Jay Bird's San Luis Obispo — Restaurant in San Luis Obispo

I was hyped to try Jay Birds after hearing that they would be joining the SLO public market. I am a huge Nashville style hot chicken fan and have wanted something local to open. But ultimately I was both disappointed with the quality and felt duped by what the menu had to offer vs what their Instagram advertised. The menu includes chicken strips and sandwiches, but no bone in fried chicken. While the sandwich was decent overall, the chicken strips highlighted the issue I found with labeling what they serve as Nashville style. All chicken appear to be breaded in the same mild batter. For Nashville style I would expect some seasoning and heat from the batter alone. Heat level was then determined by how much and what type of dry seasoning was applied to the strips after frying. The result was an uneven distribution of dry cayenne/ghost pepper seasoning that immediately stuck to your lips and tongue, rather than the wet combo of used cooking oil and seasoning that defines Nashville style. Hot level had a little kick, and then there was a large jump to X and XX hot, that really only marked an increase in tongue pain and not much in regards to flavor.

Given that Nashville style is defined by seasoned batter and a wet sauce applied after frying, I'm not sure what makes Jay Birds Nashville style. I did hear they will be introducing bone in, but the dry seasoning approach doesn't leave me rushing to head back and try it. Kudos to the employees for handling a very steady stream of customers. Service...

Hey look, I've never been to Nashville and I've spent very little time in the Southeast of the US. I'm a Northeast yank who has spent more than half his life in California. THAT SAID, fried chicken is a guilty pleasure of mine and while (due to wanting to live passed 50) I don't go there often, when I DO go there, I want it to be worth it. In my opinion, nothing I've had anywhere else is in the same league.

Fried for fried sake is lost on me. Too often I've gone to "gourmet" places and received these grease-logged sandwiches with 5 different kinds of fat on them and no flavor. In the case of Jay Bird's, flavor wise and quality wise, this wasn't just next level, this was 3 or 4 levels passed next:

Shockingly flavorful, perfectly fried, chicken tender moist/hot on the inside, crispy delicious on the outside and a decent spice level. Now I will say the day I got my sandwich (March 23, 2022 just before closing) I looked at the graphic of Jay next to the counter, looked at the guy in the kitchen, looked back at the graphic and realized Jay himself was in fact there making sure everything was going smoothly, so I'm sure I was sold the best version of what they do that evening. Take this for what you will but my advice is: Fried Chicken... If you're gonna go...

I placed an online order an hour in advance because I had to drive an hour to come pick up the food. I really usually enjoy the food and so to me it was worth it. I figured an hour was enough time for them to get the order ready because it said there was a 40 minute wait. I showed up a few minutes early and they had not even started preparing my food and they told me that it wasn’t due for pick up until 1 PM. They were very rude and short with me. I was very respectful and patient. When I went to leave , and get in my car to head back to work nearly an hour away I realized that the cheese had been added to my blaze and fries, even though I had requested that it was on the side because I wouldn’t be able to eat until I And I didn’t want my fries soggy I tried calling the store let them know and possibly get refunded or just have another order made at another time and there was no answer the two or three times that I called. I’m very disappointed because I won’t be able to enjoy my food And I don’t know how to get recourse to fix this. Their food is usually really good and I’ve never had this issue so hopefully someone can call me or send me an email to...