Ready for another scathing review?
Try this one, Krispy Krunchy Chicken.
KKC is a KFC-like joint run by a close-to-middle age desi man. It is located at 869 S. Roselle Rd. in Schaumburg. Situated in the middle of a strip mall, it wasn't hard to find. The interior is clean and brightly lit. There was a hand sanitizer dispenser in the front next to the counter and a big T.V. set high up in one corner of the restaurant. There were only 4 2-seater tables in the entire restaurant though they had room for more and those tables were sticky and dirty. Mostly, it seemed like the type of place where one picks up food from and definitely not a dine-in place. There wasn't anything on the walls except the menu which were really 3 menus as I will explain later. In front was the register, a window showcasing the different types of cooked chicken, and a door to get to the back. Very simple. The back of the restaurant, which was easily viewable was stocked with all sorts of paper products and kitchen equipment (which in my opinion, should have been all covered up with some drywall).
The door to the back and the kitchen was left ajar. This wouldn't necessarily have been a problem if this would have been a regular restaurant and you couldn't see the "inner workings", but seeing as how it was a desi-run operation, one would of course expect ghetto-ness and so of course there it was. When we got there, there was a family with kids also dining at KKC (which we later deduced was related to the desi guy at the register). While him and the owner were in the kitchen, away from public view, the kids went through the back door and got behind the register and were goofing off. Some even went near the cooked chicken that was on display. I doubt they did anything, but what if they had touched the cooked chicken with their grubby hands?! Or what if they got burned on the warming pans?! This was clearly a hazard the owner nor the employee cared about because when they returned they were not at all shocked that the kids were back there nor did they hurry them out of there!
Onto the food! As mentioned before, KKC offers 3 different dining options, all of which are fully Zabiha Halal. 1. Fried Chicken. 2. Burgers: Cheeseburgers, Italian Beef burgers, Tex Mex Burgers, etc. 3. Indian food like Fried Okra and Samosas (I think the last one is due to the owners background). They also have a pretty large dessert menu for a chicken place which featured pre-packaged Tres Leche Cake, Cheescake, Cookies & Cream Cake, and Tiramisu. For starters, we ordered the wings which I have been craving lately. We were told over the phone earlier that they had different varieties since I absolutely abhor the vinegary, regular buffalo wings. When we get there, imagine our surprise when the guy at the register says that he remembers we called and "actually, we don't have other varieties, but we will soon". Not good enough buddy. Anyway, I decided to give them the benefit-of-doubt and order them anyway because I thought it might be like Italian Express (another hugely ghetto, desi-run organization) where they say that they serve buffalo wings/hot wings, but have a completely different sauce on them (which is actually pretty good). To my dismay, they were the regular kind. Luckily, my husband was kind enough to finish them off for us and so I decided I'd try the Cajun Chicken tenders. Note, everything at KKC is Cajun battered, its sort of like their "original recipe". The tenders also came with a biscuit which was all right. They were Honey Butter Biscuits, not my thing since I don't like to mix sweet with salty, but I can see how they would appeal to others. The tenders were pretty good; however, what was disappointing and a little hard to believe, was they ran out of their famous "Cajun sauce" that is supposed to go with all these things. Right... On a Saturday night you ran out of your most famous sauce at 7pm? Before the crowds have even come in? Give me a break, more like someone forgot to order enough to begin with (see above mentioned desi ghetto-ness). I ended up eating the tenders with regular BBQ sauce.
Up to this point, the service was pretty decent, despite the fact that there were a lot of people coming in and out with pick-up orders. This was all while there were 2 people working, but once the employee at the register had to leave, the owner's service was horrible even though there weren't many customers at that point. After eating just the wings and tenders, we were still hungry and decided to split an order of small fries. After we ordered, a couple came in with a large order that the owner was busy filling so, once again, we gave him the benefit-of-doubt and waited. Notice, we are still sitting in front of the register, so he can still see us plain as day. 5 minutes go by, 10 minutes, the owner lets us know that they are making a fresh batch, 15 minutes, 20 minutes and the other couple leaves, finally at 25 minutes my husband asks him what happened to the fries, to which the guy responds "oh I forgot, coming right up!" Oh hell no. I lost it. I went off on him (ok, by going off on him, I mean really to my husband. But loud enough so that he could hear!) about how he could've possibly forgotten, and how we've been sitting in front of his face this whole time, etc. All over a tiny order of small fries! Needless to say, we will not be going back there again. I'll stick with the halal KFC in Lombard and pray that they introduce halal wings soon.
Spice Card
Atmosphere: C-
Staff/Waiter: D-
Food: B-
