Lawsuit alleges Buffalo Wild Wings boneless bites are more ‘like a chicken nugget’ than a wing

(The AEGIS Alliance) – Buffalo Wild Wings is dealing with a Chicago-area man who has a bone to pick with the restaurant chain.

In January, Aimen Halim visited a Buffalo Wild Wings location in Mount Prospect and ordered boneless wings for his dinner. However, he was disappointed with the plate of food that was brought out to him from the kitchen. As a result, Halim filed a lawsuit in the Northern District of Illinois against the chain restaurant.

Halim claimed that he expected to receive boneless chicken wings made entirely from chicken wing meat, based on the name and description listed on the menu. However, this was not what he received.

“Unbeknownst to plaintiff and other consumers, the products are not wings at all, but instead, slices of chicken breast meat deep-fried like wings,” states the lawsuit. “Indeed, the products are more akin, in composition, to a chicken nugget rather than a chicken wing.”

According to the lawsuit, Halim stated that if he had known the boneless wings were not made entirely from chicken wing meat, he would have either opted against ordering them or would have been willing to pay less for them.

Both Buffalo Wild Wings and its parent company, Inspire Brands are defendants in the lawsuit that alleges they engaged in “false and deceptive marketing and advertising.”

The lawsuit notes that “This clear-cut case of false advertising should not be permitted, as consumers should be able to rely on the plain meaning of a product’s name and receive what they are promised.”

The suit continues and reads “This is particularly true in a case like this one, where consumers value actual wings, and where Defendant has no valid reason for misleading consumers, other than to promote a cheaper product along with its actual chicken wings.”

The attorneys also referred to other restaurants, such as Domino’s Pizza and Papa John’s, which have menu items called “boneless chicken“ and “chicken poppers,” respectively. However, unlike Buffalo Wild Wings, these restaurants do not use the word “wings” in the name of the product.

Buffalo Wild Wings responded to the lawsuit on Twitter in a witty manner on Monday.

In a humorous response, Buffalo Wild Wings tweeted, “It’s true. Our boneless wings are all white meat chicken. Our hamburgers contain no ham. Our buffalo wings are 0% buffalo.”

It’s true.
Our boneless wings are all white meat chicken.
Our hamburgers contain no ham.
Our buffalo wings are 0% buffalo.

— Buffalo Wild Wings (@BWWings) March 13, 2023

Jeffrey Childers – The AEGIS Alliance – This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.