Trying 16 Buffalo Wing Spots in 24 Hours to Find the Best One

I'm in Buffalo, New York,

birthplace of the Buffalo wing,

and I'm about to find out if this, this,

if this is the best wing in the city.

I'm gonna go to 16 spots today

that are recommended by locals,

best-of lists, and the internet

before I name the best wing in Buffalo.

[lively music]

[upbeat music]

La Nova's claim to fame is a barbecue wing.

It's like a five-step process.

So they're frying them,

then they're saucing them,

then they're grilling them,

then they're saucing them again,

and then I think they're grilling them one more time,

but every place in Buffalo

that's worth their salt is gonna also serve Buffalo wings.

For 10 wings, which is a small order at La Nova,

you pay $19.

The good,

the fry on these wings is really nice.

They're real crisp on the outside.

They're cooked to the point on the inside

that they pull apart when you bite into them,

and I like how much sauce they're using.

It's more than coated.

There's like extra sauce in every little kind of nook

and cranny of this wing.

The less good,

these are pretty heavy on the vinegar, hot sauce end

of the spectrum.

I wish that I was getting a bit more buttery fattiness

in each bite.

When you don't have that balance of the fat,

it starts to taste just a little bit flat.

I personally wish

that this just had a little bit less of the acid,

and a little bit more of the buttery richness.

Buffalo wings are legitimately my favorite food.

I eat them at least once a week.

For me, a perfect Buffalo wing has a little bit

of vinegar kick,

balanced out by the butter.

A lot of shops are just tweaking that balance,

maybe they're making their own hot sauce,

but I'm gonna guess that 90% of the spots

that we're hitting today are using Frank's.

Of course, the wing itself needs to be really crispy.

I'm ordering every Buffalo wing medium.

Not too spicy,

but you wanna feel a little bit of heat

in the back of your throat.

There are two kinds of people in the world.

There are drums and there are flats.

I am very much a drum.

I like to focus on the crispiness.

The skin on the flats,

I think tends to sog out a little bit more.

I'm mostly going for that exterior crunch.

Alright, now I'm headed to Gabriel's Gate.

[upbeat music]

Whoa, those look good.

I'm outside of Gabriel's Gate.

People love this spot.

I'm being swarmed by bees.

Ignore the bees.

Focus on the wings.

Single order, 10 wings, for 19.95.

The drumettes and the flats are pretty significantly bigger.

They're also...

[Elazar laughing] [bees buzzing]

Literally dodging bees.

There's gotta be like 40.

Like, I feel like we're outside of like a wasp's nest.

[bees buzzing]

[Elazar laughing] [screen blaring]

Not outside anymore.

Got bullied off the sidewalk by an angry hoard of bees.

That's a good wing.

The sauce here is, I have to say it, much better.

The vinegar is just a little bit less aggressive.

You're also getting a bit of that spice.

Really, really like these wings,

and not to forget,

the blue cheese is extremely important,

but it's a little bit funky,

and I do think that's an important part of the conversation.

I don't think you can talk about Buffalo wings

without talking about the blue cheese

because it cuts through the heat and the acid on each wing.

This is considerably spicier than the first wing of the day.

More of like a full-mouth spice.

Even with the AC blasting,

it's making me sweat a little bit.

I think that's actually like a perfect level of heat

from a Buffalo wing.

You kind of wanna be coming up

for some water by your last wing.

I think this is a pretty strong contender.

It does feel like no matter where we go today,

we're probably gonna be referencing back to this.

[upbeat music]

Ooh, pretty.

I'm at Anchor Bar.

Several places claim to have originated the Buffalo wing,

and this is one of them.

They have a shiny coat of sauce

pretty much around the entire wing.

The color on these wings is very striking.

Mostly what I'm getting from this wing

is that initial vinegary kick.

The longer I'm talking,

the more I'm getting that heat in the back of my throat.

