Savory Fried Chicken

9174 Franklin Blvd

Elk Grove, CA 95758

Rating: ★★★☆☆ 

Having tried Filipino fried chicken before from Jollibee, we were hoping to have a similarly tasty experience at an actual restaurant as well. Unlike Jollibee, Savory Fried Chicken serves up chicken as half of a whole chicken instead of in pieces. When we entered the restaurant, there was one other couple at a table, but they did not seem busy at all. When we got up to the counter to order, we reviewed the menu and staff answered questions. Various traditional Filipino items were available on the menu, and we intended to try as much as we can eat.

Today, we decided to order the fried half-chicken combo with four pieces of lumpia and steamed rice, four pieces of longanisa, and the pork adobo rice dish. The half-chicken seemed smaller than half of an actual chicken and came with an attached drumstick and wing. After cutting up the chicken, we did not find a lot of meat on the chicken, which resembled more of the size of a Cornish hen rather than half of a cooked rotisserie chicken. The meat was tender and juicy and the skin remained crispy throughout. The chicken tasted savory in each bite, and went well with the provided gravy. The lumpia was quite disappointing due to the size and the filling. There was not a lot of meat in the lumpia and did not have a lot of flavor on its own. The lumpia tasted better when dipped in the sweet and sour sauce. We did like how the lumpia stayed crispy throughout, but I think it was due to the thicker layer of wrapper. The rice that accompanied the meal was mushy and not cooked properly. The longanisa sausages came sliced in half with grill-marks across the flat sides and topped with a thick glaze that resembled honey barbecue sauce mixed with egg roll sauce. The meat tasted sweet and tasty, filled with flavor. The pork adobo came simply presented in a bowl and a side of rice. There were quite a few chunks of meat swimming in the simple soy-sauce based sauce. The sauce was very watery and went well to flavor the rice. The pork was usually tender, but there were pieces that were harder than others. There was not a lot of flavor from the meat itself, where much of the flavor came from the sauce instead.

Overall, Savory Fried Chicken was more of a disappointment, but the food tasted decent. The chicken and longanisa do not seem like that great of a value considering the amount of food received. Having not tried out too much Filipino food, this experience was good overall. If you never tried Filipino food, then Savory Fried Chicken would be a good option, but I do not feel that their food was that spectacular. If the chicken was bigger and prices a bit lower, then I may have a more favorable opinion of the restaurant.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.