bb.q Chicken Lowell — Restaurant in Lowell

I unfortunately can not recommend this place. To summarize the following- some stuff was cold, there was a musty funk over all the fried stuff that might be bad oil, and the food appeared raw even though it was cooked.

more detail- -I was not impressed with the flavors of the different chicken that my friend and I ordered. They did have minor differences in flavor but there was a musty undertone to everything, including the fries. I think it was something to do with the oil, but it permeated and overpowered the sauces that were on the different types of boneless wings. Some of our cheese sticks were also still frozen in the middle. The attached image is of my sandwich with the golden original chicken. It's mostly just chicken and bread, and does come with slaw that may have been intended to put on it. It ends up being very dry, but not overly bad. I didn't finish, however, due to the coloration of the chicken and the musty taste. Despite how it may look, it is cooked. I had to do some research on what was going on. It's known as Pinking. The USDA did a study on it back in 2003 (Red Discoloration of Fully Cooked Chicken Products by D. P. Smith1 and J. K. Northcutt) and it notes that in some cases fully cooked chicken can appear red. The predominant factor in the discoloration is how the bird was handled (ill spare the details on that here if your hungry for chicken), how it was slaughtered, how it was preserved, and ultimately cooked. A bunch of factors go into it, but it's not very common to see. They quote it as about 11.2% of products on the market would be bad enough to display as if they were raw, and generate customer complaints. It is the first time I have ever seen it. From what I can tell from other reviews, this is a common occurrence here. Much more common than it should be. As long as the chicken is getting to 165 internal temp it's all good, but like I'm not going to chance it. This could also be displaying pinking if it were cooked sous vide at first, but then fried after for the outer crunch. The previous restaurant that was here used to cook sous vide burgers, and most of the interior furnishings are the same so its not out of the question that the equipment is still there. It may ultimately be the supplier of chicken that is to blame, but the restaurant should change how it prepares or stores food to prevent customer complaints. It is only going to hurt their business in the long run. I've already seen three other restaurants come and go at this location. Ill come back to try...

Hello, local guide here. This place has been advertised to open for quite awhile and they have finally did a soft launch on January 16, 2022. Keep the date in mind.

So far, I have eaten here for the past 3 days, trying different items. Chicken, ddoek-bokki, kimchi fried rice, sides, etc. The food is delicious and I can't really say anything bad about it- so full marks and very good portion sizes. Price can be pretty hefty but I'd say it is worth for the once in a while rewarding or starving occasion(s). // Honest review of the chicken: The flour used for the chicken gives off the smell and or taste of what you find in a carnival. I.e. similarities with Fried Dough. This mainly applies to the ones including "Golden". // The Ddoek-bokki is better than some places that I've tried- and off-course better than instant-packaging ones. Kimchi fried rice taste similar to the mixture for bibimbap and surprisingly no-overwhelming amounts of sesame oil (this stuff can make me get tired of eating said foods if not measure right, so this is a positive!) // Sides are sides- Fries of a handful of sorts but I would HIGHLY recommend getting picked radish. It's tasty and also a palate cleansing type of food! Ate something spicy or heavy? Bloated? Pickled radish will help ease that!

Now, lets' go over why I am (for now) rating this place at a 4/5 stars. I feel that bb.q chicken did not do enough research on the location they selected. They DID make the right choice to station here in Downtown Lowell but this area is a hotspot for school kids and people from all around. I have heard stories from friends and associates: lack of supplies, overwhelming customers, miscommunication, slow in-person/online service (of which I experienced some myself). There were even times during the time of my 3 day span of testing this place out, when I tried to order ahead, they closed their online orders (Grubhub, UberEats, DoorDash, etc), leaving me impatient and hungry. HOWEVER, I am not telling you that this place this "bad" or "terrible". I am just saying this place is inexperienced and still catching up to the pace of the downtown area, especially since it is the school year, Lowell High kids will start swarming to get some food in downtown after classes. I would give this place a 4.5 stars if I could, but for now this is the rating. Good luck on finding places to park if you are getting...

Good food!! It came rlly quick. But most likely not my top restaurant. They had a good amount of people (who ordered ahead of time) waiting for their food for about 30 min. It was awkward to eat in, and there was only one waiter, which she stopped us and demanded tip after the bill was paid.

UPDATE; I went to bbq recently with a family member and one of the employees immediately asked us to pay as soon as we placed our order and even asked for tip. The tip wasn’t an issue as the plan was to tip 10 dollars in cash at the end as we were paying separately and i was paying in card. once we ordered i payed my part which was about 23 dollars and my family member payed in cash and gave the employee 40 dollars, but she never returned back with the change(mind you the change was about 5 dollars or more.) so there we get suspicious but we move past it. time goes and we get our food and the employee starts to walk around and eye us. we immediately felt uncomfortable and wanted to leave. after we finished i checked my account (as i payed through my cash app card, which i transferred the set amount to pay for the meal) and i see that i was charged 3 dollars more than my actual meal, which left me in the negatives. so not only did the employee steal from my family member but from me. this place has so much potential but workers like them ruin it. this place really needs to train their staff and their customer...