Gloucester Township Food Tour: Wings

If you've been reading these food tour pieces over the last few weeks, you've likely noticed that I enjoy the food over at Antonino's on Little Gloucester Road.

Good food. Good service. Good people.

What's not to like?

So, first, it cracked my list as one of the top slices of pizza in town. Then, I followed that up with a positive breakdown of its cheesesteak. So the wings would obviously follow suit, right?

Well, yes and no. 

I have this problem with Antonino's wings. See if you can follow me here. 

Last fall, I had some people over for Monday Night Football to watch the Eagles go down to Washington to dismantle the Redskins.

I called up Antonino's and they delivered an assortment of pizzas, sandwiches and wings to my place over in Valleybrook.

Combine some good friends and adult beverages with watching Donovan McNabb get embarrassed on national television, well, that's a hell of a night. 

The food was a hit, too.

Except for, surprisingly, the wings.

They were meaty. And the sauce was excellent. And there was plenty for everyone at the party.

So what was the problem?

Well, they were burnt. And I'm not talking about "well-done," either. I like my wings on the overcooked side, but this was extreme. I'm talking about black char on some of the wings.

Whatever, honest mistake. Maybe they were left in to cook for too long. No big deal. 

So a few weeks later I gave my local spot a shot at redemption and tried them again. Same thing.

And once more a few weeks later, you know, just to be sure.

The problem is that the wings there have the potential to be very good, so I was eager to chalk their shortcomings up to bad luck, but as it turns out, this wasn't bad luck at all.

And then it hit me.

Antonino's is like the "butherface" of wings.

For those of you who don't know, the "butherface" dilemma is when a guy checks out a girl and says to himself, "Wow. She's really attractive. I mean really attractive. But her face. It's just. I don't know. Something is off there."

And that's exactly what Antonino's wings are like.  Everything looks good, the sauce is on point, it's a quality wing, but something is a bit off. And that something is that the wings are burnt.

And so a perfectly good wing falls just a little bit short because of one fatal flaw.

A stretch? Maybe. But you try writing about deep-fried chicken on a bone five times over and see what you come up with.

At any rate, maybe it's just been bad luck. Maybe I've just happened to order some overcooked batches and for the rest of its customer base Antonino's is on point, but that hasn't been my experience. 

Based on what I've sampled around town, Antonino's still has some of the better wings you can get in this area, but just make sure you let them know to go easy on the charring.