Chickadee Room

Since 2016, Juke has been frying up delicious fried chicken encased in its signature rice flour batter.  I've been here on several occasions, whether it be dine-in or take out.  I've always like their chicken and in fact, their chicken sandwich is pretty darn solid too.  Things have changed from the beginning though as the main dining room now houses The Chickadee Room.  It is open late and serves a wide variety of beverages and cocktails.  Yes, it also serves the menu from Juke Chicken!

Naturally, I have to talk about some of the drinks first because, well, it is a late night bar!  We tried both the Silly Goose and Masatakas Garden.  Consisting of Nikka Coffey Gin, Snap Pea Noilly Dry, Handa Go Junmai Sake, apple and shiso, the Masatakas Garden was a pretty strong cocktail.  I found the gin and sake coming on strong at first, but then we got some subtle floral notes at the end.  As for the Silly Goose, it was a bit fruitier due to the combination of grapefruit and lemon going with the El Jimador Reposado Tequila and Vida Mezcal.  With that being said, the alcohol did come through, but not in-your-face as much as the Masatakas Garden.

To go with our drinks we had a selection of bites including the Chicken & Waffles.  Those cheddar and jalapeno waffles were on point.  Fluffy while crispy on the outside, these were drizzled with smaltz and chipotle maple.  Yep, that was plenty silky and aromatic with a touch of spice and sweetness.  It came with 2 pieces of dark meat chicken and it was fantastic.  Batter was crispy with rendered skin and the meat was juicy.  This is exactly how I like my fried chicken!

We also had the combination of things that were all tasty.  This included the Corn on the Cob.  These were cooked just enough where each niblet still had some bite and burst out with juicy sweetness.  They were coated in schmaltz, lime, chili flakes and cilantro.  Due to this, there was so real creaminess that was a bit spicy and plenty tangy.  Those Nuoc Cham Ribs were money with fall-off-the-bone meat that had been crisped up on the outside.  It was glazed with a fish sauce that was briny, spicy and sweet.  The addition of peanuts, bird's eye chili, sesame seeds, green onion and cilantro really made this pop with layers of spicy, nuttiness and brightness.  We also had Mr. Clay's All Dressed Fries with spicy garlic mayo, house pickles, parm, and crunchy fried onions.  Unlike so other dirty fries out there, this was not completely doused with moisture.  Hence, the fries underneath were still crispy and not soggy.  I liked the crunch of the fried onions combined with the spice from the mayo.  Last item on the platter was their Chili Fried Chicken.  These were juicy like the regular chicken but with a medium spice on the outside.  It was flavourful and smoky but not tongue-burning.  The batter remained fairly crispy despite the saucing.

When we dug into the all white meat Chicken Nuggets, it reminded us of something.  Yes!  These were larger versions of the ones you'd find at Chick Fil-A!  The hand-cut breast meat was moist and tender while the batter was fairly thin and crunchy.  We sampled 3 different sauces including honey mustard, sriracha honey and chipotle maple.  My favourite was the honey mustard with real mustard seed.  It was tangy with a slight bite.  We got Juke's Famous Mac & Cheese and it was loaded with plenty of melted cheddar.  The top was a bit hard due to the baking but underneath, the tender, but firm noodles were coated with plenty of cheesiness.

Making sure we covered all of our bases, we tried their Sweet & Spicy Wings topped with sesame seeds, cilantro, green onion and Thai basil.  Loved these wings as the meat was moist and tender while the outside still had some crispiness.  The best part was the sauce as it was impactful with medium spice and a balancing amount of sweetness.  With the other elements, the wings definitely had a Southeast Asian flair.

Last but not least, we had to get some veggies right?  We had the Juke Salad with iceberg lettuce, onion, radish, tomato, cheddar & sunflower seeds in a Asian sesame dressing.  This was pretty much a green salad with the classic aromatic sweet & tangy sesame dressing.  However, with popcorn chicken added to it, this was more of a meal and the chicken itself was crunchy.  This would've been even better if we had more dressing to douse on the chicken.  Overall, we enjoyed our visit to The Chickadee Room.  Love the concept of a late-night bar with the Juke Chicken menu to compliment.  To us, it even appeared that the food has improved since our last visit.  Not that it wasn't already good before...

*All food and beverages were complimentary for this blog post*

The Good:
- Tasty cocktails
- Juicy fried chicken with a crunchy rice flour batter
- Nice vibe

The Bad:
- Place is tight except for 2 bigger tables, you might want to make a rez