Dishes At Buffalo Wild Wings That Aren't Chicken, Ranked Worst To Best

Sports bar enthusiasts who enjoy chowing down on buffalo wings have likely found themselves at a Buffalo Wild Wings location on more than one occasion. As its name would suggest, the chain is known for its wings (for which you can choose from 26 wing sauce and dry rub options) and lively atmosphere, especially on game day. Chicken fans won't have a problem finding something yummy to indulge in at the sports bar — but what if you're not in the mood for chicken?

At the time of writing this piece, Buffalo Wild Wings has eight different offerings (six burgers and two sandwiches) to cater to the chicken-averse. A burger lover myself, I took to the chain to see how its non-chicken menu items stacked up. My ultimate verdict is that if you're heading to the sports bar, stick to its wing selection — that's clearly the chain's specialty, and looking anywhere else on the menu could very well be a miss. I wasn't impressed by any of these sandwiches, some of which were downright disappointing. Nevertheless, there's still a clear hierarchy among BWW's chicken-less menu; keep reading for my take on the selections.

Here's the thing: It's not hard to make a good cheeseburger, even for novice chefs. You can imagine my disappointment, then, when a cheeseburger that cost a not-insignificant amount of money was one of the worst burgers I've ever had. Seriously, I would have had a fast food burger over Buffalo Wild Wings' All-American Cheeseburger. First, I'll mention a common complaint for all the sandwiches I got — almost none included lettuce. I don't think the chain was out because one of my burgers did have lettuce, so I'm not sure what happened to the rest of the sandwiches.

Lack of lettuce aside, this was among the most flavorless burgers I've ever had. The meat tasted like it had hardly been seasoned (another common thread you'll find throughout this article) and the cheese was nondescript. Because there wasn't any lettuce the burger also lacked any textural variety. Its bun was fine, as were all the buns in this ranking. They're pleasantly light, airy, and not dry, but there's also nothing special about them. Unfortunately, I don't have much else to say about this cheeseburger. It could satisfy the uncultured palate of a child but it's unlikely to be palatable to anyone else. 

Only moderately better than the previous burger is the Triple Bacon Cheeseburger. To Buffalo Wild Wings' credit, it uses thick-cut bacon on this burger, so there's no chance of the star meat hiding in the background. Bacon was also the only thing adding any texture to this burger, which was again lacking lettuce, and was its only redeeming quality. 

The bacon cheeseburger had two notable flavors: bacon and grilled onions. Fortunately for the chain, I love both of those burger toppings. Unfortunately for me, there was once again no flavor to the actual burger. I did get a scant amount of bacon aioli on the yummy sandwich, but I still can't in good conscience recommend this lackluster burger to any diner. As a typical bacon burger lover, that's saying something — not even the (admittedly delicious) bacon could lift this burger out of its mediocrity. 

Up next is the chain's BLT Sandwich — which, as you can tell, doesn't include the "L" component. Honestly, had there been lettuce, this probably would have ranked several spots higher. It had some flavor that the burgers on this list were lacking, but honestly, it looks pitiful, especially when pitted against the image of the sandwich on Buffalo Wild Wings' website. 

The only good thing I have to say about this BLT is that the crusted parmesan on its bread gave it some grilled cheese appeal. Actually, I'll give it one more thing — the bacon was, again, thick-cut and quite good. Its tomato slices were passable, and the bacon aioli gave it some much-needed umami. Even with the lettuce I'd imagine this is a pretty small sandwich, so don't expect it to be super filling, and it's definitely not worth the $14-ish I paid for it. If you're craving a BLT, either make it yourself at home or head to another establishment, preferably one that specializes in sandwiches. 

The famous sandwich-slash-burger mashup, a patty melt is generally a safe choice on a menu for me. I'll opt for the sandwich when I want some thin slices rather than a bun, or when I want a gooey, melty sandwich that's as messy as it is delicious. I expected more from Buffalo Wild Wings' Bacon Patty Melt. It only ranks higher than the previous choices because I enjoyed the bread, and grilled onions gave it some flavor. Otherwise, it fell woefully short. 

This patty melt suffered from the same general complaint I had about every beef burger patty on this list: it tasted unseasoned and beyond flavorless. Even more egregious than its blandness, however, was the missing ingredient (and no, I'm not talking about lettuce this time). As you can probably tell from the above picture, my Bacon Patty Melt was missing its titular bacon entirely, making it a very simple and not that great patty melt. Had it not included grilled onions, it likely would have scored even lower. This is another hard pass for me.

