This place satisfied the hell out of my Nashville hot chicken sandwich craving. Juicyyyy hot chicken goodness fried to perfection on a soft bun? Yes. Savory delicious coleslaw on the side (because I am a pansy with spicy things and I need something to save me)? Yes. With a nice cold beer in a nice cold glass? Yes.This place ticks all the boxes. I’m soooo glad we found this place and we’ll definitely be back to get more chickeny goodness.Ps ordering the sweet potato pecan pie. I bet it’ll be great.
Everything here is delicious! If you love fried chicken, you need to get there and order this for lunch and dinner. The fries are so good, and the mac-n-cheese is also great. It's flavorful, salty, spicy, and very well done for greasy eats days!
My favorite fried chicken sandwich in the Bay. Slightly better than Hotboys which is also in Oakland. The mac and cheese is also amazing. So glad Matt Horn ventured into the sandwich game.
My longer review boils down to: good flavors are here, but are locked behind inconsistent preparation of the food and sometimes just improperly cooked food.Chicken sandwiches - the only consistent part of our experiences, very delicious and a lot of care put into their construction and flavors. My personal favorite is the honey. I will say that in the multiple times I’ve been to Kowbird, there are times when the sandwich is perfect and other times where I feel like it’s been sitting for at least 10 minutes before coming out to me.Fries - Not sure if the fry oil temperature is wrong or the cooks don’t know how to make crispy fries, but I’ve only ever had super crispy rock hard almost burnt fries or soggy fries. And I am talking they give me the bag of fries and they are soggy. Kind of annoying.Chicken tenders (see picture) - this was the most disappointing thing we tried last time out (this past Sunday). Tenders were definitely fried at the wrong temperature and they were SOAKED in oil in the box we got, so much so that it soaked through the box and the takeout bag. Kind of gross. Not sure what was going on.All in all, I want to really like this place - I think their sandwiches are great! I don’t know why the fries are always all over the place and I don’t think I’ll ever be ordering chicken tenders again. If the consistency can be fixed, this is going to be an amazing restaurant.
Super crispy chicken sandwiches with amazing crunch. Nashville chicken isn't too hot and you can actually enjoy the flavor of the chicken. The honey chicken sandwich was a little on the sweet side but still pretty good if you are into a sweeter sauce. The homemade iced tea was nice too.
I think the spice level of the hot sandwich must vary wildly. I had it and could barely eat it, it was one of the spiciest things I have ever been served in the bay. It was habanero level hot.It would be better if they had something a bit healthier like grilled chicken available. The menu is tiny. It's pretty expensive also. Chicken sandwich came out to basically 20$ after tip.The ambiance is pretty neutral. Really it's a shame that the diner that used to be there closed.
The chicken sandwich was really good! It was flavorful and not overly coated with the sauce. Im not a big sandwich eater and only took two bites, but had to try Kowbird to compare to the new Dave's Hot Chicken in Union City. Kowbird won! The fries at Kowbird were really good too. Would I eat here again? Probably not, because I enjoy a healthier diet and there are no healthy options available and the prices are ridiculous! We paid over $40 for 2 sandwiches, 1 order of fries and 1 lemonade!Suggestions to the management team: 1. Get a sign on the front of your establishment. 2. Have menus available because everyone don't have a cellphone. 3. Hire more Black people to work at the entrance to your Black owned restaurant that's in, what was once an all Black neighborhood, prior to gentrification taking over.
I’m writing this for my wife, the chicken aficionado in the household. Everyone we went with had great things to say about Kowbird, a Matt Horn creation. Their fried chicken sandwiches are massive and well-dressed, fried to perfection, with a tasty Cole slaw you can order more of. The fries and Mac and cheese were great sides that showed as much care as the sandwich. The only complaint I heard was that the hot wasn’t that hot at all.
My husband and I stopped by on a Friday evening just after they opened. The classic chicken sandwich was all right—they use thighs instead of breasts which is a nice change from the traditional chicken sandwich. But it’s simply too expensive to be worth it for a sandwich that’s only fine. My real issue though was the hot bird. I’m wondering if they changed the recipe based on others’ reviews that it wasn’t hot at all. I like spicy food a lot, love Nashville hot chicken, and almost never have issues something being too spicy, but it was simply too hot to eat. We even tried scraping off some of the hot sauce. I will not be going back.
Excellent chicken sandwich. I got the hot chicken (there are 3 similar choices) which wasn't super "hot" but it was certainly super good. Large portion on a solid bun with minimal extra fixings. Apparently they fry in peanut oil so if you have a nut allergy I'm very sorry for your loss.Waited a few weeks until the hype died down, and there is no longer a Horn BBQ-style down the street line which is good. Unless you like waiting in lines.I will most definitely be back to see if the consistency holds up, cuz the sandwich I had was bangin'. Four stars.Update 2/27/22:The food is (still) good, but business-wise these guys are kind of totally blowing it. There is no menu on the wall, and no printed menu at all. If you don't have a phone that can read a QR code, then you're out of luck. Not only is this irritating but its also excluding anyone that doesn't have a phone. I was told that "their menu changes so much they can't print menus" but their menu is very small so this excuse is, to be polite, a non-starter.Anyway.... I stopped by on a Saturday afternoon at 2pm, there were 15 people out front, seated and waiting for food, no line, most people are not eating. I ordered and waited outside, happened to ask this other guy how long had he been waiting. "30-40 mins at least," he sullenly replied. He was bummed. I was like, "Oh, that's a bag" and went back inside to say, "I didn't realize the wait was so long, I don't have time, please cancel my order"... the counter person replied, "Oh, in that case we'll expedite your order." Hmmm.2 minutes later, despite the fact that I was the last customer to arrive, I got my food first. Great for me but not really a cool move, everybody was glaring at me as I left. In addition the fries were cold, chicken sando lukewarm.Still good but plenty of room for improvement considering what a simple operation this should be. 3 stars.