Howlin' Jay's — Restaurant in Queensland

This review is mostly directed at Americans who have experienced proper fried chicken. In summary, this place is more KFC with sauce than a Raising Canes, Zaxby’s, Bojangles, etc. This restaurant feels like a cheap counterfeit friend chicken spot... like a Polex watch. It looks a lot like a Rolex, but it definitely doesn’t function like one.

As a former regular at Raising Canes who was missing home, I thought Howlin’ Jay’s would provide a somewhat authentic fried chicken experience. Unforunately the American livery on the walls does not carry through to the kitchen.

The food Howlin’ Jay’s is what you would get if you described what fried chicken was to someone who had only ever eaten KFC and then asked them try to make it. It’s close, but is lacking in almost every measure. Good fried chicken, especially tenders, shouldn’t need to come doused in sauce. Bread for chicken burger is too sticky/gummy/chewy and is far too sweet. Chicken burger also used vinegar based coleslaw instead of a mayo based, which is simply wrong. This restaurant is much closer to KFC with sauce than a proper American fried chicken restaurant.

Canned Coke Zero was expired, and menu had a number of discontinued items. Menus are printed on paper, so it’s strange they haven’t updated them. Printer must be broken.

It’s not terrible, just don’t let the US theming trick you into thinking this is an American style fried...

Something has happened here in the past few months which has made this place go down hill fast in terms of friendliness & management. A month ago I was having a drink with dinner & almost cut my mouth on the broken glass. I told & showed the girl serving our table who took my glass without any kind of sorry at all & was very rude about it like I was the inconvenience for them serving drinks in broken glasses.

Tonight my partners unfinished drink was taken from the table without us realising for a sec (we were mid eating when they did), and again they were annoyed at us for their own mistake. We’d asked for mild chicken, however on the 2nd piece it was super spicy & was inedible, so very kindly let them know there may have been a mistake in the kitchen & it was actually so heavily spiced. The reaction was rude & cold. I even reassured the girl it wasn’t in her control.

I’m now over spending money at this place for rude service and staff who clearly hate working here, which comes down to Management. We treat the staff how we’d treat our own staff & customers (I am a business owner), then receive nothing but rudeness back.

There was another really strange incident happen at the counter involving some staff dram. Management need to be doing better if all of their staff hate working there. The...

We arrived & ordered our meals at 8pm, 1hr later as we watched the restaurant empty we approached the bar staff how long our meals would take, only to be informed they didn't have an order for our number. We told them what we'd ordered and instead or fixing/cooking our order up they spent the next 15mins chasing where our order went. At this point the manager appeared very angry at the situation slaming his hand in the bar. They quizzed us again on what time we ordered roughly and what exactly we ordered to cross check on the computer. The bar staff (who were lovely) spoke with their manager and came back to us with "our manager just down the end of the bar said 'our policy' is we can only offer you a free drink we can't offer you a refund as well as cook you your meal" (two of our party were driving and therefore couldn't drink) I asked to speak directly with the manager who offered no apology to the fact this entire mistake was that of their own, only to be told again it was a free drink or nothing. The meal came out 20mins later and was nothing special, just standard chicken and chips. The way in which the manager handled the situation was very poor, no apology and asking his bar staff to pass on 'his' message was inappropriate. Very disappointed with our service...