The Problem With Buffalo Wild Wings' Buffalo Wedge Salad

In late summer 2020, Buffalo Wild Wings introduced a handful of new menu items, including cauliflower-based wings and some salads, per Chew Boom. And while Reddit users gave mixed reviews on the cauliflower wings, the new Buffalo Wedge Salad seemed to get the worst ratings. According to the Buffalo Wild Wings' menu, the Buffalo Wedge Salad is intended to be several wedges of lettuce, topped with bacon, tomatoes, hand-breaded chicken tenders tossed in medium-heat buffalo sauce, bleu cheese crumbles, green onions, and a bleu cheese dressing. 

Unfortunately, that's not often what diners get — most, as the internet can attest, are instead finding subpar salads reaching their tables, salads that are no more than piles of lettuce, with no chicken or bleu cheese dressing at all and little bacon or tomato. Shortly after the salad was released, one Twitter user even posted a box of plain, unadorned lettuce, saying, "If you want a box of lettuce, make sure to order a 'salad' from Buffalo Wild Wings!"

While one such instance of a subpar salad could possibly be overlooked, this seems to be a problem that's not letting up as time goes by. Another Twitter user a few months later tweeted out a very similar box of lettuce, saying, "Is this what y'all call a salad? Honestly? Bunch of lettuce and three little pieces of tomato? Just thrown into a box?"

Back in 2017, a TripAdvisor user let the Buffalo Wedge Salad's predecessor, the Buffalo Chicken Salad, have it, with a scathing review. "I ordered the Buffalo Chicken Salad and could not believe how sparse/bad it was," they wrote. "No sauce was on the salad, the chicken appeared and tasted like it was baked, not grilled as advertised. The salad was small and there was nothing else to it, baked chicken and bag lettuce."

Now, in 2020, the terrible salad reviews continue on Twitter. Just a quick search of "Buffalo Wild Wings salads" brings up tons of photos and complaints from customers over days and days, all getting literally boxes and buckets of plain lettuce, with maybe a few bare minimum toppings and a totally sloppy presentation — and many of those salads are, in fact, the Buffalo Wedge Salad.

So what's the main reason you shouldn't order the Buffalo Wild Wings Buffalo Wedge Salad? The restaurant is just bad at salads. Plain and simple. If you really want a buffalo chicken-inspired wedge salad, make it yourself at home. This recipe from Midwest Living gives you a result that's near-identical to how the Buffalo Wild Wings Buffalo Wedge Salad is intended to be.