Category Archives: Chicken Shop

Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken

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Half chicken

Exterior

Interior

**** (4 stars)

River North can definitely use a good fried chicken place, and Gus’s fits the bill.

The place is surprisingly large. I was pleasantly surprised that table service was available.

Basically, you’re going to have chicken. You can have a breast, a thigh, a leg, a wing or any combination thereof. I had a half chicken so I could try them all. My favorite was the wing, which had the perfect crust to meat ration.

As you can tell from the name, the crust is spicy–not so hot you can’t taste anything else, but definitely spicy. It’s also nice and crisp, and not greasy (except maybe for the thigh).

The accompanying Cole slaw was delicious, with just the right hint of sweetness.  The beans were pretty good too.

Prices are good.

There’s a limited selection of beer, and probably the only reasonably priced bottle of Dom Perignon in all of River North!

Being brand new there were minor service and equipment issues, but overall a very good experience.

Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken
401 N State St
Chicago, IL
60611
(312) 285-2882
https://www.yelp.com/biz/guss-world-famous-fried-chicken-chicago-2

Nando’s PERi-PERi

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1/2 chicken, macho peas, garlic bread

Boneless breast and fries

Exterior

Interior

**** (4 stars)

I’m not sure whether to call this a counter serve or a quick serve, because it isn’t exactly either. When you enter you are assigned a table. Then you order at the counter. But they bring the food to the table. It’s not all that quick, but the food is well above fast food quality and nutritional value, so it’s really rather unique.

We had the half chicken and the boneless chicken breast. Both were marinated in the same peri-peri sauce. One was medium, the other was lemon herb. Frankly, there wasn’t a huge difference between the two flavors as served. However there is more sauce at the condiments counter, so we enjoyed adding more of those, and others.

The half chicken was moister than the boneless breast, but the breast was much easier to eat, so I’d get that next time.

For sides we had fries, garlic bread and mashed peas. The fries weren’t super crisp, but the garlic bread and the peas were excellent. The garlic bread is served nice and hot, and should be eaten immediately before it gets tough. Don’t get it if your order is to go.

The peas were by far the most interesting, a bit more textured than traditional mushy peas, and with a great mint flavor.

They have Coke Freestyle machines, so you can make your own interesting blends.

Everyone we encountered was friendly and helpful.

Nando’s PERi-PERi
22 S Wabash Ave
Ste B1
Chicago, IL 60603
(312) 589-7432
http://www.yelp.com/biz/nandos-peri-peri-chicago-18