Down in the South, there’s a bit of a buffalo wing chain creatively named Buffalo’s Cafe. Due to their popularity and desire to spread their figurative wings, they partnered up with a Fatburger in West LA to create a little something called Buffalo’s Cafe Express. The place is still completely Fatburger, with the addition of a bunch of wings options and total lack of ability to combine the two as a wing/burger combo. That bummer aside, I figured the South would know a thing or two about wings and eagerly ordered a set of ten.
Feeling like my usual self, I went with bone-in wings because I usually only get boneless when something silly is happening in my head. I had the option to pick two flavors and chose Hot and Red Hot Ranch. I could have upped the heat level to Scorchin’ or Death Valley, but was warned by the register man that these were a bit too spicy for his taste. I ordered some curly fries, as well, to wash these down.
It turned out that I could have kicked things up a notch on the spice level. Neither the Hot nor the Red Hot Ranch were terribly hot, but of the two I can say I liked the ranch more simply because they had more flavor. Part of me wishes I had been able to taste-test a few of their other flavors (they have 13 in total), because I have a feeling that their success is due to their variety rather than the taste of their regular buffalo sauces.
Regardless, if they are to make a success of this whole partnership thing, they really need to go all out with the partnership and integrate their menu more with Fatburger (insert joke about the South’s troubeles with integration here) and train their workers to know the menu better. Plus, for wings that didn’t exactly wow me, they were a bit steep in price. Like I said, I wouldn’t mind trying them again, but the first impression definitely didn’t leave me begging for more.
