The Worst Buffalo Wild Wings Sauce Has A Flavor Imbalance

There are currently 21 different sauces offered by Buffalo Wild Wings, that venerable institution you rely upon for game days or any other occasion that calls for spicy, flavorful wings (or boneless wings, a phrase Buffalo Wild Wings coined). Some of these are standard — a few different variations on buffalo sauce, with other spicy offerings like Nashville Hot or Mango Habanero — while others, like Orange Chicken and Caribbean Jerk, are a little more unusual in the context of fried chicken wings. Here at The Takeout, we tried all 21 sauces and ranked them from our least-favorite to our very favorite; alas, we were not overly impressed by the Lemon Pepper sauce.

Our taste tester freely admitted that she might have been biased. "It's worth noting that I don't tend to like lemon chicken anyway, so I guess I'm a little biased," she wrote, adding that she'd heard others praise the sauce. But when she bit into the wing, she was put off by a flavor that was neither particularly lemony nor particularly peppery. "Upon tasting, I was immediately met with a cloyingly sweet surprise — it tasted like someone had coated my wing in lemon icing," she explained. And while she did pick up a peppery finish near the end, it was too little, too late. Whether or not one likes lemon pepper chicken, there should be at least a little bit of citrus and a little bit of heat, right?

Although our taste tester was put off by the sweetness of Buffalo Wild Wings' Lemon Pepper sauce, it's true that the seasoning's utility on hot wings started as a way to lower the heat a little. (And yes, it is a seasoning — lemon pepper is a dry rub in its natural state, not a sauce.) It was first commercially sold in 1967, but didn't gain popularity as a wing rub until later. In Atlanta, Lemon pepper steadily grew in popularity, whether as a way to enjoy wings without scorching your taste buds or getting sauce on your clothes. (And if you prefer meatless wings, it goes well with tofu, too.)

Then Donald Glover's surreal dramedy "Atlanta" introduced "lemon pepper wet," a combination of the seasoning with traditional buffalo sauce, and these wings exploded in popularity. It became a trendy enough option that basketball player Lou Williams, who broke COVID protocol in 2020 to stop by an Atlanta strip club specifically for their renowned wings, became known as "Lemon Pepper Lou." Buffalo Wild Wings' offering doesn't live up to this tradition, but then again, that's a lot to ask, isn't it?