Buffalo D’s Wings and Things

Two Stars for ‘Restaurant’, 3 stars for Happy Hour Bar. This place has an identity crisis. It’s like half sports bar half Indian/​Kabob hut. I think there’s even a retrofit Hooka Lounge in the back. It just doesn’t mesh well together. Sort of like when Billy Bob Thorton was hanging with Angelina Jolie.
The back room has a low ceiling, bad lighting, and general dinginess. They need to streamline their location and do a little bit of renovation– they could have a winner if they stuck to one theme or the other. But if you are here for the bar in the FRONT (I think that is the official Buffalo D’s, while the back is called the Food Shack or something??? Someone help me out here) you’ve got a nice, small bar with some decent bar food. Great Happy Hour deals ($ 2 beers last time I checked) and some TV-​coverage so you know what you’re dealing with. But the good part of this place is too small for any group of people — so come with a buddy or two, otherwise you’re all going be fighting for space or sitting in the back at a table.
To kind of go along with the Identity Crisis here, I was here on a Thursday at around 8 PM to watch college football. All the TV’s are showing it, which is A+, but then there was like some guy they hired trying to rouse up people to do karaōke. Since he had no volunteers (everyone who was there wanted to watch football), he’s sitting there blasting techno tunes between trying to get people at his microphone.

I missed the happy hour and rolled into the bar a little after 9. I just wanted some food to snack on while I watched the game, but the menu was slim pickings. Per bartender, they were low on everything. Ordered the cheese fries and deep fried pickles. Out of pickles but he hooked my friend & I up with mac & cheese bites. Service was great. I don’t know if menu problems is a regular thing, but I would still go back and just drink.

Stopped in one Sunday night to get take-​out buffalo wings when most restaurants were already closed… the wings were ok, but the few people there were clustered around the door, the music was deafening, and the whole place reeked of cigarette smoke. The wings were ok. The medium were reasonable, and the hot were hotter than I expected (…too hot, really). During the 15 minutes I sat at the bar and waited for my wings, I saw no reason to come back. The bartender lady was nice, but the atmosphere in general was a little seedy.

If you’re name touts your wings, they are hopefully good, but Buffalo D’s just doesn’t manage it. I really want a great wing place in Arlington, guess I’ll still have to wait.
Asked for «extra crispy» wings on the recommendation of a review here, and still got undercooked, too-​much-​skin soggy wings with average hot sauce.
If you have a serious wing craving, these will tide you over, but I can’t see craving this place, just hit up Hooters or somewhere else. If you’re really into flavored wing sauces, they’ve got plenty, but with hot wings this mediocre, I’m gonna skip.
2 for the wings, –1 for the deafening music, +1 for the helpful staff when we visited.

The S.O. and I may not share a love of football (I just don’t do sports. Sorry.) But we do share a love of cold beer and hot wings (and get enough of both in me and I won’t even realize the TV’s on!)
Since the S.O. lives just blocks away, we’d been thinking about checking out Buffalo D’s for a while — but were hesitant due to the lukewarm-​to-​awful reviews. Finally, last Sunday after realizing that there was just no way we were getting seats at Bailey’s, we decided to give the place a shot.
Verdict? The other Unilocalers are dead on. The service is spotty at best — especially for a bar that was not very crowded when we got there. I was very excited when I saw they had my beloved Stella on tap. Unfortunately it took us quite a while to get the bartender’s attention (and we were two of maybe 6 – 7 people sitting at the bar), and another long while before we managed to grab him long enough to order some wings.
We got 10 each of the Hot and the Extra Hot — and managed to get through a round of Stellas and then start on another round before our order arrived. The wings were a good size and tasted decent, though not particularly spicy — however, they arrived COLD. Yuck. We didn’t want to send them back because we knew it could be another 40 – 45 minutes before we got a new batch. So we ate them anyway. Meh.
Overall — a decent neighborhood spot, homey and welcoming. Decent selection of beers and good prices. But they need to step it up with the service — in terms of speed, efficiency, and friendliness. And seriously, what kind of a wing joint/​sports bar serves COLD buffalo wings? Shameful.
We’ll probably give it another chance, due to proximity alone. Otherwise — I’d skip it.

Not great wings at all. The only ones that are decent are the buffalo ones of varying spiciness. The old bay are awful. They aren’t old bay at all. What they did was make some kind of butter sauce and sprinkle old bay in, but there is hardly any old bay at all. And when you ask for some, they bring out butter sauce! The service is terrible as well and it will take forever for your waitress to come over. She will be by the back bar talking with the others for a long time while ignoring all her tables. Also, I heard from someone who knows the owner that he only hires girls as waiters and only ones he thinks are good looking.

