Critic's Review
*** Another low rated restaurant bites the dust...Chicken Kitchen has closed. ***
With my excellent experience yesterday in Natural Chicken Grill, I thought I'd contrast Chicken Kitchen, a similar concept in Downtown Fort Lauderdale. I'd read some reviews that were pretty good, so my expectations where high.
Chicken Kitchen is a small place and gets pretty busy at lunch time. They have an open kitchen so you can see them working, which isn't necessarilty a good thing. I ordered the "No Rice Wrapito", which is chicken lettuce and tomato in a soft tortilla wrap. I watched my chef grab a smallish chicken cutlet and chop it up while he popped a tortilla into a pannini-type grill. It was a large plain tortilla; the Natural Chicken Grill had given me a choice of flavored tortillas, so they lose a point there. I wandered over to the register while I checked out the steam table. They had 3 kinds of rice, wings, beans, some of which looked fresh and some not. Not unlike what you might see at the mall. Meanwhile my chef was wrapping my wrap in paper so I couldn't see it. The package looked bigger than the Natural Chicken Wrap. As a good food reviewer does, I had reviewed their menu and read several other reviews, so I was familiar with the process. The register guy threw my wrap in a bag and said "$6.35 please". I asked him if it came with a sauce, and he seemed to not understand what I meant. "Sauce", I said, "Do I get a sauce with a wrap". Again, he seemed befuttled. "Curry-Mustard", I said, "do I get that with a wrap or not". "Oh", he said, "Yes, we'll give you one. One is no problem. But 3 or 4 no". I thought to myself, "did I ask for 3 or 4?". Ok, 1 star for service. I don't like to have to twist someone's arm to get something that's supposed to be included.
I did the take out thing, because I didn't want to sit in a crowded joint, and when I got home I opened the package. The thing was bulging, so I sliced it in half. As you can see from the picture; its a pretty lame wrap. You can almost see the chicken. The ratio of lettuce and tomatoes to chicken is way off. The large wrap it too big. As I ate the sandwich, it kept falling apart, and the chicken had no taste. I guess the people who like this place are the sushi and greens crowd; the people who get excited about "fresh" food and who don't care about the taste. I far preferred the tasty, marinated chicken at Natural Chicken Grill, with a smaller, flavored wrap loaded with meat.
Oh, and the Curry Mustard sauce is pretty good, but it can't light a candle to the taste-bud-popping Garlic Cilantro sauce at Natural Chicken Grill.