Papa Bees — Restaurant in Longwood

Went Wednesday May 19th and I was excited to try these well reviewed wings. The site claims they're cooked to order and not held under a heat lamp. It also says they cook 15 or so minutes unless requested extra crispy, then it's 20+.

I called in my order, extra crispy, and was told 10-15 minutes. If the site is to be believed, that's not possible. Then when I arrived, a few red flags... They're currently dark on Mondays and now hiring. Unfortunately a situation many operators currently are experiencing, and also a sign things may not be 100%.

I entered the store, went to the pickup counter, was greeted and paid. After waiting another 10 minutes it was clear the order taker may have estimated the time out of habit as mine were going to be 20 minutes+.

What I did observe though is that this claim of cooking to order is more of a claim than a fact. I watched the kds which showed a total of 30 pieces on order, but while waiting I watched the two cooks (with no hat or hair restraints btw) pulling wings from a heaping pile of over 100 wings and refrying them to heat them for orders. So while you may get them piping hot, they are twice fried not cooked to order. Raising the bigger question of why I was waiting if they're already cooked, par or otherwise.

Regardless, I drove about 5 minutes to home and the wings was still very hot, while the fries are not, as they weren't cooked recently and didn't have a chance when got them of being hot as I checked the boxes before leaving.

Were the wings good? No. They could have been, and based on reviews often are. Why were they not good? Well, when you take a raw protein, don't season it and serve it with slightly doctored sauce, the only failure point can be technique or process. There's no recipe ingredients, so it's down to raw ingredients and procedures. The wings were sized large, which is expected for about a dollar a wing, so that's good. They were hot, so that's a plus. Unfortunately this issue is a simple but common one, and is likely related to the now hiring cooks sign. The oil was OLD and not filtered. As a result, the wings, which when fried from raw break down oil very rapidly, tasted like an ashtray. Not so bad they make you gag, but clean oil is unmistakeable and same with dirty. The fries suffered as well from the triple threat of cold, old oil, and no seasoning so I tossed them. I'd expect with the size of the place, they'd filter at least once and maybe twice a day with fresh oil maybe every day or every other. This was not that.

I'm sure it was just a simple oversight due to short staffing and lack of observation and standards, and I may try them again in the future, but this trip could have been all around great if a process was followed. I also didn't see or hear any timers in use, so that may explain why the few wings I had were varied in doneness with some crispy and others dust. No timers plus mixing batches of precooked wings can do that.

Like I said, I may go back because I like wings that aren't baked first, and the sizes were good, but this trip has literally left a bad taste in my mouth... Old oil.

Went back 5/20/22 and wings were better but fries were again not seasoned at all.* That's 2...

The wings are unbelievably good. Seriously. They have a large selection of sauces and you can mix them in most cases (I got hot garlic, and it was awesome). If you are a spice fiend, their Nuke sauce is really hot and will get you sweating. The wings are big and meaty, cooked properly, retaining moisture and have the perfect amount of sauce on them. Price is fine; I think it's just under a buck a wing if you order 10. If you go up to 15 the per-wing cost drops a decent amount. Come hungry if you opt for 15, these ain't tiny wings. Might be the best wings I have had in the Orlando area. This is why I'll come back-- for the food.

The service was godawful. I went during lunch rush, and they were woefully unprepared. I stood in the front and was told they needed to clean a table off for me (it was only about 12:10 and the dining room was not full). Okay, I'll wait. So I waited. For probably 7 minutes. Of course when I sat down everything was soaking wet because they had just wiped it off with a wet cloth, so I had to get a bunch of napkins and wipe everything off, including the booth seats, so I wouldn't be covered in water.

It didn't get any better. The service was some of the slowest I have ever had anywhere. The grand total of wings ordered at my table was 25. We got our drink orders in and had the drinks dropped off over the timespan of about 10 minutes total, and then we didn't see our server for about 40 minutes. When she stopped by the table, she did not have our wings, was just checking in to see if we needed refills. Another 10 minutes pass and we finally get our wings, which we scarf down. It takes another 15 minutes to get the check after we're sitting at a table covered in picked clean bones and napkins. We don't let her leave without our card because who knows when the next time we'll see her is?

All in all, we spent about an hour and 40 minutes in the place to get and eat 25 wings. If this place is going to get me to return (and in greater numbers), they're going to have to find a way to get me out of there within 45 minutes so I can get back to work in a reasonable...

This was my first time visiting on 2/5/22 and it was my last. If I could rate zero stars I would. For the record, my order of chicken wings were cooked perfectly. The beer was cold and crisp and very refreshing. With that said, the french fries are incredibly under seasoned. That is the absolutely least of all my worries. The biggest issue came with the fact that my wife's order of a chicken tenders basket contained a severely undercooked and pink in the center, still raw chicken tender. She took 1 bite of it and spit it out. My wife is currently pregnant, so she is trying to be incredibly cognizant of what she eats so you can imagine how upset she was when this happened. I called the server, Alia, over and explained to her that the chicken was raw. She took one look at my wife, with tears in her eyes and just asked would you like another order? God forbid if you ask if she's okay. My wife of course refused. The server said okay I will take it off the bill before taking the tenders away from her and scurrying off to another table. As my wife was furiously scrolling through Google to make sure that she and my baby was going to be safe after consuming this, I asked for the check. The check was brought over to me and it was another customer's check, which was at least $20 more than what we would have ordered without the tenders basket being taken off. I walked over and explained to the server that she gave me the wrong check. She took the wrong check away from me, crumpled it and threw it into a waste paper basket before printing out the right check. I explained to the server why my wife was so upset and her response was simply " I'm sorry to hear that" before flashing a smile at me and going back to the cash register. Needless to say, the customer service and the lack of empathy that I received here has ensured that I will never return to this establishment again. There was no attempt to bring a manager over and there was no attempt by the staff to make sure she was okay. The lack of care, lack of empathy, and lack of safe food has guaranteed my loss of...