Okay, folks. Time for some eats from a part of town you probably don’t head to very often: Logan Heights! I had a coupon in the Entertainment 2015 book for a little spot called Louisiana Fried Chicken. I found out this place is part of a franchise of a larger fast food chain. Apparently Louisiana Fried Chicken is all over LA but I had never heard of it before. We have one lonely little location in San Diego right off National Ave and the 5. It’s right on the border into Logan Heights and quite close to the 32nd Street Naval Base.
Actually, I guess technically they call themselves Louisiana Fried Chicken and Waffles. I guess the other locations don’t sell waffles. This was pointed out to me by the manager who took our coupon. It took quite awhile for them to figure out this whole “coupon business” and he told me that normally they wouldn’t except the coupon anymore since it’s for the chain (and instructed the cashier that they would not take the coupon in the future). But he accepted the coupon on this visit for us. I was feeling quite patient that day and not bothered at all, I just went with the flow. No big deal.
You’ll notice in this little book-like phamplet menu there’s no mention of waffles. The waffles have their own little menu on a white board. Jake and I didn’t get waffles that day but stuck to trying the chicken and the fish.
This is a walk-up type place. The sides are in large containers in the front and they make the fish, chicken and other goodies fresh for you in the kitchen. If it’s your first time they’ll kind of walk you through the menu and the side dishes. The very nice lady helping us allowed us to sample a side before we picked one. I felt kind of bad taking up her time though so we only sampled the dirty rice that I thought was “okay” (not a big rice fan over here). Jake liked it more than I did but he didn’t think it was that spicy.
Our coupon was for buy one combo get one free. We got the chicken and the fish.
[three piece dark meat chicken combo / $8]
This is two out of the three pieces of chicken. One piece was already transferred to Jake’s plate. Ugh, I didn’t have my real camera with me that day and the lighting was terrible florescent lighting.
With the chicken we got mashed potatoes with gravy. You also get the choice of a roll or cornbread. Naturally I picked cornbread because that’s what I always pick if given the choice. The cornbread is a flat muffin which was sadly overcooked and tasted pretty dry. It didn’t have too much flavor and it was quite dense. The mashed potatoes were standard fare – very very smooth and almost paste-like. I didn’t like the gravy.
The chicken on the other hand was pretty good. It was served nice and hot and we received two thighs and one wing. I liked the seasoning on the batter. The batter was a bit on the thick side but I found it to be full of spices and flavor. It was cooked nicely and the chicken was quite juicy. Jake was happy to see that it was NOT as greasy as Church’s Fried Chicken, but he said he thought their seasoning is a tiny bit better. I think I dig this one more than Church’s.
[two piece fish combo – the tilapia / $8.75]
For our fish combo, Jake asked if we could switch it up and get one piece of tilapia and one piece of catfish which they obligingly gave us. This is ONE piece, cut into thirds. Insane! It uses a cornmeal crusted batter and while it was fried nicely, I didn’t really particularly care for the fish itself. It tasted “fishier” than others I’ve had and I think maybe I’m just not a tilapia fan.
[catfish]
On the other hand, I adored the catfish which has the same cornmeal battered crust. The catfish was flaky and incredibly sweet. Catfish is much more my speed when it comes to fish and this was a mighty fine version of it. And gosh, you get SO MUCH of it! There was a little mix up with our order and we had to wait longer for the catfish so I feel like maybe they gave us extra… but holy cow. Jake and I agreed we’d come back just for this catfish!
[peach cobbler with sides]
Because we had to wait for our extra catfish, the nice lady who brought our food out gave us a complimentary peach cobbler. She said it was because it was our first time there and they had messed up. I thought it was quite nice of her to give us the dessert. They didn’t have to do that at all and I wouldn’t have minded waiting the extra time for the fish. But I can see they appeased me and made me not feel so bad about it with the free dessert.
The peach cobbler was quite sweet and had bits of peaches, some sweet, thick, gloopy stuff and bits of crust throughout. Some of the pieces of crust tasted kind of like uncooked/partially cooked dough to me, but other parts were crunchy. Jake thinks it’s because it was probably sitting in a pan for a long time and got really soft, but the consistency was a little off for that. I still ate it though and enjoyed it. I just avoided the “gummy” parts.
The macaroni and cheese is okay. I’ve had worse, but I’ve also had much better. It was tolerable at best.
Conclusion: Yes to the chicken, Double Yes to the catfish, Meh to the sides and cobbler. They have a bunch of different side dishes so I’m sure I could find something more to my liking. All in all not a bad meal for less than $9! I’m still curious about their waffles and I do want to come back for more catfish!
Louisiana Fried Chicken and Waffles
2850 National Ave.
San Diego, CA 92113
619-233-0670
I love a good fried chicken. This place sounds familiar. I wonder if I’ve been there (to the one in LA) before. I’ve never really fully got used to eating chicken and waffles together, though I love them each on their own. They used to serve that to staff sometimes on Sundays at my old job. They had to use up the waffle batter from brunch/breakfast, so we got that plus chicken they had to cook for staff.
Hi Miss Kim – When I was looking up their locations there seemed to be quite a lot of locations in and around LA so it wouldn’t be too surprising if you’d been and just didn’t remember, haha. There’s a place called Bruxie that does excellent waffle sandwiches that I adore (not sure if they’re in LA but the original is in OC). I like them together! Salty + sweet 🙂
I’ve been wanting to use this coupon forever, but I wonder if they would even accept it. I might just try my luck during the winter break and see if they would use it.
Those are indeed huge fish portions, wow. I think I would like the catfish better than tilapia (it seems more ‘fishy’ as you say). That fried chicken skin…..yes….
Hi CC – Doesn’t hurt to try! The prices are still pretty reasonable though. The fish combo seems to be the winner since you really get a lot of fish. Jake and I were discussing that we pretty much just need one catfish combo and we’d be set. It was so good! I think you’d like this place, cheap and tasty, though I still have to find the best of the side dishes.
Is that a fried chicken wing in your first chicken plate pic? That wing looks HUGE! I like fried fish but I like the versions where there seems to be more fish to batter ratio. Were the ones here more flat? Just seems like there’s a lot of breading on the fish. I’m not a fan of tilapia either. I don’t know why. I need to get my hands on the 2015 Entertainment Book. How much is it now ? I haven’t bought one in AGES.
Hi Faye – Yes! We got two thighs and one wing. I didn’t feel like there was too much breading. I should have taken a photo of the inside to show that, but I forgot. It’s a cornmeal based batter so the batter isn’t very heavy. I thought I liked tilapia but yeah…. it tasted so weirdly fishy to me I couldn’t stand it. The Entertainment books are normally $35 but they have them on sale right now for $19.95 (plus free shipping). It’s a good deal! You just have to remember to use the darn thing… haha. There’s also an included mobile app so you can easily browse/search for coupons and some you can use right from your phone! I love it.