THE BEST CHICKEN I HAVE EVER HAD. Not even exaggerating. My wife and I literally drove from SD to LA to try this place. I have had a lot of amazing chicken in SD, tried chicken from up north, tried chicken in other states,...
Read MoreTHE BEST CHICKEN I HAVE EVER HAD. Not even exaggerating. My wife and I literally drove from SD to LA to try this place. I have had a lot of amazing chicken in SD, tried chicken from up north, tried chicken in other states, and NOTHING still comes close to the excellence of Howlin' Ray's.
The location is in Chinatown, so be prepared to never find parking. Kind of a manhunt to find the place, apple maps kind of struggles with it but we obviously find it. If you want to beat the line you need to get there right at 11, or even sooner. We got there at 11:15 and there was already a huge line of at LEAST 30 people. And they make the chicken fresh and by order back there so the line does not move quick at all. If you're coming to this location plan accordingly, but it's all worth it. So we wait in line for probably about 35 minutes. We finally get up there and my wife orders first. She gets the tenders with some fries, and the dude taking her order gave her a free lemonade. ????? like I am gonna try that next. I get up there next and I order the chicken sandwhich and some fries. It's LA... it ain't cheap so the total is like 20 bucks. Then I got a lemonade. He didn't give it to me for free but whatever I wanted it so total is 24 bucks. Seating is also scarce. There is basically no where to sit which is my 1 and only complaint. There is 1 bench that sits like 10 people and if it's taken then good luck.
So we wait about 20 minutes for our food. Cracked open the lemonade and it was really good, just very sweet. The service so far has been really good. The dude cashing me out was super nice and struck some good small talk that turned into a nice convo. Mind you the whole time I'm thinking that driving all the way out here, paying for parking and waiting this long with no where to sit is worth it, cause the service won't save you if the food is trash. Food gets here. The packaging is beautiful. The way food is presented truly does matter. My wife's tenders look stunning and they were big. I take out my chicken sandwhich and damn near pass out with how amazing it looks. I taste the fries first, easily some of the best fries I have ever had. Then I take a bite of the chicken sandwhich and... damn bro. The best thing I have ever tasted. Best sandwhich, best chicken, best everything. The bread was soft but not too fluffy where it's just overbearing. The pickle to chicken ration was perfect. I HATE slaw by itself... and I can only kind of tolerate it on sandwhiches. This slaw not only went great with the sammy, this is the only slaw I would eat by itself. The texture is AWESOME. The chicken is flavored to perfection. The comeback sauce puts literally every other chicken sauce to shame. Easily the best sauce I have ever had. This entire establishment puts dave's and canes to shame. My wife loves her tenders, and I try a bite and they are so amazing. Literally not a single issue with the food or the drinks.
While we were eating our food one of the workers comes out with a whole plate of banana pudding and just asks, "Who wants some?" me dafuq???? I get a free banana pudding and it's bomb.
Overall, yes there was a wait and there was basically no seating but even with those two things this is easily still a 5 star establishment. Yes it is worth the hype. If you can go out of your way and try this place because it is literally undefeated.
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