The Ten Best Wings in Denver — Buffalo and Beyond

With the Denver Broncos hosting a playoff game for the first time in a decade on Saturday, January 17, it’s time for the small but mighty chicken wing to shine!

This is one of America’s favorite foods year-round, and classic buffalo wings are a beloved game-day staple. But wings also come in a seemingly endless array of flavors and styles, from dry rubs to fruit-spiked sauces to the smoked versions that you can find at many of our picks for the city’s best barbecue joints.

While searching for the best wings in the area, we set a few ground rules: We focused on brick-and-mortars, skipping national or international chains (sorry, B-Dubs fans) and only considering bone-in wings (because boneless wings are not technically wings at all).

Here are our picks for the best wings in Denver, starting with the joints that specialize in traditional buffalo wings:

CD’s Wings
7685 West 88th Avenue, Westminster
With a large dining area plus a patio, CD’s in Westminster has room for a lot of wing fans — which is a good thing, since it tends to draw a big crowd regularly. And for good reason: Its deep-fried wings are available tossed in over twenty sauce options that range from totally mild choices like lemon pepper and teriyaki to the ghost pepper-spiked Last 1 Standing. CD’s also understands that wing preferences are a personal thing. Want all flats, extra crispy, swimming in sauce? No problem. Beyond the wings themselves, the eatery serves up an extensive menu of other fried fare, from corn nuggets and okra to beer-battered haddock. It also now has an outpost inside Arvada’s Freedom Street Social food hall.

Fire on the Mountain
3801 West 32nd Avenue
300 South Logan Street
This wing joint with a jam-band soul opened in West Highland in 2012 and added a Wash Park outpost in 2019. Yes, the wings are on the small side; that’s because FOTM uses only cage-free, antibiotic-free chicken, along with making other environmentally conscious moves like composting all of its food scraps and recycling its cooking oil. But size doesn’t really matter when the wings are cooked perfectly and tossed in a stellar selection of sauces, including a rotating sauce of the month. The killer beer list is a major bonus, as are the ever-changing specials, just in case you’re in the mood to skip wings once in a while.

Genna Rae’s Wings & More
1819 East 28th Avenue
This takeout-only storefront in Whittier was opened by Genn Dickerson in 2016. Originally from the Virgin Islands, Dickerson serves food with a Caribbean edge, including large wings that come in flavors like mango habanero, jerk sauce and Island Zing in addition to traditional hot sauce. More sweet and tangy than spicy, they pack a lot of flavor and a supremely crunchy bite. The “& More” ups the temptation factor at Genna Rae’s, since you can pair your wings with a giant burger, soul food dinners like catfish and hot links, and such sides as Southern greens, plantains and mac and cheese.

King of Wings
7741 West 44th Avenue, Wheat Ridge
1100 Arapahoe Street, Golden
Longtime friends Eddie Renshaw and Evan Pierce debuted King of Wings as a food truck before moving into its Wheat Ridge brick-and-mortar in 2020 and adding an outpost in Golden in 2024. Simply put: these wings rule. Each order gets grilled, adding a deep, smoky essence and a charred caramelization to the skin, before being doused in one of twelve sauces, including Thai BBQ, bourbon buffalo or tangy gold. The Wheat Ridge location also doubles as a taphouse, while in Golden, you can sip margaritas, high-end tequilas and mezcal along with the beer selection, and the hand-breaded chicken tenders are are also stellar, if you’re not into bones.

The Wing Hut
15473 East Hampden Avenue, Aurora
This small, family-owned spot has specialized in wings for over two decades, and the experience shows. The wings are on the smaller side, but with tender meat, a nice, crisp bite and a whopping 46 killer sauce and dry-rub options, size really doesn’t matter. Not sure where to start? The garlic parmesan is a customer favorite, while the hot honey mustard offers a sweet and tangy experience with a kick. Orders are placed at the counter, and you can go half-and-half on flavors when getting wings by the pound — an essential move if you’re going for variety. Wing Hut also has a lineup of Cajun items, including po’boys, gumbo, gator jambalaya and fried okra. 

Beyond Buffalo

Com Nha Kitchen & Bar
2133 South Sheridan Boulevard
This Vietnamese spot that opened in the Harvey Park neighborhood in 2025 just landed on our list of the Top 50 Restaurants in Denver right now. The menu includes a wide range of options, many of which are tough to find at other spots in the metro area. One of our favorites (so far) is its version of stuffed chicken wings, filled here with pork and lime leaves and served with vegetables, vermicelli noodles and fish sauce.

MAKfam
39 West First Avenue
Another pick from our current Top 50 Restaurants list, this vibrant Chinese spot in Baker was opened by chef Kenneth Wan and his wife, Doris Yuen, in Baker in 2023. The menu is full of hits, but one of the fan favorites is the mala wings, which are battered and fried to perfection and topped with mouth-numbing Sichuan peppercorns and scallions for a pop of freshness. You can also double down on the fried, mala-seasoned goodness with an order of its mozzarella sticks, which get a similar treatment.

Piper Inn
2251 South Parker Road
During the Piper Inn’s more than five decades in business, the wings at the family-run joint have become legendary. Currently owned by Jed Levin, the Piper is also a biker bar with a unique menu that mixes classic bar fare and Chinese dishes, including Cantonese options like egg foo young and chow mein. The wings are available in classic Buffalo, a garlic dry rub, a seasonal option, but we particularly love the Chinese style — fried in a wok and doused in a blend of oyster sauce and a secret Chinese spice mix.

The Pork.Let
12201 East Mississippi Avenue, Aurora
The Porklet, with its adorable porcupine logo, is so named because pork cutlets are the specialty, jacketed in an almost painfully crunchy breadcrumb shell and dripping juice with each bite. But you must not overlook the meaty wings that somehow manage to maintain their crunch beneath a sticky layer of sauce. Choose from options like sweet honey butter, creamy Buffalo, savory Garlic Bomb, or the messiest of them all, the Black & White BBQ. It’s okay to make a pig of yourself with fried chicken this good.