L A Chicken

Came here last night to do a side by side comparison with Red Rooster. Testing chicken is no task for the faint of heart but someone has to do it. Oh all right, I’ll begrudgingly be the guinea pig: P
As you can guess by the 2 stars, LA Chicken wasn’t the winner.
I came here and it was packed. We were waiting right by the door. I wanted spicy but the wait was 30 mins while regular was 5 minutes. I didn’t want to wait. It was a huge disappointment. I don’t know if I caught them when they were slammed but this was not the same chicken I raved about in my previous review. This chicken had breading that was too crispy because it had been over fried. It was also over salted. My girlfriend declared the other place better within 3 bites. I told her this wasn’t the same caliber of chicken as on my previous visit.
If I came here for the first time last night, I wouldn’t be back again. But to be honest, having tried the competitor across the street, this place isn’t as good. Yes I loved the spicy last time but the quality of the chicken, the juiciness and the less oilier competitor just wins. Also, their fries are amazing — crisp, hot and not greasy.

People always say LA chicken is very good and it is better than KFC and church chicken that I must try it.
Finally I got a chance to buy a few pieces and tried the LA chicken last weekend!
When I got to LA Chicken, it was crowded inside. People ordered at the counter but some of their orders were very big such as 10, 15 or 20 pieces with combo. Literally all the customers had to wait for their orders. I waited for about 20 mins. Only one guy and one lady who worked at the restaurant during the dinner time were extremely busy serving so many customers and taking care of many orders. They had to take orders, fried the chicken, packed the orders and etc. at the same time. I think they should hire a part time person or get more people to help them out in the kitchen.
I asked for to go, so I could try the chicken and enjoyed it at home. The restaurant was too busy and the ambiance and environment were not very comfortable. The chicken was very juicy and had many flavours in the meat though. It tasted great!
However it was quite expensive that it cost almost $ 3 each. If I would come back here for the chicken, I must preorder on phone and ask for pick up, so I didn’t have to wait there for 20 mins or so.

I finally came here. Long time in the waiting. I guess the holidays aren’t really over for me. I got a two piece, fries and a side for a very cheap price under $ 10. Chicken was nicely seasoned and battered. For what it is as a guilty pleasure this isn’t bad at all. Service was friendly and fast. I normally don’t eat fried chicken but had one of those odd cravings.

Not sure what is so good about this place, the chicken & fries have a average taste like any other fast food place. I will admit there gravy was pretty good though. There also greedy with there napkins and even count them in front of you, and they charge ¢50 for a refill.

Ordered 10 piece, half spicy half non spicy. It was good. Outside was crisp and inside was juicy.
Non spicy: I like the non spicy one more because of it is more flavorful.
Spicy: The spicy one I find it rather blend. It wasn’t spicy. It seems to be just salt and pepper.

We came here looking for some fried chicken after our trip to Ikea. The inside of the restaurant was ghetto looking, but the chicken was good. Crispy skin and juicy inside. It tasted better than KFC, but the spicy version was disappointing. It didn’t taste spicy at all. We might like this place better if we could do take out, but we live far away, so we were forced to sit at the table near the washroom and had people walking by and squeezing past our table. Ghetto.

Hilariously close to Red Rooster, the other best-​fried-​chicken-​in-​Richmond contender, is LA Chicken. Looks more like KFC chicken. Super crispy skin. Eat it right away and it’s sooo juicy. Like dripping wet juicy. Winner.
Unless chickens have shrunk since the last time I had KFC, the size of the legs and thighs seemed… smallish.
I tried only the spicy chicken, and it was OK for spiciness. You get a bit of spicy-​heat aftertaste. Otherwise, seemed to be just like «regular» fried chicken.
Try to order tubs. 2 pieces for $ 6.60 works out to over $ 3 per piece. With bigger orders you can get it under $ 2 per piece, which puts it on par with KFC. Still, for sheer amount of meat, it beats a burger.
Don’t go for «snacks» or combos. 2-​piece snack is $ 8, which means your fries are $ 1.40.

It was average at best but then again I’m comparing this place to Uncle Lou’s in Memphis. Seeing as there is not many southern restaurants in Vancouver I can see why people rave about it.
Purchase the chicken only and save money.

Possibly the best fried chicken I’ve ever had. It’s been forever since I’ve eaten at KFC let alone Church’s chicken. After my friend has introduced me to LA chicken, I highly doubt I’ll go elsewhere for my fried chicken fix. Super cripsy crunchy skin and well-​seasoned tender white meat. What more can you ask for? Nothing! I don’t even need the gravy.

