Wing Bucket — Restaurant in Dallas

I am always on the search for the "best wings" so using trusty YELP as my guide, I was directed to "WingBucket" in the heart of Downtown Dallas.

Parking was a pain, lets be clear. If you are not one of the thousands of people who work in the area, this is not going to be easy for you. It was quite obvious that this place is setup to be a "lunch stop" for the countless workers at various office buildings in the area. It took me 30 minutes to find a parking spot, finally on the 8th floor of a public parking garage nearby. $2 to park, and a 5 minute walk to the WingBucket. I caught Pokemon on the way.

Inside, the place was bustling with energy and business. You wait in line here, place an order at the counter (WingStop Style) and sit at a table. I was shocked that my food arrived less than 4 minutes from when I cooked it, they obviously have some stuff pre-prepared, or at least pre-cooked.

Because I knew I would be writing this review, I ordered wings, ribs and chicken strips. Thats everything they have. lol. Basically.

Wings - 5/10. These wings are "condor style" which means the wing and the drum are connected. Makes for a HUGE wing. Means that 4 wings is actually 8. I hate wings like this. You have to pull them apart, often getting sauce on your clothes in the process. The wings were absolutely average at best, the "Volcano Sauce" was like a mix of Sriracha and Buffalo. Not bad, not great.

Chicken Strips - 8/10. These were some AMAZING chicken strips. I got them dry but you can get a dipping sauce for them. Huge, plump, filling. If I were a normal person 2 of them would fill me up. But I am not normal. I am a monster.

Ribs - 5/10 - I just ordered one, but it was HUGE. The sauce was good, but in a city full of epic BBQ, these ribs were right in the middle.

The restaurant was clean, the staff was helpful and kind. I liked the vibe. The food didn't really impress me. I will check it off my list of wing destinations, but might be worth a stop if you happen to be in downtown...

I’ve been to the Wing Bucket in Deep Ellum and I will only be going there from now on. The service at Elm Street Wing Bucket was not good and the wings for some reason lacked seasoning/flavor. I ordered 3 wings with fried pickles and a mango lemonade slushy. The slushy tasted like pure sugar, I threw it in the trash outside when I left. The wings only had seasoning on one side as you can see in the picture (I turned one over on the right so you could see the difference.) The fried pickles were good but the only issue was that they would not give me a ranch for the pickles and a ranch for the wings. The cashier said it was because it was a meal. I don’t understand the logic here. If I ordered wings I should get at least 1 ranch if I order fried pickles I should get a ranch with that. If I ordered both I should get 2 ranches. So do I need to order them separately next time? Instead the cashier charged me $1 for 2oz of ranch. I ordered to go and still tipped and they wanna over charge $1 for ranch when a bottle of ranch on amazon is 1.99??? What a lot of people are calling inflation is actually corporate greed. Just for example… A small bottle of ranch is 1.99 at the store. The bottle has 16oz which means you get 8 2oz cups out of that bottle. You profiting 300% on ranch is crazy. 50¢ I could understand maybe… even though I still feel like you should give 2 ranches if someone orders something that would separately come with its own ranch. I didn’t want to argue with the employees because I’m sure it’s not their policy so I went ahead and purchased the extra ranch but I didn’t enjoy the wings so it turns out I only needed one to eat the pickles after all. Thanks Wing Bucket...

In short: you'll be much, much happier going to BWW or Wing Stop instead.

Went around 4:30/5p on a Saturday. Despite there being only one couple ahead of me in line, it took about 10 minutes for someone to take my order. Then he excused himself midway through, and I had to wait for someone else to complete my order.

By this point I knew it'd be an iffy experience, but I thought hey, let's see just how bad this can get.

While I was waiting, it was complete bedlam behind the counter. Folks arguing about shift coverage. People shouting stuff through to the kitchen. There were about 3-4 people who came up to the registers and punched in stuff -- while I was still waiting to complete my order -- without greeting me, acknowledging my presence, or asking if I needed anything.

Someone finally finished taking my order, and I waited 15-20 mins for a 4-piece combo.

The wings were piping hot, but that's the only positive. They were only 60-70% covered in sauce. I asked for more (which is a whole different story) which they provided.

Even with proper saucing they were very bland. The sauces I choose were supposed to be 3/5 hot. To this not-native-Texan they were below mild. So like less than 1/5 hot.

The place needs a wash. Counters, wall displays, and windows are dirty and greasy looking. Cobwebs on the wall and ceiling.

The only good thing I'll say is that there was one kitchen dude who was working his butt off. There were lots of other employees, but nothing was getting done.

It's quite a shame that this place has declined. It was good 6-7 years ago.

That's my adventure. Bypass this nonsense and...