Ezell's Famous Chicken — Restaurant in Seattle

I love Ezell's. It's right near my school (Nova) and I can walk over there and get an awesome chicken lunch for $10-15. Fair prices for the taste! My go-to order is the half pound spicy chicken tenders, combo with fries. Every order comes with a freshly baked roll that's buttery and flaky and not too sweet—or two rolls, if the order is bigger. They have options for spicy, original, and even half spicy half original in your basket, so there's something for everyone. I usually find napkins and a few salt and pepper packets thrown in there too, since the original tenders might taste a little bland to some. Their chicken always has the perfect crunch and fills me up. Other than chicken, they have a few sides you can order with your combo (5 or 6 I believe- including cole slaw, mashed potatoes, fries, mac n cheese).

For my location specifically (on 23rd and Jefferson, across from Garfield and Nova High School): the only, ONLY thing some might not like is that the building itself is small, and when lots of people come in at once for the lunchtime rush, it can get really hot and loud inside, which might make it difficult to order. Especially if you have a quiet voice, have intense anxiety when ordering for yourself, or are prone to overstimulation by simultaneous sounds or heat. If ordering is an issue verbally, you can write down your order as legibly as possible and then give it to the person taking your order for them to read instead :) Plus this way, there's no risk that they'll hear your order wrong over the loud sounds and forget to add fries to your order :,) totally not from personal experience... but at least I wasn't charged for them. My fault y'all!

EDIT: 2 years later, I came back to this and added my recommendations and food, service, atmosphere ratings. Unfortunately however Google works, it seems to have deleted the kind and thoughtful response from the owners to my original review. Thank you for your response!! I've since brought all my family to eat here when they visit me for some Seattle original grub. They love it & will be jealous when I tell them about the guest lecture that Lewis Rudd gave in my...

One terrible experience is enough to make me never order here again. Upon arriving at 6:30 pm, 10/06/2021 I came to order my favorite which is chicken tenders - mild. Only after I purchase do they tell me they are out of mild tenders (only have spicy which I can’t eat). Need to tell us prior to purchase. I order the other chicken instead but then after opening box outside I see no sauce. I come back in to ask for sauce and the manager unpleasantly snaps at me saying I needed to get tenders to get the sauce or pay for sauce separately. Her whole demeanor was terrible and she lacked customer service. I had to stand there and ask multiple times before they would give it to me.

I don’t care if your a huge corporation or a small fast food joint, customer is always right. They could have just given me the sauce without arguing back and forth. At the end of the day, I was a recurring customer and the lifetime value from making my experience positive far outweighs their policy on sauce… seriously nothing classy about this restaurant and it would take a lot for me to come back here.

Quick Update After Initial Post: Company responds saying to reach out to support so they can set things right. I reached out twice and they didn’t respond. It seems they respond to the review to maintain a good public image, but don’t do anything to actually...

My rating is for the chicken...gizzards too. I recognize that the service can sometimes be unappealing to certain people. You don't go to a fried chicken take-out spot for service. It's been this way for a long time. You won't always get addressed or greeted because most people just walk up and order. I'm a little desensitized to it, having gone to high school across the street. Chicken is good quality and very consistent. Crispy skin, spicy is just a little bit crunchier, and well seasoned. Spicy is legit, probably comparable to a 2 or 3 star depending on the batch. Gizzards are good, takes an extra 15 minutes because they prepare them once you order. Rolls are good, I usually get a half dozen extra. Sides are average but not a total waste of time. Faygo so good. Dessert is cobbler or pie, both are average options given that it's a take-out place. I'm a little disappointed with the inflation that's taking place here. The small spicy strip used to be around 7-8 strips of chicken with a roll for around 5. last time i was here, i got 3 skinny chicken strips and a roll for $9. that's outrageous. don't order the small spicy strip, you will feel robbed. hopefully they don't do that to the large but the pricing and portions here have gotten out of hand. heaven...