7÷28÷2008 OK UPDATE. UPDATE they literally just changed the menu and prices and for the worse. Kabobs are now 30% more expensive. With all the other problems I was willing to overlook, this change has dropped my review down. You should still give it a try, I still believe it is worth it. With all the other good places in the area, its just OK.
Also a side note I’ve noticed, there are almost never single girls in there, it’s 85% guys, 4% girls that came with their boyfriend, 10% girls that work there and 1% single girls.
Old review-​This little place is pretty good. OK the kabobs are great the wings are great the beer selection is pretty good. Now today I went there and got some food to go, they forgot to give us our wings with our order which we didn’t notice until we got home. Even with that I still really like this place. I will probably go here once a week…

Living a block away, I frequent this place. This is the kind of place you can go by yourself and chat with the bartender and watch a game. The front bar is small and cozy. The bartenders are always very friendly.
Their wings are great. Each piece is humongous and very juicy. Beware though, their ‘medium’ to me is burning hot. I ask for ‘mild’ and it’s still pretty spicy.

Buffalo D’s has quite a bit going for it… lots of big screen tvs, some pretty good food [wings were meaty! not just bone and skin], decent assortment of beers on tap, lots of room — a good place for a group to hang out and eat…
BUT service was AWFUL! We were sitting at a table for awhile till we finally asked a guy wearing a Buffalo D’s tshirt if we had a waiter or waitress. The guy said he’ll let the girl who’s covering our section know. She eventually came over and took our first drink orders. She then heads back to talk to her friend (another waitress) for some time, before bringing out our drinks. This was pretty much the pattern the rest of the night. It took FOREVER to get our food or drinks. Also, when the food did come out, she did not bring napkins or silverware! And figuring it would take another 20 minutes till she checks up on us again, I walked over to the waitress stand and just picked up a roll of paper towels and some silverware for our table. ridiculous! Sooooo service was bad. Just don’t leave her a huge tip right?
Well somehow… when the check came… we were overcharged for beer! Except we didn’t exactly keep a tally at the table, so we didn’t know exactly how many we were overcharged for. I’m guessing a good 4 beers were added to the bill and never brought out to us. At $ 3 a glass, there is no way each of us spent $ 25 on just beer there. No possible way. We would have been much more drunk if we had.
Overall, the food is quite good. The waitress we had last night was not. And she pretty much deters me from wanting to dine-​in there again. So maybe I’ll just stick to carry out from this place, if I have a craving for their wings.

I cannot understand what more people want from a small neighborhood bar and grille. Buffalo D’s is kind of place is something that Ballston has lacked for some time. It’s clean, the TV’s are huge and sports are always playing on them (usually NFL network, which I love), the food is reasonable and you get a good amount for the price.
The food selection is pretty typical of a small bar like this one, with wings and daily special dominating the selections. I would like to see a little more imagination in the menu offerings instead of the quickest and easiest items available. However, what the food lacks in creativity, it makes up for overall quality and consistency.
And while the food is decent, it’s the service that has kept me coming back. In the several times I’ve gone to Buffalo D’s I’ve found the drink specials to be a good deal and the wait staff who serves those drinks to be friend and attentive. I’ve never had to wait more than ten minutes for food and I’ve never had a dry glass sitting in front of me. This level of service impressed me more than anything at Buffalo D’s.
Can you find better bar food? Probably. Are there places that are bigger and with more lively décor and character? Sure. There are half a dozen places in Cleveland Park and in Chinatown that immediately come to mind. But if you’re looking in your own backyard for a no nonsense neighborhood bar and grill with cheap drinks, honest food and a clean and friend atmosphere you’d be hard pressed to find a better spot.

I think Buffalo D’s is a place that I would like to keep secret, but if I don’t they might go out of business. The wings are great, but they are made to order for the sake of freshness, so you will probably have to wait. They have about 20 different sauces to choose from, some of which (Montréal?) I have never heard of. The bar itself is a tiny little hallway of an afterthought. I would guess that it could only accommodate about 150 to 200 people. Here’s the kicker, their happy hour lasts from 4:00pm until 9:00pm. That’s a FIVE HOUR HAPPY HOUR! $ 2.00 rails and $ 2.25 drafts for FIVE hours every weekday, combined with the fact that it is located directly across the street from Ballston Metro, makes this a Four Star freak show.

