chicken — Restaurant in Westerville

Okay, let me start out by saying: they are in a soft open with limited hours. Growing pains are to be expected for a new biz.

With that out of the way, oof.

I visited on Saturday 3/25 a little after 4:30pm. As expected, there was a line backed up halfway to the door. Clearly, Westerville is interested in the concept. That's a positive.

That's about where the positives end, at least for the most part.

The line didn't move for nearly 30 minutes upon arriving. If I had to approximate, I'd say from entry to order took north of 40 minutes. It took nearly 30 minutes from order to receiving my food.

Even for a soft open, that's a bad look. It's no wonder so many would-be customers were walking in, and right back out again. It was brutal but I was committed to trying it, as chicken and waffles is a solid combo.

I placed one order for there, one to go. Both chicken cone meals. For my order, I had the buffalo blue sauce. Kick'n ranch for the to-go. Sauce flavors were decent but neither stood out as excellent.

For sides, I had the cajun fries. I order my girlfriend the mac and cheese. Fries are your standard, mass market frozen shoestrings. Lightly crisp and tossed in cajun seasoning. They live up to their name but the portions are rather small. The mac and cheese reminds me of KFC, so your mileage may vary based on your affinity to that product. The cheese sauce is practically neon yellow.

A standard cone meal will run you a bit more than $13. More than $14 if you upgrade the mac and cheese to a large. There are many other restaurants where your money will go much further in the area.

I was honestly still hungry after the whole ordeal, so I'm unlikely to return. However, I may give them a second chance after they've had the time to work out the kinks and figure out how to work more efficiently. Because that was pretty brutal, honestly.

The employee on the register was nice enough and the kitchen crew seemed to stay upbeat and roll with the punches.

I definitely wish them well but it will be an uphill battle from here.

There's too much competition in the area to be operating the way I witnessed today.

You live...

First time here. Arrived around 6:45 on a Tuesday. The place was empty. The staff was very friendly and helpful but mentioned they couldn't serve mac and cheese because it wasn't warmed up. They close at 8 so...

I ordered the Chick'nCone and fries, my wife ordered the tenders and fries. We immediately noticed the difference in chicken type between the two dishes. The cone came with diced up chicken that was light in color and not very crispy. It also didn't really taste that great TBH. The tenders on the other hand were darker, juicier, crispier and very good. Not sure why they aren't using the same grade of chicken for the cones. This other stuff looked cheap like something you'd find in a school cafeteria. Very disappointing. Fries were on point though. Overall, a meh experience unfortunately. Too many other better places that are worth my dollar to come back. Hopefully they course...

Our experience did not live up to the hype, at all. My husband and I both got the chick’n cones, mine was tossed in kick’n ranch and his naked with bbq on the side. The breading on the chicken was not crispy, the chicken looked like it was just frozen GFS tenders. Once tossed in the sauce, they were instantly soggy and unappealing. The cones were very soft and essentially flavorless. My husband’s tasted like little more than cardboard. The fries were cold and a very small portion for the price. The caramel milkshake was thin and had very little flavor. The toilet in the bathroom was dirty, covered in dried urine, hair, and dirt.

The only reason I’m giving them two stars is because the cashier was fantastic. She was friendly, enthusiastic, and went above and beyond to help us with our order and offer an alternative when an item ended up not...