The best wings in Raleigh

Wings are the easiest thing in the world to cook badly, which is why a list of them is worth making. Every restaurant below is inside Raleigh city limits and every one of them is doing something specific with a wing: smoking it whole, dry-rubbing it three different ways, or simply having done the same thing well for forty years.

Two names you will find on older roundups are gone. Backyard Bistro is closed, and The Local now occupies that address. Mac's Speed Shop has left Raleigh altogether. Both still turn up in searches, so we have left them out on purpose.

How we chose

We started from named, dated recognition: INDY Week's Best of the Triangle reader poll for Wake County, the MICHELIN Guide American South, and roundups in the News & Observer and Axios Raleigh. Then we checked every business against its own website for address, phone, menu and whether it is still open. Where a restaurant makes a claim we could not verify, we say so in its entry.

Everything here is inside Raleigh. Woody's Sports Tavern won INDY Week's 2025 Wake County wing category and is genuinely good, and it is in Cary and Morrisville, so it is not on this list. The entries are alphabetical and unranked.

Buffalo Brothers Pizza & Wing Co.

A western New York import that has been in North Carolina since the early 2000s, this is a pizza-and-wing house where the wings are the reason to come. Wings and tenders are what the company calls its calling card, and the menu around them runs to pizza and smoked meat. There are two Raleigh rooms and they are not interchangeable: each keeps its own weeknight schedule, so pick the one that matches the evening you want.

Why we chose them

• INDY Week readers voted it the runner-up for Best Wings in Wake County in 2024.
• The company's own history page dates the first North Carolina store to Cary in 2002.
• Ribs go into the smoker in house every day.
• Trivia runs Mondays at 7 p.m. on Lake Boone Trail and Thursdays at 7 p.m. on Capital Boulevard.
• A half-price wing promotion comes around often, so check before you drive over.

Address: Raleigh — 3111 Capital Blvd., and 4025 Lake Boone Trail, Ste. 100

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Heavenly Buffaloes

Choice is the pitch: more than 20 sauces and dry rubs by the company's own count, spread across bone-in wings, crispy boneless and a vegan option, all cooked to order. This is counter service rather than a sit-down room, built for a late order and a short wait. The strip-center lot makes it an easier stop than anything downtown, and the seasoning that goes on the wings will go on the waffle fries if you ask.

Why we chose them

• INDY Week readers named it the Triangle's Best Wings in 2024.
• It came back as a Wake County runner-up the following year.
• The Glenwood Avenue store opened in September 2024, and the company dates itself to 2014.
• Open to 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday and midnight most weeknights.
• Online ordering runs through DoorDash and no other service.

Address: Raleigh — 6701 Glenwood Ave., Ste. 101

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The Local

The address will look familiar to anyone holding an older wing roundup: Backyard Bistro sat here until it closed, and The Local opened in its place in the fall of 2024. Wings are the signature, in sixes and twelves, and the same house smoker that handles brisket burnt ends and pulled pork works behind them. Sauces and dressings are made from scratch. The arena schedule runs the room on a game night.

Why we chose them

• Opened October 17, 2024, an opening the Carolina Hurricanes announced themselves.
• Signature wings run six for $13 or twelve for $18.
• Flavors are Buffalo, Fire, Hot Honey, Garlic Parmesan, BBQ or naked.
• The restaurant publishes $30 parking for Lenovo Center events and $50 for NC State football.
• Closing time moves with the arena schedule, so call ahead on an event day.

Address: Raleigh — 1235 Hurricane Alley Way

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Longleaf Swine

A whole-hog operation with wood-fired smokers, in the space that used to hold Oakwood Cafe. Wings are not an afterthought on the barbecue menu here; they get their own treatment and their own short list of sauces, from sweet and tangy BBQ to Carolina Gold and traditional buffalo. Order at the counter, then eat on the covered patio, which was built for watching a game, and the site lists dedicated parking.

Why we chose them

• Wings are smoked whole and unsegmented, then fried in beef tallow.
• No other menu we checked in the city cooks a wing that way.
• Five run $10 and ten run $20, in four sauces.
• Owner Adam Cunningham opened the restaurant in November 2022.
• The pork skins go through the same beef tallow as the wings.

Address: Raleigh — 300 E. Edenton St.

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MoJoe's Burger Joint

Ten wing flavors on one menu, three of them dry, is what gets a burger joint onto a wing list. The dusts sit alongside seven wet sauces that run from Barbalo to mango-habanero, Thai chili and a straight Insane. Portions start at six pieces and climb to 40, which is enough for a table to work through a fair share of the range. The name over the door says burgers; the wing list underneath it is the surprise.

Why we chose them

• Six pieces run $8.49, and the counts go up to 40.
• Three of the ten flavors are dry: Lemon Pepper Dust, Honey BBQ Dust and Nashville Hot Dust.
• The ranch is made in the kitchen.
• The covered patio has fans, which matters from June through September.

Address: Raleigh — 620 Glenwood Ave.

