Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles

My sister has been talking about having Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles for a long time. She’s been there many times but i always seem to of missed going with her. Growing up in a food capital of the world or pretty close to it, Los Angeles, does have its perks, we have blocks and blocks of every kind of food imaginable. But I’d have to say lately my growing love for southern food has definitely blossomed. When I went to North Carolina last December something different really sparked in me with the amount of amazing things that were new to my pallet, simple wonderful foods that people lived on for ages.

You can feel at “home” at Roscoe’s… Traveling about the 101 in dead stop traffic even on Saturday afternoon with the windows down and freshly stale city air whisking though your hair when you finally reach Gower and Sunset, you’ll find yourself on a street full of people everywhere, endless metered parking with people dashing about back and forth scouring the streets for a space. We arrived about 430 on a Saturday afternoon to a large wooden building with a huge white sign with a giant chicken and waffle the iconic sign of Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles since 1975.

As you walk up to the building people are swarming everywhere. You’re greeted by a man behind a rope which you’d see lining a concert event or something of that sort as well as a big security guard outside and a giant melting pot of people waiting for chicken and waffles. We waited about 25 minutes which seeing how many people were outside I would of expected a much longer wait, it was quick and the host was very polite making small talk with my sister and showing us to our table. When walking through the restaurant you see lots of wooden tables with hard cushioned chairs meant for dining at a diner. The kitchen has a small platform that you can tell there are many people in the back frying chicken and preparing a plethora of southern goodies for hungry consumers.  Looking over the menu we decided to make good use of our trip and ordered a good number of combination dishes to try all the sides we could. Our waitress took our drink order and food order with such ease as you could tell she’d been serving tables a while. Don’t look for fine dining and attention to crazy details, you won’t find them here but what you will find is a quick plate of piping hot food at your face within minutes. All these things are slow cooked for hours you can taste the flavor scooped up and served on large plastic plates.

We ordered

1 chicken Breast and 1 waffle called the carol special

two biscuits,corn bread

red beans and rice, with 1 breast of chicken,

side Mac n cheese, greens, corn bread,  and two thighs. 1 extra waffle

So much food for three people. Honestly way too much food, lets say I’ll be eating lite for a while.

The waffles are crisp and delicious the maple syrup and butter complement them well. The chicken both thighs and breast were delicious but I tend to like thigh meat better.  Chicken is fried with a very crispy batter in clean not greasy oil that leaves the meat and crunches heavily between your teeth with the contrasting soft tender flesh to counter point it, hungry for another bite. It’s very good. The combination of flavors chicken and waffles is fun and whimsical like brunch on a warm afternoon you just feel at easy even with the buzzing about, you can’t help but look over and see people smiling and eating well.

Between bites of all that I sampled luscious plump red beans over simple white rice, it’s simplify is nice especially if it’s with the salty soft leaves of collard greens.  The greens were a bit too salty for my taste but still so tender and wonderful. The Mac n cheese had a very predominant flavor of garlic powder and noodles were a bit soft for my taste but it was still palatable. Hot water corn bread seals the deal with its very crumbly warm texture with a warm dark crust at the bottom. 

Over all the meal satisfies some of my favorite flavors and textures; salty sweet crispy soft, in ways that are really well done. There are no meals I believe that tie in sweetness and salt as well as southern food does. The real style of comfort is everything at Roscoe’s house of chicken and waffles and I’m really glad after all this time I was able to go there and enjoy those simple flavors of comfort.

Unrivaledkitch
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