Chicken Lovers — Restaurant in New York

Food 3 stars I love this place I been coming here for over 5 years. Honestly as much as it hurts me to admit as a fan of the establishment. The chicken is what’s holding all the weight of the business, seasoned well packed with flavor and the big portions are your bang for buck. The green sauce is an amazing flavorful sauce that compliments the chicken with its lime and hints of cilantro sweet salty and sour. The cucumber salad would be my next best option as well as the mac and cheese. The cucumber salad is sweet savory flavor packed with big chunks of cucumber while the mac and cheese is a thick bold hearty and cheesy both are a big portion sides excellent for the price.

Service 1 star Unfortunately being a very successful establishment in a very busy location with the great price they have in an expensive location it’s no surprise they are busy as they are. Wait is expected to be an average from 30 to 80 minutes despite ordering a single meal. Often times they don’t pick up a single call especially the weekends there most busy time of the week. You can see a line outside which would excite you in a way but also let you know it’s going to be a minute. Wouldn’t be surprised Starbucks picks up by clients from Chicken Lovers.

Atmosphere 1 star Well if you’re trying to eat here. It’s nothing fancy it’s no bring a date place often times during the weekend it’s not even an eat in place. Being the line reaches the parking lot the customer sit on the same table your eating in and often looking at you eat if there not on there phone. This might vary depending on the cold weather allowing the customers wait outside.

Conclusion / Recommendation 3 star Overall as mention as I mention for the portion and location it is a bang for your buck. The chicken is great the pinnacle of the establishment, and the sides are fairly priced being the flavor is 3 out of 5 but the portions are 5 for being on bell blvd an expensive location. It is excellent for a somewhat of cheap meal in a busy section of bayside however, what I recommend is to skip the busy lines and cost with this exact same style of chicken you can find in any typical Peruvian restaurant as well as the same exact green sauce for almost half the cost. This style of chicken and sauce is widely known in the Latin/Hispanic community something that it is sometimes disputed of its countries origins and can be commonly found in most restaurants in the Corona Jackson Heights area. Please do not let the time and atmosphere defer you from a great resturtant, if in town stop by and check them out! I would definitely recommend Chicken Lovers. Thanks for your time and...

Whenever I find myself in a deep spiral of self loathing, I've found that a good half chicken and two sides is my preferred antidote. The most recommended chicken spot (other than Malecon) has been Chicken Lovers in Bayside. Chicken Lovers has FANS, let me tell you.

I've resisted coming to Chicken Lovers for a bit now, for 2 reasons:

1. It's about a 90 minute commute door to door. I had to take the LIRR smh.
2. It's grilled chicken. I tend to prefer roasted/rotisserie, as grilled chicken is usually drier since it is cooked with high heat and direct contact with the heat source. This rapid cooking leads to muscle fibers to contract and expel moisture, leading to drier chicken.

Anyways, I had time on Saturday so decided to commit my blessed Saturday to making the pilgrimage to Chicken Lovers.

When I arrived, I had the best gut feeling. It had all the makings of a legendary chicken spot. It took up 1 of 4 units in a beat up strip mall, the sign is in desperate need of some TLC, when you enter you can see 4 employees carefully tending to the 30+ whole chickens that are on the grill, you can see them preparing the green sauce, etc. This is some real respect for the game, and you can't cheat the game.

I walked up and confidently ordered my half chicken and 2 sides ($14.70), and the guy at the front said "it's going to be about an hour wait is that okay?" I paused for about 3 seconds too long. An hour!?!?! I just came 90 minutes out here... but I said yeah that's fine and just cracked open a book. Trying to get my screen time down.

After about 35 minutes, my name was called. I was ready to see if this grilled chicken was really like that. Was it going to be tender? Would I have to rethink everything I know about chicken?

The answer is yes. Yes I do. This was some QUALITY bird. They really know what they're doing in here. A nice char on the skin, well seasoned, the meat was super tender, well seasoned, and damn near fell off the bone. Unquestionably first team all chicken. I don't know how it's still so tender when it's cooked on a grill.

You also get this HUGE pita bread that they cook quickly on the grill as well. Unreal. Rice and potatoes were doing their thing also. You're probably gonna chirp me for not getting mac and cheese, but I'm a simple guy. Sometimes I just want rice and potatoes.

$14.70 for all this food is actually an insane deal too. I think I got the lunch special pricing, but this is legit 2 meals for your normal sized human being.

THANK YOU CHICKEN LOVERS! YOU MADE ME A BELIEVER!

IG...

This place sells good chicken and ribs. It's popular. With a smattering of wings or burgers or chicken fingers, chicken and ribs are pretty much the only thing that they sell. It's not a place that cooks your food to order, mainly, as they're is someone manning the grill at all times and is constantly grilling chicken and ribs. What would you do if your last visits here was like mine? Of my last three visits here, the 1st I had to stay and wait around for 30 minutes for 1/4 chicken & 1/4 ribs around 4pm. Was told it would be a 20 mins wait. The 2nd of the last 3 visits, I had to wait 35 mins in the car outside as it was too hot to stay in there for an order of 1/4 chicken & 1/4 ribs around my lunch break. Was supposed to be a 20 mins wait again. The 3rd visit. Called and place my order. Again, 1/4 chicken & 1/4 ribs. Had to call 3 times to get answered at around 7 pm on a Monday. Waited 30 minutes around the block as it was pouring raining and no parking was available in front. Took forever to get back onto Northern Blvd. Wasn't able to pull into the parking lot. Almost got into a fight with someone to park the vehicle cause they wanted me out of their way. Got soaked in the rain. Waited in line 5 to 10 mins to reach the counter to speak to the one person manning the counter. They couldn't find my order. Was told it would be 10 more minutes wait. Fuhgeddaboudit!

Left, to never return again. Don't even think about going here for a lunch break. I don't think management cares too much about their customers' time. The employees needs to be setup with a better system. Again, they don't cook your food to order, pretty much everything is already prepared. Have you tried Texas Chicken and Burgers or the pork gyro sandwiches from Fontana Famous Pizza & Gyro? I can go on for a while listing...