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  • Harry Kersh: From calorie count to portion sizes,

  • we wanted to find out all the differences

  • between Wingstop in the UK and the US.

  • This is "Food Wars."

  • In the UK, we can get wing portions in four sizes.

  • Eight wings,

  • 10 wings,

  • 12 wings,

  • or a Flavour Craver wing platter,

  • which comes with 24 wings and three dips.

  • US Wingstop, you can get your wings

  • in 10,

  • 15,

  • ooh,

  • 20,

  • [grunts]

  • 30!

  • Hang on. And...

  • 30.

  • Not enough, you say? I agree.

  • Wingstop also does wings in orders of...

  • 50,

  • [laughing] 75,

  • and, of course,

  • 100 chicken wings.

  • I'm in heaven right now.

  • Bury me in these wings.

  • I'm going in.

  • Eh, I could do better, but we gotta move on.

  • Sean Evans, I'm coming for you, buddy.

  • So, the portion sizes might be pretty different,

  • but what about the wings themselves?

  • We're gonna weigh 10 plain wings in the UK

  • and do the same in the US

  • to see how they match up.

  • So, 10 plain wings in the UK came to 290 grams,

  • which is an average of 29 grams per wing.

  • Joe: Oh, way higher, dude.

  • 360 grams.

  • I needed my calculator app to determine

  • what 360 divided by 10 is.

  • And it is, in fact, 36 grams.

  • - Wow! - So our average

  • is 36 grams per wing here in the US.

  • What about chicken tenders?

  • Well, in the UK, those come in two portion sizes:

  • as a portion of three

  • or as a portion of five.

  • At a Wingstop in the US, you can get your chicken tenders

  • in orders of four, seven,

  • 15, 20, and 30.

  • Yes!

  • I don't know what maniac is at a Wingstop

  • and gets chicken tenders instead of wings.

  • I mean, I get it if you're taking your, like,

  • 10-year-old there.

  • Let's weigh five chicken tenders here in the US.

  • So, five plain tenders in the UK weighs 230 grams.

  • 200 and what?

  • Way over 300 on this one.

  • We're over 300,

  • and they try to pass this off as a tender.

  • Bigger chunks of meat over here in the US.

  • Bigger tender chunks of meat.

  • What about a side of fries?

  • Well, in the UK, these come in two sizes.

  • Regular

  • and large.

  • And in the US, our Wingstop fries

  • also come in two sizes.

  • Regular

  • and large.

  • How do those look?

  • Harry: We're gonna weigh them both to see what they come to.

  • [laughing]

  • That's not a good look for fries.

  • How do I get this back in?

  • Yep, also a brick.

  • Also a brick.

  • Harry: And the large portion came to 255 grams.

  • Our regular is bigger than your large, UK.

  • OK.

  • Oh, lost a fry.

  • 400 grams.

  • Fountain drinks in the UK come in one size.

  • It's 22 ounces.

  • But, unfortunately, we weren't able to get one today.

  • Wingstop in the US, you can get

  • your fountain drinks in two sizes,

  • 20 ounce

  • and

  • 32 ounce.

  • The Wingstop we went to

  • did not have any 32-ounce cups.

  • Dips in the UK only come in one size,

  • and it's regular.

  • We're gonna weigh a cup of ranch

  • to see how much we get.

  • Dips in the US come in two sizes,

  • regular and this absurd tub.

  • Look at this.

  • First we're gonna weigh this,

  • the regular size.

  • Now the big boy.

  • I couldn't even guess how much this container weighs.

  • Before I do this?

  • Closer to 300.

  • This is heavy.

  • This is like a half a bottle of ranch.

  • [laughing]

  • Bro!

  • It is 440.

  • 440 grams of ranch.

  • So, fun fact about me,

  • I've never actually had ranch before.

  • This is not a common dressing in the UK.

  • It's just not really on menus.

  • We prefer, like, a garlic mayonnaise or a ketchup.

  • So I'm about to try my first-ever ranch.

  • See how it goes.

  • [chicken crunching]

  • Hmm. OK. OK.

  • I don't know if Wingstop ranch differs to

  • the classic ranch you might find in the States,

  • but it's nice.

  • If you want, like, a kind of cooling thing

  • with a similar effect to mayo in that regard,

  • but, like, a little bit more tang, bit more seasoning.

  • Yeah, you guys are doing it well.

  • The biggest thing on the menu in the UK is this,

  • the Flavour Craver wing platter.

  • You get 24 wings, three dips, and no other sides.

  • All for a price of 22.50 pounds.

