Pelicana Chicken — Restaurant in San Antonio

I really kind of had high hopes for this place. When I saw it in one of the pages. But what an extreme disappointment. I understand this was a soft opening and I hope it gets better. I guess first starting with the service. Inexperienced no knowledge of the food for recommendations. I was with a group of three. I ordered the Boneless half order with a honey soy sauce. I got their cheese fries. 2nd person ordered a half and half boneless with a spicy sweet something I don't know the sauce. And the 3rd, ordered wings. Smoky spicy I will look for it and correct it later on but it was very terrible flavor. As for the boneless chicken let me warn you now they use every piece of the chicken. Even the chicken backs. Absolutely disgusting when you bite into a piece of chicken and it's nothing but fat and just sinks through your mouth. The 2nd who ordered the half and half, we complained three times that the sauce was absolutely horrible, the waitress didn't even offer to take it away and offer something else. The same thing with the second person's chicken. Quite a few pieces were nothing but chicken fat. And his plate was 31.00. My plate for the half order of boneless chicken was $18 with the sauce I had the honey soy sauce. It was just okay. Each of us got a side. I got the a cheese powder type fries. Those were $7 for undercooked fries. I recommend not getting that cheese dust it's not good and that was just an extra $2 just for that cheese dust. Absolutely horrible very overpowering flavor. Second person ordered the variety of cheese puffs. Those were actually the only enjoyable thing with the meal $11 for six of them. The third person ordered sweet potato fries. $5 once again undercooked. Which made is concerned about how the chicken was cooked. I can't tell it was undercooked a little bit. My bill came to 27.00 $18 for my chicken and $7 for the fries. The third person price was the same as mine. The second person came up to $50 he wasn't aware that half and half cost him $31 the side dish was $11 he got a soda which is supposed to be $2 but they charged him $4. I told the second person not to mention the difference in the soda because I wanted to take a picture of his receipt and I took a picture of the drink menu to show you. The place is a little nice and inviting but I'll tell you right now the food is awful. Not even worth the price way overpriced for chicken. And I'll tell you I had high hopes for this place. You will not get me to come back for those prices for the quality of food you receive. And I highly recommend you train your staff better. And if you're going to overcharge your customers at least get your...

Overall, the experience was middling. I wasn't too impressed, but it wasn't exactly bad. They need to be better organized and attentive to the customers. If you weren't sitting down at one of the tables, you might as well have not existed. They were polite and welcoming when spoken to, but they wouldn't greet you first. It also seemed as though none of them were in much of a rush despite the place being packed. While I can appreciate taking your time to do a good job, this seemed more like idling to me.

I went in for takeout and the instructions were honestly unclear and a bit confusing. There's no online ordering, so when you walk in you have to speak with one of the staff. Not bad, but they have a sign up asking customers to sign-in at a terminal, which gives the option of takeout. As I discovered, its only for dining in despite the options given. So, for first time customers wanting takeout, go straight to one of the staff.

The chicken was amazing, I will say that. I got a half order of the original fried chicken with garlic sauce. I had to take my time eating it because it was a lot of chicken, even at half, but it was still crispy an hour later despite the sauce, which was very impressive. The sauce itself was also incredible. Sweet and very heavy on the garlic. It was exactly what it should be and held a kind of spice to it like sichuan pepper. The chicken itself was tender, juicy, and came right off the bone so easily.

I also ordered the peli cheese balls, which were great and the first thing I tasted. Unfortunately, I could tell on the first bite that they had been handling other food while prepping them. I could taste a bit of the spice from the sauce on them even though they had been packaged separately, so that was disappointing. Aside from that, I did enjoy them for their mild taste and perfectly chewy texture.

TL;DR: The food is great but needs to be handled separately. Staff were polite but need to be more attentive. And there's a lack of clear instructions and organization.

As it stands, I can't give them any more than three stars and I'll likely not be returning. I hate to say it, but there are places more worth the money than here, in my opinion. I wish them the best of luck in improving. They have the potential...

Not for me. We ordered the banban crispy fried chicken with the signature sauce, and crispy fried chicken with garlic sauce. Both sauces were overpoweringly sweet. The signature sauce is just gross. It was the sweetness and cinnamon that destroyed it for me. My wife and three teenage boys found it gross as well. The garlic sauce is too sweet as well. The strength of garlic flavor was borderline acceptable, but is not anywhere close to what I have eaten in Korea or traditional homemade recipes. The best chicken that was served was the plain crispy fried chicken, and to be honest, there really wasn’t much flavor. Our server and the rest of the staff were outstanding. Bathroom was clean, but the floor was all sticky. No towels to open the bathroom door after washing your hands. Mmmm not the best set up when eating food with your bare hands. I did sample the hot and spicy sauce and it was the spicy version of the signature sauce, but not quite as sweet. Lastly, the crispy chicken had an average crunch, unlike the twice fried crunch in authentic Korean fried chicken or Ji Pai (Taiwanese fried chicken).

Don’t let this review discourage you from eating here, as the place has a 4.5 review rating and the restaurant was completely full when we arrived (10 minute wait for a table) so obviously there are many people who like this uber sweet fried chicken. Just saying that my family and I were not a fan. We are more savory seekers e.g. Ji Pai and karaage. Well we at least had a go of this place. Unfortunately, it was just not what we were hoping...