Buckets

January 10th, 2011

Buckets Bar & Grill
810 West Avenue
Jenkintown, PA 19046
(215) 576-9538

For the next destination on our quest to find the best wings in Philadelphia and its surrounding areas, we decided to stop by Buckets in Jenkintown.  To be honest, this is familiar territory for all of us.  Their Monday night wing special has been an institution in our lives for quite some time now.  Every Monday night, starting at 8pm, Buckets runs a 20 cents per wing special that no one here at Wing Quest can really resist.  And yes, to be fair, we programmed the super computer at Quest headquarters to take into account the fact that most places don’t always put their best wings forward on a “wing night”.  So why subject ourselves to potentially skewed results?  Let us answer your question with another question.  Did you not read the bit about 20 cent wings?  Alright then, let’s do this.

       

 Buckets is a smaller-ish bar tucked away down West avenue, right off of Old York rd.  It’s nothing fancy, just a solid neighborhood bar to fill your drunk-gettin’needs.  They have some domestic beers, liquor, bar food, etc.  Again, nothing fancy, and that’s totally okay with us.  We get bored of all the black tie affairs we’re so often obligated to attend.  Should you take someone on a date here?  Well… Yes, because if he or she is too good for Buckets, you don’t need them.  Anyway, so we ordered wings…

       

 Buckets offers Hot, Mild, and BBQ sauce for their wings.  We all like their Hot sauce, so that's what the entire table ordered.  Sorry, not much diversity on this one.  Being a wing night, we were all prepared to wait a good while for our order, but the wings were out in about 10-15 minutes.  The first thing you notice when that basket of steamy wings is placed in front of you is the smell.  It's a really great, almost sweet, smell that stings the nostrils in the best way.  The sauce has a good spice that doesn’t leave your mouth on fire, but is definitely noticeable, and finishes with a surprising note of sweetness.  One problem though, not enough sauce! We don’t know what it is with people skimping on the defining quality of what makes a hot wing so tasty, but it’s becoming a growing trend on the Quest.  Again, to be fair, Buckets has, on occasion, had some great sauce to wing ratio moments, but not tonight.  That's one of the biggest factors in our rating of the establishment too.  It was noted by basically everyone at the table that Buckets wing quality is very inconsistent.  You never really know if the wings placed in front of you are going to be worth your time.  Of course you’ll still eat them, at 20 cents a pop there’s no real risk involved, but we just thought we should warn you because we’re nice guys.

       

 Basically what you have with Buckets is an average bar serving up some average wings at an above average (if you go on Monday nights) price.  Were you to venture to Buckets any other time, you’re looking at spending $7 for ten wings, which wouldn’t be bad if the wings were better, or $12 for twenty, which is, despite the wings, a pretty good deal.  So, worth going to Buckets on a Monday night? Definitely, you’d be silly to pass up a deal like this if you’re in the area.  Should you go there for wings any other day of the week? Eh, we would advise taking your seven dollars elsewhere.

Wing - 6.3

Sauce - 7

Price - 7.5

Overall - 6.9

Review by Tom Kaericher