Nothing goes better with sloth than a little bit of gluttony, so the taste testing labs of 34th Street set out to find the best buffalo wings around Penn for your Super Bowl fiesta. In a blind taste test of six local places, our panel of judges pushed their stomachs to the limits to crown the Penn King of Wings.
Ed's
3513 Lancaster Ave
(215) 222-4000
Morse: I like.
Moran: Hints of bleu cheese in sauce. Very messy, but a sufficient amount of hotness, despite the lack of meat and being too crispy in general.
Barg: Very meaty and juicy - these rank up there with the best
Levy: Big wings with great sauce, plus they've got some heat behind them.
Fatboy & Slim's
3929 Sansom St
(215) 222-5340
Mazique: Although not very crispy, these wings were big and juicy and the spiciest of the lot. Pretty good, I thought.
Barg: Very meaty, but hardly any flavor, and the wings were pretty dry. You don't even need napkins when you eat these. what's up with that?
Moran: Surprisingly spicy for lack of sauce, and extremely meaty (even though they were too tough). Seemed undercooked and could be crispier. Still, there was no real mess.
Abner's
Cheesesteaks
38th and Chestnut
(215) 662-0100
Levy: Big wings here, but sauce tasted a lot like mustard and hot sauce... which isn't too good.
Moran: Extremely meaty, good tang with a drippy sauce and a crispy finish. Relatively spicy, especially the aftertaste.
Mazique: Lighter and crispier than most, and the sauce has a sweeter aftertaste. The sauce is too thin for my liking, though.
Morse: Crunchy, with a good juicy flavor. These are the best wings all afternoon!
Old Towne Pizza and Wings
2301 Grays Ferry Ave
(215) 731-1911
Mazique: Bland.
Morse: If you're trying to keep clean, these are your wings as they are completely devoid of moisture. Crunchiness is a plus, but petiteness is a negative.
Barg: They're pretty dry with little flavor. They taste like they're a few days old.
Moran: An ample amount of meat, but there isn't much sauce. Crispy and also sort of oily, but not too much of a mess.
Penn Pizza
4746 Spruce St
(215) 476-4090
(Note: Penn Pizza mistakenly brought BBQ wings)
Barg: Not meaty, but very well dressed. Every wing seemed individually coated in sauce.
Levy: BBQ is a problem, but overall, still pretty bad. Small wings, very messy. Not a fan.
Kotylarenko: They taste like a funeral or betrayal - like something you want to forget.
Morse: They messed up the damn order - I'm not even reviewing this.
Lee's Hoagie
House
4034 Walnut St
(215) 387-0905
Kotylarenko: They taste like socks. One time, someone stuffed a sock in my mouth. It was like eating this wing. The problem with this wing is that you can't wear it like a sock.
Barg: Very soft meat, and the flavor was soaked in through the meat. These wings had the most sauce by far since the skin was left on, which held in most of the sauce.
Mazique: Creamy and tangy. Maybe a little too creamy since it's sort of reminiscent of cheese. Aftertaste was pretty bad.
Morse: Unique, tangy sauce. Too spongy and sopping wet with goop that's disturbing to look at.
