Wingman’s, Kilburn

Growing up, I’d look forward to getting a box of Chicken and Chips on my way home from school on the odd occasion when I hadn’t spent all my pocket money for the week. Greasy, the restaurant probably had a hygiene rating of zero, but nothing tasted or felt better. At that time I couldn’t even imagine a whole sit-down restaurant dedicated to fried chicken, let alone to wings.

Wings have since become popular enough that there’s whole restaurants specialising in them. But I must admit, for me nothing beats a greasy boxful of wings from Chicken Cottage. There’s the likes of Wingshack (which I’m yet to try) and Wingstop (the restaurant chain from Texas, US which is endorsed by Rick Ross) which recently came to the UK and in my opinion missed out a big trick on not making the chicken Halal. 2018 and there’s still restaurants that don’t cater for a Halal diet? Beyond me.

Wingman’s, a minute walk from Kilburn station, offers a fully Halal food menu. Truthfully speaking, me and my friends came across this restaurant through Twitter. At the time we didn’t in our wildest thoughts imagine that they’d offer Halal food, but after DM-ing the restaurant on Instagram they confirmed that ALL of their meat is Halal.

Alcohol is served, yes. And to be honest I wouldn’t recommend it as a family-friendly place because the outside has the appearance of a pub, and to be honest so does the inside, so I know I wouldn’t personally recommend it to families with young kids. But that’s down to personal preference, and otherwise I think it’s a great place for a dinner out!

By the time I’ve finally gotten round to writing this blog post, I’ve visited three times, and by this point i’ve literally tried every single style of wings, all their burgers and pretty much all their sides too. The confusing thing for me is knowing which wings are which, so usually when I go back I have to pull up pictures from my previous visit and ask the staff which one this was! *facepalm*

The food

All their wings cost £8 and come in portions of 6. I’d recommend getting a ratio of 1 portion per person, or for a group of 4 people, I’d say 3 portions of wings, 2 burgers and a few sides would be perfect (so you get to share and try various flavours), which will probably come to just under £15 each.

Eating here gets messy, very messy. So much so that they’ll give you black gloves to wear, a massive kitchen roll and a huge bucket to chuck all the bones into. Take all your snapchat/Instagram pictures before you start eating, because once you pick up a wing your hands will be out of use until you take your gloves off!

THE WINGS:

Buffalo – Chive, Celery, Blue Cheese
Shanghai Oriental – Ginger, Spring Onion, Red Chilli, Black Sesame, Kewpie & Coriander
Sweet and Smokey BBQ – Toasted Sesame, Crispy Onion, Spring Onions
Bang Coq – Spring Onion, Ginger, Pickle, Coriander, Kewpie, Crispy Onions and Toasted Sesame
Jamaican Me Crazy (EXTRA HOT!) – Red Chilli, Spring Onions, Ginger, Coriander
Soulja Boy – Pickled Daikon, Spring Onions, Coriander, Pineapple, Roasted Sesame Dressing
Shanghai Cauliflower (V) – (not actually wings, don’t be fooled!)

My personal favourite is Shanghai Oriental. This one isn’t too soggy as it’s not soaking in sauce like most of the others, which gives it a nice crisp texture as you bite into it. The flavours too aren’t very over-powering either which makes for a taste more aligned to the wings you’d get from your local chicken shop, just minus the grease, and 10x better!

The Buffalo wings were very buffalo-y. Exactly what you’d expect, but absolutely drenched in sauce, so I wasn’t too keen. But I imagine it’d be a dream for those who are big fans of buffalo sauce.

Soulja Boy is good, probably my 2nd/3rd fav, but I found the pineapple quite over-powering, and again very soggy. Bang Coq would be the other flavour fighting for 2nd place, good flavour and not very soggy.

I’m not a huge fan of BBQ on anything (pizza, wings, whatever it may be) so I wasn’t much of a fan of the Sweet and Smokey BBQ wings, but my BBQ-loving friends enjoyed them, so perhaps a good shout for some.

Jamaican Me Crazy is the only flavour I haven’t tried. The ‘Extra Hot’ in brackets put me off, as I (admittedly) am an absolute wimp when it comes to spicy food.

THE BURGERS:

They have one style of burger, the Thigh Grade, which you can choose either with Buffalo or BBQ sauce. I’d say the burger is decent, nothing spectacular for sure, but a good addition to your order if you fancy something other than just wings. We usually share a burger between two in addition to wings.

THE SIDES:

Fries are fries, what you’d expect. Nice and crispy. I’d definitely recommend the Sweet Potato fries here!

We also tried the Mac & Cheese which comes with Beef Short Rib. I personally wouldn’t recommend as I thought it was a bit pricey for £8, and I didn’t think the combination worked very well. Perhaps a meat-free version for £3/4 and i’d purchase again.

To conclude, I think Wingman’s is definitely one of those restaurants you need to give a try to make your own verdict on it. Everyone i’ve spoken to that has visited has enjoyed, so they’re clearly doing something right! A great experience as well as just good food, and the staff are really friendly and chatty too.

One thing I’d say is that they’re always busy. Best to make a booking to be on the safe side, but 2 out of my 3 visits I was told that they were fully booked, and still got seated within 5-10 minutes.

If you visit, I’d love to know what you thought! Hit me up with a DM on Instagram or e-mail me on hello@halalfooddiary.com.