Pretty Bird Hot Chicken, Downtown — Restaurant in Salt Lake City

Please Read* I was invited by my brother and nephew to go to Pretty Birds for a "pick me up" lunch because I have been going through some pretty hard life stuff lately. When I arrived, they had already ordered and let me know this sandwich was just the trick to get me out of the funk I had been in. They know I am a total foodie and great food places always help me feel better. The sandwich was so beautiful it was like a work of art and tasted equally delicious. Seriously one of the best chicken sandwiches I have ever eaten. Up to that point things were good and the personal things I was dealing with started to melt away with every fantastic bite. About halfway through eating a man was walking across the parking lot and my nephew said "That is the owner" (Billy Yang), I thought that was pretty cool and kept eating. After the meal, I put my things in the trash receptacle which was right next to the table we ate on and the three of us continued to talk. As we did so I noticed the owner (Billy Yang) looking through the window at us with disgust (my perception) It struck me as odd and thought, no.....It must be in my head. As we went to leave I turned back to take one more look in the window at the owner and right as I did he stormed out of the restaurant with anger in his eyes. He said something like "There is a garbage can right there" The tone in his voice was so angry, disrespectful, and passive aggressive that it completely caught me off guard. He picked up the tray and forcefully shoved it in the trash (That was overflowing), slammed the tray down on top of the trash, then picked up the rest of the trays on the top of the trash and started to go back to the door of the restaurant. As he did, I said.... I already threw my things in the trash because I felt I owed him an explanation (I didn't). My brother and nephew were about 6 feet away at the time and asked "What was that all about" before I answered I turned to look at him through the window again. Same look of disgust and anger were directed at me so I turned and said "nothing, lets just go". Anyway, that is where I decided I will likely NEVER return to this place. This is sad because anyone who knows me knows I am a total foodie. When people want a unique place to eat they always call me because they know I know all the good places. Its kind of my job anyway LOL (Director of Marketing) so I take friends and clients out all the time. I still decided to give a full 5 stars because Billy Yang was clearly having a bad day. You weren't the only one having a bad day Billy but sorry if leaving a tray on the table made it worse. The rest of the staff were amazing and so...

Every location gets my order wrong.

I don't like pickles. I always request that pickles be excluded. Not just because I don't enjoy them in isolation, but because I recognize that they seep their brine into everything they are served with such that even if you don't particularly care for an arbitrary vegetable seeped in brine, but anything and everything even momentarily exposed to that exposed to the brine itself. I would think that the fact that they have that option suggests that they recognize that "just picking them off" does not completely eliminate the effect that dumping brine onto something placed next to fried chicken has on its taste. Sadly, the employees are not fully informed of this. I have ordered from this location and others that my chicken never come in contact with brine before it is served to me and have had my desires completely ignored. To me, this is tantamount to expressing that I would prefer that fecal matter not be exposed to my meal before it is served to me and had that request ignored. This location and others of this brand have greeted that request with that exact taint included in the box I presumably ordered. In addition, I have ordered an additional tender and been equally spared from the lack of unpalatable brined vegetable and also the far less unpalatable additional tender with no explanation at all.

TL;DR: If you order from here, remotely or in person, open the box before you leave. Make sure you got exactly what you ordered. I don't think there is malice so much as carelessness in whom they would hire to fry their chicken and present it in the original intent. I feel that nearly all the locations are likely very far from that original intent.

Upshot of all that is that regardless of what you ordered, before you leave, open the box and make sure it's right. If it isn't get...

Pretty disappointed with this store. I LOVE their chicken. Not a lie it’s the best chicken I’ve ever had. I used to go multiple times a week. Even though there’s no delivery which was a bummer I would get myself there. The food is very expensive for fast food but the taste makes up for it.

I always got the tenders combo.

I don’t know exactly when it was but from one day to the next they made their tenders much smaller, increased their prices, and left out the slice of bread. For food that is already much more expensive than competitors, to cut the portion nearly in half and raise prices and remove the bread slice all at the same time as raising the price is really disappointing.

They also commonly leave out a sauce which I pay extra for!

Also something annoying is they put a default tip in when you order which I feel is already bizarre for places with dine in but no waiters. But this place doesn’t even have a dine in option. They want me to tip just for the making of the food? I like the tip option for when I feel generous but to charge almost $20 for a fast food tenders combo, now with half the food and put a default tip in with no service besides providing the food just feels like a money grab.

Don’t go here. If you must have pretty bird chicken which I still must have, go to the sugar house location, they still have the big tenders and they offer dine in. I am partly writing this review in hopes that the sugar house location sees the negative response to what downtown has done and doesn’t make their tenders small too. That would be so sad for me. They also got rid of the bread slice and raised prices but at least the main event is still perfection.

This location has lost my business :( which is sad because I liked it so much and the workers are all so nice...