Linnea Covington
Audio By Carbonatix
The small but mighty chicken wing has taken off to become one of America’s favorite foods. Whether you’re snacking at a bar, pairing them with pizza or ordering a flock for game day, wings have a lasting appeal — even as inflation has caused most wing spots to raise their prices in recent years.
Crispy fried wings have long been a staple of Southern cooking, while Buffalo, New York, birthed the idea of tossing them in a spicy, buttery, vinegary sauce. Now wings come in a seemingly endless array of flavors and styles, from dry rubs to fruit-spiked sauces to smoked versions that you can find at many of our picks for the city’s best barbecue joints. The ongoing craze for Korean fried chicken has brought a wave of soy sauce- and gochujang-based takes, too; at Vietnamese restaurants, wings get a complex boost from fish sauce.
While searching for the best wings in the area, we tasted our way through a fresh batch of contenders, with a few ground rules: We focused on brick-and-mortars, skipping national or international chains and only considering bone-in wings (because boneless wings are not technically wings at all).
Here are our picks for the ten best wings in the Denver metro area, listed in alphabetical order:
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Ace recently released its wing sauce in bottles.
Ace Eat Serve
Ace Eat Serve
501 East 17th Avenue 303-800-7705 The wings at this ping-pong hall and pan-Asian eatery have become a fan favorite over the years. Open since 2012, Ace Eat Serve got a new head chef this year who has revamped the menu, but the wings are one staple that isn’t going anywhere, assures owner Josh Wolkon. In fact, he’s leaning into the popularity of Ace’s sweet and sticky Tiger wings, chile mayo-coated Lucky Dragon Wings and Asian Buffalo Wings by releasing its sauces in bottles so you can get a fix at home anytime.
CD’s Wings are available with over twenty sauce options.
Molly Martin
CD’s Wings
7685 West 88th Avenue, Westminster 303-467-7700 6710 South Cornerstar Way, Aurora 303-993-8662 With a large dining area plus a patio, the original CD’s in Westminster has room for a lot of wing fans — which is a good thing, since it tends to draw a big crowd regularly. And for good reason: Its deep-fried wings are available tossed in over twenty sauce options that range from totally mild choices like lemon pepper and teriyaki to the ghost pepper-spiked Last 1 Standing. CD’s also understands that wing preferences are a personal thing. Want all flats, extra crispy, swimming in sauce? No problem. Beyond the wings themselves, the eatery serves up an extensive menu of other fried fare, from corn nuggets and okra to beer-battered haddock. Along with its Westminster outpost, it also operates a food truck and added a smaller outpost in Aurora last year, with plans for a third in Parker.
Fire on the Mountain has a rotating sauce of the month.
Molly Martin
Fire on the Mountain
Raspberry mango habanero wings from Genna Rae’s are sweet and crispy with mild heat.
Molly Martin
Genna Rae’s Wings & More
1819 East 28th Avenue 720-287-3523This takeout-only storefront in Whittier was opened by Genn Dickerson in 2016. Originally from the Virgin Islands, Dickerson serves food with a Caribbean edge, including large wings that come in flavors like mango habanero, jerk sauce and Island Zing. More sweet and tangy than spicy, they pack a lot of flavor and a supremely crunchy bite. The “& More” ups the temptation factor at Genna Rae’s, since you can pair your wings with a giant burger, soul food dinners like catfish and hot links, and such sides as Southern greens, plantains and mac and cheese.
Grilling creates a nice char on the wings at King of Wings.
Molly Martin
King of Wings
7741 West 44th Avenue, Wheat Ridge 1100 Arapahoe Street, GoldenThere’s a reason we were salivating as we waited for Eddie Renshaw and Evan Pierce’s King of Wings to open up after a December 2021 kitchen fire and permitting delays forced it to pivot to smashburgers cooked outside to stay afloat. While Snipeburger was a hit (one the owners continue to bring back on Wednesdays at its new Golden location), the chicken wings are simply the best around. Each order gets grilled — adding a deep, smoky essence and a charred caramelization to the skin — before being doused in one of ten sauces, including Thai BBQ, bourbon buffalo or tangy gold. The Wheat Ridge location also doubles as a taphouse, while in Golden, you can sip margaritas, high-end tequilas and mezcal along with the beer selection.
Mono Mono does crispy wings right.
Mono Mono Korean Fried Chicken
Mono Mono
Multiple locationsMany Korean fried chicken joints have flocked to Denver in recent years as more and more people get hooked on the other KFC. While some are outposts of international chains, we’re particularly impressed with the growth of Mono Mono, which was inspired by a single-location restaurant with the same name in New York City but was brought to Denver by local restaurateur J.W. Lee in 2021. Now with five locations, its ultra-crispy double-fried wings are a can’t-miss, especially when you pair them with a cold Mono Mono beer (it brews its own at its Lafayette location) and sides like corn cheese and bulgogi nachos.
The Piper Inn’s Chinese-style wings pair well with a cold beer.
Piper Inn/Facebook
Piper Inn
Mark Antonation
12201 East Mississippi Avenue, Aurora
303-364-1287 The Porklet, with its adorable porcupine logo, is so named because pork cutlets are the specialty, jacketed in an almost painfully crunchy breadcrumb shell and dripping juice with each bite. But you must not overlook the meaty wings that somehow manage to maintain their crunch beneath a sticky layer of sauce. Choose from options like sweet honey butter, tangy Buffalo, savory Garlic Bomb or the messiest of them all, the Black & White BBQ. It’s okay to make a pig of yourself with fried chicken this good.
The pork-stuffed wings at Viet’s. Molly Martin
Viet’s Restaurant
333 South Federal Boulevard 303-922-5774 Located in a corner of the Far East Shopping Center, right next to the more casual Viet’s Cafe, Viet’s Restaurant offers a deep dive into Vietnamese cuisine, with a pages-long menu that can be dizzying for a first-timer to navigate. But you can’t go wrong with the wings, which are available two ways. The traditional bone-in wings on the platter are crisped to perfection and coated in a sticky, salty fish sauce-spiked glaze. Or you can opt for the canh ga don thit, chicken wings that have been deboned and stuffed with a mixture of pork, herbs and spices, served sliced along with fresh veggies and rice noodles so they can be eaten as lettuce wraps.
Get saucy at Wing Hut.
Molly Martin