Wing Review: Kane's Bar & Grill

The Basics:

Name: Kane's Bar and Grill

Where: 6922 W Orchard St, West Allis

MKE Wings Crew Present: Frank, Amber, Ross, Molly, Jeremy, Josh, Jon, Katie, Melissa

Review Date: June 15, 2022

Wing Special (as of review date): $0.65 Thursdays, Dine-in Only

The Review:

Here we are again in West Allis, a place I declared the center of the wing universe in a previous review. Kane's is new on the wing scene, having just opened its doors in February 2022. While it may be new, it is not completely unfamiliar as Kane's is owned/managed by the same folks from one my favorite wing spots just a few miles away, Limanski's. If Kane's wings can be on par with their sister bar, this is possibly another great addition to the already impressive roster of Stallis wing joints.

Kane's is a basement bar, located under the Tanner-Paull American Legion Hall. The difference between Kane's and Limanski's is striking, mostly due to the fact that Kane's is HUGE by comparison. I love Limanski's, but the place is tiny. Their wing special also lines up with their dart league, resulting in a very crowded space with often nowhere to sit and eat. Kane's on the other hand has lots of room and plenty of tables, so the possibility of getting some Limankski's wings in a more spacious setting was definitely appealing.

We arrived with a large group of nine people on a Wednesday night, perhaps a bit too much as the sheer number of wings we ordered seemed to overwhelm the place mid-week. As of this post, Kane's runs a wing special on Thursdays where the dine in special is $0.65/wing, which is pretty great with current wing prices. As we were there on Wednesday, we had the normal menu price of $11 for 10 wings, again not too bad with current prices. *As always, prices/availability of menu items/prices and/or specials are subject to change at the sole discretion of the bar and this review may not be updated to reflect any pricing changes.

Wings can be prepared in three different ways: Crispy, Naked, or Grilled. Crispy wings are battered and fried. Naked wings are just fried. Grilled wings are fried but finished on the grill. These three options really give you complete control over your wings, and I fully believe that different sauces/flavors work differently on each cooking style. For example, a creamy sauce like parmesan garlic works well on crispy or naked, but not grilled. Dry rubs work well on crispy, breaded wings due to rub getting caught in the nooks and crannies of the breading. BBQ sauces work well on grilled wings due as the flavors work well when grilled. It's fun to mix and match to find what you like, but the only problem with so many options is making the decision! For most of my wings this evening I opted for them to be naked, and most of the tasting notes below are from a naked wing.

The wings themselves were a bit on the smaller size, although a few larger ones were peppered in. The wings were cooked well, the crispy wings had a nice crunchy breading, the naked ones had a nice crispy exterior, and the grilled wings had some nice-looking grill marks. Some wings came out to us a bit on the cool side, but I think that was a product of the sheer number of wings we ordered that night. Likewise, the latter batches of wings came out with sauce poured over them rather than being tossed, possibly due to running out of bowls to toss the wings in.

There were lots of flavor options on the menu at Kane's, and if you're familiar with Limanski's, these will look familiar: Buffalo, Fiery Sunshine, Sweet Memphis BBQ, Parmesan Garlic, Jamaican Jerk Dry Rub, Cajun Dry Rub, Honey Mustard, Rooster, Lucky Clucker Dry Rub, Chipotle Ranch, Maple Bacon Dry Rub, Dr. Pepper BBQ, Ancho Chili Espresso Dry Rub, Lemon Pepper Dry Rub, and Flavor of the Week (Korean BBQ when we stopped in).

With our group of nine people and the ability to break an order of 10 into two flavors of 5 each, we got nearly every flavor possible across the 130 wings we ordered, only the Sweet Memphis BBQ was left out of our wing feast. Tasting notes on the flavors below:

Fiery Sunshine

Fiery Sunshine: this was a fun one. I can best describe this a sweet, bright, and citrusy Buffalo sauce, kind of like a mix of Buffalo sauce and pineapple juice. Possibly the hottest sauce I had that night, but I wouldn't call this overly hot, more a medium in my book. A fun twist on a traditional flavor.

Parmesan Garlic: a crowd pleaser for sure. Very creamy parmesan garlic sauce with a ton of parmesan cheese flavor which outweighed the garlic a bit. Oddly reminiscent of a Caesar dressing.

