Ray J's American Grill

Note: I visited the establishment and wrote this post before the virus shut down everything. I've decided to go ahead and continue posting as it was a snapshot in time. Many places are still open for carryout. Be sure to visit your favorite places during this crazy time. Support what you love. Now is the time!

Ray J's is often on the lists for best wings in the Twin Cities, but we had never gotten around to trying them. I'm not really sure why as the Northeast location isn't that far away for us.

We tried the smoky ranch and buffalo flavors for our full order of wings. The wings are the whole wing that is not cut, which I don't love because I find them hard to eat. That aside, their wings were quite good- crispy skin and juicy chicken. We liked the smoky ranch wings a bit better then the buffalo wings.

The waffle fries were ok, they are the coated variety of fry that I'm not crazy about, but these were hot and fresh. The seasoned sour cream was really great.

The service was great, very quick and efficient.


Ray J's American Grill 
500 Central Ave SE
Minneapolis, MN 55414
Phone: (612) 353-4554
https://www.ray-js.com/location/minneapolis/

Spring Street Tavern

I'd found a list of best wings in Minnesota on Facebook, so we decided to try one the restaurants from the list out. We stopped in to Spring Street Tavern on a Saturday afternoon for a late lunch.  It was surprisingly busy, but there was an event sort of nearby.

The ambiance is definitely more bar than restaurant and probably not family friendly, more adult-oriented. Seating is at the bar or a variety of high top tables along the front windows and some lower tables toward the back.

We had the Spring wings, which are sauced with a honey-hot BBQ sauce. The sauce was definitely sweet, but not especially spicy. We both liked the wings, they were quite addictive actually and the chicken was cooked perfectly. The chicken skin was not soggy or overcooked as is often the case with wings.

We also tried the Seasoned wings, the menu says are served naked, but it seemed to be coated with a dry rub. I want to call it a ranch flavored dry rub. The flavor was good and not at all spicy. These were also quite good as the chicken was cooked well and the skin was very crispy.

 The tots were hot and fresh and a huge serving. No complaints! 

I hate it when restaurants are too cheap to buy Heinz ketchup. This stuff is not a good substitute.

We found the service to be fine, the waitress seemed very rushed whenever she stopped at our table, but we didn't wait for anything. I don't know that we would rush back, but the wings were quite good, so I'd recommend it for that i you happen to be in the area.

Deals & discounts: We used a discount from the Metro Dining Club good forbid one enter and get up to $9 off the second entree.


Spring Street Tavern
355 Monroe St NE
Minneapolis, MN 55413
Phone: (612) 627-9123
http://www.springstreettavern.com

Serum's Good Time Emporium

We visited Serum’s in Anoka after seeing them listed on a best wings list in a local magazine recently. Plus, it is not too terribly far away and the parking is a lot easier in Anoka than most parts of Minneapolis.

They offer a wide variety of wing sauces, but many of them are simply mixtures of a couple standard sauces. We ended up waiting quite awhile for our wings, though the server let us know in advance. We ordered the Wild Wing Sampler with 25 wings and 5 sauces for $21.99. We got the medium, hot, garlicilada, Thai and spicy Szechuan sauces. The medium was really, really mild, the hot had some heat and was OK, but garlicilada was probably the best of the bunch, with a nice garlic flavor. The Thai were quite good with lots of peanut flavor and the spicy Szechuan were not good. The problem with the wings was that they seemed to be overcooked. The meat was dried out, flavorless and not moist at all. It seemed like they were not very hot when they arrived either, like they had been sitting for awhile before they were brought out to us.

The fries were nothing special, but definitely solid crinkle cut fries and the portion was generous.

I’m not sure we’d go back for the wings. I don't see how these wings made any "best of" list. Maybe we were there on a off day but they were nothing out of the ordinary and certainly not worth the trip out of your way to Anoka. If you are in the area or live nearby it might be a decent choice for your average bar food though.


