilantro in a dressing of vinegar and sesame oil.
Lu Ji over rice

3 comments to What I Ate: June 19, 2009 (Buffalo Wings and Rings)

Jason Vierzba, June 19th, 2009 at 10:48 pm:

  • Well, I guess that's one place I'll make sure not to stop at when I'm next in Austin. I'm not a huge fan of buffalo wings anyway, but I like gyros, and I can't believe that the meat could be colder than room temperature! How is that even possible??

Harold, June 19th, 2009 at 11:40 pm:

  • Well, at least the wooden/bamboo bowls give it a nice rustic touch. In case the service and prep wasn't rustic enough for you…

Michael Chu, June 20th, 2009 at 1:13 am:

  • I'm guessing the meat was kept under an air conditioning vent or in the refrigerator and then not properly reheated. Or it could have been room temperature and then the cold fillings cooled it down.

    I also forgot to mention that the tsatsiki sauce that came with it was missing any garlic flavor - just yogurt and cucumber.

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