Really good fried chicken. Seems to be owned by a husband and wife couple. Gets pretty busy on holidays and weekends. Had to wait 2 hours for our order on New Years Eve one year as we did not pre-​order. Boy were there a lot of pissed off angry people in their small store that day! Recommend pre-​ordering on holidays and for large orders.

Oh my god I think this is the best chicken I’ve ever had! It melts in your mouth and the spicy/​crispy chicken is so amazing.
The boss is so nice as well! A definite recommend!

Ever the gluttonous person, we had to make a pit stop to LA chicken AFTER having dim sum. What good are eating pants, if not for stuffing our faces.
Service was quick and friendly. I was a little apprehensive, as fried chicken doesn’t usually agree with me (use your imagination), but keeping silent is the same as agreeing with it.
After the internal fight in my head, we managed to walk out with a 10 piece meal, half original, half spicy.
The original was delicious. Crispy skin, very flavorful and not too oily. My taste buds actually enjoyed it (we shall see how the rest of me agrees later).
The reason for the 3 stars? The spicy was not spicy. It’s like that spicy you get at an ethnic fast food place catering to the western populace.
I would get again, but only the original recipe.

After a 2 month traveling jaunt through Vancouver (which I’m still on btw), we had to dig deep and find those local favorites that was neither a Cactus, a Joey, or an Earl’s. Enter LA Chicken. Does LA stand for Louisiana? Los Angeles? Your Lower Arteries?
Who knows? It could be a galactic wormhole to chickeny goodness for all I care because this chicken is what my Afri-​American brethren would qualify as «Slap-​Yo-​Mamma-​Good». It’s SO damn good, you just have to slap yo mamma. Twice. On both cheeks.
The first time I had it, I lost all sense of decorum and dove head first into the glistening crispy, spicy heaven that is proper fried chicken. Did I use a knife and fork? Hell, NO. I used my bare hands like only a real carnivore would, tearing through the very last morsel of steaming chicken meat parting tenderly away from its gold-​battered casing.
Like good ribs and sauce, fried chicken is nothing without a gravy worthy of the bird that died for you. LA Chicken’s medium thick gravy has a peppery sweetness that provides the right foil for meat, batter and potato. It’s like the circle of life in chicken and gravy form. The only thing I’d love to have is the option to have mashed potatoes vs. the fries, because nothing pleases me better than a hot mess of all that.
I’ve only gone there between the hours of one to 4 pm, the lunchtime crowd is a bit crazy and the place gets packed. Mainly as the lunch specials are pretty good. There’s a park across the street where people with obviously more class than I do high tail it to for a midday picnic. Each time I’d been there, I had to just drop everything and feed my face. There’s about 4 or 5 small tables, where most people are heads down focused on obliterating their meals, this also means that by the time you get yours something would open up.
It’s not a fancy place which IMO makes it all the more endearing. I just hope hipsters never ever find it. Ever.

This is a humble-​looking place that probably was built/​decorated in the 80’s. The freshly-​made chicken was fried right: nice crispy skin, not overdone with batter, and moist meat. It wasn’t overly greasy which tells me they use fresh oil for frying. I also like that the chicken was not over the top salty. In fact, it’s just a very basic recipe that doesn’t contain a lot of spices to mask the great flavor of deep fried chicken. It may not sound appealing but sometimes simplicity is a good thing. In this case, it is.

[Artery Accumulation]
Friends have been raving about LA Chicken’s deep fried awesomeness so I had to try it out for myself. It’s a tiny shop tucked away in a strip mall not far from #5 and Cambie. The place has seen better days which is likely why everyone was doing takeout. I had to use the bathroom but judging by the décor, that wasn’t going to happen.
Anyways, I proceed to order a 4 piece lunch combo which includes fries, gravy, and a small fountain drink. You also have a choice of spicy wings. Tip: go with spicy and you’ll thank me later. The spicy wings are artery-​clogging goodness! Where else can you get a peppery-​spicy batter on chicken? On the other hand, the fries were nothing to write home about.
I don’t know what the going rate for fried chicken is these days but $ 12 for my combo seemed like a decent deal. If you do come, expect a bit of a wait — the place is owned and operated by a nice friendly Asian couple. Come for the food but I’d recommend take-​out.

