One of six street vendors tucked away inside Sheffield Plate, the city’s latest food hall experience, local traders Wingin’ It have been slinging out bangin’ wings accompanied by a mixture of street food bites since the venue opened in September last year.
Now, we’re more than partial to the odd bit of fried indulgence here at Exposed HQ, so it wasn’t difficult to round up a few heads last month for a post-work sample of what they had to offer.
The menu offers up to nine different types of wings, showcasing a wide range of flavours from your classic sticky BBQ sauce and southern fried offerings to less typical options such as the Korean-inspired Tiger Style Wings and deep-fried Fiery Jamaican Jerk Wings. There’s also a nice local nod in there with the Northern Fried Wings, tossed with lashings of Henderson’s Relish for that traditional Yorkshire kick.
Ooof! The hungry Exposed team were greeted by some seriously good-looking wings.
Hoping there was some wisdom to be found in the majority vote, upon arrival we spoke to owner Lewis and decided to order some of the customer favourites: Zing Wings, Tiger Style Wings and Sticky Icky BBQ wings.
Pretty much all the chicken wing flavours can be transferred to a cauliflower wing option – handy as there were a couple of vegans present in the group – so we topped off the order with Cauli Salt ‘N’ Pepper Wings and Cauli Southern Fried Wings.
The vegan-friendly Cauli Wings looked equally tempting.
Complementing this veritable smorgasbord of wing-based action were some hearty sides, the ever-classic Mac N Cheese Bites and Rustic Wedges, which arrived flanking the mouthwatering main event in less than thirty minutes.
If the meal arrived in good time, it was devoured just as quickly. Picking over the bones (literally) of our once resplendent looking platter of scran, the verdicts were in and the Asian-inspired Tiger Style Wings – soaked in a delightfully tangy, sweet sauce – was swiftly declared the overall winner. The crispy southern fried ‘Zing Wings’ were a close second and, for my money, much crunchier, meatier and generally superior to those offered by a certain big chain founded by a moustachioed colonel. The Sticky Icky BBQ Wings were everything they needed to be: unbelievably messy and sticky but covered in such a tasty marinade that licking the remnants from your hands felt more like a treat than a chore.
The Sticky Icky BBQ Wings: if you’re not covered head to toe in sauce within seconds, you’re doing it wrong.
The vegan crew were equally content with their lot: the Cauli Salt N Pepper Wings impressed with some wonderful oriental-inspired flavours and the Cauli Southern Fried Wings went down a treat when dipped into the homemade Jerk Ketchup and Wingin’aise sauces.
A shoutout, too, for the plump Mac N Cheese Bites providing a delightfully gooey accompaniment to proceedings. After they were finished off, all that was left was mopping up any remaining sauces with the nicely seasoned wedges before contentedly calling it a day. Oh, and pass us the napkins, pal.
Birds-eye view of just some of our evening feast.
VERDICT: If you’re going to make wings your forte, they better be good. Thankfully, Wingin’ It have got the game down to a tee. We’d highly recommend popping for some indulgent street eats the next time you’re feeling peckish in town, or you can enjoy via the comfort of your home via Deliveroo/Just Eat/Uber Eats. You won’t regret it.
Love to the friendly Wingin’ It staff!
