Wing Heaven – Grand Rapids

• 1808 Monroe Avenue NW
• Grand Rapids, MI 49505
• (616) 361-9222
• No Known Website
• Menu

A few weeks ago, J came home and said she saw a wing place in Grand Rapids that looked like something I would love.  I looked it up on Google and found the place.  When I followed Google to the location, all I found was an empty building.  I called her to ask where she saw this place and found out I was on the complete wrong side of town.  The place she saw was on the northwest side of town and I was on the southeast.  That screwed me for that trip, but I was determined to find any place that specializes in wings.

Wing Heaven looks like it used to have quite a presence in Grand Rapids with multiple stores all over town.  Heck, I think I even remember hearing about them opening  a spot in Lansing although I never went looking for it and there was one here in Kalamazoo on Douglas Street.   Now, there are just two stores in the Grand Rapids area.  One is in Allendale.  The other is on Monroe NW at Ann Street in a small, sparsely populated strip mall.

I made it in on a Saturday night just before seven o’clock.  The store is small with just an order counter and a couple tables.  Most of their business looks to be carry-out and they do deliver as long as you have at least a twelve dollar order.  There was one lady in front of me waiting to order, but the clerk was on the phone taking care of a call-in order.  When she finished that, she took the order of the lady standing there then took another phone call with a very complicated order that took forever.  I was left standing there and she was trying to apologize to me while taking the order. 

The wait gave me a chance to decide what I wanted because I really couldn’t make up my mind.  I knew I wanted wings, but I couldn’t decided if I wanted fries or not.  I saw a sign for a special on twelve wings and tried to order that.  What I didn’t realize is that she misunderstood me and thought I wanted the twelve wing meal which included fries and a drink.  I thought it was odd she was asking me those questions, but I went with it.  I had only pulled seven bucks out of my wallet because what I thought I ordered was $5.99.  When she said the bill was a little over $10, I just rolled with it and pulled a few more singles out.  I was going to stop and get a pop anyway, so I would have ended up paying about the same amount and I got fries. They have Pepsi products and Kool-Aid..yes, Kool-Aid…the real stuff to drink.  I ignored my inner child and got the Pepsi.

For the wings, I wanted to try a couple sauces.  I split them up into to groups.  On one set of six I got garlic Parmesan.  The other was covered in Caribbean jerk.  The fries also come with their choice of seven seasonings.  I went with the seasoning salt.

The cashier was getting so flustered between call-in and walk-in orders that she never took down my name.  She had a meal sitting there for someone named Tony and she asked me three times if I was Tony.  I kept saying she never took my name which confused her even more.  She finally went into the kitchen and realized my order was being made.  It took about ten minutes for me to get my order and get back to work.

I ate the fries on the way.  It was another case of me being hungry and not wanting to wait.  The fries were McDonalds style fries with a lot of the seasoning salt.  They were good and crispy, but very salty.  The extra spices offset the saltiness a little, but I thought I was going to drink my pop before I even started in on the wings.

When I got back to work, I started with the garlic Parmesan because I knew it was going to be a mild flavor.  My all time favorite wings are the garlic Parmesan wings from Wings Around the World in Chicago.  The wings at Wing Heaven were meaty and juicy, but they didn’t have a very strong garlic flavor.  The wings had a pretty good coating, but it seemed to be mostly Parmesan.  Still, very delicious and something I would get again.

The Caribbean Jerk wings were also perfectly done and pretty meaty wings.  The Caribbean Jerk is a sauced wing that has a pretty strong smokey flavor to it.  They were also delicious and six wasn’t enough.  I wanted more.

I have no idea what the story is with Wing Heaven.  I have no clue why there are so many locations listed in Google that are no longer there.  It’s kind of surprising to me unless it’s a management issue that they couldn’t make it.  The wings are pretty good and pretty fairly priced.  They have a large selection of sauces (17) and they also offer gizzards and fish as well as boneless wings.  Next time, I will definitely call in my order as it’s not really close to work, but worth the drive when that chicken wing craving hits.

Fries w/Seasoning Salt

Garlic Parmesan Wings

Caribbean Jerk Wings