Built in the mid-19th century and operating as The Three Crowns Hotel since, this is yet another old-school Melbourne pub that continues to run today. Clearly spruced up recently, its a nice, modern interior, and a comfortable spot to be. Importantly, there's also a menu item called... Buffalo Chicken Wings.
So, how does the Three Crown Hotel fare against The Rules?
The Scores
- The Specs: An odd combination of drums and single-jointed flats. Does this mean the hotel has butchered double jointed wings in order to go down this route? Weird. RATING: 6.
- The Sauce: I don't believe these are made with Frank's Red Hot HOWEVER, the abundance of batter and dripping residual oil, could be steering my scorched tastebuds wrong. RATING: 5
- Crunch: Crunch! Huge amounts of crunch here because the wings are battered, a bit like a large, well known, fast food chicken chain. Buffalo Wings shouldn't be battered. RATING: 6
- Serving size & price/Value for Money: 6 mixed wings for $12, or 12 for $20. The value here, in 2023's Melbourne, is pretty good. It'd be much better if all the wings were jointed but these are still good. RATING: 6
- Heat/spice level: Middle of the road levels of heat here. Personally, I could eat these for days before the heat overcame me. Not that I'd advise such behaviour. RATING: 5
- Flavour: Whether there's Frank's here or not, the sauce is not amazing - but the wings are very tasty overall. The crunch is good due to the batter/extra coating and, once the residual oil cooled and drained a bit, these wings got smashed. RATING 7
- Celery: Was there Celery sticks? Yes! There was! RATING: 5.
- Dipping Sauce: Blue Cheese? Yes, Blue Cheese. RATING: 5.
- Other Stuff: Very friendly staff and cool venue to it at. If I wasn't on my way to a bike repair shop, I likely could have stayed for several pints of Fixation IPA. Aside from that all important IPA, the tap list was a solid mix of big brew and independent locals. Which is absolutely OK by me. RATING 7.
OVERALL RATING 52/80. No bonus points; no moist towelettes for post-wing clean up.
The wings at Three Crowns are good! They might not be traditional Buffalo Wings with the blazing red Frank's & Butter sauce but they ARE tasty. I'm not entirely sure if the hot oil residue is a usual part of the service, and I give the benefit of the doubt here: Sunday arvo, first wings out of the fryer, perhaps?
If you're looking for traditional Buffalo Wings, these aren't it. But if you're a general lover of wings (and who isn't) then The Three Crowns Hotel is a venue definitely worthy of spending an afternoon.
Venue Details:
365 Victoria St, West Melbourne VIC 3003
Facebook: @threecrownshotel <> Instagram: @threecrownshotel
Website: www.threecrownshotel.com.au
