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Who Has the Best Wings in Charlotte NC? The Top 8 Wing Spots in CLT

Who is the king of wings in the Queen City? Make sure you have extra the paper towels (or just lick your fingers) as you chow down on some spicy, saucy goodness from these eight restaurants who serve some of the best chicken wings in Charlotte NC.

wings, kimchi fries, pork belly and potato on stick at seoul food meat company in charlotte nc
Seoul Food Meat Company serves some of the best wings in Charlotte along with other Korean inspired fare.

Looking for other places to eat and drink in Charlotte, NC? Check out Off the Eaten Path’s Charlotte Restaurants Guide

If you’re a wing lover living in the Queen City, have you found the best wings in Charlotte? What’s your favorite Charlotte wing place? 

Football and wings are a match made in heaven; they go together like peanut butter and jelly, mac and cheese, spaghetti and meatballs, cookies and milk, Muggsy Bouges and Space Jam (you get the point).

So while you’re watching football from your couch this weekend, you’re definitely going to want to have wings as part of your game day spread.

I’ve done the hard work for you (you’re welcome, eating a ton of wings is hard and not at all delicious and fun) to create this list of the best wings in Charlotte, North Carolina. (If you’re looking for some other Charlotte food round ups, I’ve also written about the best pizza in Charlotte, best patios in Charlotte, best breweries in Charlotte, Charlotte Farmers Market Guide and Charlotte’s best brunch).

Who has the best wings in Charlotte?

Note: There are a lot of great wing places in Charlotte. These rankings are based on my personal wing eating experiences and preferences, and also from a little Twitter crowd sourcing (I do have to confess while a lot of wing eating went into the research for this post, I have not eaten at every single restaurant that serves wings in Charlotte, and I’m sorry for that).

Because there are so many great wings in Charlotte, I here are some honorable mentions before we get started: Alexander Michael’s, Chex Grill, Duckworth’s, Tavern on the Tracks, Boardwalk Billy’s, Taste of Buffalo in Huntersville, French Quarter, and Three Monkeys Tavern and Grill in Harrisburg. And some smoked wing/dry rub shout outs need to go to Midwood Smokehouse, Mac’s Speed Shop, McKoy’s Smokehouse and Saloon, and Sweet Lew’s BBQ.

Tip: We are personally not eating indoors at restaurants right now and opting for take out or a chicken wings delivery order, but several of these bars and restaurants have dine in options with TVs so you can eat wings and catch the game.

Even pre-2020 when I loved eating in restaurants, I have always much preferred a wings to go situation to pair with other game day party food I’ve prepared like roasted jalapeno poppers, beer cheese fondue, pepperoni bread, and jalapeno pimento cheese. (And if you want to try to make your own wings at home, check out my slow cooker buffalo turkey meatballs or extra crispy air fryer chicken wings recipes!)

Ok, after a very important note and a very important tip, here’s my list for the best wings in Charlotte. The wing spots are not ranked in a particular order. Also, I included which area of town you can find them!

dipping a Buffalo wing into ranch or blue cheese

D.D. Peckers, Pineville

You know a place is good when you put out a call on Twitter for “the best wings in Charlotte” and your friends and followers list it as one of their go-tos.

The family friendly joint fries their wings before dousing them in sauce (they have more than 25 sauces that are all made in house to choose from) locking in a good amount of crunch and flavor.

If you’re not into bone in drums or flappers, D.D. Peckers’ offers crispy chicken tenders that can be doused in any of their house made sauces. And while wings are the main menu items, they have a variety of sandwiches and burgers too.

Lebowski’s Neighborhood Grill, Dilworth

I think there may be more transplants from upstate New York in Charlotte than actual native Charlotteans.

It makes sense; North Carolina’s more temperate climate is a lot more tolerable than Buffalo’s feet and feet of snow. So of course with the mass New Yorker migration, there was a definitely market for a spot serving up authentic, real Buffalo wings and a save haven for Bills fans.

Of the many upstate New Yorker’s I know, they say that Lebowski’s wings are the closest you’re going to get to “real Buffalo wings” like the ones you get (obviously) in Buffalo. I would expect nothing less; Lebowski’s owner is a transplant, who grew up in Buffalo (of course).

You should definitely order Buffalo wings at Lebowski’s, and the gold rush ones are pretty great too.

red basket filled with buffalo wings, ranch and celery

Image by jengland from Pixabay 

Moosehead Grill, Montford

Moosehead is the epitome of a neighborhood watering hole, a casual, eclectic atmosphere, heavy drinks, and really excellent bar food (you know the bar food is good if it tastes great for dinner at 630pm or after a night of singing at Jeff’s Bucket Shop at 2am).

No trip to Moosehead is complete without at least one order of wings, but I dare you not to have more than one. The wings are award winning, named the best in Charlotte and the Carolinas in 2011, and the Rookie of the Year award at the 11th Annual National Buffalo Wing Festival.

My go-to is Uncle Donnie’s Famous Blackened Wings (named after Moosehead’s wing connoisseur and chef Uncle Donnie Anderson); but the Bee Sting brings a little spicy and a little sweet and the PB&J’s (made with peanut butter and apple jelly) always peak my interest.

Wing King Café, Steele Creek

The name is very telling; Wing King Café is, in fact, the one of the king of wings in Charlotte.

One of my biggest regrets in life is that we didn’t try Wing King until about 8 months after I moved to Steele Creek (although we lived in Steele Creek for four years and ate at Wing King Cafe plenty of times).

Wing King Cafe is not actually a cafe; it’s a sports bar with an old school tavern vibe, chatty and friendly staff, and excellent wings. Overlook the location (questionable looking gas station plazas and strip malls are not often home to fantastic food), and grab a bar stool, a cold beer, and get a little messy while you chow down on saucy wings.

