Today was definitely meant to be the day I tried that one chicken van that’s kept me awake at night, thinking if only there was a chicken burger better than that generic Colonel mastered chicken shop. Oh my god was it worth the wait. Actually, was it? Why have I waited so long. I needed this sooner!

Buffalo Joes and their bright green, mean, chicken frying, wing tossing machine was pulled up as a part of FoodPark on Saturday. They were throwing out preordered bundles of cholesterol ignoring goodies like there was no tomorrow. I’d parked underneath the Sainsbury’s in Eddington and as I came up the escalator I could see the crowds waiting for their turn.

I had ordered the most expensive option on their menu. The chicken burger, ½ portion of wings, fries and a drink for £15. Don’t come at me about the fact a big box from that chicken shop is less than a tenner. You’re paying for the experience and love that Joe and his team put into it.

I went with the ‘Honey G’ wings which are tossed in a sriracha, honey, garlic and lime sauce then topped with gocjunang Mayo, black and white sesame seeds, spring onion and crushed salted peanuts. They also do buffalo wings (tossed in buffalo sauce with a tangy blue cheese dip) and Korean Wings (tossed in a sweet and sticky Korean bbq sauce with sesame seeds, spring onion, chilli, wasabi peas and wasabi mayo) but I couldn’t say no to Gochujang because, quite frankly, my best mate loves it and I feel I owe it to him. The wings were banging to be honest, so crispy and the sauce didn’t give it a soggy or greasy feel. The sauce was so tangy too! The moment I stuck one in my mouth I could feel myself just drooling, which to be honest isn’t an attractive image but luckily I was alone. You’ve all seen that video that’s done the rounds of how to eat a wing, haven’t you? Where you stick it in your gob and pull out the clean bones? Well, if I didn’t know any better I’d think they were the buffalo joes wings because they came off the bone with ease, and so clean. No shame in admitting, I used one of the bones as a toothpick to get all those bloody seeds out my teeth. Make the most of what you’ve got, right?

The burger was a very unsubtle tower of crispy, juicy, greasy love. A soft bun encased a buttermilk chicken thigh, dredged in flour and all sorts of spices, sriracha mayo, iceberg lettuce, candied bacon and buffalo sauce. The coating on the chicken thigh was gnarly. My burger had a massive dagger of crispy skin hanging off the side and I couldn’t ignore it, it went straight in and I wasn’t disappointed! The sriracha mayo was really nice, I know it’s a simple sauce but that’s what that chicken needs. Would be proper stupid to put something majorly over the top with that chicken, that chicken needs to sing and that’s what it does. The candied bacon was nice. At first I was like ‘great, here we go again, another burger with deep fried five guys style bacon on it’ and frankly I’m so bored of that now. If you’re putting bacon on a burger, make it crispy but not black. HOWEVER, I had forgotten that it was candied sooooo. Buffalo Joes, your safe.

The chips were nice! I mean, you can’t go wrong with a healthily salted portion of skin on fries. The generic. The basic. The legend. There’s a reason why they’re legendary. Their range of drinks were quite nice, the normal bog standard soda drinks that you’d expect. One cola drink and three fruity drinks. Definitely had to have a Ting because it colour matched their van.

Joe and his team are a laugh. No hiding anything, say it as it is type of people and I like that. For far too long, people have bowed down and treated everyone as if they’re the Queen, and Joe is polite but he won’t bullshit you. They’re customer service is very on point, they’re very organised working in blocks of 20 minutes, with each block pushing out about 12/15 pre-ordered orders. A really clean food truck, cleaned down after every wave of orders. Can’t and won’t fault them. Cheers Buffalo Joes, I’ll be back!