The 8 Worst Things About Buffalo Wild Wings, According To Customers

Making your own Buffalo wings at home can be a bit of a hassle, and honestly, they're usually better from a restaurant. Buffalo Wild Wings is one of the most recognizable chains specializing in wings, and you'd think getting this fan-favorite food right would be a slam dunk. That's not exactly the case, though.

When we here at Tasting Table ranked chain restaurant cheese fries from worst to best, well, someone had to come in last, and that was Buffalo Wild Wings. Not only are the cheese fries lacking, but you'll also hear Buffalo Wild Wings fans reminiscing about the discontinued sauces that they still miss, and trust us when we say that it's a bummer of a conversation. So is the fact that gluten-free foodies need to avoid Buffalo Wild Wings for a lack of options, and honestly, that's just scratching the surface of complaints we've heard customers voice about this chain.

If you haven't been to B-Dubs in a while and are wondering what you're missing, we've got you covered. We headed to Reddit to find out what customers have been saying about the chain, and trust us, they're not holding back. And, full disclosure, we're not even going to focus on the food here. We're talking about all the other things that go into a restaurant experience to make it a standout or absolutely miserable. Buffalo Wild Wings falls short in a shocking number of ways.

Boneless wings became America's sweetheart during the 2007 recession, but they haven't been universally loved. There's a legitimate argument that boneless wings are just chicken nuggets by another name, but that hasn't kept them off the menu at Buffalo Wild Wings. It also hasn't kept B-Dubs out of court.

Back in 2023, Chicago resident Aimen Halim filed a lawsuit that accused the chain of false advertising. He claimed that when he ordered boneless wings, he expected to be served wing meat with no bones. What he got instead was breast meat. Halim claimed that Buffalo Wild Wings was leveraging the idea that more work was going into these theoretically deboned wings, and it warranted a high price. 

Fast forward to 2026, and the case was perhaps unsurprisingly dropped. It was ruled that everyone and their cousin understood boneless wings not to be deboned chicken wings, in much the same way that we're not expecting to be served the wings of a buffalo. (If you do, we seriously need to have a talk.) However, we also have to add that we did find at least one Reddit user claiming that, although it was 2024 and they were a chef, they had never before heard the term "boneless wing," and were baffled by it. Maybe we do have to have a conversation about how it's not buffalo meat.

At the time of this writing, Buffalo Wild Wings has a chain-wide rating of a dismal 2.2 out of five stars on Yelp, with more than 218,000 reviews. Many one-star ratings make it apparent there's a widespread customer service issue. There are complaints about half-hour wait times to put in drink orders or get refills, food served without silverware, and if you happen to be there with a group, don't expect everyone's order to arrive at the same time.

That's a common complaint on Reddit, too, and bizarrely, one Reddit user who noted they were a kitchen manager said that's by design. According to them, it's corporate policy that food be served as soon as it's ready. In theory, that's fine, but if everything on an order is started at the same time rather than timed to be ready simultaneously, the result is angry customers who don't get to eat together.

Complaints escalate into stories about rude and abusive bar staff, rotten carrots making it onto the plate, and complaints about being greeted with outright hostility. There are a ton of customers who condemn ridiculously slow service, cold food, a lack of communication between servers and customers, and one reviewer was left baffled when they were served an open and half-empty bottle of wine. Others have voiced feelings of being discriminated against based on race, and to be clear, those are complaints from multiple locations, though only a fraction of them.

A phone app should, in theory, be an easy way not only to place an order but also to ensure it's correct, keep track of rewards, and take advantage of deals. We found scores of complaints from customers who have had app problems, including not allowing payment processing, not loading checkout screens, and showing nothing but screens apologizing for technical difficulties. (Full disclosure: When this writer was researching this piece, trying to access the chain's online ordering system resulted in system error screens.) 

Others complain they're not able to sign in, and when they reach out to the company, the answer is a generic one that something is definitely being done about all the problems. For reals, pinky-swear. Issues have also included a bug where customers would be asked to update their phone number, then get error messages that the number was already in use or the app system was unavailable. Password recovery options don't work, accounts are locked, technical support questions go unanswered, reward points disappear, and QR codes don't load properly. 

Some customers report they've stopped going to Buffalo Wild Wings over promo codes not working and being denied access to app-only offers. And yes, orders can be phoned in, but many say that it's so loud there's no way to be heard over the chaos. As one Reddit user mused, "I've never frequented a major chain that refuses to take my money as consistently as BWW. It's inexplicable."

Do you love to live on the edge? Are you happy when mealtimes come with a little suspense? Would you love to capture the feeling of heading to Vegas and hitting the craps table without leaving home? Go ahead and order from Buffalo Wild Wings, as there are a ton of customers who have headed to Reddit and review sites to complain about wrong orders. One Reddit user summed up their experience like this: "I have never — one SINGLE time — gotten a pick up or delivery order that was 100% correct. At best it's missing all sauce bottles and half my sauce ramekins. At worst, it's missing all that and half my entrees ..."