  • Biggest single menu item at the Wingstop in the US

  • is this, the 100-wing party pack.

  • OK, obviously you start with 100 wings.

  • You can get up to six different flavors.

  • I just got the same one.

  • Four orders of large fries.

  • Four orders of veggie sticks.

  • And eight dips.

  • This is supposed to feed 13 people.

  • Or, like, you and three of your friends.

  • You can get boneless or bone-in wings.

  • If you go boneless it's $94.39,

  • and if you go all bone-in wings it's $104.19.

  • I gotta say, I'm generally a drums guy over a flats guy.

  • I think it's just the shape is great.

  • It's just like a meat lollipop.

  • And also it feels like you get more meat

  • on there than you do on a flat.

  • No, Harry, no.

  • Drums are not good.

  • Flats are way better.

  • You can pull out both bones.

  • You get all the meat off of it.

  • For the drum, it's way harder to get the meat off.

  • Don't be deceived by that shape. It's less meat.

  • Flats.

  • Flats!

  • I have a flat head.

  • [funky music]

  • Here is everything you will only find

  • on the menu at a UK Wingstop.

  • And here are all the exclusive items

  • you can get at a US Wingstop.

  • We'll start with the chicken.

  • There's actually one flavor of wing

  • that we can get that you guys can't,

  • which is this one,

  • it's Brazilian citrus pepper.

  • I'm gonna try the Brazilian citrus pepper

  • using my patented wing-eating technique.

  • Get one of the bones out.

  • And then a little meat lollipop.

  • Mm.

  • Nice little freshness from the citrus,

  • kick from the pepper.

  • Not bad.

  • So, for exclusive wing flavors,

  • you can get these two,

  • the Bayou BBQ and the lemon hot.

  • We can also get any Wingstop flavor on the side.

  • I don't know if you can get that in the UK.

  • Another thing you can do at the US Wingstop

  • is you can customize your fries

  • or you can get regular or extra seasoning.

  • So I got an extra seasoning of a seasoning

  • you guys don't have in the UK,

  • which is the garlic Parmesan.

  • Look at the seasoning on this.

  • I mean, they just dusted this thing, right?

  • You know exactly what I'm gonna do.

  • Yeah, yeah!

  • These are Louisiana Voodoo fries.

  • They are topped with a cheese sauce,

  • ranch, and Cajun seasoning.

  • Our exclusive fry option is this.

  • Sweet potato fries.

  • These come in sizes of regular or large,

  • and you can also get them in the same seasonings

  • as the regular fries.

  • In my opinion, you guys aren't

  • missing out on much with these.

  • I just always think that sweet potato fries

  • are worse than regular fries.

  • They always cost more, they always come out soggy.

  • It's just not worth it.

  • Just stay with the regular.

  • Outside of meat and potato,

  • you can also get Cajun fried corn.

  • Am I saying that right?

  • It's fried?

  • You can also get freshly baked rolls.

  • Bread, baby. Bread.

  • We also have one other exclusive side, which is this.

  • It's a honey mustard slaw.

  • We can also get booze from our Wingstops.

  • This comes in the form of two types of beer.

  • And usually we would be able to get two types of wine,

  • however, due to a reduced menu,

  • currently they are not serving them.

  • The three drink options you can get in the US are,

  • oddly enough, sweetened and unsweetened tea.

  • I don't know why we have tea and the UK does not.

  • And also you can get this

  • 52-fluid-ounce Simply Lemonade.

  • And finally, in the UK,

  • you can finish off your meal with some churros.

  • These come in portions of either six or 10.

  • You have two crumb options,

  • including Oreo or Lotus Biscoff.

  • And then you can choose from one of two sauces,

  • either a sweet milk

  • or some dulce de leche caramel.

  • Mm.

  • Delicious.

  • What about desserts?

  • Here's one you can get in the US

  • and not in the UK at a Wingstop,

  • the triple chocolate chunk brownie.

  • Did I say that in the right order?

  • Producer: Uh-huh. Joe: Fantastic.

  • I'm now gonna do something really stupid,

  • which is attempt to eat the hottest wing

  • on the Wingstop menu,

  • which is the Atomic wing.

  • These come with gloves,

  • just to avoid getting it on your skin

  • and then getting it in your eyes.

  • I'm not good with spice, one thing to note.

  • Ah, man.

  • I don't really want to do this,

  • but, hey, for the content.

  • Cheers.

  • Yep, it's immediate.

  • Oh, man.

  • Deep breaths, Harry, deep breaths.

  • If Harry's doing it, I'm doing it too.

  • This is the hottest?

  • I'm not a tough guy with the heat.

