Wings Etc. — Restaurant in Salem

Food was great! Really only giving a 4 because of the experience just coming into the resturaunt itself. They have the hostess stand directly at the door entrance, while there is a little breezeway you step into first before entering the main resturaunt, it's very small and the space between the doors only fit about 3 people before we were all standing outside of the outside door. Not only that but everything seemed to run extremely unorganized. There were about 5 people running around the front hostess stand, and a few of us had placed pick up orders and were just there to pick up but they didn't have a system in place for that. Me and my fiancé watched 2 people step inside being prompted by the line because they were just picking up and then they were helped by what may have been a manager?? A man in a black jacket? Who asked those patrons for the pick up order name and they got their food and left. Then we asked patrons in the line if we could also head in to pick up our order because we had been standing there for 6 mins or so at that point, and they said go ahead so we went in and went right to where the other people got helped stood and the manager dude sees us and walks away. We stood there for another 10 minutes while employees just kept walking passed us. No one spoke to us, we ended up having to stop the manager looking person ourselves and ask for some help and let him know we were there to pick up an order. We didn't even get an acknowledgement for what had happened, just gave us our food and we left. We don't really like to complain so we didn't say anything, and they looked busy so I'm sure that had something to do with it, but that wasn't a fun first time experience 😅 Once we got home and ate the food everything was good so I can't complain about that too much. Will have to try again to form a...

Our family loves to support local spots, so we flew on over to Wings Etc. Wednesday around 5:30, ready to eat our weight in chicken. We were seated fast — good start!

We kicked things off with the pretzel bites (free appetizer, can’t beat that). They came out a little on the “crispy-charred” side — let’s just say if they were any darker, they’d have been toast at a campfire. Still tasted like a pretzel though, so not a total loss.

I ordered the Mango Habanero Chicken Sandwich, expecting some sweet heat magic. Instead, I got… liquid lava soup on a bun. Sauce so thin it could’ve been juice. Wouldn’t recommend unless you like your sandwiches to drip like a smoothie.

The BBQ nachos were just okay — they had a blink-and-you-miss-it amount of BBQ. Our daughter had the Buffalo Chicken Wrap and said, “Dad, I could’ve made this at home,” which is never what you want to hear when you’re paying restaurant prices. Another daughter got Caribbean Jerk wings, but the “jerk” must’ve called in sick because we couldn’t taste it. Our son had boneless wings and tapped out early — said they weren’t worth the calories.

Once the food hit the table, our waitress must’ve gone on a mission because we didn’t see her again for a while. Drinks ran dry faster than the Roanoke River in August. When we finally caught her, she was nice — just MIA. Maybe she was outside with the four or five employees we saw hanging out when we pulled in.

Would we go back? Eh… maybe one more time just to make sure it wasn’t an off night. But it’s not exactly...

UPDATE: We went again after several weeks,and had a much better experience. It seems like they've worked out some of the kinks and have gotten better consistency with the food quality. My traditional wings were a bit crunchy,but better cooked than the first time, and the two sauces I chose had more flavor. I also got one of the dry rubs added to the wings, which helped the flavor immensely. I've upped my rating to 4 stars overall.

ORIGINAL REVIEW I love chicken wings, and I love flavorful, spicy sauces. I really wanted to like Wings, Etc, but I knew it would be a mistake to go right after they opened. Per the other reviews, they seem to be hit or miss as some people weren't impressed (like me) and others love them. Or maybe they are fine with mediocre wings sauces that don't live up to the hype. The Habanero Mango sauce was spicy, I guess, but there wasn't more than a hint of mango. The Nashville Hot simply wasn't, and they left an odd after taste. Plus, 7 of my bone-in wings were overcooked and tough and the other three were undercooked. Maybe if they'd season their wings they'd be better, but I guess it's hard to season frozen wings (because they sure aren't fresh.) My wife got 10 bone-in wings too, and all of hers were tough and lacked flavor. She got the garlicky-parm and the honey mustard and said there wasn't much taste to hers either. All Sports in Salem doesn't have to worry about the competition at all! We'll try again in a few months, if they...