Wings from Wingstop, with hot honey dry rub (left) and lemon pepper (right) sauces.
Reminder Publishing photo by Trent Levakis
While the origin of chicken wings can be much debated, the item and its lore in America has cemented the food as an easy and reliable delicacy to cover in sauces and stuff in our faces during football games, and sometimes just after a long day.
It’s usually hard to mess up chicken wings, but its also hard to master the craft that is making the chicken wing. Size, sauciness, crunchiness — all equally important factors when breaking down a chicken wing’s quality. Whether it’s on their own or complemented with some slices of pizza, that status of wings’ popularity is what it is for a reason.
With my general love of wings, I knew eventually I would be staring down an order from the new Wingstop location in Chicopee and was eager to do so.
Wingstop now joins competitors Chick-Fil-A, Buffalo Wild Wings, Popeyes and KFC along Memorial Drive, giving the city a resemblance of power like Thanos’ Infinity Gauntlet where instead of having collected the necessary Infinity Stones to defeat the Avengers, the city has collected five of the most premier fast food chicken spots in the country all within 2 miles of one another. This doesn’t exactly give the city any extraterrestrial powers like the Marvel supervillian, but is still a noteworthy fact nonetheless.
And in 2025, who doesn’t love chicken, especially the conveniences in which it has now grown to offer through chains. Chicken nuggets, tenders, wings, chicken sandwiches — all forms have grown in the fast-food space over the last decade plus, so with the latest add in Chicopee, it was only right to see where Wingstop ranks for this random Massachusetts man.
Now that I finally have tried Wingstop I am happy to share my review, but before I get into that I must share a lyric from rapper, and large investor of Wingstop, Rick Ross, from his 2013 song “The Devil Is a Lie” that really encapsulated my mindset heading into Wingstop last week:
“Wingstop, fat boy need a 10 piece.”
With that in mind, that is how I began my Wingstop trip. My lunch time appetite wasn’t quite at “the Boss” Rick Ross’ level, so I ordered the eight-piece classic combo for $13.79 and split my wings flavor wise with Wingstop’s famous lemon pepper classic and a hot honey dry rub. There are six- and 10-piece options also available for the chicken wing meal combo. The order also included a regular French fry side and a drink.
Most looking forward to trying the lemon pepper wings, they ended up living up to the hype. The zesty taste is perfectly complemented by the hearty pepper included on and was easily the star of my meal. Freshly seasoned, the tenderness and crunchiness of the wing and skin combo made for a reliable quick bite of wings.
When trying the hot-honey dry rub, I came away underwhelmed. Maybe this was my own mistake for doing two dry rub options for my wings, but I was looking for some spice in contrast for the review. My issue was not with the wing itself, but the flavor I chose, so lesson learned.
As a side to my order of wings I received French fries which were very well-seasoned with salt and pepper, but in my opinion, did not stand well on its own and tasted best as a complementary bite after eating the wings. The restaurant offers a handful of seasoned fries’ options, which seemed appealing but not worth trying when my main focus was chicken wings.
While I was trying out Wingstop for the first time it was also important to try their entry to the chicken sandwich wars. What makes Wingstop’s chicken sandwich options unique to competitors is that it can be served dosed in any of the chicken shop’s 12 flavors.
Current top dogs in the chicken sandwich game Popeye’s and Chick-Fil-A — ranked in that order by yours truly — only offer a regular or spicy version of their sandwiches. I ordered a chicken sandwich with mild buffalo sauce and can report like the majority of my wingstop experience: it was fine.
The chicken patty itself I would not put up to the level of the select cuts you can often find from either of the previously two mentioned chains, but having a sandwich designated to a sauce was a nice change of pace.
The bread and pickles complement the sandwich a lot and I am sure the different additions with the various sauces make for good and convenient options, but personally when it comes to my future chicken sandwiches, I will not be revisiting Wingstop due to its competitor’s offerings.
The Texas based chain also flexes a fan favorite ranch dipping sauce that I will attest was as good as it gets for ranch along with your wings. For the blue cheese lovers out there, I have nothing for you because I am a sane person and of course I am not dipping my wings into moldy cheese. I kid, I kid — even as a ranch guy, I am sure the blue cheese gets the job done all the same.
I probably set my expectations too high with this one as I came away underwhelmed after being someone excited for new chicken offerings, specifically for wings.
Overall, Wingstop is reliable for a quick and easy chicken wing fix but if you prefer your local pizza shop’s wings, or the other chicken options at other competing locations, I recommend you stay loyal to what is already gold in your eyes.
