The Easy Otter — Restaurant in Salem

After having had Easy Otter when this was a food truck at Beehive, we figured we'd give it a try in the new location! My significant other was excited to have the beignets again, and see what their chicken sandwiches were all about - unfortunately, we were EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTED in this entire experience.

Firstly - Easy Otter has adapted the "half-service" experience for the moment. This is where they assist you to a table, provide glasses and water and menus and then when you're ready, you go up front to order. This is okay, except the servers weren't really too worried about taking orders or assisting folks as their backs were turned 80% of the time.

When we ordered, the two items we went to order, the "Canyonero" and "Hey Wha Happened" .. they were out of the pickles and had no cheese for the Canyonero. This is very strange for a new restaurant; in an ever competitive landscape, if you don't have the stock to support properly making a sandwich throughout the day then I recommend not putting it on the menu.

Our wait time for food was about fifteen minutes. Presentation wasn't bad but also wasn't the best we've seen, but upon starting to cut into food is where everything went downhill. For the "Canyonero", it was caked in BBQ sauce. While I am a fan of sauce, it was so overpowering that you couldn't taste the chicken tender itself to identify any seasonings for the actual chicken itself. The "Hey Wha Happened" was actually not awful and is the only item out of 5 menu items that we would actually decently recommend as a 3 star only. The garlic fries, while caked in a "garlic breading", were messy and didn't really taste overly garlicly as what you'd have expected out of them. The potato salad was AWFUL. The potatoes were undercooked, and the sauce - which was claimed to be a tarragon cream dressing had a strange aftertaste that didn't mesh whatsoever. The fact that this was a $3 upcharge onto a chicken sandwich is appalling for what this is offering.

Finally, we hoped to salvage our meal with the beignets that we've come to enjoy from Easy Otter in the past. We got all three for $8. The lemon literally had ZERO TASTE to the glaze. You could not identify that this was anything other than just a mid beignet. This applied to the berry white and the regular too.

The fact that we walked away from over a quarter of our food because it was unenjoyable or inedible leaves this is the Top 5 of worst places we've ever eaten, which is a damn shame because Easy Otter was a hell of a lot better when we last had them. Maybe this is the result of when trucks go to a restaurant, or a result of needing to work out early opening kinks? The fact that Easy Otter was doing beignet boxes and selling them at 10 classic beignets for $15 and is now asking $8 for 3 does speak volumes to the huge uptick in pricing, which exacerbates this review as if you're charging this much for food ($18 per sandwich, $8 for 3 beignets, etc) .. this is unacceptable quality control, period.

Sadly though we cannot recommend Easy Otter in any capacity at their current state. I don't truthfully think we'll be back even to try again, so go at your...

First, I wanted to start off by responding to the POC who was looking for other patrons responses regarding paying before getting the food. We visited for Disney days yesterday 5/31 and it was our first time in. We did pay as we ordered before the food came out, as did everyone else that I could see in line. I hope this helps!

To review - we got there slightly before 11am but they were a little late opening. No big deal. We were 3rd to order. It was our first time in. Cute establishment! However, when we got to the front to order there wasn’t a menu at the time with the Disney Day offerings or any prices. I wanted to try one of everything, but couldn’t remember all the snacks. I asked the person taking orders if I got everything and she said she thought so. I missed the Turkey leg(which I really probably wouldn’t have gotten anyway) but also the Dole whip! Dang it! But no biggie. We sat and waited for our food (to go) and they did eventually bring us water which was nice! We got our order and headed home. A Mickey pretzel, a Mickey waffle, beignets, churro, 2 chicken sandwich meals, a kids meal and the chicken strip meal.

Based on the regular menu items - food was good! We were missing the sauce that came with the chicken strips (honey mustard) and the kids meal but, we had ordered 4 ranches and received those. I didn’t love the ranch. It was more of a hidden valley bottle flavor, which I hate. Personal problem though. Portion sizes were great!

The Disney Day offerings though were mostly terrible. Being a huge Disney fan is what brought me in for the first time. I was so excited. Took a huge bite from my churro and instead of being rolled in Sugar, it was covered in salt. I had to run my tongue under running water it was so bad. It ruined my experience for my chicken sandwhich meal and everything I ate after. I did call to let them know so a kid didn’t end up with that. They asked us to bring it back, which we did and the chef apologized and said they weren’t quite ready to open. She did give us 2 churros to make up for the mistake.

The Mickey Pretzel was hard as a rock on the bottom and almost inedible. I picked what I could from the top.

The Mickey waffle was too dense. It was a bit hard for my 18month old to eat. Beignets were delightful though!

The regular menu items I’d totally give them another shot because everyone was happy with their meals. I want to support local, and I will continue to do so, but the Disney Day offerings need a few kinks worked out.

(Also my pictures were from after I drove home...

My hubby and I tried them for the first time today. We ordered take-out. The lady on the phone, who I believe was the owner, was very nice. My hubby picked up our order and said the place is really cute. I had asked for Ranch for all our fries. Luckily I’m so used to having our to-go orders wrong everywhere we go that I reminded my hubby to check the order before he left. Glad he did because they did not give us any ranch. There was also no sauce included for the chicken tenders. However, the guy at the counter happily got some for my husband without issue.

The first thing we noticed upon opening our boxes was the incredibly small portion of fries included with the sandwich. It was literally about the same amount of fries as the kid’s meal. After paying twice the amount for the adult meal, I would expect a larger portion of fries than my child.

My hubby and I both had the Hey Wha’ Happened? chicken sandwich (Formerly, the much easier to say, Hey Taylor). We both thought the chicken was moist and delicious but not really spicy. But I admittedly like very spicy food, so others may find it spicy. It was very flavorful though. We also both loved the coleslaw and wished we could get a side of just the coleslaw. As for the breaded pickles, which I was really looking forward to, they were hardly even noticeable except for the slight crunch. Maybe by themself they would be more flavorful, but I can’t say. The toasted ciabatta bread was okay but with no sauce, the sandwich felt dry. It really needed a sauce on it or to be grilled with the hot chili oil to give the bread some moisture. I noticed the other two chicken sandwiches both have sauces. I would love to try the Oo-De-Lolly but with the hot Nashville chicken.

All-in-all we thought they were good. We will definitely try them again. I just hope the chintzy portion of fries was a one time thing. If not, I’ll just save my money and get a kid’s meal. The fries are good though. They even tasted good after taking the order to go, which most fries don’t.

The chicken and coleslaw are really good. I love the Nashville hot chili oil too, even though it’s not that spicy (definitely not 5 alarm). So...