Rowdy Rooster - Penn — Restaurant in New York

TLDR: Rowdy Rooster has landed outside of MSG/Penn. If you like Indian food and you like fried chicken - what's not to love. The Original Rooster is the chicken sandwich that put them on the map but the Box would be my "go to". If you like it hot, go for the Rowdy! Do not skip on the Masala Fries. If you get the box, they come with!

I saw the restaurant as it was being built and I was super stoked. The ceiling was so iconic that I actually guessed what it was before I had confirmed it.

The menu is simple but they got sandwiches, they got bowls and they got boxes. There's not a ton of stuff around Penn other than Sweetgreen, Naya, etc. For $12 you're getting 3 DELICIOUS pieces of fried chicken, a side of equally bomb masala fries and a sauce of your choice. That's a great value.

I'd say if you can handle some spice, go for the Rogue or Level 2. If you can handle spice, get the Rowdy or Level 3. I would put the spice level in between Shin Ramyun and Buldak Ramen, to give you an idea.

The chicken is brined super tender, the batter is so crispy and covered in spices. The sandwich comes with a piece dressed in sauces, pickled onions and on a butter pao. Personally, I'm here for the chicken so the box is the way to go.

I liked the fries almost as much as the chicken. Battered slices of potato, so much flavor and so much surface area to grab all of that sauce. I think RR will have a bright future here. If I were to make one comment, bring the OG heat...

This unassuming place, located smack dab in the middle of njt and the path train had some of the best fried chicken I've ever had. I went in on a whim and I'm so glad I did. The cashier asked if it was my 1st time, which it was, and proceeded to tell me about their best seller which happened to be the rowdy sandwich. On the counter there are samples for sizing purposes only to differentiate between the little and the big rowdy sandwich. I'm not going to lie, I was not impressed. I was starving, so I went with the big and a side of masala fries, because if there's one thing I'm gonna do, it's eat. Anywho I was sitting for about 3 minutes. I had enough time to sanitize, enjoy the beautiful wall collage and bop along to the beat of the melodic Indian tunes that was playing, before my food was bought to me. What a feast for my eyes. I ate every last bit, and enjoyed every last bite. I went with chicken thighs as opposed to breast for my sandwich, and they were crispy and juicy at the same time. The onions and the chutney, a flavor explosion. The spice level was perfect at medium, but I'm going full throttle next time. The little disc fries with the masala sauce. Yes please! The mustard sauce was good as well. So to make a long review even longer, go get you some Rowdy's. Experience some super elevated fried chicken....

Change your hours if you don’t want people to sit inside your establishment after some point, for the amount of money people spend to eat at least be clear about you need to clean and don’t want people sitting as the expectation when you go to a restaurant way before closing time is that they will be able to eat… or rename and say you are a to go place. Spending $20-25 a person is not a joke and hence you lose the excitement and experience.

Call your masala fries… pakora or at least put in parenthesis for goodness sake.

The four tables you are so concerned about cleaning .. this is how they look anyway. You can’t be so busy to not be able to whip throughout the day.

They only have one vegetarian option?? Vada bao was the best option and now it isn’t there. Paneer sandwich was good but smaller than my palm?? That’s supposed to be a meal??

Also what kind of nonsense if you have a combo for the big sandwich offer one for the vegetarian. Even the manager or owner whoever she was was starring at us while sitting there waiting for our food like we didn’t just spend to wait there for food: she also ordered food from somewhere else which I thought was hilarious and we should have just gone somewhere else else too. Definitely I would...