Hard Times Café

3028 Wilson Blvd (Clarendon)

GOOD(leaning towards)EXCELLENT

Hard Times Café has locations throughout Virginia and Maryland. I crossed my fingers, held my breath and went for the leap across the river to the one located in Clarendon. I may have had a couple drinks before I tried the wings but I can guarantee that it did not impede on any of my taste bud decision making in these wings I had. I went with Troy and we ordered three different style wings: Original Texas, Inferno and Chili Lime.

1. Original Texas- This wing has a pretty good flavor and you can really get the grill flavor out of these wings. Hard Times Café is known for grilling their wings and you can tell that this wing was definitely grilled. The wing has a smoky, salty tangy spice to them. I would rate them GOOD leaning towards EXCELLENT. They leave a hint of spice, not heat, and have a little sweet taste to them. I did find that if I ate too many in a row that sweet aftertaste got to be a little funky with the grill taste, so that is what is keeping their rating down.

2. Inferno- I love a wing that has a name that implies “hot hot hot.” If a wing is labeled “inferno” it better be hot since it is implying it is the temperature of hell. I prepared myself for these wings by taking a swig of water and eating a complimentary oyster cracker to cleanse the palate before I tried the wing. WHAT A WASTE! The wing is covered in a sauce that seems to me to have a ketchup base with a shit ton of pepper in it to give the heat they are looking for but just not getting. There is hot spice in the mix too which gives the wings some after burn but not enough burn or heat in the wing to make them labeled inferno. The wings have okay flavor and are little too ketchupy to be actually spicy hot. They would be rated around GOOD, but I personally would not get them again.

3. Chili Lime- How do I describe this wing… well I liked them, but I would say they were interesting. They definitely had a lime taste to them, which I would attribute to the fresh wedges of lime that were on the plate which were squeezed over the hot steaming wings. I will admit the fresh squeezed lime juice on the steaming hot wings was pretty tasty but I am not sure where the “chili” flavor was supposed to come from. I did not taste any chili to the wing. There was no chili or spice to them but they had a wonderful grill flavor which partnered wonderfully with the fresh lime. The grill flavor with the lime went to together like Bella and Edward, that’s right Jacob.. you just didn’t imprint on her… but you can imprint on me :o) Anywhoooo I would definitely order these wings again I just wish they had a little more of a chili flavor to them, I also would rate them on a scale of GOOD to EXCELLENT.

Overall I made it out alive, from Virginia that is! I would make the trek back to Hard Times Café and get their wings again and also try other flavors they have since they have a slew of choices to choose from. The two kinds we did not choose to try that night were honey BBQ and Honey mustard. I am not one to like sweet flavored wings much but I do have many followers who enjoy honey mustard and sweet wings so maybe they will trek out there with me and risk crossing the river to try those wings, for the blogs sake. I have a feeling that I can convince Hilary to go with me to try the honey mustard and the honey BBQ wings.