The food at Chicken Guy is so terrible. Every single time I visit this restaurant I leave in disappointment. When the restaurant opened my freshman year, I was excited to try the food and enjoyed the flavor, but the meal left my stomach in a painful twist.
I have previously written about Chicken Guy for The Globe, commenting on its convenience and good flavor. Yet, after being in business for almost two years now, the Chicken Guy Downtown has changed for the worse.
They changed the type of chicken that they used to offer. Now it is a more flavorless, flat chicken in comparison to the previous circular chicken tender.
The seasoning does not taste nearly the same on the new tenders as the old ones, and it does not matter what sauce you choose out of the six they offer because they’re all weird. And attempting to try two sauces together with the same meal, dipping your fries interchangeably into each one is sure to increase the stomach ache that the deepfrier’s oil already provides.
I have never left Chicken Guy with my stomach feeling good. Every time I visit, I try to pinpoint where the ache comes from. Even the cashier warned me to stay away from the fries if I didn’t want stomach problems, but I don’t think the fries themselves are the problem. It’s the oil that they’re cooked in.
Since they opened, they have narrowed down their sauces from the previous 22 flavors to around six. From a business standpoint, this makes sense for them to lower costs by taking out the least liked sauces, but it also takes away from the brand gimmick they once advertised: Guy Fieri being the “King of the Sauce.”
That was the whole point of Chicken Guy, to go and try a different sauce every time. Now it’s more simple, and the whole gimmick is just less appealing. The combo was $11.99, but I was charged an extra $2. This was either because I got five tenders instead of three, or because they have begun charging for sauces, which I previously thought were free.
Aside from chicken and fries, which were both crispy, Chicken Guy offers milkshakes and mac and cheese. The limited-time Oreo Strawberry Cheesecake milkshake for $7.99 was probably the only thing worth visiting the Chicken Guy for, even though it was incredibly expensive. It was sweet, tasty and had real strawberries in it. Although it didn’t taste that strongly of cheesecake, it was still delicious.
The mac and cheese was not anything special for $4.99. The noodles were not soft or particularly warm, but they added bread crumbs on top in an attempt to fancify it. There was barely any cheese flavor, and it overall was not a good depiction of mac and cheese. I would rather go to Noodles and Company and spend the same amount of money for a larger portion.
I know friends who do not share my opinions about Chicken Guy and think it’s a good joint to “hit up” for chicken in general. But honestly, if you’re not going for milkshakes, check out any of my other reviews for actual good food in the Bu
