Critic's Review
*** Natural Chicken Grill is closed and there is nothing at the location currently
If you've shopped at Publix in Harbor Shops, you've seen this place, and probably thought it was just another fast food chicken place. In a way, you'd be right. Except that his place is really GOOD. It looks like a fast food place, but the food is a cut above.
With a caribbean flair, this little fast food "joint" serves fresh chicken in just about every form you can think of. Wraps, salads, grilled on a bun. You can get a whole chicken or half chicken. Or my favorite, the chicken salad wrap.
Now I'm a NY guy and I take my chicken salad on a good thick slice of Rye, but you can't get that here. I'm not a huge "wraps" fan, but one thing I am is adventurous. So I chose the spinach tortilla wrap (you can chose tomato, spinach or whole wheat) with lettuce and tomato with garlic cilantro sauce. The sauce is free, and I probably would have skipped it otherwise. Who puts sauce on chicken salad?
Well let me tell you, it would have been a huge mistake. Who would have thunk it, but the sauce just wakes up your taste buds. Add to that tender, marinated chicken and a subtle, spicy mayo and you've got something to remember. I have to say it was one of the most enjoyable sandwiches I've had in a while.
They have interesting sides like sweet potato casserole and balsamic tomatoes. For $2.39 extra you can add a drink and chips to any sandwich.
On a subsequent visit, I tried one of their "chops"; they have various kinds. I had "Special" chop, Jr size. The special is grilled chicken, lettuce, tomatoes and yellow rice. The Jr is more than enough for lunch, in fact I only had half of it. Again, a home run, particularly with the garlic-cilantro sauce. The chicken and rice are very flavorful and the sauce just makes the whole thing sing.
I was going to Publix and they had a big sign out that they now have chicken wings, so I had to give them a try. I ordered 10 wings medium. When the dude took them out of a bag and threw them into a deep fry basket I knew that there weren't going to be very far from ordinary; they get $7.99 for them. They asked me 3 times if it was eat in or takeout, so they're better at cooking than remembering things.
The wings are unbreaded and tossed lightly in sauce; they had a bit of hot sauce flavor without being dripping wet. The celery was fresh and the blue cheese was good. Nothing extraordinary, but a pretty good version.