I had been wanting to try this place since it opened this past summer but there were always such crazy long lines, but finally now that it's been about 3 months, the lines have died down and I figured it was worth a try. Along with Jenn Y., I'm a big fan of fried chicken and there aren't a ton of places to get really good juicy crispy friend chicken but it's definitely starting to become more of a trend these days. Blue Ribbon was always famous for its fried chicken at their regular spots, so it seems like they finally took all the glowing customer feedback and created a place focused around their famous chicken.
I should caveat that the place isn't really a restaurant, but you order at the counter, they give you a number and you pick it up and seat yourself. But they do have beer and wine, so you can make kind it out to be similar to a sit down meal experience. The menu is full of exactly what you think: fried chicken dinner combos, individual fried chicken pieces, chicken burgers, chicken wings, and sides of fries, cole slaw, etc. The weird thing was that they did not have any chicken nuggets/tenders/strips on the menu. Even though they are for kids most of the time, I do like a good solid set of chicken nuggets from time to time. Jenn, Krush and I started the night with a set of 10 wings (BBQ and hot) for $13.50. They were pretty flavorful, although I thought there may have been a bit too much batter on the outside and I wished I tasted more of the actual chicken. The hot version isn't very hot at all, so if you're looking for spicy wings, then I would recommend getting the fire version. After our snack of wings, we went back for the main attraction. We ended up splitting various pieces of chicken from the breast, thigh and drumstick and the dinner plates come with a side of fries already and then we ordered a separate order of griddled corn and bacon ($8). The skin of the fried chicken isn't the kind of golden brown you find at a Popeye's or even at The Cardinal. It looked and tasted like it had some curry powder or some kind of brown spice to it. While the actual meat was juicy, there was something about the extra "dry rub" on the skin that I just wasn't a huge fan of. It wasn't bad or un-flavorful, but I guess I am still used the the basic fried golden skin with not much else on it. The skin didn't have that extra crunchy outside that I love most about fried chicken. I did enjoy the corn side, which seemed less griddled and more like sauteed with LOTS of butter in it. The fries were also your solid skinny salty variety and at this point, I was just ingesting so much fried food that I just didn't even care anymore what I was eating.
I liked the fact that you can order a bunch of individual pieces of chicken in addition to the dinner plates, to make your own plate but for some reason the fact that they didn't have tenders/strips really annoyed me for some reason - sometimes you just want a good old fashion set of chicken nuggets. While I would come back here if I was in the 'hood and hungry, I do think places like The Cardinal, Bob White's Lunch Counter, and even the fried chicken at The Commodore bar have slightly better chicken because of the crispiness of the skin. Total bill with 2 rounds of beers: $33/pp
Photo Credit: Yelp
No comments:
Post a Comment