Our Best Chicken Wings Experience In Da Nang Vietnam
You may now know this about my girlfriend and I, but we’re crazy about chicken wings! We developed this love for hot wings back in Japan where we started finding some good spots for them. Then when we started traveling, we’d have these cravings and would always be on the lookout for the best hot wings in town. Now that we’re traveling around the world together as digital nomads, it just clicked that we wanted to continue our worldly search for the best chicken wing experiences everywhere we go and to share them in our travel blog.
We recently arrived in Da Nang Vietnam for our 2nd time. Last time being back in May 2019. At that time, we thought we found the best chicken wings at a Korean restaurant and that was the original reason why we wanted to come back to Da Nang. But unfortunately, we found out that they were permanently closed. And so, when we got to Da Nang we had to start our search all over again.
Top 15 Highlights Of TiLo
Before I even go in to tell you all about this special gem of a place, let me list out all the top highlights of TiLo:
1. Best Chicken Wings In Da Nang
By far, the best chicken wings we’ve had. More on that below obviously, this is what we want to talk about in depth here.
2. Best Hospitality At A Bar/Restaurant
We had an awesome time hanging out with Team TiLo who were making sure we were having a fun time with them there.
3. Best Crêpes In Da Nang
They’re actually best known for their crêpes since that’s how they started out. There are a bunch of other places that are known for crêpes in the area, but you’ll want to make sure you try these out!
4. Super Friendly Atmostphere
We made some really cool people just hanging out the few times we were there. Everyone is super friendly and open to hang out and chat.
5. The Staff Speaks English (and French)
Tring is Vietnamese from Ho Chi Minh City originally and Lolo (Laurent) is from Paris, but they both speak excellent English and French. Super chill people who are happy to communicate with you in your preferred language.
6. Good WiFi
Yes, I actually did work while drinking beers and having the best wings in town here. Music is not too loud so unless you need to take a call, you can easily come here to do some work.
7. Pool Table Anyone?
If you’re looking for a relaxing game of pool, this is one of the best chill places to do so. Many of the other billiard places in the area are quite intimidating as they look more like clubs for pros.
8. Great Location
It’s close to the expat area but just 100 meters away from the really crowded area, making this a must check out not-so hidden gem.
9. Open Until 2am
Down to party until the wee hours of the night? People are hanging out until 2am and since it’s close to everything, you can easily grab a safe Grab scooter ride back home.
10. Large TV Screen For Soccer Fans
It was the South East Asian cup when I was there and so it was fun watching Vietnam beat Thailand on the big screen when locals and expats were cheering them on.
11. Reasonable Price
At 80k Vietnamese duong (3.46 USD) for a plate of 5 of the best chicken wings in Da Nang, you really can’t go wrong here!
12. Cheap Beers
Local beers at 25k Vietnamese duong (1.08 USD) means you can keep ordering until closing time at 2am.
13. Clean Bathrooms
It can be difficult finding nice clean bathrooms at local bars and restaurants here in Da Nang. But rest assured that you won’t have to be grossed out every time you have to go pee after every 2 beers you drink.
14. Restaurant-Owning Family History
Lolo’s parents owned a Vietnamese restaurant back in Paris for 25 years. They were even awarded for their long-standing business and support for the local Vietnamese community at the city hall of Paris (Mairie de Paris). So you know that Team TiLo have a ton of know-how when it comes to working behind the kitchen.
15. Loveliest Couple Working As A Team
As you must have guessed it by now, Tring and Laurent (Lolo) started this business together and combined their first names to name their business TiLo. They are a super friendly cheerful couple that when they combine their efforts together, have created a unique experience here in Da Nang.
How We Found Out About TiLo
I arrived before Yukino and was craving for chicken wings so I simply searched for chicken wings on Google Maps. I found a few interesting places so I head out on a long walk checking each place out as I walked past them, but none of them were really what I was looking for… So I kept walking for about 40 minutes and came across the last one on my list that I was going to check out.
It was somewhat crowded with a bunch of foreign expats playing pool in this open space while music was playing. I went in to ask about the chicken wings and met Tring in the open kitchen where she takes orders. I ordered a small plate of spicy chicken wings which she said would take 20 minutes so I grabbed a Saigon Red beer and sat by the street.
