Moosehead Grill — Restaurant in Charlotte

(Last visited April 7, 2023.) Hanging out in the area on business and it's dinner time! It's #WingWednesday so I checked out that Mashed YouTube video where they highlight the best wings in each state. They said Moosehead Grill had the best wings in North Carolina... so here's how things went!

Atmosphere/Appearance: This place is pretty damn big! There's 2 floors and PLENTY of outdoor seating! I almost feel like there's more seating outside than inside. Lol. Being here in Charlotte it probably is warm enough to dine outdoors most of the year. Inside is lively, energetic and decorated with so many little nick-nacks that give this place so much personality. This place was SO freaking busy so we sat outside

Service: Claudia took excellent care of us. She was sweet, funny and kept it all the way real!

Food: Alright, so I tried out 5 of their legendary flavors! You can only get 1 flavor per 5 wings so keep that in mind. Some of them are fried and some are grilled, but you have to ask since the menu won't tell you.

Killer Bee: So this is a layered flavor of their "Bee Sting", which is honey and habanero, but then kicked up with more heat and a touch of mango. Basically another way to say "mango habanero". These were deliciously sweet and spicy as soon as it touched my tongue. The flavors were SUPER powerful and I really loved that. I didn't taste as much honey in the wing as I was expecting, but perhaps it was used as a thickener/supporting character.

Uncle Donnie's Famous Blackened Wings: I love fried wings, but when restaurants cook them in other ways such as baking, smoking or grilling, I become an even bigger fan! Now these were grilled and the evidence was there. Char all over the wing, perhaps a little too much, but these were incredible. The meat fell off the bone and they were ridiculously tender. The flavors were incredible and so bold, hearty with plenty of umami!

Meeso Honey: These are a mixture of miso ginger and honey. Seems innocent and these did have a grilled finish to them. The flavors were rich, the ginger showed up and so did the honey. There were some other lighter flavors that shined through as well.

Hemo-Goblin: The menu says this is a flavor consisting of blood orange and ghost pepper. Seems a bit intimidating. I've never had anything like this before, but these were full of flavor. The ghost pepper spice did take a minute to ramp up, as usual. However, these let me down in the spice department. I thought they were going to be spicer, but coming up... I get what I deserved...

Hoison-Poison: These are the spiciest wings on the menu. This is a mixture of Hemo-Goblin then made ridiculous with Carolina Reaper. Kinda awesome to have a Carolina Reaper in the state where they were first conceived. Lol. This sauce was quite intimidating. It was so dark, brown and gritty. I just knew it was going to be bad and you can smell the fumes coming from the sauce. Immediately, I started feeling the sensation of heat, but not the actual heat just yet. It did start to ramp up though, but before it did I got to experience notes of sweetness, like those from the rind of peppers. After about 25 seconds my eyes started watering. Then with each breath I took, it got hotter, like feeding a fire more oxygen. Lol. These didn't quite take me out the game, but boy, I would not want to eat an entire order of these. Good thing I only ordered a side of the sauce to pour onto another wing.

Value: Each order of wings was $8.25 for 5. That sounds about right. The wings were of a decent size and the quality was top-notch.

In conclusion, I can't wait to come back here and check out some more of their flavors! Make your way here if you're...

Just came in to have dinner with my mom after hyping this place up, and Cynthia was our waitress. Right off the bat, I could tell she had an unwarranted, unfriendly attitude but I give her the benefit of the doubt. I ordered a skinny margarita, she gave me an incredulous look like she's never heard anyone order such a wild concept, but said okay. Well I never got it. So my mom and I eat and we’re obviously finished for atleast 45 minutes. During those 45 minutes, Cynthia is laughing and chatting it up with a table behind us. Then wipes down a table beside us, that’s already been cleaned off by the way. Hurries past before I can ask her for the check. She’s gone for like 20 minutes. Then we see her come back out, and goes to laughing and being chatty with a different table nearby, which goes on for a few minutes. My mom and I stand up for a couple minutes hoping to get her attention for the check, as she’s facing our direction talking to this group.. she clearly wanted to keep ignoring us. So we end up having to go up to the register to pay and get refills because she literally hasn’t acknowledged us in the past hour and won’t stop talking to this group of people nearby. If you’re going to be rude to people, atleast have a reason! Also, I ordered 5 wings because they “have the best wings in Charlotte”. They were small and burnt… not crispy, but actually black on the sides and burnt. Atleast they gave me 6 instead of 5, so I guess they knew they were putting out subpar wings tonight. The Philly cheesesteak was good though which I why I’m giving 2 stars for food. Needless to say I...

TLDR; overpriced, bad quality control

After looking online I find what Charlotte has named best wings in Charlotte. I call and place my order for 20 wings and potato skins, drive the 35 minutes to pick it up and find out my total is about 40 dollars. I don't understand how they think they can charge that much, it's not the overhead because the building looks dilapidated, and it's not labor costs because there isn't much seating to need many workers. Maybe the food is just that high quality and delicious to be worth it.

I drive home and we open the containers to find 2 regular half's of a potato and 2 tiny half's. There was not much filling and there was no salt on them. Ok, maybe they just have bad potato skins even though it's 1/8 their menu.

We open our wings to find that neither of them have sauce on them. One looks like a dry rub but it's missing the honey half of miso honey. The other are just plain instead of the PB&J flavor. Infinite disappointment. The wings themselves are not big, in fact most of them are small. The quality of their food definitely does not justify their pricing.

How did this order fail quality control so badly. Maybe they were rushed out and didn't have time to check. Well, no because they were just sitting on the bar waiting when I walked in.

The one person I interacted with was great however but I can't believe a place like that is still in business operating in this way. Everything I look for in a restaurant they do the opposite, bad pricing, bad quality control, bad portions.

I've never eaten so much food that actually...