Getting food from U.S. based fast food restaurants is a crap shoot when visiting tourist areas in…read morethe Caribbean, especially since the service is consistently IDGAF (many times, probably deserved). So when we were dropped off by shuttle during mid-morning in downtown Charlotte Amalie from our cruise port, we had no intention of stopping by this visible Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant for lunch, thinking we would have more local opportunities in the area. Strangely that did not turn out to be the case, and ended up eating here for an early lunch. It turned out pretty good.
Our group of four (me, my wife, her mom, and my brother) needed an air-conditioned place to rest and eat a little something after we had done some walking around the nearby shopping districts in the hot, humid weather. So we figured we would wait around the area till 10:30 (the posted open time). The doors were still closed, when I checked, so figured the workers were on island time, and i went back to the group so we could go back to the ship. But as we started to head back, I decided to give the front doors one last pull, and lo and behold, it opened. So we went in.
My brother was in charge of placing the food order, while we found nearby seating. The attitude from the manager and workers was what I expected: we ordered what was available. He got a 8 piece meal ($44.99), and the choice of sides was limited (no mashed potatoes or corn or other types of sides, just two different types of fries). Choice of chicken was either original recipe or spicy, so got the spicy. Here, the breast pieces are split into 3rds so one chicken actually produces 12 pieces. It also comes with 4 biscuits, which we were warned would take 10 minutes. The chicken and fries came out fast and were very good. The wedges had just been deep fried in new oil so came out hot and crispy and delicious with a little ketchup. The fries were heavily batter dipped (not my favorite). The chicken tasted good...not sure if it is locally sourced or breaded on-site, but it was solid. It's been a long time I've had Kentucky Fried Chicken, so was surprised that the 'Original' tasted more like what extra crispy used to taste like.
The biscuits did come as we were finishing our meal, and they were piping hot when given to us. They were great, especially with a little bit of honey. There were no leftovers (good thing since open food like this is prohibited to be brought back on the ship). The absolute best thing about being first at opening was that the food was fresh and the dining area was pretty empty.
I completely acknowledge that most of what was good was based on the timing of our visit, as I'm sure less fresh chicken would absolutely be served later in the day. But the end result was a good one for our party, and deserving of a good review.