I wish they had a little bit more butter,

just so that they felt a tiny bit more fatty.

I do wanna taste the blue cheese sauce.

It's not very funky.

The blue cheese is kind of hiding in the shadows.

It almost tastes like ranch.

I do like the size on these wings a lot.

Just a hair smaller than Gabriel's Gate,

which is just a little bit more meat than I need on a wing

if I'm eating 10 of them.

This is definitely a Buffalo institution,

I think because it has so much history behind it.

They have a huge kitchen.

They have probably 15 fryers in there,

and they're just constantly churning out the wing.

I came in here

with, honestly, like kind of low expectations.

So many people on the internet really describe Anchor Bar

and Duff's as tourist traps.

I just wanna amend the record.

These are definitely not, like, compromised wings.

The crew and I cleared the plate.

For a single order, that means 10 wings,

these are 16.99.

They're very solid, happy here,

but we have a lot more to try.

[upbeat music]

These are the medium wings at Forty Thieves.

These are the first wings of the day

where the sauce actually looks different.

If you can see,

there's like little bits of texture

just kind of clinging to the wing.

I believe this is Parmesan.

The blue cheese, homemade.

All the wing sauces, completely homemade.

I like that a lot.

It's got a real peppery kick.

These definitely feel like they're moving the most

in their own direction.

They're not very vinegary, pretty spicy,

but the direction they're actually leaning is sweet.

Almost like a tomato-like flavor.

Maybe it is that they're making everything themselves,

but I think that this wing is very interesting,

and it's delicious.

This, to me, is the ideal size.

It's pretty small,

but it's still meaty enough that when you take a bite,

you're getting a real tender chunk of meat,

but you just have a lot of the crispy part,

which is the best.

[beep], I got more sauce on the pants.

I borrowed my boyfriend's pants.

Alex, I'm sorry.

This is definitely now the best wing I've had today.

It's also the most interesting one.

$17 for 10 wings.

I think this is our new tentative top of the bunch.

[upbeat music]

I am at Kelly's Korner.

This is a locally beloved dive.

It's full right now, so I'm sitting outside.

Got some wings to go,

but didn't let them steam too long in the box.

Off the bat, they look almost unsauced.

There's like some pooling down at the bottom.

Looks saucy, but honestly, kind of oily.

I was sort of excited about these,

but they don't look amazing.

They're pretty salty.

It's like super heavy on the vinegar,

but it's got some nice fattiness,

but there's just really not that much of it on the wing.

I mean, if you get up close to it,

there are parts where you can barely even see

that it's been sauced.

That's a bit of a bummer.

It's kind of hard to even say how this wing would be

if it was tossed super generously,

'cause it just doesn't have that much flavor.

It's gonna rank on the lower end of my spectrum today,

10 wings, single order,

they're $17 if you're sitting inside,

but if you take them to go, they're $18.

I don't know. Maybe you're paying for the foil in the box.

Whatever it is,

really glad I gave Kelly's Korner a shot.

I'm gonna keep moving.

[upbeat music]

[clapperboard clapping] [people chattering]

Oh my God, the vinegar just like went straight...

[screen blaring]

The rumors are true.

I am at Duff's.

Okay, so, and ooh....

Sorry, I just got vinegar like straight to the throat.

Anchor Bar might be the origin point of the Buffalo wing,

but Duff's opened a very long time ago,

and followed right behind.

Duff's has a lot of fans, a lot of skeptics.

People talk about this place a lot.

You'll see branding

on pretty much every single thing in here,

telling you medium is hot,

medium hot is very hot,

and hot is very, very hot.

Like everywhere else,

I did order these wings medium,

which allegedly means here, they'll be hot.

They're not that hot.

It's good.

It has the heat that I expect from a medium wing,

and I do feel it in the back of my throat.

Is it significantly spicier than any of the other wings

that I've had today?

No.

I'm gonna chalk that up to good marketing.

This sauce is nice.

