Sweet Wings

My wife and I recently tried Sweet Wings mainly because they have Korean food, and there aren’t any decent Korean places on the Westside.
The Korean dishes were just as good as anything you get in places in Northeast El Paso, and are typical Korean BBQ and other traditions like Bi Bim Bop or Kim bop. We tried the gyoza, Bi Bim Bop and Beef Bulgogi, which were great. Great tasting meat, good kimchee, and the right amount of spice.
Because the name is Sweet Wings we also ordered some wings, which are tempura style and lightly sauced. If you like your wings heavily sauced, this place isn’t for you, and although we thought the wings were good, I’m not sure they are any better or even as good as anything else you find around town. I know I wouldn’t come here just for the wing (but then again I’m not a big chicken wing guy anyway).
That said, I will absolutely be back for the Korean food (probably several times a month), and wish they would play up their Korean menu more than advertising themselves as a wing place. This area of El Paso is in dire need of more solid ethnic food places, and the Korean dishes here are worth the visit. We already have enough wing options.

You all know I like to support the local joints, and I really wanted to like this, but first impression was okay. However, I’d be willing to give them another shot.
The first thing that I noticed was an old grease smell mixed with something else. It gave me quite the headache. If I were to eat from here again, I’d eat outside our order take away.
When I was there, I tried the fried pickles and the season fries with lemon pepper seasoning on top. The fried pickles (like the wings) were covered in tempura and than cooked. They used the right pickle tartness (and shape for my mind, I dislike fried spears). The only problem was the grease factor. They were swimming in it. I used a paper towel to absorb some multiple times during the meal. The season fries were actually regular fries, no coating/​flavour that I could discern… Even with the lemon pepper, it needed something. Also, some were a bit cold, so obviously, frozen potatoes were used.
If I go again, I would try the shrimp tempura and the fried green beans.

The sweet chili wings were great but the double dipped garlic Parmesan were even better! Yum!

We decided to venture here after getting a recommendation from a guy that we’re pretty sure knows his chicken wings. We knew exactly where it was because we’ve been curious about it ever since we saw Wing Stop move… we wondered, what will be there now? And within a matter of weeks, Sweet Wings popped up.
Wings are available all over here and I don’t want to say they’re all the same (because they’re not), but they’re all small chicken wings, fried and coated in whatever sauce you could possibly desire. Little did I know, Sweet Wings is very, very different from their competitors. We knew it that the owner’s previously owned Japanese Kitchen… so sure, there was a possibility that the food was Japanese inspired.
We wanted to get a feel for the place so we ordered some pork egg rolls, seasoned fries, boneless wings (garlic parmesan and sweet buffalo), and regular wings (lemon pepper and BBQ). You might find that to be a weird combination, but it’s actually not… once you get the wings.
The egg rolls came out first. They came out super hot, super fresh and with a side of sweet chili sauce. Love, love, loved the egg rolls. I’ve been on the hunt for a good egg roll in El Paso (still looking for a good seafood egg roll thought… one day) and I have finally found it. Fried to perfection with just the right amount of filler ingredients mixed with pork, lots of pork. Yaaaaas! The fries, I also really liked. Again, fried. And they were sprinkled with what I think was steak seasoning and that’s basically my favorite kind of fry so they too were perfect.
Then our wings came out. Tempura fried wings! TEMPURA FRIED WINGS! Have you ever seen such a thing?! That’s such a cool concept that I think they need to put more emphasis on that during the ordering process (or just in their advertising in general), but either way 5,000 points for uniqueness. I loved this kind of batter on a boneless wing. Who doesn’t love tempura fried anything? The wings were plated similar to what I’d expect tempura-​anything to be plated. Not completely covered in a sauce, but drizzled in it. I like my wings saucy (or completely covered in whatever the topping I chose was) so next time I guess I’ll ask for extra. I really wish that I had know that these would be tempura fried though because that would’ve completely changed the sauce I ordered. Don’t get me wrong, the ones I ordered were good, but usually with tempura fried proteins, I like to dip it in something really salty like a soy sauce mixture or really sweet like eel sauce or really creamy like spicy mayo.
My favorite was the sweet buffalo. It was basically Louisiana sauce that was a touch sweeter than normal… I like. The garlic Parmesan was good too, but I wasn’t a fan of the fact that it wasn’t evenly coated in Parmesan since the top was very GP heavy and the bottom had nada. I like a well rounded boneless wing. I was not a fan of the BBQ with sesame seeds. I’m okay with the sauces coming store bought, but then they need to be the absolute best… and this by far was not. The lemon pepper was alright, not my favorite lemon pepper I’ve ever had, but alright.
The prices for a chicken wing place are on the same page as Wing Stop, which I know can sometimes seem a little steep. For two people we paid almost $ 30 with drinks so that doesn’t seem too bad to me.
I would definitely give this place another go. Really cool idea, tempura chicken wings. I just need to find my favorite sauce, but I will keep getting the egg rolls and fries!