Buffalo Wild Wings — Restaurant in Lake Forest

If you don't have to work for it or wait for it, it's usually not worth it. A long time ago when BWW was a distant dream requiring travel, commitment and dedication to partake in excellent wings, a real rival to the international giant Hooters. Slowly, but surely they expended and reached more manageable locals.

Well that was the past and times have changed. The consistency between stores is not there. Huge swings in service, quality of food and flavor. I know it's just wings, but those that love wings will let you know and won't hide their thoughts.

Mango Habanero is nice, a spicy sweet ness then the heat albeit subdued. Asian zing is a classic Asian flavor made for the masses, thai curry is a great mix with Asian zing, the curry is very garlicy. Salt and Vinegar is a clean crisp profile, but my gripe here is no lemon pepper. Don't go boneless, then your just saucing a nugget.

French fires are decent since they come with S&V dusting. The flatbreads are all very disappointing, no ingenuity, no creativity. Bland. Onion Rings are nice, crisp, consistent, southwestern ranch has a nice surprise overtone to it, mix with mustard and BBQ and your kicking ass. Roasted garlic mushrooms really should be battered and fried the way the onion rings are. Mini Corndogs are quite good, but corndogs in general are.

The salads and burgers are really generic, slapped together. Black and bleu is a play on bleu cheese, but real black and blue is a steak term, so don't get excited about that. Salad's are using somewhat fresh ingredients, but the dressings like all their sauces are excellent.

Don't bring the kids here during popular sporting events. They say it's friendly because they have booster seats and a kids menu, but people drop f bombs, s bombs all day here. It's a sports bar with a decent menu. Come here for the wings, the beer and the atmosphere, but not the food. It's as generic as BWW's come and with a dozen in the county now I'd go to almost any other...

I'll have to come back here again to see if our experience is any different than this first time. We've been to several other locations, but this was our first time at Lake Forest. We had a short wait before we were seated, arriving in between the lunch and dinner rush. We waited a while to get our drinks. We waited a reasonable time to get our food. We waited a ridiculous amount of time to see our server again and order refills on our drinks. Watching the server walk all around the empty restaurant was frustrating, especially since we were trying to get their attention. We ended up ordering just one beer to share instead of a second round. For the first time since the pandemic started, we tipped just 15%. Edit: Now that I'm seeing the other reviews, it appears that poor service is common here. The owner response seems to be the same each time, "Fill out the form and we'll address it with the team." I don't know how much that'll help at this point. Edit for an online order: It was ready exactly when promised, so that was nice. The food servings were what I expected. Where they absolutely failed was the extra sauces that I paid for. They use the half ounce souffle cups, and filled them each about halfway. I paid $2 for less than an ounce of dressing. For our 20 wings, this was not enough. There are better locations than this one. I will not be ordering...

I was debating between 2 and 3 stars. I'm going to go with 2.5 stars. The biggest pro is obviously the great sports bar atmosphere. I went to watch a NFL game and almost every single game was showing maybe except 1 or 2 great place to keep up with your fantasy football or pickem leagues. There is usually a featured game displayed on the big screen projector. I was very pleased that you can request a table any game that you want as long as you get there early enough. Great place a lot of people came in groups supporting their teams (mostly non-local teams). This is my favorite place to watch the game since there is no more Fox Sports Grill at the spectrum. Now the food was less impressive... The hot wings were tasty, but around Denny's or Ihop quality. You may ask those places don't server good wings. Well I felt like BWW did not serve the quality I expected from a place that has Wings in its name. I recommend WING STOP instead for wings. BWW was "meh". My friend ordered the ribs which did not compare to Dhili's or Applebee's ribs. The ribs were tender, probably boiled, but very tasteless even with the sauce added. The food let me down. Next time, I will just drink beer and eat french fries and hit up Wing Stop down the street afterward. I may give this place another try, but for now... 2 Stars. Go to watch the game, but don't stay...