Crispy, juicy, and delicious. Who doesn’t love fried chicken?
The con is the long line and waiting. We waited awhile before it was our turn to order but after we ordered, the food probably took 5 – 10 minutes.
There is also a nice park with picnic tables across the street so you eat there since the restaurant itself is pretty small with limited seatings.

If you are a fried chicken fan, you’ve probably heard people raving about LA Chicken. The location is far east Richmond, so it’s kind of out of the way from where people usually go to in Richmond. And even though I live in Richmond, due to it’s location, I have not been here in years. Came here last night and it seems like it’s family run with maybe only 2 – 3 people working, and whoever is in the back runs the till every now and then also.
Ordered 10 pieces from here (5 spicy, and 5 original receipe) last night. While waiting for my order, it’s kind of funny hearing other customers complaining how nasty the washroom is. I think most people probably take their orders to go, it’s not really the most attractive places to dine-​in at.
Anyways, on to the food. The pieces are probably on par with size you get from Church’s Chicken. Drumsticks are smaller than Church’s in my opinion. Nevertheless, it is still much bigger than what you get at KFC.
The Original Recipe tastes similar to KFC’s original recipe chicken, but with more meat of course. The Spicy wasn’t too spicy (which is good for me), but has much crunchier skin than the original. In the future, I would probably stick to the «Spicy». Meat was not dry and overall not as greasy as Church’s Chicken. It’s going to be really hard for me to decide which one has better chicken! Overall 4 stars for LA Chicken. Church’s Chicken gets 5 stars, only because it has a more convenient location for me, 24 hour drive through, better bang for my buck, and Jalapeño Bombers. Anywho, I will still definitely recommend LA Chicken to whoever that has those fried chicken cravings!

«Bro, didn’t you notice how oily the floor was? It was like a skating rink.»
Amid car hunting, I finally got a chance to try L.A. Poulet. Seats were taken so we got take out. I got the 2pc lunch special with coleslaw (but she gave me fries).
Aside from cold dishes like sushi, take out containers usually ruin food quality as the steam effect kills crispiness and texture. This chicken didn’t hold up too bad.
I liked the seasoning of the batter. It wasn’t KFC-​oily but I still felt like sh*t after.
Would I go out of the way to get it? Likely not. The owner was super smiley which is nice for Richmond.

LA Chicken is expensive, but worth it!
I don’t remember the exact prices, but I normally spend around $ 8-​$ 9 for a two piece + fries meal and honestly, that’s how much I usually pay for a meal at a food court! Although the location is a bit odd but it’s definitely worth the drive! I don’t eat here often but when I do, I make sure to savour every single bite.
Their fries are okay but a lot of people dislike them, while their gravy is just so-​so. I find it surprising that so many people eat their fried chicken with a helping of rice! Their service is actually quite slow because they get tons of take-​out orders so you might want to call in beforehand!

My first visit to LA Chicken was 2 Fridays ago and my second was the Tuesday the 18^th of November. Well I decided to give them a second chance because the chicken was really very good even though I didn’t get the pieces I would have liked again it was still very tasty.
I had returned a second time in just 4 days and asked for the same thing as last time except that I had wanted to upgrade my meal to all white meat pieces. Well when it was rung up it only was about 2 bucks more. I couldn’t really understand if they’re only going to charge on average 50 cents a piece why they’d even give 4 dark pieces as the default in the first place. This nominal upgrade charge basically doubled the size of the meal and meat I received.
The take out container with the chicken was so full the lid could not be closed properly. The sides (fries and coleslaw) had to be put into another container. Just so I’m clear the first time I went to LA Chicken and ordered a 4 piece dinner I received 2 drumsticks and 2 thigh pieces, fries and coleslaw all in one take out box. This time around I ordered the same, upgraded to white meat and received 2 containers of food and all white meat this time for an additional ~2 dollars.
This second trip was later in the day and the chicken was still juicy even though it was all white meat as white meat tends to be dryer than dark. The chicken was really very good. The gravy is great. This time around the pieces I received were 3 side breasts and one center breast. The meal after taxes and white meat upgrade was still close to 17 dollars so it’s not cheap but it’s a lot of meat and a lot of food overall. The pieces are large and filling.
I’m happy I came back to this place a second time. One thing they should do is clean the place up though. The floors and walls near the floor are quite filthy. Still, I’m not rating the place, the food is a solid 4 stars but still not the best I’ve ever had but a close 2^nd.
So to conclude my tip for LA Chicken is ask for white meat if you want it because from my first experience, they don’t give it to you unless you ask and the upgrade cost is nominal.