It's heavy on the blue cheese,

so it's got the funk that I really love.

I am not in the business

of pitting icons against each other,

but if I had to put my stake

in the Duff's vs. Anchor Bar game,

these would definitely be my preference.

Single, 10 wings, 16.99.

[upbeat music]

Wow.

I'm at Wingnutz,

a real fan favorite in Buffalo.

The couple behind this restaurant

has been perfecting this wing for more than 10 years.

Super saucy.

I think it's always a good sign

when the wing has that beautiful,

almost reflective sheen to it.

These are very hefty.

This is a serious wing.

[people chattering]

The balance on that sauce is just right.

You can taste the vinegar.

You get this real acidic kick.

It tastes like a traditional Buffalo wing,

but the best possible version of it.

They are obsessive here

about making all of their sauces from scratch.

It tastes familiar, but it also tastes special.

The meat comes right off that bone.

I think the cook on these

is about as close to perfect as you can get.

The crispiness is holding up on the outside.

I'm noticing, as I eat it,

a real kick in the back of the throat.

I wouldn't describe it as hot.

I think it's a true medium,

but they're definitely not holding back on the pepper.

This is a good blue cheese.

Has that funk.

10 wings here, a single, is $20.

I sort of felt like today's wing journey peaked

at Forty Thieves until we got here.

This is a very competitive wing.

This is the Wingnutz guest book.

The owners told me I could not leave

without writing my name.

I'm gonna leave my little note,

and then we're gonna get on the road.

[upbeat music]

These are the wings at Gene McCarthy's.

Like everywhere else,

I ordered the Buffalo wings, medium,

but I did get some pushback for that.

Their specialty here is a dry-rubbed wing.

I'm trying to be fair,

and that means ordering the Buffalo wing everywhere I go.

The sauce has a little bit of a kick to it.

They have this dotting of herbs on them

that I'm not seeing on Buffalo wings usually.

Looks like it might just be black pepper,

but definitely feels like there's something

a little bit different about these wings.

They're not particularly sauced.

More of the sauce seems to be kind of sitting here

on the bottom of the tray,

and the sauce itself, heavy on the acid.

I'm not getting a ton of heat out of it.

It's just that little cayenne kick,

but it does have a bit more of a tang to it

than the other sauces I've tried.

I'm coming from Wingnutz,

which, to me, was the platonic ideal of a classic wing.

This, to me, is maybe just a sliver less exciting

than that one.

[upbeat music]

I'm at Doc Sullivan's.

They're famous here

for a South Buffalo classic called the Smitty wing.

Along with that really nice kind of classic sauce

that you might be familiar with,

there's also little specks of seasoning covering the wing.

That's the Smitty,

means that there's 20 different herbs

and spices being mixed into the butter.

When you smell it,

still got that powerful vinegar punch,

but you also get these warm spices.

It's no surprise,

they're holding this recipe pretty close to the chest,

but I would guess maybe cinnamon, nutmeg, even clove.

There's this smoky, tingly feeling that doesn't just come

from that classic peppery cayenne.

I love that.

I haven't tasted that at many other spots,

and it definitely stands apart from the rest of the pack.

It is a little bit dry right around the center.

I wish it was a little bit bigger.

The blue cheese here seems

to be a pretty different style from some of the others.

[wing rustling]

They nailed that.

It might be missing some of those chunks just a little bit,

but there's no dip

where you just get creaminess and not funk.

10 wings at Doc's will cost you $17.

[upbeat music]

[people chattering]

All right, I am at Adolf's.

Very first impression, even before the wings,

look at this blue cheese.

Huge chunks of cheese.

I think that bodes extremely well.

These are inspired by Smitty wings.

There are spices mixed into the butter

before it's being mixed with the hot sauce.

I don't know exactly what's going on in this sauce,

but it is different.

