A good downtown food scene has lots of different options - different ethnicities, styles and price…read morepoints - to cater to the equally varied tastes and needs of people.
I was wanting a quick bite before meeting coworkers for a drink, and Iron Rooster fit the bill. The store was quiet for a Friday evening, and the lone staff member doubled as both server and cook.
The menu is somewhat lean (figuratively speaking, as it's more vegetable-adverse than KFC!), with familiar fried chicken items like wings, drumsticks, house-made popcorn chicken, strips and a chicken burger. Sides are equally deep fried and brown. I wish the menu would lean more into more obviously Asian versions of fried chicken, but a couple such options do show up, with the Beijing chicken wrap and a curry chicken bowl (effectively karaage don).
I ended up going with Combo Meal A, which gives you the option of a chicken burger or the Beijing wrap, and fries or a couple chicken wings. Unsurprisingly, I went for the wrap and did not double down on chicken, opting for the fries instead.
I was eating-in, so my food came as it was ready. The fries came in the now very common, mini-deep-fryer basket, with a decent amount of golden brown fries filling it. They were crispy-coated, so a bit of a cop-out in this golden age of hand-cut fries, but hey, they were still wonderfully crisp, hot and fluffy! Oh, and I got a garlic seasoning on them as well, so they had some more oomph.
The wrap soon followed, rolled up in paper that has some very cute branding! It wasn't huge, with a couple chicken strips, pickled cucumber, green onion, and a sweet and salty, teriyaki-esque sauce. The flavours all kind of worked though, and the pliable wrap (not sure what its origins were, as it seemed too stretchy to be a standard wheat tortilla) held up well. The chicken's crispness suffered from the sauce and self-steaming, but these things happen.
My second visit had me stopping in before a trivia night with friends, and this time I went for the half-sized portion of Cornish hen, once again getting fries for my side.
There were a few takeout orders ahead of me in the queue, but it wasn't too long of a wait.
My basket of fries came out first, and the crispy coating and garlic seasoning were just as good as last time.
It was a bit longer for my chicken, but it was worth it. The batter was good and crispy, the meat tender and juicy, and it was an ongoing battle between my hunger and self-preservation instinct from the hot-out-of-the-fryer chicken. Interestingly, the chicken is cooked as one solid piece, as being broken down into its constituent parts would have made for a better coating-to-meat ratio, and it would cook quicker too. My chosen side sauce of honey garlic added further flavour and a contrasting hit of sweetness.
Service on both visits was very friendly and helpful.
Sometimes you just have to scratch that itch for fried chicken, and Iron Rooster has got your fix.