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My Way Tavern

Eleven sauces and rubs, by the News & Observer's count, including a pineapple reaper for anyone who wants the heat to be the point. The tavern is a beer room as much as a wing room, with 22 taps, fifteen of them North Carolina beers, and more than 80 bottles. Andrew and Nikki Stafford own it along with rooms in Holly Springs and Fuquay-Varina. Loaded spuds and the Game 6 Dog fill out the rest of the menu.

Why we chose them

• The tavern's own site advertises a 2023 INDY Week Best Wings win that we could not confirm.
• INDY's 2023 winners page is no longer live, so treat that award as a house claim.
• Weekday lunch specials are priced at $10.
• St. Marys Street is walkable from Glenwood South without the Glenwood parking fight.

Address: Raleigh — 522 St. Marys St.

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The Pit Authentic Barbecue

Barbecue first, but the wings are pit-smoked and they anchor the sampler as well as a plate of their own, served with celery and bleu cheese in the old style. The hogs are North Carolina free-range. Full table service sets this apart from a wing list otherwise built on counters and bar stools, and it is one of the few Raleigh restaurants the first MICHELIN book noticed at all.

Why we chose them

• The first MICHELIN Guide American South listed it as Recommended in November 2025.
• Only a short list of Raleigh restaurants made that first edition at all.
• Pit-smoked wings are $14.50, and they also anchor the $18.50 Pit Sampler.
• The restaurant publishes its own parking guidance: free on weekends and after 6 p.m. on weekdays, kiosk or ParkMobile otherwise.

Address: Raleigh — 328 W. Davie St.

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The Players Retreat

A bar since 1951, on its current corner since ten years after that, and heading into its 75th year in 2026. Wings come in PR sauce or buffalo, in sixes and twelves, with blue cheese or ranch, and they also ride the PR Sampler beside poppers, skins, chicken retreats and ribs. The house keeps what its own history page calls the largest single-malt Scotch collection in the state, which is a strange and good thing to find next to a plate of wings.

Why we chose them

• INDY Week readers named it the Best Sports Bar in Wake County in 2025.
• Bernie and Mickey Hanula opened the bar on February 27, 1951.
• An official Canes bar, so it fills on game nights.
• The kitchen runs to 2 a.m. on Sunday.
• The domain playersretreat.net is a recipe blog with no connection to the bar.

Address: Raleigh — 105 Oberlin Rd.

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Sam Jones BBQ

Whole hog cooked over wood is the main event, and smoked wings sit on the Raleigh menu beside it, out of a kitchen that has been doing this the same way for generations. Service is counter-and-tray, which makes a wing order here a tray lunch more than a night out. The restaurant sits on the Dix Park edge of the Warehouse District with a lot of its own, which is easier than most of downtown.

Why we chose them

• The MICHELIN Guide American South gave it a Bib Gourmand on November 3, 2025.
• Only three Raleigh-area restaurants took one in that first edition.
• The Raleigh room opened in January 2021.
• Hours run 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and to 8:30 p.m. on Sunday.
• Lunch is the crush, so come outside the middle of the day.

Address: Raleigh — 502 W. Lenoir St.

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Sharky's Place

Wings get smoked before they are grilled or fried here, and ten sauces and six dry rubs point them in a direction. The room is built for staying a while: six Gold Crown pool tables, a dart area and more than 22 screens. Gumbo and red beans and rice share the menu with the smoked meats. The one thing to know before you go is that the kitchen has only just come back.

Why we chose them

• The News & Observer named the bar in its roundup of the Triangle's best.
• Founder Jack Pinkstaff sold in 2012, and Randy and Simone Wilson have run it since.
• The homepage announced a new kitchen in September 2026, so the posted hours may still be settling.
• Late service runs to midnight Sunday through Thursday and 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday.

Address: Raleigh — 5800 Duraleigh Rd.

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Wings Over Raleigh

Twenty-four sauces is the largest count on this list, and behind them the menu is wings and tenders and very little else. The narrowness is the point. Dine-in space is minimal and the business is built around takeout and delivery, so this is the late order-ahead pick. It is also the only entry here that belongs to a multi-state company, with three North Carolina stores alongside stores in eight other states.

Why we chose them

• The News & Observer put it in a Triangle wing roundup on the strength of the sauce count.
• The counter runs to 3 a.m. on Friday and Saturday and 1 a.m. the rest of the week.
• Stores run across Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Rhode Island and Vermont.
• Order online and do not plan on getting a table.

Address: Raleigh — 2900 Hillsborough St.

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Winston's Grille

Forty years in north Raleigh in 2026, with a masthead that has read "A Raleigh tradition since 1986" the whole time. Few full-service restaurants in the city smoke their own wings; this one does, and serves them with homemade bleu cheese. It is also the easy-parking pick on this list, with its own lot and a patio and none of the downtown deck math to work out first.

Why we chose them

• House-smoked wings are $16.50, in buffalo, honey BBQ or plain.
• The site is promoting a 2026 Diamond Award, silver for Best Lunch Spot.
• A second 2026 Diamond Award took bronze for Best Outdoor Dining.
• A party of six or more carries an 18 percent gratuity.

Address: Raleigh — 6401 Falls of Neuse Rd.

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Prices, hours and opening status last checked September 18, 2026. Call ahead where an entry says to.