Before I knew it, she was back with my wings. They were breaded and came with a spicy sauce on the side. And although I’m not the biggest fan of breaded chicken wings, these were super tasty. The flavor was flowing from within so you could tell that the chicken was in fact cooked in spices before being breaded.
After that order, I found that they also had pan-fried ones so I went back to the kitchen to order those. There was another cook back there and I asked them to make these spicier. That’s when I found out that the cook was French so we spoke in French and turned out that both Tring and Lolo spoke French. So we chatted a little more about how they made the wings and then I left them to focus on the cooking.
When those wings arrived, that’s when I knew I hit the jackpot! The spices were actually set in the meat and the spicy sauce was in fact spicier as promised. These were by far the best chicken wings I had in Da Nang! I knew that when Yukino would be arriving in a week’s time that we’d have to come back so she can taste them too.
But It Was Also The Best Hospitality We’ve Had In Da Nang
While I was having my wings, Tring dropped by to ask about the spiciness which I had to agree was a lot better than I expected. And after a while, Lolo came to join me and we talked about his cooking technique and then about how he started his kitchen with Tring. And then one beer led to another and we ended up spending the next 3 hours chatting over beers and wings.
When Yukino finally arrived a week later, as I promised Tring and Lolo, I took her to try the wings. She agreed that these chicken wings were by far the best she had in Da Nang as well! Not only that, the TiLo team came back to hang out with us over beers and wings. We were just hanging out but you can tell that they really wanted to make sure we were having an awesome experience, which we did. When you go, make sure you talk to them. And if you’re a foodie and want to talk about food, you’ll have endless conversations about cuisines and cooking.
When we asked them what else was most popular on the menu, they pointed us to their pizza. So we went for the Cheesa pizza which was a simple thin crust blue cheese pizza. But it had the best ingredients and the dough was fantastic. And as we were munching away at each slice, we were surprised to learn that Lolo actually makes the dough himself. After hindsight, it totally made sense. It tasted homemade and it was really light, which Lolo pointed out was because he used little to no yeast.
It happens that Lolo takes care of all the dough-based food like the pizzas, baguettes and their famous crepes, whereas Tring worked the frying and the pans. Even though they are more famous for their crepes, which is how they started out, the pizzas were in fact what Lolo was most proud of, and we could tell not just by the way he was talking about them, but also by the actual taste and crispiness of the thin crust.
Best Ingredients Make The Best Food
As we kept talking about the techniques they use for cooking, the question of ingredients obviously came about. How do you find good blue cheese in Vietnam? He spent months finding the best suppliers for his restaurant. He picks them out personally from different places. He makes friends with the local sellers so they always give him the best and freshest on the market.
And you know they know how to use their ingredients. I love it spicy so Tring made my chicken wings extra spicy and Yukino asked hers to be less spicy and Tring was happy to make a separate sauce for her. What that means is that they actually make all the food especially for you behind the scenes.
The Friends We Made There
We met a French sous-chef who works at 3-star French restaurant at a 5-star InterContinental hotel in Da Nang. He was chill and unpretentious and even recommended us the Apocalypse Now club to catch some Techno tunes nearby.
I also met a French business man who’s in the business of exporting bamboo based products in France to help with the environment. Apparently, French law will be banning plastic utensils soon so there’s a lot of business to be had and he sounded very excited about the business opportunity side of things but also how he’s doing his part in helping the environment.
And I had beers into the late night until closing time with Australian Hank who’s a 50-year old surfer dude. It was impressive to hear that he’s still surfing pretty much every day at his age! Such a cool surfer duuude.
Best Is Still To Come
When we met Tring and Lolo, we got to spend time with them at their OG location which was awesome but they told us about their plans to move to a newer better location soon! We can’t wait to see where they take their chicken wing adventure moving forward! They can be sure we’ll be back to support them!
Make sure to check them out when you make your way to Da Nang. You can learn more here: Google Maps to TiLo
And if you enjoyed this blog post, leave us a comment below. You can also find all our best chicken wings blog posts here: travelsalot.com/travel-blog/best-chicken-wings-around-the-world