Chicken Holiday
1203 Grand Avenue
Baldwin, NY 11510
516-505-0909
http://www.chickenholidaybaldw.com/index.htm
Maps and Directions
I am not quite as lucky as Jody is... he gets to walk through Manhattan, stare at the skyline, enjoy people watching, sit down at sidewalk cafes and find places to grab wings for lunch. I drive through Baldwin on the south shore of Long Island... not the prettiest area. There is nothing wrong with Baldwin, but it sure as hell does not compare to Manhattan. Jody... you lucky son of a gun.
As you head off Exit 20 South on the Southern State Parkway there is a small strip mall about a half a mile from the parkway on the east side. It has a good deli, decent chinese food (with surprisingly good sushi), decent pizza and a few other shops. There is also a fried chicken joint called Chicken Holiday. It is a franchise chicken place, but being individually owned and operated, they are free to change up the menu any way they see fit, the complete opposite of how McDonalds runs their franchises (McDonalds fries that you eat in NY taste the same as they do in Cali, London and Moscow. Quality control for the whole company and all of the franchises). I was anxious to see how they handled their buffalo wings.
I ran out for a late lunch and ordered 8 Buffalo Style Wings with a side of french fries and grabbed a seat at one of the two available tables. Chicken Holiday is not a very large restaurant and only has the 2 tables for dining in. I wanted to eat in and not rush back to work, so I was lucky enough to find the place empty. It was, as I said, a late lunch, so I am assuming the lunch rush was over. My food came out in about 10 minutes and I was a little surprised when I opened the Styrofoam container with my lunch.
I found 8 relatively small, not tiny, but small breaded and fried chicken wings. They came with two plastic cups; one with hot sauce and one with bleu cheese. I did not realize that "Buffalo Style Wings" means "Do-It-Yourself" at Chicken Holiday. But hey, what kind of Wingman would I be if I were afraid of a little work? Not very much of one, I dare say. So I dipped my wings in the hot sauce and then the bleu cheese and then ate them.
What did I think? Well, they were definitely forgettable as Buffalo Wings. The hot sauce had to have come out of a large economy sized plastic container and was not home-made. So think about taking your KFC and dipping it in Frank's Red Hot Sauce. Same concept. Not a bad concept, but not a true buffalo wing. As fried chicken wings, they were good. I love fried chicken and this place makes some damn good fried chicken.
When you get down to it, they were crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside and piping hot when I started to eat them. The breading was very well made and they tasted delicious. Even the generic hot sauce was decent. All in all, a forgettable buffalo wing experience, but a very good chicken wing outing.
The intangibles: Price wise, Chicken Holiday is on the high side for wings. 8 wings for $6.75, 16 wings for $12.99, 24 wings for $19.49 and 48 wings for $38.99. Thats $.84 per wing for the small meal and about $.81 for a lot of fried chicken wings with a tub of hot sauce. So you seem to pay extra to do the work yourself. The staff were great, very friendly and eager to help. The place is small, but it is very clean and they have a television so people waiting for their to-go orders can watch as they wait.
So, you want to know the absolute worst thing about this place? It is their website! It the most annoying website ever. The chicken dance starts softly in the background and then progressively gets louder... luckily there is a stop button on the page. Other than that, is it just a very busy site, like someone took everything they know about moving .gifs and flash and just threw it on one page. Visit the restaurant, not the website.
1203 Grand Avenue
Baldwin, NY 11510
516-505-0909
http://www.chickenholidaybaldw.com/index.htm
Maps and Directions
I am not quite as lucky as Jody is... he gets to walk through Manhattan, stare at the skyline, enjoy people watching, sit down at sidewalk cafes and find places to grab wings for lunch. I drive through Baldwin on the south shore of Long Island... not the prettiest area. There is nothing wrong with Baldwin, but it sure as hell does not compare to Manhattan. Jody... you lucky son of a gun.
As you head off Exit 20 South on the Southern State Parkway there is a small strip mall about a half a mile from the parkway on the east side. It has a good deli, decent chinese food (with surprisingly good sushi), decent pizza and a few other shops. There is also a fried chicken joint called Chicken Holiday. It is a franchise chicken place, but being individually owned and operated, they are free to change up the menu any way they see fit, the complete opposite of how McDonalds runs their franchises (McDonalds fries that you eat in NY taste the same as they do in Cali, London and Moscow. Quality control for the whole company and all of the franchises). I was anxious to see how they handled their buffalo wings.
