We Tried Buffalo Wild Wings New Boneless Bar Pizza. Here's How It Went
What first comes to mind when you hear the words "bar food?" Probably a little bowl of peanuts or pretzels that seem a pleasant snack but are actually there to keep your thirst up, what with all the salt. Or maybe you think of common quick-prep appetizers like mozzarella sticks, nachos, or chicken wings. On the other hand, maybe for you "bar food" calls to mind the veritable feast you'll indulge in after a few rounds at the bar. Burgers are up there, to be sure. So too are tacos. And of course, it's hard to beat a late-night pizza.
The latest two items to hit the Buffalo Wild Wings menu — a menu that has seen a lot of expansion this summer, by the way — finally let you enjoy your favorite post-bar food while you're still sitting there sipping with your buddies at the bar. This week, the national restaurant chain added Boneless Bar Pizza to the mix, and we got one of each of the two new pizzas the very first day they were available so we could take a few bites and tell you all about it.
The first thing we have to say: this is definitely great bar food, and we say that not because these pizzas are super salty — though they are, make no mistake, but we'll get to the nutrition of it all soon enough — but because their huge flavor profile could stand up to the hoppiest IPA, a stiff old fashioned, a robust red, or a sweet and fizzy cola.
What's on the new Boneless Bar Pizzas?
As you can fairly expect with a pizza from a chain named for a part of a chicken and known, first and foremost, for its chicken foodstuffs, these pizzas are heavy on ... chicken. Both varieties — the Boneless Bar Pizzas come in Buffalo and a Honey BBQ option, FYI — have the same thin crust that borderlines on crunchy as the base. You'll find mozzarella cheese on both, as is only proper with a pizza. But from then on out, they differ a fair amount, so let's take them one and then the other.
On the Buffalo version of the new Boneless Bar Pizza, you'll find ranch dressing, bleu cheese crumbles, cheese, boneless breaded chunks of chicken coated in BW3's medium Buffalo sauce, pickled hot peppers, and chopped green onion. Then the entire pizza is given a few more drizzles of medium Buffalo sauce unless you instead sub in any of the other Buffalo Wild Wings sauce options, such as mild, spicy garlic, Original Buffalo, hot, or "Wild." (Pro tip: stop at hot.)
The Honey BBQ Boneless Pizza features mozzarella and cheddar-jack cheese, boneless wings chunks in a honey BBQ sauce (makes sense, right?), bacon crumbles, pickled hot peppers, and chopped green onion. It also has some of the chain's medium Buffalo sauce and honey BBQ sauce drizzled over the whole pizza. You can of course customize this one, too, but you'll have to ask for substitutions directly, as there isn't the same automatic offer of sauce choices as with the Buffalo Boneless Bar Pizza.
How much do the new Boneless Bar Pizzas cost?
These newest Buffalo Wild Wings menu items are, in our opinion, priced quite reasonably. At present, at most locations (we checked around a bit and are also going by the chain's main site, as in not a specific restaurant location), the new Boneless Bar Pizzas cost $9.99. Given that eating an entire one of these yourself would definitely fill you up (we stopped well before eating half of each, and that was because of satiation, not a lack of satisfaction) you get your money's worth for sure.
And what's more, remember that these pizzas were designed as and are marketed as bar food, which implies an appetizer that is to be shared with others. Each Boneless Bar Pizza comes with eight slices, meaning each slice costs about a buck and a quarter. A Boneless Bar Pizza would be a perfect split between four people, each enjoying two little slices (squares, really) with a drink, and thus each person laying out a whopping $2.50 for their snack. Plus a bit more, of course, because don't forget to tip. Note that the price may well increase, though. In a press release shared via Inspire Brands, we read: "Boneless Bar Pizza is available for a limited time for $9.99."
How long will Boneless Bar Pizza be on the menu?
The new Boneless Bar Pizzas could become a permanent fixture of the Buffalo Wild Wings menu. Although the language of the press release does say "limited time," no date was given at which they'd be pulled back off the menu, so you should be able to count on a Buffalo Boneless Bar Pizza or a Honey BBQ Bar Pizza next week, next month, and next year, provided they sell well enough.
Do note that, per that same Inspire Brands press release, BW3 is definitely tying this newest menu item to the football season, football games being the occasion for mass patronization of Buffalo Wild Wings locations, not to mention for people to pick up wings, pizzas, and other eats and bring them home for enjoyment there. We know that because the PR says: "Buffalo Wild Wings is giving fans a new way to experience their favorite gameday noshes with new Boneless Bar Pizza."