Serum’s
213 Jackson St
Anoka, MN 55303
(763) 421-7522
http://serumsanoka.com/

Northbound Brewpub

We finally made it over to Northbound Brewpub to try their beer and wings. They have been on a few "best of" lists for wings, so we wanted to check it out. They are just down the block from Ted Cook's BBQ, so if Northbound plans fall through I guess you can always run over to Ted Cook's and get some BBQ to take home.

We started out with a beer sampler flight. A huge flight too! We ended up just sharing it since it amounted to two full beers anyway. They had a couple that I liked; the honey wheat ale and the buckwheat honey porter were my favorites. John liked the light rail pale ale.

The wings were quite good, though they had a very salty flavor under the spiciness of the buffalo sauce. Maybe it was because they are smoked. Overall, we did like them. Might try a less spicy version of the wings next time though. These were hot! the blue cheese sauce was amazing though; very rich and creamy.

John had the fried chicken sandwich, which has a waffle beer batter, lettuce, tomato and garlic mayo on an egg bun. The chicken was cooked perfectly and the garlic mayo gave the whole thing a nice flavor. The piece of chicken was huge too!

We shared the side order of fries and the serving was huge. The fries tasted fresh and were cooked perfectly.

I had the chili cheese dog. The chili had a very strong tomato flavor which I was not crazy about, it was not at all spicy either. The hot dog was amazing though; it had a nice snap to it and great smoky flavor.

Our server was very helpful as well. She kept our water glasses filled and told us all about the beers available. We had a great experience overall and we look forward to returning soon. There is also a nice little patio on the side of the building, but it was full when we arrived, so we were seated right away inside.


Deals & Discounts: Happy hour specials are offered Sunday through Friday from 3-6pm and a late night happy hour is every night from 10pm - 12am. $3 house brews, $3.50 rails and $4 house wine.

Northbound Brewpub
2716 E 38th St
Minneapolis, MN 55406
(612) 208-1450
http://www.northboundbrewpub.com/

D-Spot

Recently, we made it over to Maplewood for a long anticipated visit to the D-Spot. They seem to be on every list of places with great wings and after our visit we have to agree.

The D-Spot is a small place in an obscure strip mall located near a McDonalds. The inside is rather spartan, but functional, with a TV and 6 or 7 tables for those that wish to eat in the restaurant. There is a pretty cool mural on the wall that looks like it might still be a work in progress. We placed our order at the register and the food was brought out to us after a short wait when it was ready.

The menu consists of a huge variety in wing flavors. It is divided up into spicy wings, comfort/savory wings, sweet wings and Ph D, meaning sophisticated flavor combinations. They also have spiedini, burgers, chicken sandwiches, fries and onions rings. No alcoholic beverages are available though. Only juice, water and soda.

We started with the salsa verde wings. The sauce has cilantro, garlic, onion and chiles in it. It tasted a lot like cilantro, lime and the flavor was very fresh and unique. The skin on this batch of wings was a bit soggy unfortunately. The rest of our wings had a very crisp and flavorful exterior and interior. The size of all of the wings was excellent. No tiny wings here.

Next, was the Asian BBQ wings, with a hoisin soy glaze. The sauce was salty,  sweet and pretty spicy, but not overwhelmingly so. These were listed in the spicy section of the menu, so I don’t think all the spicy sauces are blazingly hot.

Last, but not least was the tarantula wings. These were probably my favorites. They had a soy glaze, roasted garlic, chili, dry rub and fried garlic in the sauce. The skin was crispy and delicious and the garlic flavor really came through even though the soy was strongly flavored. They were spicy as well, but not so hot you lose feeling in your tongue.

We also added on a basket of seasoned fries to help cool things off. The fries were pretty good, seemed to be freshly made, though neither one of us love fries with that extra coating or breading seasoning on them. They were seasoned with some sort of seasoned salt, which was good and they came with a side of spicy dipping sauce, which was sour cream based and quite good too.

The D-Spot is certainly worth the drive to Maplewood and we look forward to returning and trying more of their wing flavors. The choices are overwhelming, but they did a great job making recommendations and steering us in the right direction. The food is amazing, the wings were great and the prices are a good value.


The D-Spot
705 century Avenue N, Suite B
Maplewood, MN 55119
651-730-7768
www.eatatdspot.com