That same spice that I'm familiar with,

and it's pretty powerful on these,

I would say this is a true medium,

but there's also this warmth

that's kind of rounding out that heat.

Please don't come in the comments asking me

what the spice blend is in here.

The only people who know are the owner and the head chef.

Do you see the thickness of this blue cheese?

Are you seeing what I'm seeing?

Lo and behold, tastes like [beep] ton of blue cheese.

This is definitely the best blue cheese dip

that I've had on the road so far.

For a single order, 10 wings, these are 15 bucks.

Without being completely done with today's tour,

this is definitely sitting pretty in my top three.

I can't decide quite yet

if it's better than what Wingnutz is serving,

but I do think that what if you're looking for

is a very traditional, very nostalgic Buffalo wing,

there's not much wrong you can say about this one.

[upbeat music]

I'm inside of Nine-Eleven Tavern,

and this is the only spot of this entire tour

where there was a line queuing up when I got here.

The name of the spot, Nine-Eleven,

it's a reference to their address,

and they opened in the eighties.

They only do Buffalo wings,

mild, medium, and hot.

They're certainly the prettiest

or at least the most artful wings that I've seen.

Even a garnish in the blue cheese.

They're making everything from scratch.

There are these little specks on the wing,

which look almost like the wings at Forty Thieves.

My guess is that that's Parmesan.

[people chattering]

It definitely reads sweeter.

That classic vinegar punch

that you get from the very traditional Frank's combination,

I'm not getting here.

The balance of flavor is not exactly what I was expecting,

but it's really exciting to get a wing

that tastes like the classic,

but does something different.

I'm also getting very, very mild heat.

I would not call this a medium wing.

I would call this much closer to a mild.

I do wanna try the blue cheese.

Take out that perfect little garnish.

I think without dipping,

this wing doesn't quite hit those little flavor notes

for me,

but once it's dipped in, it's pretty much perfect.

A single order, 10 wings, is 15.95.

Certainly one of the more delicious wings in Buffalo.

I love what they're doing.

I love the care that they're putting into it,

but I'm not sure it's exactly

the Buffalo wing flavor profile that I'm looking for.

If you're on any kind of wing-eating tour across Buffalo,

I would not miss this spot.

If you're just here

to try a super, super classic Buffalo wing,

I might not come here first.

Time to keep moving.

[upbeat music]

I am at Bar-Bill Tavern,

which is, without a doubt, a crowd favorite.

This place is completely packed inside.

It's pretty much packed outside.

These wings are honestly gorgeous.

They have this beautiful reddish glow.

One notable thing.

I don't know that anywhere else in Buffalo is doing this.

These wings are not being tossed with sauce in a bowl.

They're being literally painted with sauce.

There are two or three people in that kitchen

who are taking a paintbrush to every single wing.

I think the reason they do this

is so that there's just a really consistent layer of sauce

on every single one.

Much, much spicier than any of the mediums I've tried,

which I love.

They're making their own sauce, which I appreciate,

so I think they're getting exactly

the heat level they want on these.

They did actually warn me.

Their medium is maybe more comparable

with most places' hot.

Duff's claims that their medium is hot,

and I didn't buy it,

but at Bar-Bill, it's definitely true.

It's smokier.

It's a little bit deeper.

It tastes like maybe it's coming

from a different kind of pepper.

I do wish there was a little more funk coming through.

This is the best possible version

of a very classic Buffalo wing,

but it is doing things just a little bit differently,

so that it still feels fresh and exciting.

Single order, 10 wings, is 16.95.

This has a very real chance of being number one.

Excellent wings,

and there's a reason people love this place so much.

[upbeat music]

I've got myself a romantic little corner table

at Glen Park Tavern.

The waitstaff are all incredibly nice.

Many of them have worked here for over 20 years.

The vibes are high.

Love the crisp on this one.

These nice crispy corners,

it is not pulling away from the bone quite as easily.

I wouldn't describe these as spicy at all.

