Tales From the Barking Frog and Buffalo Wings

The Seattle Times takes the unusual move this week to re-visit Woodinville's Barking Frog for the second time in over a decade. In short: not much has changed. The Herbfarm's neighbor is right at home when it comes to being a spendy date. Notes Providence Cicero, "The menu is an exercise in opulence with prices to match."

Chef Bobby Moore, who's been running the kitchen since 2005, has stuck to many of the restaurant's signature items, like Grand Marnier prawns, which Cicero finds "are as spectacular as ever."

Not as spectacular: sauces. For instance, the lamb accompanied by tiny heirloom potatoes, roasted Brussels sprouts and a dab of puréed garlic and fennel that faltered because "its demi-glace had turned to demi-glue on the plate."

"Accouterments," says Cicero, "accrue sometimes to the detriment of the dish."

She suggests ordering from the casual bar menu, which she believes should be weaved into the regular dinner menu to match the restaurant's "informal air."

Two-and-a-half stars.

Because football is on the minds of many these days leading up to the Super Bowl, The Stranger gets sauced on Buffalo wings. Of the regional "expert," Wing Dome:

Yeah, they're all right. I got the one-and-a-half-pound lunch special ($12.99) with the four-alarm sauce. The peppery sauce was good, and there was a lot of it, but the wings were a little on the slender side, and the meat was in danger of being too juicy—it fell off the bone, with no give at all. You don't want your wings to behave like barbecue; there should be a little fried-chicken firmness mixed into the DNA, too.

Higher up on the food chain, Ba Bar recently launched a 50-cent chicken wing Tuesday special.

With their fish sauce and their syrupy consistency, Ba Bar's chicken wings are more like the sweet, spicy side dish that's been served at American Chinese restaurants for decades. They're crispier than Wing Dome's wings, and the flavors are much more complex, with undertones of heat lurking beneath the clash of sweet and salty.

The wing toss ends with a recipe, if that's your thing.
· Barking Frog [Official Site]
· The Wing Dome [Official Site]
· Ba Bar [Official Site]
· Barking Frog: opulent menu, informal ambience [Seattle Times]
· Wings of Desire [The Stranger]