Jamaican Jerk Dry Rub

Jamaican Jerk Dry Rub: I didn't care for this one too much, just not a lot of flavor on the one wing I sampled. A bit of that savory, warm spice flavor you expect in a Jerk wing, just not enough of it.

Cajun Dry Rub: Jeremy liked this one, but like the Jerk Dry Rub I found this one to be a bit underwhelming on the favor. Perhaps it just needed some more of the rub.

Parmesan Garlic

Honey Mustard: This was the big surprise of the night for me. I'm not a big honey mustard fan. Not just as a wing sauce, but in any capacity as I often find honey mustard cloyingly sweet, tasting neither like honey nor mustard. However, this sauce is an exception to the rule. Up front your greeted with the sweet yet tangy taste of the honey, the taste of actual honey, not just sugary sweetness. On the backend of the sauce you get heat from the mustard balancing out the sweet from the honey. A really fantastic sauce I'd recommend checking out, easily the best honey mustard sauce I've ever had.

Some seriously saucy Chipotle Ranch

Rooster: While described to us as a twist on Buffalo, I'd say this is more of a twist on BBQ. For me this was a sweet BBQ sauce with a twist of Buffalo sauce to give it a bit of heat. I liked this one well enough, a few found it a bit overly sweet.

Lucky Clucker Dry Rub: I sampled the rub before ordering, but didn't actually try it on a wing. A blend of savory spices, I was told the taste was good, albeit a little on the salty side, a ranch or bleu cheese dip was needed on these to cut the saltiness a bit.

Chipotle Ranch: another one of my top picks. Cool, creamy ranch sauce with the dill and garlic flavors your accustomed to with the smoky taste of chipotle peppers with a small kick.

Maple Bacon Dry Rub

Maple Bacon Dry Rub: This was probably my favorite flavor despite no heat on this whatsoever. Maple sweetness balanced with the smoky savory flavors of bacon in a perfect combo. I regret not getting this one on crispy wing, probably would have had some chicken and waffles vibes!

Dr Pepper BBQ: I often don't care too much for BBQ sauce wings, but I enjoyed this one. The Dr. Pepper flavors (all 23 of them, ha!) came through on this sauce giving it a fun twist on a normal BBQ sauce.

Ancho Chili Espresso Dry Rub: Earthy and a bit bitter, all I can really say about this mostly tasteless flavor. Everyone in the group who tried this flavor did not care for it. With multiple other great options, I'll definitely skep this one next time.

Lemon Pepper Dry Rub: Very citrus forward lemon pepper flavor, very bright and tangy. A little lacking on the pepper aspect, but tasty nonetheless.

Korean BBQ (Flavor of the week): Savory BBQ flavors with a kick of that spicy sweetness of Gochujan you'd expect in a Korean BBQ sauce.

Buffalo: I didn't personally try this one, so I'll defer to some notes from those who did. A traditional buffalo, not overly spicy but did have a bit of a slow burn.

Wings were served with ranch and or bleu cheese dressings, but they were really not needed for many of these flavors, nor to cool the pallet as none of these were overly spicy.

The MKE Wings Crew's Favorites: Frank: Maple Bacon Amber: Honey Mustard Jeremy: Chipotle Ranch Melissa: Parmesan Garlic, Breaded Jon: Honey Mustard Katie: Honey Mustard Molly: Parmesan Garlic Ross: Korean BBQ

Josh: Maple Bacon

Overall Top 4: Honey Mustard, Maple Bacon, Chipotle Ranch, Parmesan Garlic

Conclusion:

Kane's Bar and Grill is another great addition to the roster of wing joints in West Allis. Due to its relation to Limanski's this really didn't come as too much of a surprise. While I have awarded Limanski's the coveted Milwaukee Wings Hall of Fame badge, I don't think I can do quite the same to Kane's at this time, mostly due to the couple of disappointing flavors we had that night and the wings being a bit on the smaller side (I do acknowledge the crazy fluctuations in pricing out there). However, I can certainly award them with the Certified Wing Joint Badge as they are certainly a great option for your next wing night! Next time you're in West Allis looking for some wings and want to try something new, yet familiar, check out Kane's Bar and Grill!

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