Char-Grilled Chicken @ “The Famous” Chicken Place
Every city I’ve lived in has had some form of delicious chicken for lunch time. In Boston, there is Boston Market. The chicken is decent, the sides are eh, but man- is that corn bread good. In Los Angeles it is Zankou Chicken, a small chain of Lebanese chicken joints where the food is super cheap, and the star of the show is this unbelievable garlic sauce that every bite of chicken gets dipped into. But hands down, my favorite chicken place is in my hometown of Miami, and it’s name is Pollo Tropical! If you’ve never been, it’s basically a cuban version of Boston Market, serving char-grilled chicken with rice, beans, & plantains or fried yucca. Awesome. Everytime I go home, I never miss a visit to Pollo Tropical. They are mostly located in Florida, with two weird mysterious locations in the NY/NJ area, one of which I saw while on a bus to the Meadowlands. It was almost like a mirage in the distance, my eyes struggling to make out the sign, wishing I could stop the bus and quench my cuban food thirst… (I still haven’t been)
But alas, there is no Pollo Tropical, or Zankou Chicken in Midtown- so we’ve got to live with what we’ve got… and it seems as if “The Famous” Chicken Place is where it’s at. A small hole in the wall on 3rd Ave. (btw. 38th & 39th), they serve up char-grilled chicken & sides, at amazingly cheap prices.
Pics of the chicken, what I got and the +/- after the jump…
Posted by Zach at 8:30 am, February 1st, 2007 under *3rd Ave. btw. 38+39th, Famous Chicken Place.
Name: Josh
Nothing gets New Yorkers going like a good Hamburger post. You could argue about the best burger forever, and there would never be consensus. It all comes down to what is most important to you? Size? Value? Quality of meat? Toppings? Fries? Location? I don’t know what is most important to me. I’d like to think it’s value, but the Burger Joint in the Parker Meridien is no deal, yet because of the quality of the meat, and the cool “hidden” location, I seem to ignore the price. Prime Burger is one of the older places in Midtown, makes there burger with quality meat, and has a great atmosphere, yet but because you have to order from a menu, and the burger comes totally plain I didn’t like it as much because the value wasn’t there. When the Prime Burger post went up in September, a lot of people commented on it, pointing me towards “The Blarney Stone”, a place where atmosphere and value come together in a gigantic burger, where the quality may not be good enough for some- but was good enough for me! 
This was the first comment… and at the time, I sort of ignored it because it sounded like an Irish Pub, where you had to sit at a table and order from a menu (not really a Midtown Lunch kind of thing). The Blarney Stone is an Irish Pub, and there are tables- but there are no waiters. You order from a counter, and then take your food to one of the tables in the back.
Two very important details in this comment (aside from the $4 price tag). First, my burger was cooked a noticeably perfect Medium rare. Second, they give you a ridiculous amount of cheese. It’s only 50 cents, and they really don’t skimp. I don’t know if you can tell from the pic, but the thick white layer above the burger is actually cheese. I can’t be sure, but I feel pretty confident in saying there could possibly be an unheard of, 2 to 1 meat to cheese ratio. 
I don’t often eat at (or write about) generic fast food chains, but every once in awhile something will catch my eye, and I just can’t resist. This blog was practically launched on my reporting about the craziness surrounding the opening of Chipotle in my building. I also wrote about the one 
I think it started back in Junior High when Burger King introduced the first and original Bullseye BBQ Burger. Man, that thing was awesome. It seems commonplace now, but doing that cross promotion thing with Bullseye was total genius (I’m pretty sure I forced my mom to buy that sauce for years afterwards). I remember seeing it on the menu and ordering it for the first time. Two bacon cheeseburgers, side by side- covered in Bullseye BBQ sauce. How could it be bad? And then one day it was gone. Oh boy was I pissed. And yet- even now, all these years later I forget that anger, and get suckered in once again; falling in love with these crazy menu items that disappear without warning, leaving you wanting just one more taste… (Has anybody had that fried chicken finger wrapped in a tortilla that McDonald’s has? I really want to try it but I know my wife won’t ever let me live it down)
Who says 4 posts about a mediocre Bulgogi cart is overkill??? (Clearly you didn’t see me the week 
They have Bulgogi (Korean BBQ’d beef) or Chicken, served with rice, & salad for $5. But here’s the real kicker… they throw in a drink for free! (Soda or water) It is a pretty amazing deal. The menu has spicy and non-spicy versions of each of the two dishes posted, but if you order it “spicy” they just give you a cup of red hot sauce to pour over it yourself. They also give you a very small cup of kimchi (fermented cabbage), which is a real nice touch.
Name: Dan
