***** 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
Hi! Any idea what the wings taste like without sauce? I tender to prefer plain wings.
Very bland Soo. So you prefer wings with no batter, just “naked”?
I like batter just no sauce on the wings. Some of the places I get naked wings:
gala chicken
khan’s cave
golden chopsticks
magnolia tap and kitchen
sab e lee
south park abbey
trifecta tavern
If a place has good bbq sauce I’ll get it on the side and dip the wing slightly.
When you say bland is it like the gala chicken wings? I like how gala chicken seasons/marinates their chicken so you have subtle flavors but it’s mostly just the taste of fried chicken. I do find hooter’s wings bland as it doesn’t taste like they do anything to their naked wings other than fry them as they expect you to get them sauced.
I guess you can ruin perfectly good wings…
Hi Soo – The wings aren’t really seasoned and need the sauce here. By naked, I mean without batter/breading. I need to get back to Gala. As for the rest; Sab E Lee tends to overfry their wings, Golden Chopstick is good if you eat it there, it gets soggy quickly. I recall the wings at Khan’s Cave were the best item I’ve had there. I’ve not been too impressed with the instore restaurants at WF, but that’s just me.
Apparently it’s quite easy Billy.
Thanks for the info! I guess I don’t like wings naked. Just without sauce. Khan’s Cave is my fav place for wings but I go through the rotation for variety. Trifecta Tavern isn’t great but I don’t know where else to get wings when I’m in that area.
At first I thought the title was a typo, that you forgot the “t” in “Just”. Odd name – Jus Wings? Too bad the wings weren’t that great here. My favorite is Mandarin’s salt and pepper wings and Que Huong’s fish sauce wings.
At least you gave it a second chance ๐ That jerk chicken in the first photo looked really really strange. The green stuff looked like the sweet relish you get out of that weird vending machine at the Costco food court for your hot dogs.
Hi CC – Which “Mandarin” nowadays I prefer Mandarin Canton to Royal Mandarin, even though they’re the original.
Hi Faye – It really looked nothing like any “jerk” sauce/rub I know of.
Ugh, I hate when wings get fried too long. My tolerance for bad wings is pretty high but it’s just hard to eat over-fried ones.
Like leather Carol! ;o)
hi kirk – the mandarin across from SWC makes our fave wings. ๐
Oh this one: /2008/02/12/mandarin-chines/