The Chicken Shack Keizer — Restaurant in Keizer

This was our first and last trip to The Chicken shack. We had just gotten back into town, and wanted to try out a new place. I went inside to place the order and pay. I ordered 6 wings, 6 fingers, fried pickles, large garlic fries, and baked beans. I had wanted coleslaw but they were out. I was so excited to try some of the MANY sauce options, that I bought two extra. One extra sauce with my main order, and I bought a second one while I waited. After about 12 minutes, my food was ready. Everything seemed fine up to that point. Friendly service, and they seemed to be taking the necessary Pandemic precautions.

Once I got home and began plating the food, that's when I noticed that we were missing something. I quickly noticed that the sauce I MOST wanted to try, the garlic parmesan sauce, was missing. I immediately called them up to let them know they forgot my sauce and to see if I could come back and pick that up because it was 7:56pm and they closed at 8. When I arrived to pick up the extra sauce, they first handed me some kind of parmesan cheese crumble. I noticed and flagged her down that I asked for the SAUCE, not the "rub" that they handed me. She took the rub and went back to the kitchen where they deliberated what happened, and what to give me. After a couple minutes, she returned with the correct item and I was able to head back home. I was pretty disappointed that I didn't really get an acknowledgement of fault or an apology for making me drive back to the restaurant to fix their mistake. I'm a business owner and I'm well aware that if I am the CAUSE of an issue of inconvenience, then it's on me to not only correct the mistake, but also to compensate the customer for wasting their time dealing with it. I got none of that from anyone there.

Once I returned home, I was finally able to get everything on plates and start dividing up the sauces. It was at this moment that I noticed they also forgot the SECOND extra sauce I had ordered while I was waiting for my main order. At this point I was frustrated and upset because they had all that time, AND a second interaction with me where they could have made it right and give me ALL the items that I paid for, but they failed twice. VERY disappointing from the perspective of a customer AND of an owner. After finally getting everything served up, we started eating, and that's when I encountered the "third strike" of this transaction.

In all that time I had to waste fixing their mistakes, our food got cold. I started by eating a few garlic fries. The flavor was pretty good, but the texture was oily and squishy because the fat had cooled down and congealed. The chicken fingers breading and flavor were good, but the breast tenders themselves were very tough, dry, and honestly had the taste and texture of a previously frozen/thawed piece of meat. The chicken wings were crunchy, and had good flavor. The baked beans were sweet and mildly smokey, with a little onion kick. The sauces I got were Cajun, honey garlic, medium buffalo, Bleu cheese, and garlic parmesan. Everything but the honey garlic were great. The honey garlic didn't have notable garlic element, it just tasted like BBQ sauce with a slight essence of garlic. I took issue with the Medium because it had a sweetness to it that was overpowering and completely altered the character of the sauce, and I even had to mix in some Frank's just so it would taste like a buffalo sauce. The last, and most disappointing part of this meal was the fried pickles. I can't sugar coat, they were just disgusting. The breading was pretty neutral and flavorless, but it was slightly bitter for some reason. The pickles themselves seriously tasted like the "self serve" bulk pickles you'd find at a 7-11, or Walmart bulk pickle chips 🤢. They were thin, overly salty, limp, and bitter. Not enjoyable in the least. At first I was also disappointed with the overall portion because we only got like 12 fried pickles chips for $6, but we ended up throwing away half because they were THAT bad so lose-lose-lose for us. $34 mostly a waste....

Because the place is local and I wanted to love it I have to leave a review.

Tenders: Decent crunch, very good sized, batter had crunch but wish it would of had more stick to the actual chicken as it fell off some pieces(minor really), and the texture was decent. The only thing missing really was flavor, and I’ll get into this with the wings but they just need flavor. You are left with the aftertaste of fryer oil which is unfortunate because the chicken itself deserves recognition.

Fries: Good texture, decent crunch and enjoyed the batter but WAY TOO SALTY. I say again, WAY TOO SALTY. If they are unwilling to change this my advice is to either order no salt and salt to taste or light salt. Also throw some pepper in there, the shoestring fries love pepper.

Wings: Look these need to be the star here at a chicken shop. Sadly they fell short. The actual chicken is legit good. The size, texture, quality, all on point. I even enjoyed the batter, though it could be a little less fair fried like and more flour based but still good. But man, the flavor did not exist. Look, the wing should be the star without sauce, and be even better with sauce. These wings needed sauce to taste anything other than salty fryer oil. I hate to write this because they have major potential but for people coming here expecting to be wow’d I don’t want them to be let down.

If you read this review owners, kick those wings up with some spice PLEASE. The actual chicken you guys use is good quality but your seasoning is dead. Whatever you gotta do please do it because it’ll drive so much more business.

As it stands we’ll probably never eat here again unless they flavor up the chicken.

Less salt, more flavor. Do this and the chicken will fly...

Fantastic food, helpful employees, and great atmosphere. Much better than the restaurant that used to be there. Dining room was renovated, everything was clean and fresh. Employees promptly cleaning tables as soon as they were emptied. The volume of business surprised me since they've only been open six days. But some customers told the staff that they drove an hour to get there because they had a friend who told them how great it was. I had chicken for dinner the night before, and wasn't very hungry so I bought their basic burger meal (Watch out Nancy's - you've got some competition!). It had such great flavor, with fresh picturesque toppings (not kidding, see my photo!) that I wish I had ordered a double! The fries were so slender and perfectly cooked; they reminded me of high end curly fries. The chicken is served with your choice of sauces & rubs (see photo) and can be on the side, or the chicken can be tossed in it. Many people were ordering chili fries or garlic fries. I also noticed that the spicier sauces were being ordered more. Overall it was a great value. My meal cost the same as a burger, fries and drinks at Nancy's, or a Whopper meal at Burger King; but with so much more flavor. The portions are large and everyone was loving what they ordered. I spent an hour there (enjoying my meal to the last bite!) and the influx of customers never stopped. At the same time it never felt crowded since so many were doing takeout orders. I definitely give it the...