So if they do have an undisclosed plan to pull these pizzas back off the menu, we'd say you're safe until at least after Sunday, February 12th, 2023. Which yes, that does happen to be the date appointed for Super Bowl LVII (47) which will be held at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, and will feature the Washington Commanders duking it out against the Los Angeles Charger. Maybe. Probably not. But if it does, remember where you heard it first!
How do the Boneless Bar Pizzas compare to other Buffalo Wild Wings menu items?
You know how you can usually tell when you're looking at different works by the same artist or hearing different songs by the same band, even if you don't have foreknowledge that the same person or group is behind the work? Like be it a wheat field overflown by crows, a sparse bedroom, or a portrait of a sailor, you can tell a painting by Van Gogh based on the brushwork, the colors, and the composition. And despite the long and complex evolution from "Pablo Honey" to "OK Computer" through "A Moon Shaped Pool," you always know it's Radiohead right away. The new Boneless Bar Pizzas are a lot like that, if you'll allow the abrupt jump from post-impressionism and modern alt rock to Buffalo Wild Wings.
As chunks of fried and generously sauced chicken are the major players ingredient-wise here, the Boneless Bar Pizzas have a flavor profile similar to the chain's (also relatively new) Bird Dawgs sandwiches, they aren't wildly different from some of the chicken sandwiches that have long been on the BW3 menu, and of course, they are made with essentially the same chicken as the best-selling item on the chain's menu, that being the brand's boneless wings. On the other hand, this is a new vehicle for these classic flavors. So, is it a radical departure? Not so much. But a distinctly new entry? Yes indeed.
What's the Boneless Bar Pizza nutrition info?
Okay, so you know that whole "If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all?" Well, that doesn't really apply to journalism. So, to be clear, these pizzas are not healthy. In fact, they're pretty unhealthy. But as we have said more times than one, you don't go to a Buffalo Wild Wings looking for health food, you go there looking for a good time and some food that tastes great — you can hit the steamed kale and brown rice and baked salmon or tofu when you're cooking at home.
In terms of sheer calorie count, the situation is pretty grim. The Honey BBQ Boneless Pizza packs in 1,300 calories, while the Buffalo Boneless Bar Pizza tips the scales at 1,370 calories, meaning you are getting about 68.5% of your entire daily calories in this one dish if you follow a 2,000 calorie per day diet. As for fat, the Honey BBQ pizza has 54 grams of the stuff, while the Buffalo pizza has a whopping 91. Both are high in saturated fat, at 25 and 23 grams respectively. And each have a little more than 2 grams of trans fat, too.
In terms of sodium, the Buffalo Boneless Bar Pizza is actually lower, but it still has 4,110 milligrams of it on average, while the Honey BBQ Boneless Bar Pizza has an unsettling 5,240 milligrams. The saving grace here is to remember that, in most cases, these pizzas should be treated as shared apps, not eaten wholesale by one person.
Verdict: Did we like the new Boneless Bar Pizzas?
Very much so — both of them! Enjoyed as an occasional treat, given those nutrition stats we just ran through, these pizzas are quite good and a welcome addition to the Buffalo Wild Wings lineup. The Buffalo Boneless Bar Pizza had the perfect level of kick for someone who likes spice but does not want to be overwhelmed (we may opt for one level of spice "hotter" than medium next time, AKA the hot sauce) while the Honey BBQ Boneless Pizza had a delightful sweetness balanced by smokiness from the bacon and barbecue notes, and with just a bit of heat from the pickled hot peppers.
In both cases, the large chunks of chicken work great given how slim the crust is — with a regular pizza crust, chunks so large may have made it hard to get a good bite in, but that's not the case here. And when fresh, both pizzas have a little bit of satisfying crunch from the chopped green onions. It's also worth noting that, as you should well expect (nay, demand) of any decent pizza, these Boneless Bar Pizzas are also quite good as leftovers. Even chilled for hours and then eaten later, both still had good flavor, held up in terms of texture, and made for a most satisfying evening snack.
Next, is to see how the last pieces do in the morning, for as we have made abundantly clear by now, these taste- and calorie-rich pizzas are best eaten in portions by the individual or shared with a group.