The Filling Station – Spiciest Dish In Columbus Series

We’d been to The Filling Station before and had some Hot Balls, but we’d never tried the wings. Redditor HeadieVedder recommended The Filling Station’s 911 wings and we’re all about suggestions, so we decided to give it a try.

The Filling Station Bar & Grill is pretty easy to drive past if you’re not careful. Located in Powell, the bar is tucked away in a strip mall on Smoky Row Road with Pixel Palace, two pizzerias and another pub. For this particular excursion we ordered takeout as the lady of the farm had opted to eat food we had in the house (so responsible), so I put in an order for 10 of the 911 Original Wings (bone-in) and an order of the Hot Balls.

Wandering in, there’s a fun energy inside The Filling Station. The Women’s World Cup was on and the entire place seemed to be interested in a non-USWNT game. There are a ton of TVs and we could see this being a great game day spot for OSU or NFL games. With 911 wings and Hot Balls in tow, we hopped back in the car. The lady of the farm, within the confined space of the car, starting commenting about the smell emanating from the box. “Ughhhhh,” she whined, “these smell evil. I don’t know what the sauce is made of, but they just smell evil.”

Scary box of spicy goodness.

When opening the box, there’s a strong whiff of vinegar, with a stronger whiff of heat. There are definitely some real peppers in here and after checking on what’s in the sauce, the 911 sauce leverages dry spices, whole habaneros and ghost peppers. I was still fairly skeptical about the heat of these wings, mainly because we’d not heard of them until a week or so ago. Just to be safe, I went with the full breadth of dipping sauces, bleu cheese, ranch and chipotle ranch.

Our rule on dipping sauces: to get the full spicy effect, eat roughly half the wings first and then go to town on the sauces the rest of the way.

Now an up close picture of the wings. Thankfully the camera didn’t melt when I got this close.

See, even the dipping sauces are sweating from the heat.

Oh my. Do you see those seeds? Looking closer, I started to get nervous, but we’re here to find the spiciest dish in Columbus, so no time for being scared. The flavor on these is fiery and anything but low-key. As with most wing sauces, the vinegar stands out, but it’s not overpowering which lets the flavor of the peppers pop a bit. Visually, the peppers shine in this sauce and you can see chunks throughout, which means it’s not hyper-blended (our preference).  The sauce is thick and the further into the box of 10 I got, the more loaded with sauce they became. It’s a wet sauce and the wings are a good size and a good cook, even after a short drive home.

Halfway through the first wing, the heat started to set in. What had I done?! My nose started to drip. My brain told me to stop, but I couldn’t. I soldiered on and made it through all ten of the wings. Five tissues later, my lips and mouth were still on fire. We’re unsure about how many habaneros or ghosts they put in this sauce, but the ratio of pepper to everything else has to be high. My forehead was sweaty, my mouth was sweaty, everywhere on my face was sweaty (minus the eyes). This is without a doubt one of the spiciest things I’ve eaten in Columbus.

“Heh, heh, heh. Puny mortal.”

I looked into the box where the wings had been and all that was left was a sinister sauce that chortled at me (I may or may not have been hallucinating from the spiciness). I tossed the remaining Hot Balls into the leftover sauce and took a few minutes to think about life. No crying from me on this wing sauce, but I think it was enough to bump The Filling Station to number one on our spiciest dish in Columbus list. That’s right. The Filling Station takes over as the top spot for spiciest dish in Columbus, OH. We will be revisiting the Atlas Tavern wings at some point to see if they can reclaim the lead, but for now a big congratulations is in order for the fine folks at The Filling Station and their house made 911 sauce.

If you’re looking for a spicy challenges, we hear The Filling Station Bar & Grill is working on a 911 Wing Challenge! Not sure on details at the moment, but a source let us know that full details along with a date will be coming out within the next week.

Fried cheese is at the top of our food pyramid.

Now that we’ve gotten through the main reason you were probably reading this, let’s talk about these Hot Balls! This was the first thing that got me hooked on The Filling Station in the first place. It’s cubes of pepper jack cheese, deep fried. What more do you really need to know, they’re awesome! This time around we got some of the Chipotle Ranch on the side and were pretty happy with the smoky flavor it added. Really though, we could dip these in anything and be just as happy. If you get them in-house between 5 and 7pm Mon-Fri, you get them half off which is pretty dope. Also, if you’ve gotten the 911 wings, save half the balls for later and you can toss them in the sauce to make Hotter Balls.

Other menu items include Wild Fries, steak fries topped with cheddar and mozzarella cheeses, diced bacon and jalapeños, Smothered French Breads, Pizzas and half pound burgers.

Look below for more in our spiciest dish in Columbus series and hit us up if you have any suggestions that are not already on our list!

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Side note: the day after for these was a bit rough, so make sure you don’t eat them before an important event like meetings, weddings, etc.

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