Empire Donuts Cook Street Village — Restaurant in Victoria

I had such high hopes for this establishment, but I was sadly disappointed by my first experience. As a thorough (probably unheathily so) fried chicken fanboy, I wanted to believe all the other reviewers had got it wrong. However, after my experience tonight I have to join the not-so-silent majority.

I'm going to be brutally honest: this is currently my least favourite fried chicken in town. The worst part is that there's no one thing particularly wrong with it, but there's just something supremely unsatisfying and off with the recipe.

Batter: The best way to describe the batter flavour would be to compare it to someone trying to replicate southern fried chicken at home by using all the spices they happen to have lying around. It was an odd salty, lemony, smokey, cajun flavour, and while the batter was nice and crispy, it had that unfortunate quality of being a completely separate entity from the meat of the chicken. After taking your first bite, the skin comes away like you're peeling a ripe banana, meanwhile the meat clings stubbornly to the bone. It sounds nitpicky, but it was a weird way to have to eat all 4 drumsticks.

This brings me to my next point. No thighs? No breast? No rest of the bird? It was all drumsticks in my box, all the time. At first I thought I was happy about this, being a dark meat guy, but after 2 of 4 drummies, the above noted problem about skin and meat separation made it more of a chore to get through all 4 legs than a treat.

Next on the breakdown is gravy and fries. This part of the meal was a saving grace... mostly. The waffle fries were freshly fried and delicious, if not a bit on the over-salted side. The gravy, on the other hand, while having this nice thick consistency and delicious pot-pie-like flavour, was actually not salty enough. It was flavorful, but surprisingly bland, which sounds weird because it was.

Let me say, however, that when I got my food it was piping hot, fresh, and crunchy. It did, however take a lot longer than most other local fried chicken joints (25 minutes) considering that when I order from Chicken 649 around the same time of day the order is ready after no more than 15 minutes. This was punctuated by the fact there were only two others waiting for a couple of sandwiches, and there were 3 cooks in the kitchen talking up a storm. Not that they shouldn't talk - it just seemed to take longer than I would expect given how quiet it was.

Price: this is the real kicker, because if it was the best in town, I'd pay this price all day long. That being said, it was $14 plus tax for 4 drumsticks and side of fries, and $2.50 for the gravy. All in, with a small take-out tip it was almost $20, and after eating my way through it I felt like I should have saved myself the trouble and got the generously sized half order from either Chimac or Chicken 649.

It's really hard for me to say all this, because I love fried chicken more than most people, and I also love supporting local businesses. However, I can't say I'll be eating at Empire Fried Chicken again any time soon, and definitely won't be recommending it. Competition for Fried Chicken dollars in this town is tight, so I can only hope that the recipe and methodology Empire uses will be modified at some point for the better.

My dream? Well thanks for asking. I would love for Empire to go more for the amazing Louisiana crunch and flavour that Popeye's serves up. Sure, it's a chain, but it's got an amazing recipe that's not Korean fried or Kentucky fried chicken, and it's finger lickin' good....

Empire Donuts has been a favourite of my wife and I for years. We were lucky enough to work with Melanie for catering desserts for our wedding in May 2024!

Melanie can be a bit hard to get a hold of via email, but once we were able to talk on the phone everything was a breeze! She was very kind, considerate and helped us plan out the 9 dozen doughnuts plus one Texas doughnut we used as our Wedding Cake. While we picked a few things, Melanie was adaptive with our more vague requests and willing to craft some more deliciously "abnormal" doughnuts for us too!

They were a huge hit with the guests, from the lovely classic cinnamon to the orange creamsicle and the apple fritter in between, they were devoured with glee. Our chocolate raspberry Texas doughnut was perfect for my wife and I as our wedding cake substitute.

We were able to pickup the doughnuts fresh, the day of the wedding. They were packed up and taped up for us, allowing for safe transport to the venue near Sidney BC.

I know we were lucky to be one of the few weddings to order from them this year, but if you need some catering done and are looking for a change of desserts with doughnuts, you will be hard pressed to find anyone better than...

Has potential but fell flat on the delivery. I’ll start with the positives Great quinoa salad and fries, solid choices for sides. Great chicken sandwich my significant other never likes chicken sandwiches and she loved it, and I did too. The Louisiana style has a good kick and flavour. Now for the negatives Staff I dealt with was disingenuous and uninterested playing on there phone and being very short while I made my order. Prices wowie 40 bucks for two meals and a tip your pocket book will feel eating here. Quantity of food, now I will say the sandwich is a good size for price. but the Louisiana style meal was not only more expensive but contained less food than the sandwich, 16 dollars for two pieces and a slice of toast and one serving of fires, dang left me still hungry. To wrap it up. Overall I love to support local businesses and try new food, and the problems can be fixed pretty easily. But I don’t see myself going back unless those points can...