Mary Brown's Chicken & Taters — Restaurant in St. John's

I can safely state, given local guidance, that if you've been to Newfoundland and not tried at least once Mary Brown's Chicken and Taters, then you've not been too Newfoundland.

As I spoke with a friend, since we're both on the healthy eating side but enjoy a treat from time to time, she told me "this is the flavour of my childhood from Newfoundland" and I must oblige and agree that yes, having tried other fried chicken, specially the one from Kentucky, the flavour of Mary Brown's was something special, rich and full of underlaying spices, not as oily and greasy as the Kentucky brand, so the after taste was not unpleasant at all, the taters were so tasty, them cut them by hand from locally grown potatoes and fried them to crispy perfection. Coleslaw was delicious, the veggies were evidently very fresh and crisp, and the dressing was light and creamy.

One aspect that strongly called my attention, the cooking was carried out without any salt, which I found positively refreshing, a couple of salt sachets were provided in case we wanted some, that I must say on my end, they were not necessary, the flavours were clean and crisp, low in fat, that they had because, let's admit to it, fried chicken lol, but a very worthy treat.

Ok, here is where I'll say "if you visit Newfoundland and do not try Mary Brown's, then you've not been to...

Breaks my heart to have to light my beloved Mary Brown's up here, but ordered over $100 of food, waited 2.5 hours for delivery (with young kids waiting to be fed), showed up soggy and cold, called back (politely) to let them know we were not pleased with the quality, and was offered us a free order of chicken fingers as compensation (not much, definitely didn't help our situation, but we did appreciate the gesture all same). Then we called to actually redeem our complimentary order and they wouldn't honour it as they said we only had 30 days to use it, something that was not ever once mentioned until then. This has nothing to do with free food and everything to do with integrity and customer service. Seems extremely disingenuous and petty to not honor the deal they made as compensation for their poor quality and service. Avoid...

Decent chicken, but long, long wait.

I'm staying in town on business and decided to order delivery to my hotel. Was told 30-45 minutes for delivery.... no problem and acceptable. After an hour, still no food so I called back. "Sorry sir, there was a catering order ahead of you to be delivered. We are giving you a 10 piece instead of the 8 piece you ordered. And your order is heading out the door now". Another hour later, it finally arrived. In fact, I was reaching for my phone to call the second time to cancel the order and just go out when they knocked on the door. Sorry, but over $40 CAD for a 2-hour wait for fried chicken is not worth it. Hope the do better if you walk in.

Nothing wrong with the food (4 star). It was hot and pretty tasty. It's the unacceptable delivery time that...