Andrew Wang
Google
Full experience including how to order: it's a cloud kitchen. You order at a self serve kiosk or online. Then there's another iPad to input your name in order to get a link via text message that opens your locker when your food is ready (this is especially helpful if you ordered online). There aren't many seats inside, but I think there might've been some Instagram hype that caused some reviews to mention a long wait. I went at 12p, and no one was there; it took 10 minutes to prepare the food.
Ok food: I got the Claude chicken sandwich non-spicy and waffle fried with non-spicy YEAYO mayo. If you're Chinese, I would recommend a dim sum shop instead because I think the food I had was dominantly MSG and the chef is probably inspired by Chinese cuisine given the chicken feet and amount of MSG; otherwise, the flavors are definitely unique, and you should give the sandwich a try. If you've been to a Chinese/Mexican grocery store, you may have had a bag of fried chicken skin or pork rinds. It basically tasted like Popeyes except the skin tasted more like the chicken skin/pork rind. In other words, it tasted like less salt and more MSG. The chicken feet especially tasted like fried chicken skin.
When I first bit into it, it was really cool. I'm not a chef, but it kinda tasted like cumin and honey were added. As I had more of the sandwich, it just tasted like Popeyes with the pickles and similar mayo sauce but different seasoning but 3x more expensive. I felt like the seasoning was slowly just becoming whatever oil and MSG combo is in classic chicken skin/pork rinds.
The waffle fries are good especially since I got them buy 1 get 1 free on Uber Eats instead of ordering at the kiosk. They're classic waffle fries with the same cuminy-honey-y seasoning on the chicken. The YEAYO mayo was mayo with a little tanginess. Not for everyone; it was ok, but you should definitely get a mayo instead of eating the fries with ketchup for a different flavor experience.
Conclusion: no matter how fancy you make a chicken sandwich, you can't get too fancy without ruining the flavor. In this case, I think I would rather get Popeyes and some chicken skin from Chinatown. It's a different taste from the classic fried chicken, but not worth the price or hype. However, if you have the money and are tired of Popeyes somehow or you're not Chinese, it's a unique flavor profile that I'm sure you'd like. I'm also Chinese, so the fried chicken feet was not too special; I'd recommend a dim sum shop to actually taste chicken feet and some pork rinds. I feel like Birdbox is Chinese but with an American twist lol, but that's just because I like fried chicken skin.