Da Chicken Coop is a new fried chicken joint by the same person who owns Coop’s West Texas BBQ in Lemon Grove. Da Chicken Coop is actually just right across the way in the same strip mall as Coop’s so in theory you could get some fried chicken and waffles plus a pulled pork sandwich for lunch! We visited Da Chicken Coop recently to try out some of their offerings.
Da Chicken Coop only has a walk-up window and there’s outdoor seating available for grubbing on your hot tasty food.
[da chicken coop menu]
I apologize for this horrible photo. I should have made Jake take a photo of it since he’s taller and less likely to see the glare! There were a number of items unavailable. Da Chicken Coop hasn’t been open long and from the reviews I’ve read, it sounds like they’re working out a lot of kinks.
Since it’s all outdoor seating, Da Chicken Coop is a dog friendly restaurant! Maya got to come along with us for dinner and she was super excited to go out to dinner with us. That smiling face says it all!
Our shared meal for three at Da Chicken Coop. They have salad on the menu but it was one of the unavailable items, otherwise I would have ordered it to go along with this fried meal.
[chicken & waffles / $11.99]
There are a number of different ways to order your fried chicken to go along with some waffles. There’s dark meat, chicken strips, or wings. We decided to go with the three wing combo with one waffle. Additional waffles are $5.99 a piece a la cart.
The wings are the full wing with the drumette, wingette, and the tip. No skimping on wing parts here! The batter on the wings is a light, crunchy, crispy coating that we all really enjoyed. The meat was very tender and juicy.
The waffle was also quite nice – it was a thin waffle but it was crispy and had a nice overall flavor. Included (but not seen) are little packages of maple syrup. It wasn’t “real” maple syrup, it was that stuff in prepackaged containers, but it tasted good enough on the chicken and waffles. Sharing this with two other people is a bit tough since there’s not a lot to go around – it’s more like you get a little taste!
[dark meat fried chicken and fries / $6.99]
We also ordered the 2 piece chicken and fries… which came with 3 pieces? The drumstick was incredibly small though so maybe that’s why they threw in the extra piece. The drumstick looks more like a drumette from the wing. The coating on the chicken was my favorite part – it was full of flavor and spices! Again, the chicken was juicy and delicious. It came with a little side of hot sauce, too, if you’re into making your fried chicken a little extra spicy.
[french fries]
I had read a few reviews that stated the fries weren’t very good but I’m happy to report that on our visit the french fries were excellent. They had a little bit of a coating on the outside to make them a little extra crispy while tasting creamy on the inside.
[chicken chips aka chicken skins / small $4]
We also got a small order of “chicken chips” which is just a fancy way of saying “chicken skins”. Pure unhealthy yet oh-so delicious chicken skin goodness! These had the same wonderful seasoning as the fried chicken. This was like eating fried chicken on steroids since you only get crispy crunchy batter. The skins curl in on themselves creating extra crispy pockets of goodness. These aren’t for the light hearted since they can get a little heavy after awhile. Luckily the three of us shared this small order.
The lack of greens and veggies started to make me feel overloaded after eating this and I ate a salad later. It wasn’t a ton of food for the price and we all left still feeling hungry (hence I ate a salad later in the evening). Since they didn’t have a lot of sides available yet, it was hard to compliment the meal with extra food for the three of us but I think in the future adding a salad and veggies will help even out this fried-filled meal. We were pleased with the offerings so far and really enjoyed Da Chicken Coop’s take on fried chicken and waffles.
Da Chicken Coop (FB | Yelp)
2605 Lemon Grove Ave
Lemon Grove, CA 91945
(619) 460-0837
Man, I need to go here (and across the street too, heh heh). The waffle looks so good as well as the fried chicken itself and those skinz!!!
Hi CC – Oh man, you’d love the skins here! So bad and yet so so good, haha. We really enjoyed the chicken and the waffle here! I still need to try the Crack Shack for comparison purposes.