Applebee's Best Appetizer Also Happens To Be The Most Basic

If you're thinking of a place to go out with some friends and want pub food on a budget, Applebee's likely comes to mind. With burgers, steaks, pastas, salads, and even seafood on its menu, everyone in your party will be able to find a dish that suits them. However, if you want to order an appetizer for the table, some options are better than others. When Tasting Table ranked some of Applebee's most popular menu items, we found the boneless wings to be the best appetizer — and the second best dish overall (losing out only to one dessert: It's triple chocolate meltdown.)

We had a lot of praise to shower on Applebee's boneless wings. They are soft and easy to bite, and the buffalo sauce we topped them with was flavorful without completely smothering the chicken. The crispy breading was the cherry on top, giving each wing a pleasant crunch. They come with Bleu cheese or ranch and celery, and there are six sauce choices: classic buffalo, extra hot buffalo, garlic parmesan, honey BBQ, hot honey glaze, and sweet Asian chile. This means that even those who aren't fans of a classic buffalo wing sauce can enjoy this appetizer.

Our appreciation for the boneless wings is not a coincidence. According to a news post on Applebee's website, Applebee's boneless wings won out over other chains in a 2023 double-blind taste test. The chain has since dubbed its offering "America's Favorite Boneless Wings," a distinction displayed clearly on its website. To celebrate this, the wings were temporarily available for only 50 cents a piece in March 2024, and Applebee's brought back its all-you-can-eat boneless wings in July of that same year. Neither of these deals is available as of the time of this writing, but there is always a possibility they will return.

Of course, reviews online are a bit more mixed than the award may have you believe. Some people love the wings; for instance, YouTube food reviewer Wayne Dang complimented how juicy the chicken was and how thick the glaze was, giving the wings an 8.4 overall rating. However, some customers on a thread on Reddit's r/fastfood board were not so enthused, with user u/Saneless calling the boneless wings "more reheated frozen food worth $3 to go with your 2 reheated frozen entrees." Many other users were pointing out how boneless wings are not technically wings and claiming that Applebee's aims to make the dish more appealing by calling them wings instead of chicken nuggets. Still, others love the appetizer, and if you like boneless wings, they're certainly worth a try!