Buffalo chicken wings are a seemingly simple dish—chicken legs and wings deep-fried and covered with hot sauce. It’s so simple, and yet for some reason so many restaurants manage to completely butcher this staple bar food. But on Superbowl Sunday, you can’t afford to take a chance on some half-assed wing joint, should your buddies choose to crucify you as halftime entertainment. Luckily, for every ‘hood in Manhattan there lies a wing joint just waiting to be discovered. Just be damn sure to place your order well before the big game.

Croxley Ales

Brother Jimmy’s BBQ
181 Lexington Ave.(@ 31 St. St.)
Murray Hill 212.779.7427
Pub wings are one thing, but if you’re billing yourself as a barbeque pit, you have to prepare wings in a way that demonstrates that you know how to sear flesh. Brother Jimmy’s BBQ of Murray Hill does just that. They bake then deep-fry their wings before tossing them in one of their three signature sauces. This gives the wings a nice crispy skin, but softens the meat so that it practically melts off the bone. Bro J’s hot wings are great, but for a real treat try switching it up to their chipotle BBQ wings. And remember, a $3 PBR goes with fried chicken like a vintage chardonnay complements pan-seared tilapia.

Mudville 9
126 Chambers St. (Church St. & W. Broadway)
TriBeCa 212.964.9464
Winner of The Great Chicken Wing Hunt of 2007 in Manhattan, Mudville 9 is the Jean Georges of wing joints. Their wings are taken from the highest grade of chicken available, and it’s apparent in both taste and texture—the golden-fried meat is plump, sumptuous, and well-formed around the bones (no abominations). But Mudville’s above-par presentation of the classic wing isn’t the only reason for its fame. MV 9 offers seven homemade alternatives to their spicy sauces, including Thai, teriyaki, Jamaican jerk, and honey mustard. Couple the wings with a roster of over 100 different brands of beer, and you’ll have the formula for the perfect pub.

Bonnie’s Grill
278 5th Ave. (1st St. & Garfield Pl.)
Park Slope 718.369.9527
What better place to find authentic Buffalo wings, than in a diner established by people from Buffalo. At Bonnie’s Grill, wings are fried just so and doused with the perfect sauce-to-wing ratio. Bonnie’s wings are some of the best in Brooklyn, but what scores her extra points is the fact that the pieces are washed and separated every morning instead of being dumped out of a surplus bag straight into the fryer. This extra care means that any inbred or mutated wings are plucked out before landing on your plate.

Croxley Ales
28 Ave. B (2nd & 3rd Sts.)
East Village 212.253.6140
A lot of places serve wings on the cheap, but as far as being good, Croxley Ales’ wings are some of the few that actually pull it off. (We’re looking at you,1849.) The wings are crisp, meaty, and totally affordable—10 cents a piece Mondays & Wednesday, 20 cents on the weekends, and complimentary during Friday happy hour (5-7pm). You can use the money you save to start making a dent in their 130 beers—and your liver.

Barrow Street Ale House
15 Barrow St. (7th Ave. S. & 4th St.)
Greenwich Village 212.691.6127
Barrow St. is one of those unexpected wing bars: You wouldn’t really believe that this average pub fries up some of the best wings in Manhattan unless you stopped in and tried them yourself. The wings are long, meaty and not oversaturated with hot sauce. They can also be tossed in a couple non-buffalo sauces for a nice change of pace. With great wings and over 15 HD TVs, Barrow Street is a great place to catch the big game, or if you want to avoid the crowd, show up on Mondays for 40 cent wings and $3 drafts.

Dinosaur Bar B Que
646 W. 131st St. (Riverside Dr. & Broadway)
Upper West Side 212.694.1777
When the server brings these wings to your table, you won’t know whether to eat them or use them to club your mate over the head before dragging ‘em back to the cave. These monsters are rubbed with spices and smoked instead of fried, then tossed in one of Dinosaur’s trademark sauces. Though these jumbo wings can be a refreshing break from their typical deep-fried and Red Hot-slathered brethren, many wing fanatics will argue that these technically aren’t Buffalo wings (at which point you should remind them to shut up and eat).

McAleer’s Pub
425 Amsterdam Ave. (80th & 81st Sts.)
Upper West Side 212.874.8037
Buffalo wings served at McAleer’s Pub are somewhat similar to the ones you’ll find at Barrow Street Ale House—large and expertly basted with precisely the right amount of hot sauce—enough to moisten the wing without saturating the crispy skin. The big difference at McAleer’s is their 2-fer deal. Order two pitchers of beer at the same time ($26) and you’ll get a double order of Buffalo wings on the house. You came in to drink anyway, right? You might as well be thrifty about it.

~Brett Van Valkenberg