Okay for those of you who have been wondering (and extremely annoyed) by the blockage of traffic on South Sherwood Forest due to the new business that opened in between the Piccadilly Cafeteria and Dairy Queen called 'Southern Classic Chicken' - I decided to get out fairly early for lunch today and deal with the line to try them out for the first time.
When I got into the line on South Sherwood Forest there were approximately 12 cars ahead of me (in the street that is) but once you roll into the parking lot of their business, cars have to go in a double circle before you can order - somewhat similar to what some Chick-fil-A outlets do with their drive up service, but with much less space to deal with the amount of cars.
So let me say up front for those of you too impatient to read the whole review is the chicken worth the wait...No - not in my opinion. From when I join the line on South Sherwood Forest to the time that I left their parking lot with my chicken, it was nearly 50 minutes. Maybe some people don't mind waiting that long with their car running in idle for a meal, but for me...that meal better be exemplary to be worth that much trouble. Sorry to say it was not.
That's not to say the chicken wasn't hot or tasty. It was juicy and tasty. The spice mix that they use is just enough to give it a good flavor, without it being a 'hot' spicy. But as with just about every other bone-in fried chicken place, the chicken was exorbitantly greasy. Even with the abundance of napkins that they provided (and some wet wipes in my car), my hands still felt like flypaper (sticky) until I finally reached a bathroom with real soap and water.
HERE ARE SOME THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW: there is no counter or sit-down service to eat at this business, not even outside tables like Sonic. It is strictly a drive-through business with a small window on one side of the building where you can walk up place an order to wait and then "walk off" with your order to eat elsewhere. Speaking of which, I can only imagine the frustration of the managers of both Piccadilly Cafeteria and the Dairy Queen on either side of this business because people are parking in their lots to walk over to place orders to get at the window because the line for drive-thru is so outrageously long and ridiculously slow.
FOR YOUR SANITY AND EVERYONE ELSE IN LINE...PLEASE DECIDE WHAT YOU AND EVERYONE IN YOUR PARTY WANTS BY CHECKING THEIR MENU ONLINE BEFORE GETTING IN YOUR CAR! When my car finally wound around the building twice to actually get within viewing distance of the order menu/speaker - I could hear the three cars ahead of me all asking people in their car (or on their cell phones with other friends and family) deciding what to order. This of course SEVERELY slowed up everyone else behind them waiting for them to make up their bloody mind and place their order. This business DOES have a copy of their menu online if you go to look them up so waiting until you drive right in front of the speaker to then twiddle your thumbs for several minutes before ordering is just foolish and disrespectful to everyone behind you.
Now... as to what the business can do to improve service. When you wind around the building twice to get closer to the order kiosk, the line splits so that you go to 1 of 2 order speakers. It was obvious by the time that I pulled up to the two cars in front of me that although they have TWO order speakers, there is only ONE PERSON inside the building taking the orders...first at one speaker, then at the alternate second speaker. That is an absolute waste of customer time. They should have one person per speaker taking orders so that the line moves a little faster.
In a nutshell I'm sure that this business will improve their operations and speed once the big hoopla of its 'newness' dies down. But frankly, their fried Chicken although good is truly not spectacularly better than Popeyes, Churches, or KFC for in-bone fried chicken. Yes, the spicing is a little better than some of the others, but the size of the chicken pieces and value for the money is about the same. Level of greasiness is also on par with their competitors which is to say - pretty bad.
Like other people I truly do prefer in-bone fried Chicken. Unfortunately there's no chicken place that I'm aware of that uses a "pressure cooker fryer" like Chick-fil-A so that their fried Chicken is not so greasy. Like everyone else they're using a simple "drop basket fryer" system which just saturates the breading and chicken with grease during cooking. I know it's a matter of dollars and cents as pressure cooking fryers are extremely expensive, but one of these days I'd like to see a in-bone fried Chicken Place make that investment so that we can have truly great fried Chicken on the bone. Until then...like you my fellow Fried Chicken Lovers- I'll keep trying new places with my fingers crossed. read more