***** Jus Wings has closed
Several months ago I was up in the Rolando area for an appointment. Feeling a bit peckish, I searched around a bit for something to eat. I noticed this place, which seemed to have just opened in the huge University Square Marketplace.
The interior looked clean and new……
The young lady at the counter was also very nice, there was no order board or formal menu. What was offered were a printed and handwritten sheet taped to the counter, which really took away from the decor. You can select from different combo's or jus(t) wings with a variety of sauces.
I decided to go with an 8 piece combo, $7.99, which includes a side and a drink, very reasonable in my mind. Of course I had to get some straight up Buffalo wings for half my order, but was curious about what to get for the other 4 wings. The nice young lady gave me some of the sweet chili sauce, which totally tasted like the bottled stuff and wasn't very spicy. She told me that the spiciest wings were the "Jerk" wings, so I went with that.
The wings were fried nicely, quite crisp, but that sauce was really more of a topping, and nothing like any "jerk" seasoning/sauce I'd ever seen. It was like some pseudo green chili salsa that wasn't particularly hot and very one dimensional.
The Buffalo wings were by the book and the sauce was that usual Louisiana Hot sauce – vinegar based sauce that everyone knows.
The wings were on the smaller side, something which I kind of like; it increases the skin-to-meat ration. They were nicely fried; not overdone and dry, but decent. Wish they had some blue cheese dressing…..
Man, I could not believe how much fries they gave me…..
The place had a chain-like feel to it, the wings were cooked to order and took about 15 minutes. There looked to be only 4 fryers, so I could imagine if the place got busy.
I thought this would be a one-and-done, but I happened to be back in the area about a month later and decided to give the place another try.
Things looked the same, but the menu, though it was still "81/2" x "11", stained and curling around the edges, and taped to th counter had changed a bit. Specifically the sauces, the "jerk" was (thankfully) gone. This time around I was told that the garlic buffalo was nice and spicy, so I ordered that, along with the Chili-lime-pepper. It was a bit of a longer wait this time around, almost 25 minutes and they weren't even busy……
I went with the coleslaw this time around and it was very blah….bland.
The Chili-lime-pepper was also not to my liking. Too sour and artificial tasting, I a hard time getting past that. The wings were fried too long and were on the dry side as well.
In terms of flavor, the garlic Buffalo was much better.
The heat level on this was nice, it brought a nice sheen of sweat to my brow. The vinegar heightened the whole experience. Didn't taste much garlic as these also edged on the salty side. Still it was the better of the two.
After two visits, I think I'll make the effort to drive to Crispy Fried Chicken if I'm in the area. Nice folks and all that, but it's nothing I'd want to go out of my way for.
Jus Wings
5801 University Ave (in the University Square Marketplace)
San Diego, CA 92115