Sweeney's Saloon

The decision to go to Sweeney’s, located at the intersection of Buselton and Philmont in the far Northeast across from the Whiskey Tango, was a hasty one. We had some intel that led us to believe that Sweeney’s Saloon had vinegar and feta cheese wings, which we think sound pretty tasty. Upon arriving at Sweeney’s, seeing that the menu contained no such wing, then asking the bartender if they existed and being told that, no, they did not exist and never have, we were all kind of bummed out, but we decided to stay and try out their wings anyway.


Their menu touts their wings as being “Famous”, by whom we do not know, but they offer an impressive eight different sauces to choose from , including Hot & Honey, BBQ, Cajun, Mild, Garlic, Oriental, Honey BBQ, and Hot. Their prices, compared to other “Famous” wing joints we’ve been to, are really fair and encourage you to order more wings than you probably can handle. The pricing breaks down like this: a small order of six wings runs you $5.50, while the bump to double that order to twelve wings is only $1.25 more at $6.75, and caps off at $24.50 for fifty wings. If I wanted to, I could get 24 wings for $13.50. Not too shabby, right? So, being that the Sweeney’s quest consisted of just myself and Sean, we ordered two different flavors each, which the bartender taking our order allowed us to do in just one regular order at $6.75 (which a lot of places won’t let you do because they want your money). I ordered the Hot, like always, and the Garlic, in hopes that might be something more than just butter with chopped garlic on top, and Sean ordered the Hot & Honey as well as the Oriental.

Hot + Garlic

Our wings came out with a nice big tub of bleu cheese, celery, and carrots (nice touch). The hot sauce was the typical affair, and lo and behold, the garlic wings were just butter with chopped garlic on top. Would it be possible to add some spices to the garlic wings? Even some pepper and parmesan cheese would do the trick. Every bar that has garlic wings, listen up, plain old butter and chopped garlic is boring, it barely tastes like anything. Heed my words, please. Sean’s Hot & Honey wings were a nice mix of what their name implies and were pretty tasty. The oriental wings threw us both for a loop because they looked like every other Asian-inspired wings we’ve had in the past, but when we bit into them expecting to taste that sweet General Tso’s-esque type sweetness, we found none. The oriental sauce seemed to be based more on the soy sauce element, and I really enjoyed that change.

Hot & Honey + Oriental

In general, all the sauces we tried were good, but pretty stock or “meh” in their tastes. I’d say that what gives these wings their “it” factor is how they’re cooked, which is to say really well, or at least well enough to carry the various sauces and their respective shortcomings. The wings are of average build, and suit the bar setting nicely. These were solid bar wings at a great price and there’s nothing wrong with that. Plus, given the option of being at the Whiskey Tango or Sweeney’s, I’d take Sweeney’s any day.

Good Dog Bar

Good Dog Bar
224 South 15th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19102
(215) 985-9600

An awesome bar/restaurant located at 224 South 15 th Street, Good Dog spans three floors, has a spectacular draught list, and a food menu that is out of this world. Their Good Dog burger and fries are a contender for the best in the city, to say the least. Each of us Wing Questers have been to Good Dog multiple times, and each of us were already familiar with the quality of their food and drink, except for their wings. Needless to say, our hopes were high and we were more than willing to go down to Good Dog and do our next Quest there.


One thing about Good Dog is that it is usually pretty packed, and while it does have three floors, the building itself is slim, and only two of the floors are dedicated to dining. So waiting at least a half hour to get a table is an almost unavoidable part of the Good Dog experience. We didn’t really mind waiting all that much though as the third floor has a pool table which Nick and myself took full advantage of. When our table was ready, we sat down and ordered.


First things first, Good Dog only offers one kind of wing, the “Wings” wing. Yes, neither Hot nor BBQ, nor any other sort of indicator as to what you’re in store for when you order; just “Wings”. The wings are boasted as being “jumbo” and for the price tag of $11(!) for ten(!?!?), we gave Good Dog the benefit of the doubt and assumed that the wings would be really big. And when the wings finally did come out, celery and bleu cheese in tote, we took note of their size. On average, Good Dog’s jumbo wings are definitely larger than your average wing, but not by any crazy amount and I personally had the displeasure of having at least two wings in my order that were completely average sized and utterly unimpressive. But to be fair, the wings are really meaty and that's definitely a plus.


