Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken — Restaurant in Austin

7/28/21 UPDATE!!!! I held high standards for this place because my past experiences have been pretty wonderful. However today was beyond disappointment and I couldn’t bring myself to just leave things left unsaid. We came in for lunch and expected things to be normal as usual. We started with fried pickles and were notified that they ran out of pickles…wrong direction already. We passed on appetizers and ordered our entrees, food came out and we were excited to dig in. My Roy time usually is to break my chicken down before making a chicken sandwich with the bread they provide. To my amazement the chicken was undercooked, pink, and had a slight pink runny juice from the blood of the raw chicken. No big deal, cooks make mistakes all the time it’s an easy fix. The waiter made no hassle, he took a look at the food, agreed it was undercooked and took it back to the cooks and brought me out a new piece. Again, no biggie….we’ll waiter came back to question if the meat was cold to the touch or hot… I stated I believed it was pretty hot, and behold, he told me the cook “wanted to let me know first hand that dark meat chicken will generally come out slightly pink, doesn’t mean it’s undercooked.” WHAAATTTT?! What kind of condescending message was that?! I told him it’s absolutely not cooked, in all my life of having chicken especially dark meat chicken have I EVER had to come across pink bloody meat to the bone because “that’s what dark meat does”. SMH to top it off my second piece of leg came out the exact same way, undercooked!!! By then my wife was so anxious she went ahead and checked hers, and what do you know… UNDERCOOKED! Keep in mind I’ve ate here plenty of times and never had an issue until today. After that comment from the cook I’m just in awe and it’s definitely not in my agenda to ever come back again. Check your food...

As a Memphis native, Gus’s was a childhood rite of passage crispy, spicy, sweet tea in hand, and a side of Southern hospitality that hit just as hard as the chicken. So when I called in a to-go order at the Austin location, I was expecting that same soul. What I got felt more like Gus’s… gentrified.

We phoned in the order to save time smart, right? When we got there around 1:45pm, the place was nearly empty. So we figured, hey, let’s sit and eat instead of balancing chicken boxes on our laps in the car. Big mistake.

The guy at the counter had the warmth of an unplugged heat lamp. Gave us that “lemme get this over with” tone, like our presence was messing up his peace. No welcome, no real eye contact just vibes that said, “Hurry up and leave.”

We asked for a sweet tea refill (God forbid), and homie looked at us like we asked for his Netflix password. Then he circles back, asking where we sat, only to hit us with, “We’ll let it slide this time, but in the future, to-go means to-go.”

Slide what? The attitude? The policy? The lack of logic? I tipped on the to-go order, we ate at an empty table, and now I’m being treated like I broke into the restaurant and helped myself?

Look the chicken’s still got heat, but if the service feels like TSA with an apron, I’m good. I’ll hold on to my Memphis memories and let this Austin spot do its little power trip...

Didn't get photos cause I wanted to enjoy the food. But.... here's my take. Let's start with the good. Fried green tomatoes we're on point. Reminded me of my grandma's back home in San Antonio. The fried chicken breast was juicy and the flavor was giving 😂💗 honestly haven't had fried chicken like that in a while. The tenders were also juicy and had a lot of flavor. They said it had a hint of spicy seasoning but that was just flavoring that made it taste to so good. Not to mention it wasn't greasy for being fried .... now that's a hard thing to do. The sides on the other hand were just as good. The slaw was bland no flavor. The potato salad besides being slightly on the sweet side which I didn't mind was also lacking in any seasoning. The baked beans I was disappointed with. Reminded me of canned beans, just sweet and not really any other seasons or flavor. The seasoned fries were good ... my husband said they were actually pretty dang good!!! He's a fry snob lol other than that I'd go back only for the chicken and fried green tomatoes. Our server was 10/10 had to make sure and that in. Last thing the mac n cheese looked good I didn't get to try it. Saw the table next to us order it. Wasn't baked but a creamy Mac n...