Buffalo Wild Wings' Mushroom Swiss Burger was the first sandwich I tried for this ranking, and I had hoped the sandwiches would get better after tasting this particularly bland offering. Alas, given that this still managed to snag the number four spot on my list, that dream was woefully unfounded. This sandwich had more misses than hits in its components, though it boasted a couple things that led me to like it more than the rest.

Starting with the pros, there was a creamy parmesan garlic sauce on this burger that was subtle but still brought some much-needed flavor. Again, the grilled onions were good, and the Swiss cheese melted off the burger and got crispy on the outside, adding a good textural component. 

That's where my compliments end, because can you guess what the burger was missing? Mushrooms. I'm not sure how I got a Bacon Patty melt with no bacon and a Mushroom Swiss Burger with no mushrooms, but alas, such was my Buffalo Wild Wings fate. Had the meat been more seasoned and had mushrooms, I could have given this a better review. As it stands, this is yet another no from me for Buffalo Wild Wings' non-chicken dishes. 

By this point in my tasting journey, I was loathe to try any more of the chain's burgers; nevertheless, I persisted, and the Bacon Mac & Cheese Burger yielded moderately better results than any of the previous sandwiches. I still wouldn't recommend it, but compared to all the sandwiches I've already talked about, my top three stand in a slightly different category: Only get them if you don't want a chicken offering, and don't expect to be wowed. I can call each passable.

Normally I'd eschew a burger with macaroni and cheese on it as being too unnecessarily "extra." I diverge slightly from that judgment here because this burger at least had more flavors than any of the previously mentioned ones. Honestly, I don't think the mac and cheese added much (though I liked whatever mixture of cheeses the chain used on its macaroni). The stars here were the parmesan crusting on top of the macaroni and the pickled hot peppers sprinkled throughout. Had the beef boasted any flavor of its own I may have called this burger "too much;" as it is, it's better than any of the other offerings we've talked about so far, but still doesn't bring any novelty to the burger scene.

I'll give the chain credit where it's due: The black bean patty on this burger was actually passably good, especially compared to the flavorless beef on the other burgers. If I were pitting this burger up against other, more flavorful beefy burgers, this still would probably rank pretty far down the list. Buffalo Wild Wings' Southwestern Black Bean Burger was the only burger on this list to include lettuce; why the chain decided to allocate its lettuce to this rather than the BLT, I'll never know.

The patty on this burger doesn't try to mimic beef which, in BWW's case, is probably a good thing. It had some flavor missing from the other selections on this list, and corn and veggies came through well, as did the Southwestern Ranch on the burger. The guacamole wasn't super perceptible but it did add a barely-there brightness that I appreciated. In the realm of Southwestern burgers, I've absolutely had better. Compared to Buffalo Wild Wings' other burgers, this was easily my number two pick.

You can usually find me raving about my top choice on other rankings I do. The number one pick tends to be pretty clear from the get-go, and it's one I order regularly. Unfortunately, that's not the case with this burger. Why, then, did Buffalo Wild Wings' Bacon Smashed Hatch Chile Burger get the number one spot on my ranking? There's a simple, sad reason: This was one of the only burgers with any flavor to speak of, and the only one that presented me with anything to discuss.

The hatch chiles and pickled hot peppers on this burger brought some much-needed spice into the equation. Just so you know, I don't typically love spicy foods. But at this point in my tasting (I tried this burger about halfway through) I was desperately craving any type of flavor diversity and was ecstatic to taste some heat here. Other than that, this was a filling burger in which bacon played a role but didn't take center stage. Rather, it gave some simple balance to the burger's other components. A hatch chile aioli came through to add some cohesiveness to the sandwich. Was it the best burger I've ever had? No, and far from it. However, it's probably the only one I'd tell a chicken-averse friend to get from Buffalo Wild Wings.

I like to go into these ratings secret shopper-style, so I frequently order them so the chain doesn't know I'm writing a piece on its dishes. Unfortunately, all of these were misses for me, and I found myself wondering if they just weren't prepared well or whether I'd have gotten more flavorful food had I told them what I was writing. The beef in each burger tasted unseasoned, most of my sandwiches were missing lettuce, and others were missing key components (such as the mushrooms missing from the Mushroom Swiss Burger), so I really can't recommend any of them to diners.

Nevertheless, there was a clear hierarchy when ranking, and the sandwiches that had more ingredients tended to rank higher purely because the extra ingredients brought some flavor to an otherwise flavorless dish. Even my number one pick, the Bacon Smashed Hatch Chile Burger, isn't one I particularly enjoyed. If you're in a burger mood, do yourself a favor and go elsewhere.