P.J. Whelihan's is a chain of pubs with several locations in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The pub serves the standard Irish pub fare: beer, burgers, sandwiches, munchies, and, quite noticeably, wings (they dominate the center portion of the placemat menus). Promoted proudly as as the "Official Wing of (Sports Radio)
WIP Wing Bowl", we went in hoping they lived up to the hype.
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| P.J.'s Wings: Hot & Honey (left) and Inferno (right) |
P.J.'s offer their wings served with any of seven different sauces: Hot n Honey, Chipotle Lime BBQ, Drunken BBQ, Mild, Shanghai Sesame, Hot, and Inferno. Before ordering, I asked to sample the two hottest sauces, Hot and Inferno. I found the Hot to be a standard buffalo-style sauce, based on a hot sauce (Tabasco or similar), and found it pretty much "normal". Consistency was a little thin, the color was a Tabasco-ish reddish orange, and it wasn't all too hot, making it safe for sharing with those with lighter lingual constitutions. The Inferno sauce was a dark red, and much thicker. It had a bit of a smokey flavor, and considerably more bite to it, though not so much for the chile-heads out there. I chose to order one basket with the Inferno sauce, and just for something different, ordered another with the Hot n Honey sauce, which the server explained was "three parts honey to one part Hot sauce".
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| Hot n Honey: Not too hot, not too Sweet. |
First up were the Hot n Honeys. These wings were crispy and meaty. These were fried up, with out a batter, so there was a distinct crunch as you bite into the skin, but the meat itself wasn't dried out. I'm not a fan of really "juicy" wings, so this suited me just fine. The size of the wings were a little bigger than the average size I've found in my travels. As per the server's description, I tasted the honey pretty clearly, nicely balanced with the flavor of their Hot Sauce. As a result, the sauce was neither overly sweet nor too hot. Heat-challenged wing aficionados will find these tasty, with just a little kick to pique their taste buds, but not so hot they find themselves in pain.
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| Inferno wings: Better than "911". |
The Inferno wings were similarly crispy and meaty, but carried with them a nice bit of heat. As I said before, the sauce is darker, smokier, thicker, and hotter version of their Hot. It's by no means the hottest sauce out there, but after polishing off a basket, there was clearly some noticeable heat. Overall this sauce works well. I'd hate to draw comparisons to some other venues, but I would compare this sauce
vaguely to Hooter's "911", but have to conclude this is a much more polished version. In fact, if you even remotely like the Hooter's version (naked, not with the breading), you will find these a
vast improvement, both in terms of the quality of the wing itself and the sauce.
My conclusion? The quality of the wings is well above that of your typical "striped awning" chain restaurant, and they have enough of a selection of sauces to cater to most palates. Although the Hot n Honey was tasty, it would probably pass on it in favor of trying the other sauces. On the other hand, the Inferno sauce was quite enjoyable, and I would definitely make sure to order it again on a return trip. If you have a P.J. Whelihan's within driving distance, they make a worthy wing.
P.J. Whelihans (Allentown)
4595 Broadway
Allentown, PA 18104
http://www.pjspub.com/
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