That's a sentiment repeated over and over, with customers sometimes noting that what they received isn't even close to what they ordered. It's such a widespread, common occurrence that it's left some wondering how it's even possible to get orders so wrong so often, as it just doesn't seem statistically possible.

Dine-in customers might complain about the service, but to-go customers report it's just as dismal. Not only are orders incorrect, but they're often late as well. Getting issues fixed has sent some into a tailspin fueled by sheer determination and spite, with some saying they simply resorted to spending an entire evening calling the restaurant to try to get some answers. And even when they do get through, some are told that refunds are impossible, and so is store credit.

Back in 2023, Buffalo Wild Wings announced it would no longer charge customers an extra fee to place a pickup order. Is that a sentence we never expected to write? Absolutely, but here we are. The official line was that the fee was only experimental, and to say that customers didn't appreciate it is definitely an understatement. The 99-cent fee had plenty saying it was the last straw, noting that picking up their own food and receiving no service felt like a scam.

The so-called takeout fee was such a big deal that a class action complaint was filed over it, noting that it was unfair to tack the fee onto the end of orders and that it amounted to a deceptive price increase. That isn't the only time customers have been disgusted by added charges, either.

One Reddit user was shocked to find their location suddenly charging extra for ranch, bleu cheese, and carrots, while others report being charged $5 for putting bacon on a cheeseburger and $3.99 to add a Pepsi to a meal deal. Finally, the one that's arguably the most shocking: One Facebook user found a $2.99 charge added to their bill. Why? They played the trivia game on the machine sitting on their table. 

In February 2026, we here at Tasting Table did a deep dive into Buffalo Wild Wings and the price increases of the prior 16 years. Our writer found a 2010 menu on a Reddit thread and shared that six wings had skyrocketed from $5.29 to $10.49. That's the kind of thing that's enough to make us take a break and go outside to touch some grass for a minute. We're not the only ones to think that's a bit much — especially considering that a 2012 announcement of a price hike came alongside reports that the company had already seen a 23% increase in profits. 

Some Reddit users have also noticed that the three B-Dubs locations in their city have three very different pricing structures. Combo meals and deals are no longer feeling like deals to customers who saw the price of their regular weekly order jump 30% in a week, while others stare with their best shocked Pikachu face as BOGO offers change to BOGO 50% off. 

Those rising prices come with photos that Reddit users say confirm shrinkflation in action. One person posted a plate with teeny-tiny boneless wings sitting next to a quarter for a size comparison. Others likened the wings they received to cheese curds, and one Reddit user explained: "I really want to like them because I don't have very many other options by me, but it's like paying someone to punch you in the face."

It doesn't matter how much we're looking forward to a night out with friends; the truth is that we're just one sticky table, one dirty bathroom, or one mystery sludge-smeared utensil away from noping the heck right out of there. A filthy restaurant is terrible, and there are a ton of complaints about Buffalo Wild Wings. In one Facebook post from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, a would-be customer said they walked out when they saw the restaurant was littered with garbage and food, and smelled vile. One commenter responded, "Your description covers most if not all BWWs," and another agreed, "BWW as a whole has become the slum of casual dining."

And no, it's not unique to the location. We found complaints from customers who had to ask for something to dry the menus off after they were put on a wet table. There are complaints of bathrooms littered with paper towels and toilet paper, bathrooms you can smell before you see, and, for that matter, entire restaurants with an aroma only able to be described as eau de public toilet. 

Those sticky tables we mentioned? There are complaints from customers who were completely repulsed by an entire restaurant that felt sticky, and seriously? Ew. Some report giving their local spot a few chances and always finding everything just relentlessly sticky, including the menus. There are dirty walls, furniture that's seen better years, and some even say they've tried locations in multiple cities to find the same dirty dining rooms everywhere.

Yes, there's a certain level of noise expected, but complaints about B-Dubs just being too darn loud aren't restricted to cranky customers yelling at clouds. We found a ton of complaints about just how loud Buffalo Wild Wings is, including newspaper surveys in which respondents overwhelmingly picked it as one of the most uncomfortably loud restaurants around.

Even sound-centric message boards turn up complaints about BW3, including one post on a DrummerWorld thread about loud restaurants. One contributor asked, "Where do you dine? Buffalo Wild Wings? Well, then, of course it's too loud. They gotta distract you from the gastrointestinal Drano they serve." Some Reddit users say they simply left when they found it impossible to hear the person right next to them, while others note music often drowns out games. Should it be compared to a nightclub vibe? Plenty of people say no, and it's not a complaint that crops up only on occasion.

Many social media posts discussing loud restaurants mention Buffalo Wild Wings, and we found one in particular with a participant who explained that, as someone who wears hearing aids, they found it particularly challenging. Hearing aids don't filter sound in the same way an ear can, which can make it impossible to separate a conversation from ambient noise. When it gets to that point, we'd argue that you can probably turn things down just a smidge. Yes? Thank you.