  • This is not that hot.

  • Yeah.

  • It's not that hot.

  • Yeah, I'm starting to feel it.

  • Ugh.

  • Now my tongue's kind of starting to hurt.

  • What's what they do on the, on "Hot Ones," when --

  • [coughs]

  • [dramatic music]

  • Ugh, yeah.

  • Unfortunately, Wingstop doesn't disclose

  • any of its nutritional information in the UK.

  • They do disclose the nutritional information

  • in the US, however.

  • And there are some pretty interesting takeaways.

  • OK, let's start with this.

  • The classic meal for one, an eight-piece combo.

  • I got four hot wings, four lemon pepper,

  • regular fry, dip, regular Coke.

  • This meal contains a total of 1,595 calories,

  • along with a lot of your daily fat and sodium allowance.

  • Interestingly, if you get the same meal

  • but boneless wings instead,

  • the calories go up to 1,711,

  • roughly a 7% increase.

  • Even more interestingly, the sodium in the meal

  • rockets up to 5,258 milligrams,

  • which is 228% of your daily allowance.

  • So it looks like boneless wings

  • are way saltier than bone-in wings,

  • but they do contain slightly less fat.

  • What's the most calorific wing at Wingstop in the US?

  • That would be the boneless garlic Parmesan wing,

  • which clocks in at 112 calories for just one.

  • The saltiest wing on the menu

  • is the boneless original hot wing.

  • Now, it's less calorific than the garlic Parmesan,

  • but just five of these

  • is your entire daily sodium allowance.

  • The tenders at Wingstop are, as you might expect,

  • more calorific than the wings.

  • The most calorific flavor in the US?

  • Garlic Parmesan.

  • Where have I heard that before?

  • That's not the saltiest tender.

  • That crown goes to the Cajun spice tender,

  • with 775 milligrams of sodium.

  • Just three of these is your entire daily allowance.

  • I didn't come here to not eat chicken tenders.

  • Mm.

  • [peppy music]

  • What about the dips?

  • Well, the least healthy dip on the menu is this.

  • It's honey mustard.

  • Just a regular portion of this in the US

  • contains 367 calories, 33 grams of fat,

  • 5 grams of saturated fat,

  • 682 milligrams of sodium,

  • and a slightly alarming 17 grams of sugar.

  • As for the rest of the menu,

  • you really wanna watch out for the fries.

  • The most calorific single menu item

  • on a Wingstop menu is a large portion

  • of the Louisiana Voodoo fries.

  • This serving alone, 910 calories,

  • which is almost half of your daily allowance.

  • If you're looking to cut down on the sodium,

  • you might want to avoid the Buffalo ranch fries.

  • They're slightly less calorific

  • than the Louisiana Voodoo fries;

  • however, they contain 2,880 milligrams of sodium.

  • That's 125% of your entire daily allowance.

  • In summary, Wingstop,

  • maybe not the healthiest fast-food chain.

  • If you're looking to cut back on your sodium,

  • definitely skip the boneless wings

  • and maybe stick to regular fries,

  • and not the ones with these gross toppings.

  • Now, sadly, along with the nutrition,

  • Wingstop UK also doesn't disclose its ingredients.

  • Wingstop also does not disclose its ingredients in the US.

  • [crickets chirping]

  • So, what do we know about what goes into the chicken?

  • Well, for starters, in the UK,

  • the chicken is not organic and not free-range.

  • All the chicken they use in the UK is also halal,

  • which means it's suitable for Muslim people to eat.

  • Now, it is unclear if the US chickens

  • are free-range or organic.

  • All Wingstops say that they expect their chicken supplier

  • to conform with USDA, FDA,

  • state, and local regulations.

  • However, they do not specify a grading.

  • So for all we know it could be grade C chicken,

  • which can be misshapen, poorly fleshed,

  • and, Jesus,

  • and with no limit on the size, number of areas,

  • or intensity of discolorations and flesh bruises.

  • Wow, I wish I knew that a few minutes ago.

  • In better news, the fact that

  • they refer to their tenders as "tenders"

  • legally means that they have to at least

  • be made of whole cuts of chicken breast

  • and might be actual chicken tenderloins,

  • which are in the inner pectoral muscles

  • of the chicken breast.

  • And that's pretty much all we can glean

  • from the information that's publicly available.

  • Why are you so sneaky, Wingstop?

  • Is it because you know we'll eat it regardless?

  • Correct.

  • Ooh, I f---ed up.

  • I should've waited before I went into that second wing.

  • [laughs]

  • [exhales]

Harry Kersh: From calorie count to portion sizes,

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