Champy's Famous Fried Chicken — Restaurant in Alabaster

It's a shame Champy's is located where it is in because given another more visible, trafficked location its business would probably just explode. It'd been forever since I'd been back to Champy's, first after thinking my wife and I were trying a local place and stopping there while visiting Chattanooga, and then next after discovering it in Alabaster shortly following that TN trip. We thought the food was great in both locations at that time, and I guess the only reason we never really got back there is due to my not being the recurring fried chicken eater. But we finally made it into Champy's again recently after such a long time, and I'm happy to say that the food is just as delicious as I remember. The chicken itself is cooked-to-order so there's a bit of a delay between ordering and chowing down, but it's not unreasonable and is totally worth it. Once the wait's done, good ol' yardbird comes out piping hot and as crispy as the doctored fried chicken fast food chain commercials show on TV. :) Fantastic flavor, hearty pieces, and excellent sides (baked beans and mashed potatoes - boom) are the name of the game at that point, and good luck if you can handle any dessert afterwards.

Looking around, other reviews of the place seem to give the impression that the experience here (food and service) can be inconsistent, and that could be true. (I can't speak on that since I've only been a handful of times within the span of a year or more.) I will say though that the wife and I walked in on a Tuesday night and, even though there was only a single other table there at the time and the restaurant gave the impression of a lazy night, our server (Jodi I think) worked just as quickly and attentively as if the whole place was packed. We had absolutely no complaints walking out the door after dinner, and will definitely be back sooner this time as a result.

As with any restaurant, YMMV when giving it a first or follow-up visit, but as far as my own experiences are concerned, Champy's is a great dining option for southern fried chicken lovers, and beats the pants off of the fast food chain...

My husband went out to get something for us to eat, so he said I’m gonna try this restaurant Champy and see what’s it’s like , so he went in and order a 8 piece chicken carry out meal and when he got home he open the bag and there was another big brown paper bag in it, so he opened up it and there was the chicken dump in the brown paper bag upon top of some light bread, bag so greasy bread hard from the hot chicken on it, so I told my husband I know they don’t expect us to eat this like this, it unsanitary, everyone knows brown paper bags attract roaches…I refused to eat it…So I called them and I asked them was this the way they do carry out, upon getting smart with me on the phone, the employee let speak to the manager, which once again telling me , she gonna tell you the same thing I’m saying…so after waiting for the manager to come on, she finally came to the phone and first thing I did was to tell her how her employee spoke to me with a nasty attitude, then I began to ask the the same thing I asked before was this the way you serve food dumped in a paper bag…and I was told anything under an 8 piece family meal goes in a box and everything 8 piece and over goes in a brown paper bag dumped upon some light bread and so I said to her don’t you think that’s unsanitary and my answer to that was it’s a new bag…really?…Why couldn’t she have put 4 pieces in one box and 4 pieces in another….We paid $38 for this mess!!!…which I think they should have gave our money back… I rate them a great big “0”. I’m only giving them a 1 star because it won’t let me post without...

I ordered online for lunch pickup. When I arrived, I couldn't go through the drive-thru because the lane was blocked by vendor trucks. When I went inside, I finally made it over to the bar to pay for & pick up my food. I say "finally" because I thought at one point my feet were going to get stuck to the floor with all the sticky softdrink syrup that had been left to dry on its own over the last week or so! When I got to the bar, there was a young girl behind that asked what I needed. I told her I was here to pick up my food. She then said the manager had to ring me up because she didn't have cash register keys but the manager was "in her office". She then disappeared into the back for what I assumed would be to alert the manager I needed to be rung up. It took the manager 10 minutes to finally come out of her office to ring up my food so I could go back to work meanwhile 2 other young female employees came from out of nowhere had made their way over to the bar and sat at the bar as if they were customers. The whole vibe was just weird, and not one person I encountered had a single bit of customer service skills (including the manager). I have no idea how this restaurant has stayed open as long as it has in Alabaster, but I assume it's being kept afloat by the revenue from its other chain restaurants in other states. This is not the first bad experience I've had here, but I finally decided to post about it. The only reason I gave 2 stars instead of 1 is because the food wasn't horrible, but it's hard to mess up...