The Crispy Chick

The Crispy Chick opened on Woodland Avenue near the intersection with E. 55th in October 2019 in an old Church’s Chicken building. I had watched the renovations, so was happy once it finally opened. The Crispy Chick is a minority female owned business (the owner is from Eritrea but has lived in Cleveland for 20 years), which I like to support. The Crispy Chick serves chicken raised without hormones or antibiotics at affordable prices. The chicken is real whole chicken tenderloin with no gristle or fatty filler pieces. The sauces and seasonings are made from scratch.

The menu is quite limited. It only has four chicken tender meal choices – a strip sandwich, a three-piece, a four-piece (“Original Meal”), and a six-piece “Mega Meal.” The four piece comes with garlic toast, slaw and one sauce; the mega meal supposedly comes with garlic toast, slaw and two sauces. They also have a Kids Meal with two tenders, fries and sauce. There are also two chicken wing dinners – with three wings and ten wings. The sauce flavors are BBQ, Buffalo, Habanero, Honey Mustard, House Sauce, and Sriracha. The House Sauce is a zingy, creamy sauce. I liked it a lot, but I’m at heart a honey mustard girl. The two sauces go well together when both ordered. The drink choices are limited too – and not listed. They are (if I remember correctly) Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Dr. Pepper, Fruit Punch, and Orange. They also have fresh brewed tea and lemonade for $2.39 and $2.99. When I asked to mix the two she said it would be extra (??), but I think there might have been a communication problem with the intercom. They also have milkshakes for $3.95.

The first time I stopped I ordered a three-piece meal for $7.38. The tenders were delicious, the fries were decent enough, and the garlic bread toast was phenomenal. The three-tender meal comes with one sauce, but I wanted to try another sauce as well so I ordered a second sauce for another $0.75 (ordered BBQ and Honey Mustard). The second time I ordered a Mega Meal (6 tenders) and an extra garlic bread toast. The food itself is great. The size of the tenders vary, but they are juicy and perfect.

Despite the limited menu the service is pretty slow. The first time I wasn’t even sure it was open because I sat at the drive-thru ordering sign for a while without being greeted. A couple minutes later someone greeted me. I thought it was an anomaly until my second visit when I was asked to wait three times while sitting at the drive-thru ordering sign, she rang up the car in front of me that had drive up to the drive-thru window (because I could see their order being rung up on the sign), and then I was finally greeted. Once I got to the window I was handed my drink, eventually asked for my payment, and then after another minute asked to pull around, where I sat waiting for at least 15 minutes. I’m not quite sure what the hold up was, because nothing was blazing hot as if right out of the fryer. I was then told they were out of House sauce (they had one, which was in my bag, but I had asked for a House sauce and Honey Mustard so it was okay – she had just forgotten that). When I then checked my order in the car and went in to ask about the missing cole slaw I was told they were out of cole slaw. Out of House sauce and cole slaw at 5 PM on a Wednesday. Okay, I didn’t have my heart that set on the cole slaw any way…

While I was waiting two people went inside and came out with preordered meals, so that seems like the way to go. You can order on GrubHub, DoorDash or UberEats, but I’d rather go there in person and make sure they get the entire cost of my meal. The food is good and affordable, so preorder your meal or do not be in a rush if you stop here.