Freebird Chicken Shack

Delicious food. Love both their chicken dishes with rice. I love rice. Food is fresh and yummy goodness in my mouth. Love this place!

I love their rice with rotisserie chicken. I would usually have this kind of rice from my mom ONLY. But this is a real good one !! (I don’t get why only 3 stars here!!)

Maenam Chef Angus An and Chef Justin Cheung continue the theme of remixing Asian culinary efforts with their latest poultry focused fast food eatery, Freebird Chicken Shack, located inside the River Market and across the hall from their other venture, Longtail Kitchen.
I sampled both versions of the quarter chicken meal. I preferred the Hainanese chicken (with pickles, broth, chicken rice, and fermented soybean sauce) for its satisfactory texture and taste. In particular, the dark meat was nicely tender. I was underwhelmed by the roasted chicken (served with papaya salad, chicken rice, and spicy sambal sauce) and found it rather dry and slightly bland.
While promising, I’m still holding out hope for more chicken and rice goodness yet couldn’t help being disappointed by the simple but passable offerings.

Surprised at the bad reviews, but it probably relates to the hainanese chicken. In contrast, the roasted rotisserie chicken is delicious and perfectly cooked and juicy. This isn’t your typical Safeway or superstore roasted chicken. The papaya salad is fresh and tangy and not drowned in sauce. The soup is hot and made with chicken bones and herbs daily. I am picky about my chicken and was pleasantly surprised to see they use organic, free range chicken with no fat. Price point was fair for quality of chicken. Try their rotisserie chicken (not hainanese) and u shouldn’t be disappointed.

As a white guy, I’m not an expert in Hainanese chicken but I’ve eaten a lot of Khao Man Gai in Portland. This isn’t as good as that, but it’s still very good. The chicken and broth are flavourful, the chicken rice has always been fresh, and the pickled vegetables are… well, they’re pickled vegetables but I have nothing to complain about. I really wouldn’t be deterred by the other reviews. They’re frequently sold out of the rotisserie chicken so I can’t comment on that, but I stop in almost every time I’m at the quay. It’s not quite at the level of Longtail but if I want a lighter lunch, it’s the place to go.

This place is horrible and unclean. The chicken here is dry and flavourless and the papaya salad is an embarrassment. The owner was rude and not friendly at all. For $ 15 for a half chicken meal, it is ridiculously overpriced and I don’t even know what to say about a $ 20 whole chicken. Save your money people and take it to Nando’s for more flavour. To be honest I would rather go for a whole chicken meal from Superstore at half the cost with much more flavour. Never returning to this garbage place ever again.

More of a take out counter than a restaurant.
Also owns Fat Mao Noodles in Chinatown.

I really wanted to love it but it was an underwhelming experience. Ordered the Hainanese chicken combo to go. The chicken lacked flavor however the meat itself was tender and cooked well. The chicken rice was subpar, not as exciting as other restaurants I have been to. The combo itself was nice because they give you rice, chicken, small salad and a broth. Great lunch size. I will return to try their rotisserie chicken though.

A sad excuse for Hainanese chicken. The white meat was rough and dry, the ginger scallion sauce barely had any ginger, and even the oily rice was really hard and dry. For a food court joint the wait was pretty long despite it not being particularly busy (on a Sunday at 2PM). If you’ve never tried real Hainanese chicken before you may enjoy this, but as with Chef An’s other disappointment Fat Mao this is a sad excuse for authentic Chinese food. I tried Longtail Kitchen as well while I was here and felt it was much better, admittedly I don’t know much about Thai food though.
Being of Chinese and Malaysian descent I’ve grown up eating all sorts of Hainanese Chicken at home, restaurants around town, and in Asia. I don’t understand how someone who’s familiar with this dish can be proud serving what Freebird is serving, seems like it’s just a gimmick/​marketing exercise to sell overpriced and mediocre Chinese cuisine to an oblivious clientele. Opening up in New West was a good idea as there’s no chance in hell this place would survive in Richmond. I would give it a 1-​star but you can’t do much better without travelling for at least 25 mins.

Ordered hainanese chicken to go and it is yummy! You can pick your sauce but I stayed with the traditional green onion and ginger. Meal came with hainanese rice too. Will be going back to try their traditional rotisserie chicken. Looks fresh and tasty!

Just finished our 3^rd freebird chicken take out this week. And they were only open since Tuesday! whole rotisserie chicken is amazing. You’ll have to anticipate paying more than your usual Safeway whole roasted chicken but it’s almost insulting for me to compare the two. Freebird is on a different level on its own. I’ve never eaten chicken breast so juicy and flavourful! The chickens are sustainably sources and organic. The Hainanese chicken and the chicken congee is very authentic as well. Everyone must try freebird !! It’ll be a tough decision next time I visit the Quay as I’ll have to choose between freebird and longtail (which is also amazing!)