Vindicktive Wings

This Belltown bar is not a place where you plan to come for the game and happen to order wings. It’s where you plan to come for the wings and happen to catch the game. Vindicktive serves the best wings in the city.

Initially, the setting screams “generic sports bar”—there are huge booths, TVs lining the walls, empty pint glass towers, and regulars glued to barstools. But the more time you spend here, the more it becomes a college party with best-night-ever energy. Music blasts, bartenders pause to ask how you've been, and sumo wrestling plays on the screens. When you use the tinsel-covered Christmas-themed bathrooms and chant “Hallmark” three times in front of the mirror, Mariah Carey just might appear. And on Wednesday's 99-cent wing night, there's a packed house full of customers that catch bowls of wings zipping out of the kitchen like fly balls. It's nothing short of chaotic, but these wings are well worth braving the bone-gnawing crowds.

photo credit: Nate Watters

photo credit: Nate Watters

photo credit: Nate Watters

There are just four flavors: medium or hot buffalo, lemon pepper wet, mango habanero, and salt and vinegar—and they’re excellent across the board. The lemon pepper, with citrusy specks that cling to the skin, is Vindicktive's finest wing. Mango habanero is sweet but doesn’t skimp on spice. And their buttery hot buffalo has a kick that won’t subside until the next day. But what makes these wings truly great is the chicken itself. The wings are small, with crisp potato chip-like skin that unlocks a vault of juicy meat when torn off with two front teeth. There's also a well-balanced ratio of drums to flats, which is crucial to the ideal wing-eating experience.

What you won't find here is ranch. Not even a bottle in the back in case of emergencies. And for the ranch lovers who refuse to be in the presence of a drummette without it, “Grow up.” (Vindicktive’s words, not ours.) This is a blue-cheese-only zone. Vindicktive’s homemade stuff is a serious feat of chemistry—light, creamy, and packed with chunks of salty blue cheese that perfectly offsets the heat and tang of the wings. One lick is enough to convince a Hidden Valley stan that they’re going through an identity crisis. 

photo credit: Nate Watters

While Vindicktive serves other odds and ends like shoestring fries, a chicken sandwich, wedge salad, and sauce-tossed fried tofu, they pale in comparison to the bone-in section of the menu. Don't come for the sidekicks. Come for wings and wings only.

Food Rundown

photo credit: Nate Watters

Lemon Pepper Wet

The must-order flavor is lemon pepper wet, an Atlanta-style wing preparation that combines lemon pepper dry rub and a smooth lemon pepper sauce. The beauty of this duo is that it has the full seasoning coverage of a spice rub, but with juiciness from the saucy coating. Order a few dozen for the table and vigorously dip in the blue cheese.

Buffalo (Hot)

The buffalo wings here come in medium or hot. And while the medium wings are perfectly good, the cayenne boost on the hot wings means more flavor—and more sniffling, snorting, and crying, which makes them that much better. Hold onto an orange fingerprint-covered pint of beer for dear life and get these wings.

Buffalo (Medium)

You heard us—order the hot.

Mango Habanero

These sweet and savory wings are awesome. But don't let the sweetness of mango fool you. The habanero quickly creeps up on you like turning into your mother after age 30.

Salt ‘N Vinny

If an unsauced wing is more your style, try this riff on salt and vinegar. These wings have coarse flecks of a puckering dry rub that, much like the chip, makes it impossible to just have one.

photo credit: Nate Watters

Buffalo Chicken Sandwich

This fried chicken thigh is drenched in buffalo sauce, which quickly soaks through the shredded lettuce and brioche bun, resulting in a soggy mess. Stick to buffalo stuff in the form of wings.

photo credit: Nate Watters

Wedge Salad

A hunk of romaine smothered in blue cheese is fine if you like to eat lettuce with a knife and fork. But let’s be honest—did you really swing by for salad?