Elaine P.
Yelp
TL;DR decent edible chicken is not Nashville style. They don't pay attention to soft drink levels, seating is uncomfortable, music is annoying.
I became interested in Nashville style chicken after having some at Crack House on the Las Vegas strip. After returning home to Thousand Oaks, I was hoping to find something similar to what I had there, if not identical. So far, no joy.
First, I'm looking for a choice of bone-in pieces with a spicy shell-like coating. The ultra crispy shell-like coating of true Nashville fried chicken, is created with some type of marinade such as buttermilk or pickle juice, and a double dredge of wheat flour combined with corn or potato starch, laced with hot spices and a few herbs. It's fried, then steamed to cook the meat through, then finished with spiced frying oil to restore the extreme crisp.
Angry Chickz only offers tenders in sandwiches or bowls. The coating is slightly crispy but the crisp is thin and created from the combination of spices and very little flour. It's bright red from the dusting of a pepper blend. If you pick it up, it will turn your fingers red. The coating easily falls off the meat when lifted up from the bowl. If you're expecting Nashville chicken, this isn't it. It is really more like heavily spiced deep fried chicken tenders in a sandwich bun or atop a bowl.
I ordered the Hangry Bowl with medium spiciness. It was a little spicier than I expected, but it was fine. Hangry isn't on their regular menu, you have to go there. It's a base of "buttery" rice with three large tender strips on top. On the side are cole slaw and mac and cheese. Spotting the iced tea dispenser, I also ordered a large fountain drink.
The mac and cheese was very creamy -- too creamy in my opinion -- with a paucity of cheese. I like to taste a little sharpness in mac and cheese. The cole slaw was nothing special; shredded cabbage and carrots with a fair amount of tang.
The buttery rice was a decent pile of basmati rice. Unfortunately it was overcooked and had the consistency of oatmeal. Unfortunate that, it tasted like it was high quality prior to cooking.
The iced tea was such a sad situation. Out. It dispensed slightly tinted water. Another guest commented, "There's something wrong with this iced tea." Yes, there was. He went to the front to let them know. An employee went back there, emerged with an empty bag n box, and talked to the guest. By the body language I could tell it hadn't improved. Wishful thinking, I went back to try for more. Nope, just as bad as before. I settled for Diet Coke.
The environment is very "live", as in echoey. Metal seats, hard surface tables, hard laminate floors. Televisions were playing muted football. The chairs with backs on them were the kind also found at Snapper Jacks. That is, to slide far enough back to relax the back, you better have a butt no bigger than 36". The braces that connect the back to the seat will gouge into your sides. To end the pain imposed upon the proximal epiphysis of your femurs, you'll need to sit on one of the stools at a high top. The stool seat tops will accommodate about 2/3 of a normal adult derierre but at least the pain is transferred from there to your back with no support. Suffice it to say, the seating is not comfortable.
Adding to the liveliness of the room. The loud music. Shazam told me its genre was "pop". It was nothing like Michael Jackson. You know, the King Of Pop? This music was driven by an electronic drum beat, with some autotune singer squawking over and over, a range of three notes. We stayed long enough to discover the hideous music was not an anomaly. It kept playing the same torture by different "artists".
If my review helped you in any way, please give it a rating below. Thanks.