The blue cheese,

it doesn't have chunky bits in it that I can see,

at least not on the surface.

Probably not the wing that I would go to

if all I was looking for was flavor.

But what does set it apart is the environment.

A lot of the places

where you're gonna get a great wing

are, rightly so, dive bars.

Kind of a fun quirk on the menu

is that it doesn't list the price for the wings.

You can get a single, which is eight wings,

and next to it, it just says market price.

I appreciate that they're doing what they need to do

to keep their margins right and support their staff.

Right now, market price for eight wings is 15.95.

[upbeat music]

I am at Elmo's.

Restaurant was too full.

I'm eating out here.

Little hard to see the wings.

Decent size.

Not bad at all. No crisp on the wing.

That's because I had to get these in a box,

so they've probably been steaming for a few minutes.

These are heavy on the vinegar, which I don't mind,

but they've got a real acid kick.

The meat is tender, and it's cooked nicely,

and it's pulling right off the bone

in these big, clean strips.

I'm gonna have a quick blue cheese dip.

Not a ton of chunks in here.

It looks pretty smooth.

Actually good.

While you're not getting any of the chunks,

you're still getting all of the flavor.

A single order, 10 wings at Elmo's, is $16.

One important editor's note.

The style of wing that Elmo's is most known for in Buffalo

is a double dip and a grilled wing,

and you'll notice that this wing is neither grilled,

it's fried, or double dipped.

It's just the classic Buffalo.

To keep it really consistent and be fair across the board,

I did wanna order the classic Buffalo here,

but I am curious if the other wings

are a step above the rest.

It's getting late.

I got a few more to get to,

so I'm gonna pack up my table, and get moving.

[upbeat music]

I am at Cole's.

Right near the college campus,

so this is definitely a staple for college kids.

They look nice.

Well-sauced, pretty decent size.

Little bit less fatty than some of my preferred sauces.

Has a little bit less kick,

leaning into that real punchy white vinegar flavor

on this one.

Without a doubt, one of the saltiest wings of the night.

It feels very classic,

but it just veers a little bit too salty,

and when you've had 10 of these wings,

and they all taste a tiny bit different,

you start to notice that.

10 decently large wings at Cole's,

you'll pay 17.99.

[upbeat music]

10:30 pm, out front of Mr. Goodbar's,

and these come in at the cheapest wings of the night.

For 10 wings, it was 12 bucks.

This is a college bar.

There's a bunch of darts in there,

more TVs than I can count, a pool table.

Good vibe if that's what you're looking for.

Let me tell you, sauced very thoroughly,

heavy on the vinegar.

Not super complex.

Nothing surprising about it.

Size, they're right how they should be, I think.

Spice, kind of negligible.

These are definitely not at the top of the bracket.

This is what I would describe

as a very standard Buffalo wing.

You might not remember it in the morning,

but the night of, it will make you very happy.

[upbeat music]

That was a lot of wings.

I'm gonna digest,

and then I'm going to reveal the very best wing in Buffalo.

After hitting 16 wing spots,

I am suffering over it a little bit,

but ultimately, I do know what my winner is.

This is it,

the absolute best wings in Buffalo,

Adolf's.

What really put Adolf over the edge

is the combination of spices that they mix into the butter

before they mix it with the hot sauce.

Does it hold up on a second try?

It does.

So juicy. So much sauce coating each wing.

Serious heat in the back of my throat.

It's just a perfect wing.

Not to be forgotten,

this thick ass blue cheese.

Funky, creamy, cold, cuts through all the heat.

It really is exactly the complement you want

for this iconic wing.

These really are the best wings in Buffalo,

and I've got eight more to eat,

so I'll see you later.

[people chattering] [upbeat music]

[bees buzzing]

[Cameraperson] Would do McCarthy's,

but we still have 19 other places,

and the rest of that line is,

These are all spots

that are recommended by locals, the internet,

and many best-of lists.