Fans of chicken, you're in luck: a variety of new eateries specializing in the world's most popular poultry have flocked to the city in recent months. Here are the three newest places to keep in mind next time you're hankering for a tasty, low-effort meal.
Rooster & Rice
4039 18th St., Castro
The new Castro location of Rooster & Rice is the fourth in San Francisco for owners Bryan Lew and Tommy Charoen, who swapped it in for their former Indonesian fusion restaurant Indo at 4039 18th St., as we recently reported.
Rooster & Rice specializes in poached chicken and rice, dishing up the Thai version of the dish (khao mun gai), with a soy-chili-ginger dipping sauce — as opposed to Castro neighbor and fellow recent arrival Gai, which offers the Thai, Cantonese and Vietnamese versions of the popular street food.
The simple menu includes variations like the Marina, with skinless breast meat and brown rice; and the Paleo, which swaps rice for veggies.
With a 4.5-star Yelp rating out of five reviews, the new chicken shop has been getting positive attention.
"Their #1, which is the original, is awesome. It comes with rice, chicken, cilantro and cucumbers. Plus, I added in a soft-poached egg," wrote Yelper Bennett W. "In addition to their food being delicious, service [is] excellent, [and] their staff members are always so friendly."
Yelper Cherylynn N. said of her chicken: "Clean, tasty broth, tender dark meat, and flavorful fermented soybean [tao jeow] dipping sauce — but the white meat was dry (soft-opening kinks, I'm sure)."
Rooster & Rice is open from 11 a.m.–9 p.m. on Tuesday-Saturday. (It's closed on Monday and Sunday.)
GloWing
3251 20th Ave., Stonestown
GloWing is a Korean-style fried chicken spot specializing in a variety of flavored wings. It's located inside the Stonestown Galleria food court.
Customers can choose from 20 different spices or sauces for their wings, including maple sriracha, peanut butter and the extra-spicy Fire Alarm. GloWing also offers novelty 24-karat-gold gilded chicken wings, which "cluck" in at $11.99 for four pieces.
Want something healthier? The eatery serves a grilled chicken salad, or sides like crispy zucchini or blue rice. Take a peek at the full menu here; delivery is also offered through DoorDash and Postmates.
With a three-star rating out of 30 reviews on Yelp, the fledgling business is still finding its way, but it's early days.
Yelper Kimiko Q. noted that her boyfriend loved his regular wings, but said of her meal, "It's an expensive, more [time-consuming] and less flavorful version of Wingstop. I hope for god's sake they improve, because I hate the trek to Daly City and want to support smaller, local businesses."
"Overall I thought the wings were tasty ... they come out super crunchy and you can dip as little or as much per bite as you'd like," Cathrin P. C. wrote. "Not sure what they can do about the wait time, since I'd rather they cook my wings to order as opposed to just having a bunch pre-made [and] lying around."
GloWing is open from 10 a.m.–9 p.m. Monday-Saturday and 11 a.m.–6 p.m. on Sunday.
Krispy Krunchy Chicken
393 Eddy St., Tenderloin
Krispy Krunchy Chicken's new Tenderloin location, near the corner of Eddy and Leavenworth streets, is unusual for the Louisiana-based business dubbed "America's Best Fried Chicken Chain" by Thrillist. Since Krispy Krunchy normally operates out of gas stations, this standalone storefront is a rarity, as we reported when it opened.
On Krispy Krunchy's menu, diners can select meals of two, three or four pieces of chicken, plus a biscuit. Larger orders of eight to 25 pieces are available with all dark meat, all white meat or a mix of the two.
There's also chicken sandwiches, buffalo wings and sides like boudin bites — deep-fried balls of pork, rice and Cajun spices. You can see the full menu here, and the restaurant offers delivery through GrubHub.
With a four-star Yelp rating out of 30 reviews on Yelp, Krispy Krunchy has been getting positive attention from patrons.
"This is a superior fried chicken — tender, moist, crispy, perfectly cooked, a little spicy and and just greasy enough to feel dangerous," opined Yelper Jason K. "The biscuit was more like dessert — a nugget of buttery cake slathered in a gooey, honey-sweet syrupy elixir."
Sandi L. noted, "I ordered delivery. One problem I often see is crispy dishes are covered so that steam cannot escape, defeating the crispy crunchy texture we all love. Happily, however, my order was packaged to retain that delicious crispy, crunchy, perfectly cooked juicy chicken."
Intrigued? Krispy Krunchy Chicken is open from noon–10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday and noon–midnight on Friday and Saturday.
This story was created automatically using local business data, then reviewed and augmented by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.
