Wing Box - San Jose

Back in my undergrad days, I used to treat myself to milk tea and fried chicken wings from Old Teahouse every Friday. It was the only day I ended class earlier and had no work afterwards. I got off campus around 4 or 5PM, just in time for an early dinner snack. It was MSG heaven. I don't do this anymore now that I'm older and live a more pretentious healthier lifestyle, but I do miss my chicken wings every so often.

On one such occasion late last year, I had a chicken wing craving that had to be satisfied. I suddenly remembered that in March 2013, a reader had emailed me a recommendation for Wing Box. I didn't have the time to go back then but mark my words, when I hear chicken wings, I remember it. So, in this week's drive-by post, I introduce you to Wing Box in San Jose, closer to the Milpitas side.

Wing Box specializes in a variety of original and exotic Asian flavors. Here's this menu board. You order at the counter and choose a seat. Food will be served to you as it becomes ready.

($11.99) 5 flavors, 15 pieces
Clockwise starting from the garlic noodles:
Spicy Garlic
Singaporean Street
Vietnamese Fish Sauce
Carmelized Tamarind
Thai Green Curry

Tamarind in front, Thai green curry in back, and Vietnamese fish sauce on the right

I enjoyed the sweet and sour taste of the caramelized tamarind wings.

The Thai green curry is no good. Don't get it. You have plenty other flavors to try instead.

Vietnamese fish sauce wings were actually good. Not smelly like you'd imagine, crunchy, salty and sweet.

Spicy garlic in front and Singaporean street style wings in the back

The spicy garlic was good. It's nice to have a classic flavor in the mix of all these new ones. Good ole reliable salty garlicky wings.

I personally thought the Singaporean wings were disappointing only because I felt so much hype about them. I think the word "street style" got me excited thinking of snacks off a side street in Singapore. The wings were good but really I can't remember how I felt about them.

Tamarind and Vietnamese fish sauce were my surprising favorites.

($7.50) Garlic Noodles

These were ok. Buttery and garlicky as it should be. Not the best I've ever had but a decent portion size and we really needed the carbs since wings aren't filling.

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS
With a place that offers so many flavors, your experience is really dependent on your choices. I didn't enjoy every single flavor I ordered but overall I appreciated having the option to try a few daring flavors and a few safe classic flavors. The concept of Wing Box is somewhat like Wing Stop except they offer many more flavors and Wing Box wings taste better than Wing Stop wings. I said it! I was never a fan of Wing Stop even before I could compare the two. Sometimes Wing Stop was just all I had near me. 99 Chicken is still my favorite chicken wing place, Smoke Eaters is second, Bon Chon is now tied at third with Wing Box. However, for the times when I want more variety per plate and at a cheaper price, Wing Box does the job. I would definitely go back. I do recommend you try a few flavors for yourself. Pass on the Thai curry though. Trust me!

Wing Box on Yelp