I’m really surprised that this place is getting killed in the reviews. I love me some wings and was excited that this place opened. First time I went with some co-​workers for lunch, I was about to already call them the best wings I’ve had in Arlington. But I thought maybe I just got lucky and would try them a few more times before proclaiming my man-​love. However, I’ve been there several times since and they’ve been just as good. I just drooled on my desk a little.
Maybe because I always order my wings extra crispy, but I’ve never had soggy wings here. They’ve come out delicious and crispy every time. And the 30 or so different flavors is nice.
Yes, they could use another server or two because it does get packed at lunch time and happy hour these days, but I’m guessing that means I’m not the only one who likes their wings. The half-​price wing and $ 2 drink happy hour is nice. From what I remember between the 8 gin and tonics (not much), I had a good time the last time I went there after work.
I’ve taken about 5 – 6 different people here since it opened, and almost all really enjoyed their wings, even if a few complained that it took too long to get them. They do have a sign that says prepare to wait as all wings are made to order, if that makes anything better.

I ate here a few months back, and I was going to give it one more chance, but it seems two other Unilocalers are begging to differ.
Now on the surface, it seems great. There’s a dearth of wing joints in Ballston, and hey, these guys do carryout too. When I went, they did the wings six ways from Sunday (like garlic butter wings in addition to the usual spectrum of wings: buttercup/​sissyboy/​fencesitter/​nuclear/​Chuck F**king Norris).
They make your order fresh, which gave me the chance to see exactly how they made their wings. And it was definitely the way you’re supposed to: fry the wings, place sauce and butter in a tupperware container, add the wings, shake the bejeezus out of it, and viola! Wings!
Now while I understand they’re made to-​order, I was the only person in the place when I put in my order, and I found myself waiting quite a while. I mean, how long does it take to deep fry some wings?
So eventually they get my order ready and I’m back at home watching Conan the Barbarian (seems appropriate for finger food). I notice two things: first off, they give you several small containers of blue cheese, and for an order of 20 wings, I found myself supplementing it with the blue cheese dressing in my fridge.
The second thing was more noticable. They really weren’t cooked as crispy as they should be. I call it «snotty» chicken. If you’ve ever experimented with wings, you know what I’m talking about: you didn’t crisp up the skin well enough, so when you dredge them in wing sauce, the skin’s all soggy, goopy, and runny.
The verdict: I’ve defintely made better wings myself, and that’s not to toot my own horn. My rule of thumb for dining out is the food should taste better than if I do it myself, otherwise, why bother, right? They didn’t even taste all that good. They weren’t bad by any means, just dead, dead average.

Buffalo D’s is attached to the back of Food Factory facing Fairfax Dr. It immediately reminded me of Babu’s Dream Café (though Babu was Pakistani and Food Factory is Afghan). They tried to diversify too much and it seems to have backfired, but in a way that makes you admire them trying.
Ordered some buffalo chicken fingers for take-​out lunch. Took entirely too long and then another few minutes when I paid with a credit card. They run it back to the Food Factory side to swipe it. Was very average, McDonald’s Chicken Selects with some hot sauce sprinkled on.
I couldn’t give Buffalo D’s an F, and there’s potential because there’s few options for wings in that part of Ballston.

This place is brand new, in the front (N. Fairfax) part of the building which also houses the Food Factory. As such, it immediately became the closest bar to me, so I had to try it. They have a nice little bar with not many more than half a dozen stools, and a few tables with chairs. There’s one large and two medium plasma TVs. The «kitchen» is mainly a couple of large deep fryers to the right of the bar… there must also be a griddle top behind it, but I didn’t see it. The draft beer selection was decent… seems every place has Blue Moon these days which is good because I like it. So the bar is acceptable. But my girlfriend and I were seriously disappointed with the wings. First, we probably made a critical mistake in ordering the boneless wings. They had a really grainy yucky texture. I would be tempted to try bone-​in wings, which I like better anyway, but the seasoning /​sauces were totally lame. We got one order (10 wings) each of Cajun and the Hot Barbeque flavor. There was no spice heat to either one. They were worse than generic and expensive, and we were overcharged for them to boot! We discovered that you can get food from Food Factory in the back and eat it in the bar though. This would be the way to go. I could definitely see eating a nice Chapli Kebab or some curry and naan bread while drinking a Blue Moon and watching a game there. But those wings… no thanks. Two stars for the bar, and could go to 5 if you just eat Food Factory and drink there.