I don't usually try to do restaurant reviews but a when you find a really great wing place in the West Melbourne you need to shout it out.
I have been experiencing withdrawal since we moved from South Florida to Central Florida. Roosters in Margate is one of the better wing restaurants and our favorite place for wings. They had some of the wettest and tangiest wings in the area. We now live 200 miles north of Margate in Palm Bay which up until recently has had fewer choices for dining out. When I felt like winging it we usually ended up at Long Dogger's in West Melbourne. Their beer is always cold, I love the Hatteras Red, and the wings are good. That's the point, they are good, not great. Compared to Rooster's they are not wet enough and don't have enough of the tang that I love. The venue is extremely relaxed. I don't like sitting inside as it is more of a cave than a dining room, far too dark and dingy. The other choice is to sit outside in the heat and humidity. Sometimes that works but sometimes it's too hot and too wet.
Now we have Buffalo Wild Wings right across the street from Long Dogger's. I was a bit disappointed after hearing all the hype from friends and the media. The first day we tried to get in we were turned away. They weren't open to the public yet. I guess we could have read the sign out front that said "opening soon'. The next time we tried was on a Sunday around 5 PM. There was a 30 minute wait. The place was packed with people trying to get their names on the waiting list. We opted out and went to Charlie and Jakes and settled for some sub par wings. On Monday we tried Buffalo's again, This time for lunch. Bingo! We got right in without a wait. We ordered 2 glasses of cabernet and I thought we had hit another snag. The waiter said that they didn't stock cabernet at the bar and they would have to go to the wine storage room or something like that to get our drinks. I wondered why they didn't have a cab at the bar as it's a pretty popular choice. The waiter made ordering easy by explaining how the menu was organized. Made sense!
Our chips and salsa arrived quickly and a few minutes later 2 glasses of cab showed up. We were about halfway through the chips when the wings showed up.
I was happy to see that my request for wet wings was filled. There was ample sauce on the wings. Now for the taste test. Wow! Finally a really great plate of wings. I love the traditional buffalo sauce and this was as good as it gets. We really enjoyed the meal and we will be going back frequently.
It also helped that we had a coupon for 6 free wings. Out bill was under $20.
I'm signed up!
