WING REVIEW: Sports City Pizza Pub
West Side Incredibly Represented With This Hidden Gem
Sports City Pizza Pub is a restaurant/bar on Niagara Street on the west side of Buffalo serving wings, pizza and craft beer that’s been around for a little over five years now. I’ll be honest with you good people as well—I’m a born and raised Buffalo west sider and was really hoping to enjoy a positive experience more than usual. Did Sports City come through? Let’s find out.
PROS: There’s several factors when reviewing and tiering a wing spot, but the traditional medium/hot always has its seat at the head of the table. Signature flavors are fun but if you’re traditional wing sucks I can’t really take you serious. The medium here was excellent. Cooked perfect without having to ask specifically for crispy and they were plenty saucy without overdoing it. Ironically, the medium was the lesser of the two types of wings I had, as the Louisiana cajun was even better. I could still taste the cajun lingering around my taste buds well after I was done. So we’re clear, there’s a difference between legit cajun flavor and just being salty and these were the former. Also, they’re very reasonably priced.
CONS: If I had to be nitpicky (and always am) I’d say the only negative is the wings were a bit on the small side---certainly not among the bigger, meatier wings I’ve had. There were a good three or four of the 20 that verged on tiny, with no abnormally large ones to balance it out. Also, and this is unfortunately common with city spots, parking on Niagara Street could be a problem when it’s busy—I got lucky and found a spot right in front but you can’t count on that. Be prepared to potentially walk a block or two.
OUTLOOK: When you take into account the wings, VERY GOOD pizza (I had a slice that was great but this isn’t a pizza review), reasonable prices, a bunch of craft beers (if that’s your thing), an incredibly charming and cozy interior, tons of room and TVs for watching games, cool stuff on the walls and just an overall vibe that made me feel great— I’ll go on a limb and suggest Sports City Pizza Pub is among the very best all-around places to eat and drink not just in the city of Buffalo, but all of Western New York. It’s certainly become one of my favorite spots. TIER RANKING: “The Elite”
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Here’s my seven tiers with a brief explanation of each.
Mt. Rushmore: The four undisputed championship wing spots of Western New York.
The Elite: The next best thing—right on the brink of being immortalized.
All-Pro: Perhaps not MVP material but categorically deserving of being discussed among the best.
Solid Starter: You certainly won’t be complaining. Exactly what the description reads—solid.
Depth Chart: You can do far worse but at this point — significantly better as well.
Roster Bubble: If left with few other options these places may suffice, but I can’t recommend them.
Waiver Wire: I’d rather eat pizza or something else.
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(Note: I’ve done a lot of wing reviews over the past few years, most of which appeared on my former blog. Now that I’ve started my own Substack, I’m transferring several here. Some reviews are quite dated but my takes remain mostly the same. Exceprts of these are copied from the old blog along coupled with newer thoughts, especially if I’ve had em’ again since the original review.)
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