I devoted my entire this morning to trying Howlin’ Rays for the first time 🙂 It’s been a long overdue visit. Every single time I tried going there on a weekend, the line was always way too long. I told myself that one day, I will come on a random weekday when it opens. There’s bound to be less people available to line up versus than on weekends!
We left at 10:00AM to arrive at the Chinatown Plaza at 10:30AM. There was already a long line of people, but not as long as I’ve seen on weekends. Once 11:00AM hits, it took 30 more minutes of waiting until I came to the cashier at 11:30AM. I got my food at 11:45AM.
I must say, I would definitely come back for the service alone, let alone the delicious hot fried chicken. I have never said this about the restaurant before, but everyone working there was so energetic, so hyper, so friendly, so outgoing, so nice. The service and the energy blew me away. The loud music added to the amazing vibe. I ended up chilling there for a good hours at one of the long tables outside, just absorbing all of the people, the smells of the food, the scattered yells and conversations, the energy.
This is the line at 10:30AM, 30 minutes before it opened.
Look at them prepping!
Some thai iced coffee from Endorffeine directly across.
On the left is the first of many free beers that a group of generous guys to our right was giving to my boyfriend (they noticed his beer shirt). They brought their own bottle service of good beers from other states. My boyfriend was ecstatic because if you don’t already know by now, he loves beer.
When my order number 22 was cold, one of the guys working at the front asked me what my name was and where I was from. I said, “Cookie.” He said they used to call him Cookie too because he had oreos in his pockets. He says he loves oreos. I told him I would call him Oreo, but his real name is Mario. He is so nice! He proceeded to give me a chocolate chip cookie! 🙂
Here is our spread 🙂
Shake Fries.
Chocolate chip cookie
Pickles
Macaroni salad.
Half Bird (one chicken breast and wing + leg and thigh).
Spicy level: Medium, feel the burn.
The Sando – boneless breast, slaw, comeback sauce, pickles, butter bun.
Spicy level: Hot. burn baby burn.
The chicken was good. The spicy was more of a powder seasoning. I would come back for the chicken sandwich instead.
Once in a while, I would like to come back here to indulge in the chicken but maybe once every half year or every year. Otherwise, it is too much. Although the chicken is cooked in 100% peanut oil, antibiotic free, hormone free, all natural, it still feels very heavy and very bad to eat… 😉 But as I said earlier, I would come back here for the service and for the vibe. Everyone is just so nice. I noticed that all of the workers are so friendly, so happy and engaging in all of the customers with conversations. Now that is over the top. They all look like they’re having a good time! One of them even helped me hold a water spout while I was trying to refill water. So nice! 🙂