I ran out for a late lunch and ordered 8 Buffalo Style Wings with a side of french fries and grabbed a seat at one of the two available tables. Chicken Holiday is not a very large restaurant and only has the 2 tables for dining in. I wanted to eat in and not rush back to work, so I was lucky enough to find the place empty. It was, as I said, a late lunch, so I am assuming the lunch rush was over. My food came out in about 10 minutes and I was a little surprised when I opened the Styrofoam container with my lunch.
I found 8 relatively small, not tiny, but small breaded and fried chicken wings. They came with two plastic cups; one with hot sauce and one with bleu cheese. I did not realize that "Buffalo Style Wings" means "Do-It-Yourself" at Chicken Holiday. But hey, what kind of Wingman would I be if I were afraid of a little work? Not very much of one, I dare say. So I dipped my wings in the hot sauce and then the bleu cheese and then ate them.
What did I think? Well, they were definitely forgettable as Buffalo Wings. The hot sauce had to have come out of a large economy sized plastic container and was not home-made. So think about taking your KFC and dipping it in Frank's Red Hot Sauce. Same concept. Not a bad concept, but not a true buffalo wing. As fried chicken wings, they were good. I love fried chicken and this place makes some damn good fried chicken.
When you get down to it, they were crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside and piping hot when I started to eat them. The breading was very well made and they tasted delicious. Even the generic hot sauce was decent. All in all, a forgettable buffalo wing experience, but a very good chicken wing outing.
The intangibles: Price wise, Chicken Holiday is on the high side for wings. 8 wings for $6.75, 16 wings for $12.99, 24 wings for $19.49 and 48 wings for $38.99. Thats $.84 per wing for the small meal and about $.81 for a lot of fried chicken wings with a tub of hot sauce. So you seem to pay extra to do the work yourself. The staff were great, very friendly and eager to help. The place is small, but it is very clean and they have a television so people waiting for their to-go orders can watch as they wait.
So, you want to know the absolute worst thing about this place? It is their website! It the most annoying website ever. The chicken dance starts softly in the background and then progressively gets louder... luckily there is a stop button on the page. Other than that, is it just a very busy site, like someone took everything they know about moving .gifs and flash and just threw it on one page. Visit the restaurant, not the website.
Why don't you just review every ghetto fried chicken place? KFC, Kennedy Fried Chicken, etc? I should have known by the lame review that this is far from anything somewhat serious. Go to a REAL establishment and do a review. Its 3 drunks thinking they know wings, just like everyone else who goes into a bar every sunday for football. Somehow i dont see zagats calling you for employment anytime soon.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, you could be much more constructive by suggesting an establishment of which you would like to have reviewed.
ReplyDeleteAn open letter to Anonymous...
ReplyDeleteDear reader who posted that less than favorable comment:
Thank you for your interest in our site and for reading the review of Chicken Holiday. Thank you for the very contsructive suggestion of future places to review. KFC and Kennedy Fried Chicken are places that we, as The Wingmen, will discuss reviewing in the future.
I assure you, we take this very seriously, in a not-so-serious way. We state on our Facbook page that we are: "just three guys who love buffalo wings. Hot, teriyaki, honey mustard, BBQ... it doesn't matter to us, as long as they are tasty!" And we mean it. We are trying to have fun while helping other find good wings when they go out, be it for dinner, drinks or on the road.
We have reviewed dozens of establishments, so you can read down the list on the blog and take a look at what you consider to be "REAL." We try not to discriminate when we choose a restaurant to review. All we care about is good wings, not what you think may be "ghetto," I mean really, what does that even mean? Are you making a less than politically correct statement?
As for being 3 drunks who think we know wings, well, none of us drink all that much, but we do enjoy an adult beverage every now and again. Do we know wings better than anyone else? I cannot say for sure, but we never claim to know more than anyone else. Hell, the 3 of us cannot agree half the time, and that is what makes this blog real. We are offering opinion to help out our readers.
So again, thanks for your comment and just know that we take everything everyone says to us seriously.
Anxiously awaiting Zagat's call,
Steve
I'm pretty sure when you walk into chicken holiday, you have a good idea of what a ghetto ass place is. And naah i wouldnt say y'all know wings better then anyone else. one of your honey mustard pics reviews "solid honey mustard flavor". great review.
ReplyDeleteWhat's up Big Paul. I'd have to agree with you... we don't know wings better than anyone else. That's kind of the point. We're just a bunch of average guys that like to eat them and figured we'd share with anyone who might be interested.
ReplyDeleteJust one last thing... for your edification, the pictures are not reviews, they are just photographic evidence of the wing experience. The comments on the pictures are not meant to be reviews at all.
ReplyDelete