Shuck 'n Jive (Richardson)

After a long, bitter and cold winter, the King has come out of hibernation.  Flowers are blooming, birds are singing, temperatures are rising, other things related to spring are happening, and chicken wings are being fried.  For our first mission this year, the Queen and I decided to try out Shuck 'N Jive in Richardson (George Bush and Custer).

As we arrived on a recent Friday evening, I was immediately worried because of the parking situation.  It looked like it was going to be impossible to find a parking spot, and I was worried we would never get a table if we were lucky enough to find somewhere to park our royal carriage.  Upon finding a spot, we walked in and found that it was a pretty big place inside, and quickly found a table (as it is seat yourself).  They had a pretty good little happy hour menu and we got some drinks.  I think they had $2 domestic pints, $3 for the rest, and some kind of deal on mixed drinks (the Queen got a glass of Malibu that allegedly had some Diet Coke in it).  As we looked over the menu, we decided to split a Shuck 'N Jive platter for two.  This ended up being a gigantic plate of food with much more than we needed for the two of us, and it was all quite tasty.  However, I am not the king of Cajun, so let's get down to the business at hand.

For an appetizer, we decided to "split" an order of their buffalo wings.  They weren't hyped up as much of a big deal, and I honestly didn't expect much.  However, I ended up being reasonably impressed by them.  For $6 we got a basket of (I think) eleven wings, which is a heck of a deal compared to lots of other places where one might get wings.  They were good sized; maybe slightly above average.  They had a slightly above average crispiness to them, and a tiny bit of kick with a decent vinegary flavor for me.  They were served with celery and two generous helpings of ranch dressing.  They were somewhat lightly sauced, including a patch or two void of sauce, so that was the biggest negative about them.  Their own website gives these wings a 4.5 out of 5 star rating for whatever that is worth.  Overall, these weren't the best wings on earth, but I think these will probably be in the regular rotation for us in the future.  They are a great value, a little above average in most every way (even though nothing is off the charts), there is a great happy hour to enjoy, and for some of us it is a straight shot down the road just a few short blocks in case happy hour gets a little too jovial.  I'd give these a recommendation, but remember that its a pretty large appetizer, and their main course portions are generous as well.

Rankings

Heat: 5

Overall: 7

Fox n Hound: Spicy Garlic, Hot Honey & More

After a long work week last week, the Queen and myself decided to make a trek for the evening to see what exciting happenings were going on around town.  As we traversed my Wingdom, we became weary and decided we needed to stop at the nearest tavern to regain our strength, quench our thirsts, and have some wings.  It just so happened that the nearest tavern was the Fox n Hound in Richardson.  We were soon joined by the Queen's entourage, and the festivities began.  The Fox n Hound has several locations around town, and they generally have plenty of pool tables, a large beer selection ($2 pints during happy hour), sports on television, and of course they offer wings.  Like many other establishments, they also offer $.50 wings on Mondays.

We decided to get an order of 20 split across four flavors, which was reasonably priced for around $16.  Add on a side of fries, a few pints, and we are set.  The wings themselves are slightly above average in size, and they are fairly meaty.  They are naked wings, and fried up pretty crispy which is always good.  They are served with celery and blue cheese/ranch.

Our first flavor is Honey Mustard BBQ.  I don't have much to say about these wings.  They were decent, but mostly just tasted like wings coated in BBQ sauce.  I didn't detect any mustard or honey content in the sauce, and to be honest I'm not completely convinced we were given the actual Honey Mustard BBQ as opposed to the regular BBQ sauce.  There wasn't much spice to these wings.  Either way, it was OK, but I probably wouldn't get these again.  There's other flavors I'd rather try.

Honey Mustard BBQ (maybe?)

Heat: 3

Flavor: 7

Overall: 6

Our second flavor is Spicy Garlic.  These were only slightly spicy, which is pretty weak when "spicy" is in the name.  They had a light garlic flavor, which is different from other places that offer a garlic wing where the garlic punches you in the mouth when you take a bite.  These were the crispiest of the wings which is a result of them also being the lightest-sauced of the bunch.  These were the Queen's favorite wings of the bunch, but not mine.

Spicy Garlic:

Heat: 4.5

Flavor: 7

Overall: 7

Our third flavor is the Hot Honey sauce.  At first these might have been my least favorite of the bunch.  However, the more I ate them, the more it grew on me.  The wings themselves were very crispy, but coated in a thick honey sauce that wasn't too sweet.  There wasn't any heat to them, which I would like to have seen with something called "Hot Honey", but the sauce is very pleasant and I ended up enjoying these very much.  Something about them that reminded me of a nice hot tea with some honey drizzled in it.  Not any actual tea flavor, but just a nice warm feeling to make me happy.  Or maybe that was the pints starting to add up.

Hot Honey:

Heat: 2

Flavor: 8

Overall: 7.5

The final flavor was "Hot", which is the top of their heat scale when it comes to the Buffalo style sauces.  The sauce itself is very tasty, and had more of the vinegary kick I like in a Buffalo sauce as opposed to some other places that are more on the buttery side.  The heat itself wasn't very much, and I would say these are more along the lines of a medium sauce at some other locations.  However, I'm not going to throw a fit over it because this isn't an established wing joint and these are only on the appetizer menu.  This was my favorite flavor among the four we tried, and I would definitely get again.

Hot:

Heat: 6

Flavor: 8.5

Overall: 8

Overall, we thought the wings were better than we expected.  I'm certain we will be returning soon thanks to these wings, and our likelihood to return has absolutely nothing to do with $2 pints and being half a block from our castle.