Howlin' Ray's Hot Chicken - Chinatown — Restaurant in Los Angeles

If you weren't hungry at the start of the line, you're sure to get hungry by the time you reach the end of it. A grueling long wait for fried chicken that is surely to be too spicy for me to tolerate? Definitely not something I would sign up for. But it is an LA institution. I'll admit it. Curiosity got the better of me.

Even if you get there early in the morning, chances are you will still be faced with a long line. I have heard that is the case, even on weekdays. A friend of mine went on a Tuesday afternoon around 4PM and waited about an hour or so, so perhaps that is the sweet spot. If you plan well in advance, you can place a pre-order. Some parties definitely came prepared as they brought bottles of bourbon and whiskey while they ate their chicken.

Firstly, their chicken are put to sleep before they are slaughtered, so as to make it more tender. I must say this is effective. Their chicken is tender and juicy, and that is hard to do with fried chicken breast, which dries out pretty fast.

Secondly, here's the deal with the spiciness:

Country: no heat Mild: a little cayenne Medium: Mild + a little ghost pepper Hot: Medium+ habanero X-Hot: Hot + scorpion Howlin': X-Hot + Carolina reaper When you order the Howlin' chicken, they provide you gloves to protect your hands. They'll also state a disclaimer: there's a 2-day recovery period. The chicken is served with white bread, to balance out the heat, I suppose.

We had the $9 Quarter Bird - leg & thigh (Medium), $9 three wings (1 Hot, 1 X-Hot, 1 Howlin'), As for me, mild was just fine. There is a stark contrast between mild and medium. Beyond that, they are all too spicy for me, so much so that I can barely tell the difference between the three. I took the slightest nibble of howlin' and that was already too hot for me. A friend of mine from Thailand ate an entire Howlin' wing and didn't even flinch. I'm amazed. My other friends noted that the spiciness was just one-note; super hot with a lot of smokiness, but not a lot of complexity in the spiciness.

$12 The Sando - boneless breast, slaw, comeback sauce, pickles, butter bun: This is a winner for me. As I mentioned, chicken breast is often dry, so that makes me less inclined to order fried chicken. This is such a good chicken sandwich. Not only is the chicken breast juicy, but the sauce provides a delicious tanginess. The pickles and cole slaw add some crunch and sweetness, and are acidic enough to cut through the heaviness. The bun is also nicely toasted, which is great. I always say half the appeal of a sandwich comes from how good the bread is.

$4 Shake Fries w/ Comeback Sauce: The sauce is good, but I don't care for crinkle cut fries. I'll take them or leave them. Mr. Joy loves all fried potato products, hence why we ordered these.

$5 Solo Waffle (weekends only): We only ordered this, because we waited hours on a weekend. Being that waffles are only available on weekends, there was no way we could not order it. The waffle definitely surpassed my expectations. It is substantial, thick, and most importantly, it is crunchy. No soggy waffle here.

I definitely enjoy the Sando, but I don't think I could ever wait that long for a sandwich again. Also, I know there must be a lot of people out there who are curious to try Howlin' Ray's, but it does bum me out that most of us cannot handle such spicy food, and thus, a lot of chicken probably just ends up in the trash. Plus, they use quite a bit of packaging to keep the different wings separate.

It seems to me Howlin' may very well have the ability to expand their operations, but they may prefer catering to long lines to see proof of how popular they are. It would be nice if they did expand and streamlined their operations, they wouldn't have to deal with such a heinous line, nor would people lose half the day every time they have a Howlin' Ray's craving. On the other hand, it definitely looks like their workers enjoy interacting with...

THE BEST CHICKEN I HAVE EVER HAD. Not even exaggerating. My wife and I literally drove from SD to LA to try this place. I have had a lot of amazing chicken in SD, tried chicken from up north, tried chicken in other states, and NOTHING still comes close to the excellence of Howlin' Ray's.

