Oh Em Gee. I didn't even know this place existed until after I'd gone to the Halal Guys!! It seemed like some people took offense of my review of the Halal Guys they had to personally message me and told me to go try this place out. LMFAO, seriously guys. Is Yelp that much of a sirius biznez for you? Chill, yo!! One message in particular was sent by someone who's obviously associated with Jones Fried Chicken because he/she only has three reviews and two of them are for Jones (five stars) and the Halal Guys (one star). Did you really think I would take your message seriously? Especially since your profile picture is of Salma Hayek???
Anyway, moving on to my REAL experience at Jones Fried Chicken. Since everyone seems to always compare the two halal places, of course I had to give it a try!
JFC has a much more extensive menu compared to THG. In addition to the rice platters, Jones also offers fried chicken (obviously), burgers, hot dogs, seafood, and a whole bunch of other stuff. But my review is obviously limited to the food that I've personally tried and the level of service that I received when i went there.
Unlike the Halal Guys that only offer chicken, beef, or a combo plate; JFC adds lamb meat to the mix. It would have been nice if I could get a combo of all three meats so I could have little taste of everything, but the only combo mix that was available (when I asked) to me was lamb/chicken combo. So unfortunately, I didn't get to taste the beef. But since all the other reviews are pretty much raving about the lamb anyway, I definitely didn't mind getting the lamb/chicken combo.
When I came here, it was pretty late at night around 9 or 10 pm. I don't remember exactly what time. But this place opens late so it's definitely a good place for some late night dining, or if you just want to pick up something to go late at night. There were only a couple of parties ahead of me so I didn't have to wait too long to place my order. As I mentioned above, I ordered the lamb and chicken over rice along with some fried chicken wings because a restaurant that promotes fried chicken in their name MUST have some good fried chicken, right?
Unlike the people at the Halal Guys, the cashier here wasn't too friendly. She was your typical blank faced, didn't seem to enjoy her job type of cashier who gave me a "how can I help you?" with no enthusiasm whatsoever. No worries though, after ordering what I wanted and paid; I waited a little bit while my meals were being prepared. The people who were preparing my meals didn't bother about how much sauce I wanted on my platter. Looking at the pictures posted here, it looks like some days you'll get just enough, some other days your meal will be flooded with the white sauce. Unfortunately, my meal was flooded with the white sauce (see picture).
I got my meals, I made my way home (I ordered to go). I didn't realize how much sauce I was given until after I got home, but hey more is better than less anyway. I scooped out some of the white sauce and chowed down, and let me just tell you that YES, JONES FRIED CHICKEN DOES SERVE SOME DELICIOUS RICE PLATTER!! Would I say that it's better than The Halal Guys? No. Not necessarily. The lamb does give Jones an upper hand in the halal wars between these two places since that's something that The Halal Guys doesn't offer. In addition to that, I can't deny that the lamb is very flavorful. One of these days, I'll just have to order from both places and try them side by side!!
As for the fried chicken wings. Meh. All I was able to taste was the oil. They tasted a little bland. I definitely wouldn't go back for the wings. I'd rather drive a little bit further out and get some Timmy Chan's fried chicken wings.
Anyway, I'm probably going to frequent Jones more often than I do The Halal Guys based on proximity alone since Jones is a lot closer for me than the Halal Guys. As for my rating, It's really a 3.5 due to the meh service and the meh fried chicken wings, but rounding up due to the delicious chicken and lamb over rice.
Will be back! read more