April 13, 2010
Home of Chicken & Waffles (OAK)
Went to see guitarists Bill Frissell and Marc Ribot at Yoshi’s the other night. What an awesome duo! But aside from the music, of course the quintessential question was, “Where should we eat before the show?” I helped brainstorm a bit with Ron (because that is what I do), and we decided on the Home of Chicken & Waffles, right in Jack London Square.
When you walk in, you’re greeted by portraits of diners painted on the canary yellow walls. The bar area (which was hoppin’) is on the right side, and the dining room (relatively slow) is on the left. There’s a counter, so it has a real diner feel.
The bar was stocked with some great booze (Kraken rum, which makes a great Cuba Libre), and they have this out-of-control “Remy Chill” refrigeration machine that serves VSOP Remy at 0ºF. Enough said.
The menu is quite extensive, with lots of combination platters, mains and sides. I love the names of the dishes, like “The Homeboy”, “Njambi’s Magic”, and “Taste of Toussaint”. With names like that, how can you not love this place?
Enric and I split the “Lord BJ” which is 4 pieces of fried chicken and two waffles, all for $15! I deeply regret not getting this smothered with onions and gravy, for 50 cents extra. FAIL.
This was so incredibly satisfying. The waffle was… a waffle. Nothing spectacular, but the chicken was definitely awesome, and I think everyone at the table might have agreed. Not too much batter, nicely spiced, cooked well. Plus the combination of the waffle and fried chicken is just friggin ingenious.
Fried Chicken Porn.
“Jason’s Pick”: Greens, black-eyed peas, rice, cornbread with a piece of chicken. The beans were stewed with love.
“Angie’s Delight”: Waffle, chicken and grits. So clean, so simple.
Side orders of greens and candied yams. How we forgot to order the much-touted mac and cheese, I do not know. FAIL #2.
I am reading on their website that this place was opened by a co-owner of the original Roscoe’s, of SoCal fame. There used to be a Roscoe’s in Oakland, but it closed many years back. Check out Sashe’s post on UM from when she went to Roscoe’s in the LBC.
Greatest thing about the Home of Chicken and Waffles? It’s open till midnight on weekdays, and 2am on weekends! How awesome is that? Place was definitely poppin’ when we left at 10pm, at least the bar area. There were all these bouncers at the door, and I recall a velvet rope. Classic.
HOME OF CHICKEN AND WAFFLES
444 Embarcadero West
Oakland, CA
T: 510.836.4446
6 Comments
Looks yum, but I’m still having a hard time getting my head around the sweet and savoury combo (like pancakes with bacon). Is that a very American thing?
the pie there is good too!
“‘Angie’s Delight’: Waffle, chicken and grits. So clean, so simple.”- Really? I wouldn’t descibe fried chicken and waffles with a cup of grits “clean” :)
Sakura, good question. For some reason, I always need my bacon on another plate when I’m having pancakes, whereas I totally did not mind the fried chicken. Hmmm…
Alright Tomo, I guess you have a point. But it LOOKS so clean, doesn’t it?
Interesting. My wife, daughter and I just went here for the 1st time a few weeks ago. I totally agree with your observations, the chicken was great! I actually thought it was very reminiscent of what KFC “used to” taste like (meaning how I remember KFC tasting when I was a child. KFC doesn’t actually taste anything like what I remember it tasting like as a child…I kind of wonder if it is even fried at all, it is so soggy!). I also agree about the “waffle” it was WAY too spongy. I think they could easily fix this by cooking the waffle slightly longer…I wonder if one could request that? I just can’t eat soggy spongy waffles…or should I say awffles?
awffles! love it!!