Buffalo Wild Wings’ Pick 6 Meal for Two

It’s easy to see why Buffalo Wild Wings is the “official sports bar of March Madness.” Walking into a BWW is like entering a NASA command center but instead of broadcasting a space launch, the wall-to-wall TVs are playing sports.

During March Madness, BWW has been running TV and social media ads for its Pick 6 Meal for Two promotion in which the restaurant says you can get two entrees, two sides and two drinks for just $19.99.

Unfortunately, your ability to take advantage of this deal for the low advertised price of $19.99 may be just as fanciful as the bewinged buffalo in B-Dubs’ ads.

That’s because the majority of the Pick 6 Meal entrees – 8 out of 12 – are only available at an additional cost, TINA.org found when ordering online from a BWW location in Connecticut. This includes two entrees featured in ads promoting the deal – the 10 bone-in wings (see commercial above) and the triple-bacon cheeseburger – each of which cost an extra $5.

BWW acknowledges in the fine print that “[i]tems depicted may not be a part of the base pricing tier.”

But why feature the items at all if they aren’t actually part of the offer, much less advertise a price ($19.99) that doesn’t apply to the majority of the entrees that are part of the advertised deal? And while on-screen text includes the qualifier “from” $19.99, other references to the price by BWW’s talking buffalo Hank state that the deal is “for” $19.99.

The fine print also reveals that “[p]ricing may vary by region” and that prices may be higher in six states including California and New York, which collectively had more than a dozen teams qualify for the men’s and women’s college basketball tournaments.

In fact, we found that BWW locations in these six states didn’t have any Pick 6 Meal entree options that started at $19.99. Instead, they all started at $24.99.

BWW did not respond to a request for comment.

The bottom line

Don’t let the promise of a great deal prevent you from reading the fine print. And if you’re planning to eat at a restaurant and want to know how much it will cost, consider checking the prices online before going in person.

Find more of our coverage on fine print.