The location is in Chinatown, so be prepared to never find parking. Kind of a manhunt to find the place, apple maps kind of struggles with it but we obviously find it. If you want to beat the line you need to get there right at 11, or even sooner. We got there at 11:15 and there was already a huge line of at LEAST 30 people. And they make the chicken fresh and by order back there so the line does not move quick at all. If you're coming to this location plan accordingly, but it's all worth it. So we wait in line for probably about 35 minutes. We finally get up there and my wife orders first. She gets the tenders with some fries, and the dude taking her order gave her a free lemonade. ????? like I am gonna try that next. I get up there next and I order the chicken sandwhich and some fries. It's LA... it ain't cheap so the total is like 20 bucks. Then I got a lemonade. He didn't give it to me for free but whatever I wanted it so total is 24 bucks. Seating is also scarce. There is basically no where to sit which is my 1 and only complaint. There is 1 bench that sits like 10 people and if it's taken then good luck.

So we wait about 20 minutes for our food. Cracked open the lemonade and it was really good, just very sweet. The service so far has been really good. The dude cashing me out was super nice and struck some good small talk that turned into a nice convo. Mind you the whole time I'm thinking that driving all the way out here, paying for parking and waiting this long with no where to sit is worth it, cause the service won't save you if the food is trash. Food gets here. The packaging is beautiful. The way food is presented truly does matter. My wife's tenders look stunning and they were big. I take out my chicken sandwhich and damn near pass out with how amazing it looks. I taste the fries first, easily some of the best fries I have ever had. Then I take a bite of the chicken sandwhich and... damn bro. The best thing I have ever tasted. Best sandwhich, best chicken, best everything. The bread was soft but not too fluffy where it's just overbearing. The pickle to chicken ration was perfect. I HATE slaw by itself... and I can only kind of tolerate it on sandwhiches. This slaw not only went great with the sammy, this is the only slaw I would eat by itself. The texture is AWESOME. The chicken is flavored to perfection. The comeback sauce puts literally every other chicken sauce to shame. Easily the best sauce I have ever had. This entire establishment puts dave's and canes to shame. My wife loves her tenders, and I try a bite and they are so amazing. Literally not a single issue with the food or the drinks.

While we were eating our food one of the workers comes out with a whole plate of banana pudding and just asks, "Who wants some?" me dafuq???? I get a free banana pudding and it's bomb.

Overall, yes there was a wait and there was basically no seating but even with those two things this is easily still a 5 star establishment. Yes it is worth the hype. If you can go out of your way and try this place because it is...

TLDR: Yes, the wait is long cause of the hype. Yes, it's damn well worth the wait (maybe not at over two hours though!).

There's flat rate parking lots around the area and they also validate for underground parking for up to two hours I believe!

I love this little place so damn much, I wrote a 700 word essay on why I love hot chicken. What makes this different from any other fried chicken joint? The chicken here was brought slaughtered in their sleep, making the meat more tender in conjunction with the brining. The essence of Nashville Hot Chicken is that the seasoning and spices are flash fried in oil from the fryer (similar to how Chinese hot oil is made) to "bloom" the flavours, and the chicken is then tossed in that seasoned oil. On top of that, they throw in more dashes of seasoning to your desired level of heat. Then it is served almost immediately to ensure you get the best flavour, one of the reasons why they don't do deliveries! You don't get this type of quality control anywhere.

I always recommend to first timers to get the Sando, medium heat. I had the mild my first time and it was absolutely fantastic, but the medium was not much more spicy at all and had much more flavour packed in. From there on, the heat levels take on large jumps from ghost peppers to Carolina reapers. The coleslaw in the Sando is not a typical scoop of heavy handed mayo filled cabbage. The acidity rounds out the sandwich so nicely and tames higher heats with the pickles. It's a steep price for a chicken sandwich, but you get a fat slab of boneless breast that's fried so well it's like biting into an incredibly tender steak with a well developed crust. The comeback sauce absolutely crushes any "special" sauce I've ever had before from any restaurant chain. This is a flavour bomb and I hate being that guy, but this really will ruin other chicken sandwiches for you.

Mario style fries are also a must have! The normal fries are already incredibly seasoned, but Mario style fries (an off menu item) are essentially a Sando blown apart all over fries with cheese. Think animal style fries, but with coleslaw and hot chicken.

I can't sing enough praise about this place, and it's hard to avoid the typical buzzwords such as crispy on the outside and juicy/tender "even for a breast" inside, but this really is the epitome of fried...