The Citizen

Earlier this year, I wrote up a list of my favorite wings in Jersey City. And while I still stand by those recommendations, the new wing menu at The Citizen has them all beat.

With the help of Chef Flo from Eemas Cuisine,The Citizen recently relaunched their menu, offering a variety of wings, burgers, and fries, creating an updated classic bar menu with imaginative flavor combinations.

While everything on the new menu sounds great, I was particularly interested in trying out the wings on my first visit. There are seven varieties of wings on offer and the only ones I didn't get to try were the True Buffalo (their version of the original) and the Tangy Curry, an Indian-spiced mustard curry version, but I'm already looking forward to going back for them - and the carne asada fries with grilled steak and guacamole.

Of the ones I did try, the Halal Cart style (which also come as fries!) and the Sweet Sambal were my favorites, but they were all excellent. The Hot Maple Bacon were fun and made perfectly with enough salt and heat from the combination of the bacon and cayenne to balance out the maple. The Huli-Huli wings were good, but compared to the rest of them, more restrained in flavor. I'd have loved to have seen both the sriracha and the pineapple be more concentrated. Particularly noteworthy were the Jersey Blueberry BBQ which were coated in a tomato based blueberry barbecue sauce that was tangy, sweet, and a little smoky leaving you with just a mild blueberry flavor for a unique but incredibly delicious barbecue sauce.

It was the use of that sauce along with a lemony white sauce and some kind of mild herb flavor that made the Halal Cart style my favorites. The combination of the bright citrus, cooling yogurt, and sweet smoky blueberry was fantastic and far beyond what I typically think of wings as being. The Sweet Sambal, my other favorite, was moderately spicy in a way that built quickly and was gone within seconds, creating a brief, lightly fiery bite with the honey and lime kicking in after. 

We also tried their version of the Canadian staple poutine which while obviously not quite the same, was very good. It wasn't a huge portion which was ideal considering the number of wings and simply because of the inherent richness of the dish, but they definitely didn't skimp on the gravy or the cheese curds.

All in All
The Citizen is offering great, fun, delicious bar food and it should definitely be in your rotation of bar staples. It's not table service, you order and pick-up from a window which we really liked considering the set-up of the place and it definitely encouraged the relaxed hang-out feel. The price point is pretty low - 6 wings for $8, burgers in the $10-$13 range, and fries in the $3-$8 range. It's definitely worth a visit on Tuesdays when wings are 50 cents each.

As a note, FastBoy Delivery is currently running a special for The Citizen where they're offering no delivery charge through tomorrow, 8/4.