BLUF: Good sandwiches and wings made to order; skip the fries and drink. Recommended: the "Rock CooCoo" sandwich.
Coo Coo Cachoo surprised us in a good way. In our first visit, we ordered Coo Coo's "Combo B" meal, which consists of a sandwich or wrap, two wings, fries and drink for $17.15 after tax. We selected the "Rock CooCoo" sandwich ($8.99 by itself) and garlic aoli flavored wings. The resulting bundle of food was nearly monochromatic, aside from the sad (desaturated) slices of lettuce and tomato in the sandwich, so we had low expectations for how the sandwich would taste.
The Rock CooCoo sandwich was delicious -- crunchy on the outside, juicy and tender on the inside. This was one of the best chicken sandwiches we've had in a long time. That said, I would really like to see Coo Coo use higher quality and larger slices of lettuce and tomato.
The garlic aoli wings were similarly delicious -- crunchy on the outside, and juicy and tender on the inside, with a good garlicky flavor imbued from the batter. Skip the combo -- i.e., the shoestring fries and choice of soft drink, as both are just ordinary.
We have tried other sandwiches, but our favorite to date is the Rock Coo Coo:
- "Gua-Gua CooCoo": trades the lettuce and tomato of the "Rock CooCoo" with a somewhat thin guacamole, and some leafy greens. We've had better guacamole elsewhere.
- "Islander CooCoo": grilled chicken and pineapple. Ours came with too much pineapple sauce that disintegrated the bread.
- "CooCoo Cod": two deep-fried fish filets on a sesame bun with lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise. Ours was tasty but not executed well; the fish retained too much oil.
Other:
- Coo Coo makes its food to order, and recently implemented a wireless buzzer system to let customers wander and visit other places instead of wait for their food. In our last visit on a recent weekday evening, we waited about 10 minutes for our food.
- Eat your food as soon as possible. The sandwiches are wrapped in sandwich paper and then placed in cardboard containers. This combination traps enough heat from the freshly-fried chicken to cook the greens in the sandwich if the sandwich is left unattended for too long, resulting in sad, wilty-looking greens.
Tangram Mall provides restroom facilities and complimentary VPN-friendly Wi-Fi. The men's restroom by the food court hasn't had a functional sink for weeks. There is another set of restrooms downstairs, with an entrance next to Xi'an Famous Foods. read more