They have over 30 flavors to choose from, so you can go traditional (we like their hot wings), or try something different, like hot garlic parmesan, Cajun, or sweet chili (also favorites of ours). All wings are served with plenty of homemade blue cheese or ranch for dipping.

We usually order the King Sampler, 25 wings, five different flavors (your choice of sauce) so we can get a little variety.

take out boxes with a variety of different hot buffalo wings on a wooden table an orange and white rug in the background
The King Sampler from Wing King Cafe includes 25 wings so you can try a variety of flavors. It’s one of our favorite orders for takeout for game day!

Ty’s Wings and Tings, East Charlotte

I initially learned about Ty’s Wings and Tings from Wynee’s World when we were on a podcast together about Charlotte food and she said that Ty’s was one of her favorite restaurants in Charlotte. Wynee is in good company in her Ty’s fandom, because it is rumored that former Panthers’ quarterback Cam Newton is also a big Ty’s fan.

There are seven flavor options offered at the East Charlotte wing spot, including one flavor I haven’t been able to find at any other restaurant in the Queen City, Hennessy BBQ (also called Henny Wings which I love.)

Ty’s menu offers more food than just wings (where “tings” comes into play of course!) so make sure you also try the fried chicken and fish, Caribbean delights like oxtail curry goat jerk chicken sides like collards, mac n cheese okra and more.

Bisonte Pizza Co., Uptown

Did you know that Bisonte means “buffalo” in Italian? Makes sense for a pizza and wing joint owned by two brothers from Buffalo, New York who say they are bringing the Queen City Buffalo style pizza and wings through their family recipes.

So it would make sense that a place that’s serving food from Buffalo would have really good wings because after all, Buffalo wings originated in Buffalo in the 1960s.

Bisonte has two locations, one in Uptown and one in Matthews, and their crispy chicken wings are a must order (although they have a lot of other delicious food on the menu including some really good pizza).

You can get wings, tenders or boneless bites in any amount from six (a single order) to 50 (a bucket) with either traditional wing sauce or your pick of specialty sauces. And don’t forget homemade ranch or blue cheese for dipping!

chicken wings on a while plate topped with green onions and a side of celery and ranch

Photo by Chad Montano on Unsplash

Flip-a-Lo’s, South Charlotte

Flip-a-Lo’s may be in the running for our favorite wings in Charlotte. Or at least the wing place where we have spent the most money in the last year. We have ordered so many hot wings and Buffalo pizza sticks since first trying Flip-a-Lo’s last March I have totally lost count.

One of my favorite things is to get restaurant recommendations from foodie friends, and when my friends Yvonne and Jason from Scallion Pancake raved about Flip-a-Lo’s in a post, I added it to my Charlotte Food Bucket List. We also went with their recommendation and always order our wings extra crispy and Flip-a-Lo’s house made sauces are finger licking delicious…we usually just go for traditional hot, but Flip’n Hot Buffalo is always tempting (AJ would probably even try Atomic but I think it would just make me cry). If you prefer boneless wings, Flip-A-Lo’s offers chicken tenderloin strips in both meals and packs just like their bone-in wings.

Our other must order (we’ve gotten it every single time) is a batch of Buffalo Pizza Sticks. Drool. I have no idea how Flip-a-Lo’s makes them so delicious (I mean likely it’s because they make the dough from scratch and the balance of tastes and texture is heavenly) but make sure you add an order of pizza sticks to your wings (you may as well go with a large because we always do and love having leftovers). And of course, we make sure to get tons of carrot and celery sticks on the side to dip in the blue cheese!

I know I’m waxing poetic at this point, but everything that comes out of Flip-a-Lo’s kitchen is made from scratch and we are obsessed with the blue cheese…so much so that we always order extra AJ and I fight over who gets to have the last of the blue cheese.

Seoul Food Meat Company, South End

If you’re looking for more Korean style wings you can find them at one of the trendiest restaurants in the heart of South End. Seoul Food Meat Company is a Southern barbecue restaurant that draws heavily on Korean influence and inspiration, offering a variety of smoked meats and Korean style sides.

Their wings are double fried, making them super crispy, before being tossed in two types of sauce, either soy garlic or spicy barbecue.

 

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9 Comments

  1. Glad you put wing king on here I’ve been eating there for a few years it’s my go to when I’m in Charlotte just wish I would have tried when I first seen it. Before south Tryon got so built up

    1. Wing King is one of our favorite spots! We used to live in Steele Creek and ate there or ordered from them all the time. So good!

  2. Wow. This is so off. I understand taste is subjective, but this is way off. First DD Peckers, is by far the most boring of all. Absolutely nothing special. It’s just your run of the mill deep fried wings with bottle sauces. I can say the same for most of the top selections. The ones I would recommend is moosehead and the korean places. But the rest are the same thing. If you want good wings, try the honorable mentions. Those are great wings, with unique signature sauces. Frankly, anyone that praises DD Peckers as having the top wings doesn’t know a thing about wings.

    1. Thanks for the comment! Charlotte is home to a lot of restaurants that make a lot of great food. The list isn’t a ranking, so I’m not saying DD Peckers is the overall best. Also did you know DD Peckers, Flip-Los and many other places on this list make their own sauces from scratch in house? So we’re not playing with bottled sauce here. The places you mentioned like Moosehead, Choi’s and Seoul are also on this list, so it seems that we do agree on some things about wings which must mean I know at least a little bit about wings I guess.

    1. I originally wrote that piece! It has been changed and edited over the years and they asked permission to remove my name, so the word for word stuff is probably from my original story for them. Thank you so much for pointing that out though!

  3. What a fun post! I don’t go out for wings often, so it’s nice to have the selection narrowed down a bit. Ty’s sounds right up my alley!

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