The wings come “smothered in Good Dog’s very own wing sauce” which is probably the weirdest sauce we’ve ever had to review. The vague nature of the wings just being called “wings” was made clear to us after the first bite. The sauce has a flavor that just can’t really be placed. The Good Dog “Wings” experience is as follows: first, a sort of sweet BBQ pummeled with tomato sauce, then a smoky, almost chipotle flavor, and finished off with a wee lil kick of heat. It wasn't an unpleasant experience, but none of us could really get into the sauce. It was almost like the sauce just didn’t know what it wanted to be, and the chef’s indecisiveness in crafting this sauce really bogged the wings down. But the light at the end of the tunnel, as there always is one, was the bleu cheese and celery. The bleu cheese had a thick, almost whipped, consistency and tasted super fresh which made for great dipping with the chunks of celery.

"Wings"

One thing we discussed last night after we had finished our meal was how bars and restaurants that have amazing food, always seem to treat wings as an afterthought, like “Eh, who gives a shit? They’re just wings.” Nick recently ran into this in his Quick Quest for Plush; great food otherwise, shitty wings. Our Good Dog experience was the same way, only it was made worse by the fact that these wings come at such a hefty price. And it makes me really angry that I had a couple wings that weren’t jumbo at all, but I still paid $1.10 for each wing. So with wings that are generally above average in size, a forgettable, amorphous sauce, and a ludicrous price tag attached to the whole thing, all of us here at Wing Quest would recommend getting anything else but the wings because Good Dog really does have some of the best food in the city otherwise.

Wing: 6.83
Sauce: 5.16
Price: 1.3


Overall: 4.4


Review by Tom Kaericher

Quick Quest - Plush Restaurant and Nightclub

     About a week or two ago I decided that I, Nick, would embark on my very own quick quest. Me and my friend Graz went out to grab a beer and some food, and I realized that it was my civic duty to get and review the wings from whichever place we chose. We decided to go to Plush Restaurant in Glenside on Keswick Ave, because it's a cool ass bar. While i've eaten here many, many, many, times over the years, I had never ordered their wings. Probably due to the fact that their cheese burger is one of the best I've had anywhere, and i've eaten alot of cheeseburgers (i even have the gut to prove it). So after almost ordering the aforementioned burger (it's a habit), I remembered why I was there and got wings. Plush's wings come in 3 varieties, Cajun, Asian BBQ (i was told it's a sort of General Tso's ripoff), and Hot. I went with the hot, because well...hot wings are awesome. Now here is where everything went downhill, priced at $9 for 9 wings, I was mad before they even got to the plate. They came served with some spring mix, and random piece or 2 of celery and something they passed off as bleu cheese. The wings looked really good but as soon as I bit into them I immediately regretted it. They tasted like Tyson frozen hot wings that had been baked, deep fried, forgotten about for a week, and then microwaved and served. That might be a bit harsh, but the wings sucked, flat out. I give 'em a 2. While Plush has  an amazing menu, solid tap selection, and killer martini list; if it was a choice between eating the wings and starve to death, i'd probably be dead.


-Nick

Wrestlemania Quick Quest

Over the weekend, I had the pleasure of hanging out with some great people while watching this years Wrestlemania. For this event, we almost ALWAYS order from Larry's Famous Pizza, located at 6400 Rising Sun Avenue in the Northeast. Even when my old band was still around, we would go to Larry's almost every week. So needles to say, I've had PLENTY of experience at this joint, to the point when they know us by name and they even named a sandwich after said old band. I've had their buffalo cheesesteaks as  well as the buffalo chicken pizza, both of which are very good.
Unfortunately, I had never had their wings and wish I didn't decide to try them last night. They were truly some of the worst wings I've ever had. The chicken was dry, overcooked, flavorless and stuck to the bone.
The sauce was just gross. It had a lot of spice to it but also had this very odd sweet tang to it which just wasn't very pleasant. It's been over 12 hours since I ate them and I still have a bad taste in my mouth. The only redeeming factor was price. $5 for 10 wings. But even when so cheap, it's just not worth it. I really hate bad mouthing the wings because of the relationship I had with this place but I have to do my job, which isn't always pretty. I will definitely avoid the wings at all cost but I certainly will continue going there and I suggest you do the same.

- Sean Ward