Atomic Wings - Flavor Explosion

UPDATE - 9/8/11 - NO LONGER HALAL!!




I'm a big fan of buffalo wings. Actually, like most South Asians, I'm a big fan of spicy food in general, but I would say that wings are my favorite "comfort food." In my opinion, a good buffalo wing should have a nice crisp, with a good combination of spicy heat and a little tanginess. They must be covered in the buffalo sauce. It sounds so simple, but it's amazing how many halal fast food joints just refuse to make buffalo wings the right way. All those halal fried chicken spots serve up their own version, which are just a fried breaded wing. BORING! I like to get my hands dirty and dripping with sauce when I eat wings, its part of the experience. Many of the places that do try to make wings the correct way, just can't seem to get it right. Whether the wings themselves are soggy or they just didn't use a good sauce. I've ordered wings many times, only to leave the restaurant slightly disappointed. So a few weeks ago when I saw this new place on zabihah.com called "Atomic Wings" I had to see what it was all about.

Atomic Wings is a franchised fast food chain located throughout New York City. There is only one halal location and it is situated in the financial district (311 Broadway - between Duane & Thomas). I spoke to the franchise owner at this particular location, who told me that although they've been open for several years, they only recently decided to convert to a halal menu. As of now ONLY the chicken items are halal. They are working on getting halal burgers as well, but have to go through an approval process with the franchisor.



The Food

Atomic Wings offers some interesting options with items including wings (of course), burgers, sandwiches, wraps, and salads. What I found really exciting and unique about the menu was the selection of wing sauces. It begins with with the more common Medium, Mild, and Hot. But then things take a turn with sauces called Abusive, Nuclear, Suicidal, each one hotter than the next. Next it moves to BBQ, Honey Mustard, Jerk BBQ, Sweet and Tangy, Garlic Parmesan, and Chipotle BBQ, which seem to be great options for people that can't stand the heat.

It took a little persuasion to convince my wife in to giving Atomic Wings a shot. She's not too fond of wings, in fact she pretty much despises them. I know, I know, how could anyone hate buffalo wings?!? But she just doesn't like the dark meat, spicy, tangy combination. Lucky for her, they have an all white meat boneless wing option to couple with one of the non spicy sauces.

We weren't terribly hungry at the time so we didn't order a ton of stuff. They had a great option for us to share, the 1/2 & 1/2 combo platter ($8.99), which came with 5 regular wings and 5 boneless wings, which we were able to get in 2 different sauces, spicy for me and non spicy for her. (Note you can order the wing platters with up to 100 wings, great for parties).

Since I've had regular medium, mild, and hot sauces from other places, I decided to kick it up a notch by trying the Abusive Sauce, which has a fitting name. Although I enjoyed the intense heat and spicy flavors, the sauce beat me up to the point where I had tears coming out of my eyes. I'm usually able to handle very spicy food, but this was a little beyond my limits. The basket comes with celery and carrot sticks which I used to cool my mouth down in between wings. But even after all that, I'm still curious about the Nuclear and Suicidal sauces. I'm going to have to go back and try those one day. No, I'm not crazy, I'm just a foodie!
The other half of our platter were boneless garlic parmesan wings. I know what you're thinking, who goes to a wings place and orders garlic parmesean sauce? To my surprise, these were excellent! They were big cuts of white meat chicken. They were crunchy on the outside and juicy on the inside. The garlic parmesan sauce had a mild taste of cheesy parmesan paired with the right amount of garlic that gave these boneless wings a bursting flavorful effect.

We also ordered waffle cheese fries as a side. The waffle fries are seasoned and come out hot, crispy, and taste great. The cheese sauce came in a side dish and could be better. The color of the sauce was a pale yellow, and looked like a poor imitation type of cheese. It almost looked like plastic to me. Not very appetizing. The taste of the cheese was not spectacular either.

Cons
Before I went to Atomic Wings, I called ahead to find out which menu items were halal. I was told everything, including the burgers. So I was disappointed when I got there and was told that the burgers are not halal. They also have an alcohol menu.

The Experience

The halal Atomic Wings location has a very modern feel. The decor is sleek, consisting of a stainless steel look with white walls and bright color accents. It looks like they were doing some renovations when we went there. There were areas of the restaurant that were barren and had some construction materials scattered around. Regardless, they have several flat screen TVs, sofas, and a pool table, giving it a lounge type feel. The owner tells me they get very busy during football season. Seems like it would be a fun environment to watch a game and eat some wings.

Even though it's more of a fast food type of place, they provided some excellent sit down service. I went to the counter to place my order, but they asked to me to sit, and a brother came by shortly after to take my order. He answered all my questions, especially about the food being halal. The food came out very quickly as well. They weren't particularly busy at the time, so it would be interesting to see if they can provide the same level of service during a rush.

Their website shows that they have wing eating competitions at some of the other locations. Sounds like fun! If they can get a halal wings eating competition going, I'll challenge anyone to that battle and be the first to sign up. Any Halal Foodies out there up to the challenge????

Overall, Atomic Wings provides truly authentic buffalo wings with some serious flavor explosions, spicy and non spicy, in a sleek Manhattan location that's cool and casual.