I became intrigued with going to Chicken World when I first saw the big billboard on Hwy 278 advertising their chicken cheddar cheese fries.  How can that combination not be excellent?  On this Friday evening, it became our destination.  When we arrived, right at 6:00, the place was completely empty.  How odd.  The walls were decorated with jerseys from the local high schools’ football teams and posters detailing season schedules for high school football, baseball, basketball and swimming dating back into the 1990s.

Adjacent to, and off to the right of the dining room, there was a large bar area, separated by a wall from the main dining room, with doors at each end.  I investigated while we waited for our food and found that the only typical bar accoutrement to the bar was a soda fountain.  Maybe they don’t have their liquor license?  It could also, possibly, be used for a banquet room, but the seating would seem awkward.

The menu is broad – sandwiches, wraps, chicken tenders, chicken fingers, burgers and barbecue.  The burgers I understood but the barbecue seemed like an unusual choice.  I later saw on their website that they were “now serving” Johnny’s barbecue. Well, that explains that.

Stepping up to the counter, we were greeted by a young woman telling us, “our chicken is fresh, never frozen, marinated and battered, then pressure fried, although everything is also available grilled.”  This appears to be their mantra, as I heard her repeat this several times to other folks as were waiting on our food.

Jo, apparently intrigued by the billboard, ordered the chicken cheddar cheese fries.  Back to my original question – “How can that combination not be excellent?”

You’d have to serve fries that weren’t fresh.  And you would have to serve the dish cold.  Success on both counts. On to my food.

I was looking for the best “sampler” and the server suggested a number three – chicken tenders, chicken wings, cheese sticks and fries.  The cheese sticks (and the accompanying marinara sauce) and the french fries were both from frozen food service, neither warm and neither fresh.

The chicken tenders, on the other hand were freshly cooked, almost warm and quite good. They have a huge variety of sauces (mild, hot, X hot, XXX hot, original barbecue, hot honey mustard, teriyaki, sweet & sour, teriyaki honey & pineapple, lemon & pepper and honey-BBQ), for dipping the tenders and for the wings.  My meal came with two sauces (I chose original barbecue and teriyaki) and I ordered the wings X hot.

The wings originally came out with barbecue sauce, instead of the hot sauce I ordered, but the young lady quickly re-plated the rest of my food and called in the corrected order.  The wings, even though prepared right then, were not crispy at all.  They were the opposite of crisp, yet not soft.  Kind of moist but chewy.

It appears that they’re going for a fast, fresh (cooked to order) approach to chicken, like Xaxby’s, but on this visit they didn’t even come close.  If they manage to stay in business, I may go back and try them for lunch when they might be busier with fresher food.  But probably not.