I’ve been by Bomb Bay a number of times, but have never stopped in. To be honest, I don’t think it has even been called Bomb Bay Café all that long. From what I’ve been told, the name has recently been changed. The place is actually pretty cool. It’s got a large dining room and a large bar area. It also has a small outdoor patio area some dining in the great outdoors. The day we went, it was nearing 95, so we avoided that aspect. The place is well-lit, clean, and has plenty of TVs for sports. There were a large number of people inside when we arrived, which very much surprised me. That may explain why our wings took so long to arrive once we ordered them. Our waitress wasn’t all that friendly, but she did her job. After we got our wings though, we didn’t see her. She didn’t check up on us at all. It also took a while to get our check, so we asked the bartender, who seemed like a decent enough guy. The atmosphere and environment were great, but the service not so hot. If that was a better, this place could have easily been a 10.
The wing size did vary quite a bit. You did get some clunkers in the bunch, but there were some small ones too. These were some higher priced wings for a wing night.
I was floored and very excited when I saw the menu. There has got to be more places like this out there in the world. They experiment and take chances that most people don’t even want to attempt. The selection of flavors and unique options were awesome phenomenal. There were also two flavors not on the menu that were special new flavors. We noticed them a bit too late, so missed out on those options.
I was overly impressed by the amount of flavors and equally impressed by the taste. We coordinated our flavor choices in order to get the largest variety possible. The Hot were very spicy, which is what I want when I order a Hot. It had that typical NEPA valley wing flavor, where it is salty and more vinegary than buttery. I enjoy it though, as it reminds me of my youth. Those were the days. The Boom Boom seemed to me to be a mixture of hot sauce, ranch, a hint of cheese, and a strong pepper taste. I enjoyed these. Hot Caesar Garlic were tasty too. Strong on the Caesar flavor and not so much on the Hot flavor. Sesame Teriyaki were delicious as all hell. The saltiness of the Teriyaki and the taste of the Sesame sauce was a good blend. It was a nice, thick, sticky sauce. The Robbie Mazoni wings were fantastic! This was a mixture of butter, Parmesan cheese, and Old bay. For anyone who knows what Aw Shucks corn is, it’s just like that. They were pretty crispy to boot. This was the first wing I tried, and I was in heaven. I thought to myself, this is going to be my new favorite wing out of all the wing places I’ve been too. That ended up not being the case. See, I eat my food in what I think is the worst to the best. So, I saved my last Robbie Mazoni for last. I was let down though, as the last one was not as good as the first. Maybe some of the seasoning rubbed off, but it didn’t have that same tasted. I may have to go back to double check these wings. Chris’s sauce was described to us as a sauce made with Habanero peppers. That immediately caught Serniak’s ear. I was expecting something super spicy, but that was not the case at all. Actually, they may have been a bit milder than the Hot wing. In fact, they kind of hot a sticky sweetness to them. I still enjoyed them though. The Horsey Wing was very interesting. It was a white, thick, creamy sauce that had a taste of Horseradish. I would have guessed that the taste would be super overwhelming, but it was done correctly so it was not overbearing in the least bit.
The Bomb Bay Café, which has been suggested to me by people of the Jessup area for weeks was a terrific place to hang out and have some wings in. I admit, I did not expect it to be so festive in there. The place was jammed and everyone had wings. Also, everyone was in a good mood to the people at the bar to the people at tables to the wait staff. Everyone must have been enjoying the warm weather indoors together. They do have a dinning room area away from the bar. Now they didn’t have a pool table that I saw and usually that means I dock a place a point but they had several tvs with sports on all of them and the atmosphere was so pleasant that you don’t need entertainment like that.
When you walk inside and when you get their menu they say they have jumbo wings and that make you feel good. But I’m here to tell that only some of them are jumbo. Some are pretty big but there some that are small as well and for 45 cents a wing that slight untruthatude knocks it down a few pegs.
Nothing is perfect but the Bomb Bay Café wing selection is perfect for this Wingman. Those flavors are mild, hot, hot garlic, garlic parm boom boom, old bay, butter and garlic, caesar garlic, peanut, teriyaki, sesame teriyaki, jack daniels bbq, Robbie Mazzoni, honey mustard, horseywing, Carolina blue, Carolina gold, hot honey and Chris’s sauce. They even had 2 on the wall that we didn’t even see and if we did we would of got at least one of them.
I ordered hot, Chris’s sauce, boom boom and horseywing. The hot were a lot like the wing sauce you would get if you ordered hot wings in other places in the valley such as Barrets. The Windsor and JWs. Flavorful, not to hot but there was some spice. Chris’s sauce was a habanero based sauce. Interestingly enough, I prepared myself for some really spicy wings but it did not deliver that. They tasted fine but I was hoping for hotter. Boom boom actually were hotter than the Chris’s sauce in my opinion and they had a cooling ranch taste to them. They were real good. Lastly, I got the horseywing. I am a big proprietor of horseradish and these wings did not disappoint. First off, these wings look like they were dipped Elmer’s glue because they are completely white. An odd sight indeed. But they were very tasty. Though my sinuses were cleared right out due to the horseradish they were never overbearing.
