Wing Coop - A Tale of Two Cities.

Location:

  1678 W 4100 S
  Salt Lake City, UT 84123
  (801) 974-9464

Price of Meal:

 12 wings $10.99 x 2.
 6 wings $5.99 x2.
 1 large fry, 1 large onion ring $8.85.
 Total Price /3 + VIP discount + tax $10.33.

Critique:

The wing coop was having a special for its VIP members (people who signed up for text messages) Any entree item buy one get one free (up to $10 bucks off) so even though we were over 40 miles away we decided to make the trek to SLC valley.  One of the lunch crew works in SLC a few days a week so we decided to pick him up at the 3900 south trax station and then pay a visit to the Taylorsville location rather than the one in Holiday.

The names maybe the same but the decor is unique to each store, which I like because it doesn't feel like a franchise but more of a locals only kind of place. It had a very sport(ish) look and feel to it, with winter sports equipment hanging on the walls, and the now typical flat screen playing ESPN on the wall. (Always love a good sports game while eating wings, just something about it that feels right)

The Wing Coop offers over 17 different wing sauce flavors on ether grilled or friend chicken wings. They also serve other things as well, but when the name of the company is "Wing coop" you have to buy the wings. 

Raspberry Chipotle

Today I decided to try the [in order of most liked to least liked] Raspberry Chipotle (Fried), Honey Habanero (Fried), Confucius (Grilled)and the Tiger Teriyaki (Grilled).

By far my favorite were the raspberry chipotle sauce wings. They were nether too sweet from the raspberries or too 'smokey' from the chipotle.   The flavors blended well, and when mixed with the blue-cheese dressing, the flavor was divine.

Honey Habanero

Next on my list of wings were the honey habanero. I had these wings at the Wing Coop in Holiday, so I knew what I was getting.  Once again they were very good. They seemed to have a little more heat this time, which I appreciated.  The heat of the habanero balanced out the sweetness of the honey. I always have a hard time eating foods that are ether too hot, or too sweet, but these wings find a good balance which makes it easy to eat a lot of them.
 

Confucius

The next two were a toss up. I didn't really care for ether the Confucius or the tiger teriyaki. I have a feeling a lot of it had to do with the fact that we had these wings grilled rather than fried. They both both seemed to be lacking in flavor.  I had ordered the Confucius wings before from the Holiday store, and I loved them. So of course I had to order them again. This time around I could hardly eat them.  The flavors just were not the same. I loved the last order of them because the sauce was a perfect blend of citrus and spice (ginger) that made me think about them the whole ride home, but this time something was different.  I could hardly taste the citrus, and I couldn't taste the ginger at all. 
  

Tiger Teriyaki

The tiger teriyaki reminded me too much of a teriyaki chicken that you might find at a Chinese restaurant (well duh you might say, they are called teriyaki wings) I guess I just don't care for teriyaki wings, they maybe just to mild of a flavor for me, or I just wasn't in the mood.  I will admit I need to try them again, but next time I will need to fry them. They might have just been missing the crunchy texture that I have become accustomed to when eating wings.

The beautifully things about a place that offers 17 sauces for their wings is that no matter who you are, you are going to be able to find something you like.  I was 50/50 on this trip and I look forward to another batch of the raspberry chiplote wings, my mouth is watering for them as I write this. I really liked the fried wings today and was a little disappointed in the grilled. They lacked the crunch that I was looking for and I struggled with the idea that they might be undercooked because of the texture, even though they were not.

I am glad I was convinced to make the trek to SLC for some wings from the wing coop. With the 1/2 of coupon and the great tasting raspberry chipotle  wings, I would call this lunch trip a smashing success.

Rating:

Today's wings:

• raspbery chipotle 8
• honey habanero 7
• confucius 5
• tiger teriyaki 5

Overall Wings: 7
Customer Service: 8
Overall Satisfaction: 7

URL:

Wing Coop