JOINTS: California Chicken Cafe

After a killer travel day, I pulled into my hotel in Sherman Oaks and immediately hit up Yelp to try and find some food.  The only thing I had consumed all day was a McDonald's Bacon, Egg & Cheese biscuit earlier in the morning, and it seemed like everything was trying to prevent me from eating.  There were a couple of choices within walking distance of my hotel, but the only one that had 4 stars on Yelp and a lot of positive reviews was California Chicken Cafe.  What the heck, I thought, I like chicken.

I walked over to the restaurant and saw what looked like a West Coast version of Boston Market.  There were a lot of healthy things on the menu, but I had picked out a few that were recommended in reviews on Yelp.  I started off with the 3 piece rotisserie chicken plate, and since dinner was on my office, I went with three sides of hummus, potatoes, and Asian side salad.

To start off, the chicken was mediocre at best....Boston Market has these guys beat pants down when it comes to oven-roasted chicken.  The skin was sticky and kept getting stuck to the insides of my mouth, but the worst part was the taste!  It had none!  I tried picking at the smell pieces of chicken, but it was a lost cause.

Luckily, the sides were pretty decent.  The hummus had a pretty strong cumin flavor, but it was good...there was just SO MUCH OF IT.  Seriously, I could have shared that hummus with everyone in the restaurant and still had enough to snack on later.  And the two pieces of pita they gave me for it didn't help put a dent in it.  I finally had to start eating it with my fork, which was weird.

I followed the advice of the reviews on Yelp and ordered the Asian side salad, and that was pretty damn good...made me wish I had just ordered the chicken salad instead of the rotisserie.  I enjoyed the entire thing until I got down to the bottom of my cup and noticed the big black hair there.  Telling myself that it was probably just one of my hairs, I continued on to the potatoes, which were another highlight of the Yelp reviews.  They were tasty, a little rubbery, but pretty damn tasty with their sauteed onions.  Luckily, the pre-hair discovery Asian salad and potatoes made up for the mediocre chicken & cumin covered hummus.

My final opinion is that while California Chicken Cafe might be a healthier alternative to Boston Market, it is NOT a better one.  Next time I'm in the Sunshine State, I won't be heading there for lunch or dinner again.