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Pies N’ Thighs – Williamsburg Soul Food

Fried chicken seems to be quite popular these days and Pies N’ Thighs just relocated to a spot more accessible to lazy hipsters at Driggs and South 4th st.

I managed to go with a group of 6 sometime shortly after their reopening and needless to say there was a pretty large line. We put our name down and noticed a nice little spot inside where we could escape waiting in the cold. About an hour passes and when we notice some unfamiliar faces getting seated, we ask how much longer the wait will be. It turns out they were only calling names outside (should have guessed), but we are quickly seated after this mishap.

Anyway, once we were sitting in our table looking at the wonderfully drawn menu we were pacified. The menu features “Box” specials all in the reasonable price range of $10. The general consensus was to get the Fried Chicken Box or the Carolina Pulled Pork Box.

The Fried Chicken Box comes with a biscuit and one side. Between us, everyone ended up with either the hushpuppies or mac & cheese as their sides. The mac is pretty good, nothing particularly amazing (although the tabasco sauce was a nice touch), but as always, it’s a great complement to fried chicken and rounds out a meal quite well. The hushpuppies were delicious, nice and crunchy and perfect with the tasty tartar sauce.  The biscuit was kind of disappointingly dry, I think I had better at Popeye’s. The fried chicken is always perfect comfort food and it’s really hard to mess it up. Pies N’ Thighs fried chicken is super good with a nice crispy skin.

This sloppy piece up there is the Carolina Pulled Pork. The pulled pork sandwich was good, maybe a little bit dry, but definitely tasty (and a little messy). The cheese grits were AWESOME. A nice bit of cheddar and tabasco. Look at them! Oh so cheesy.

When it came to ordering our pies our waitress gave us some recommendations, only for us to find out that they were all sold out of the most interesting ones! We ended up ordering what was left, Coconut Cream pie which was actually quite good, but I was blinded by the fact that I would’ve preferred to have tried some of the other ones. Oh well, there is always a day for fried chicken and pies, so I’m sure I’ll be back again.

Didn’t want to get too long-winded, but Pies N’ Thighs is good, and a great spot if you’re searching for soul food in Williamsburg, but if you’re really in the mood for the real deal, head over to Mitchell’s Soul Food in Park Slope/Prospect Heights for some of the best fried chicken you’ve ever had.

Pies N’ Thighs is located at 166 S 4th St and Driggs in Williamsburg

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Chicken House – Stick To Fried Chicken!!

So, a while ago my co-worker and I walked by Chicken House (we affectionately refer to it as Chicken Hole) on 36th street and 8th avenue and for a minute I thought they closed down because as I recall, the place was grimy as hell. As it turns out, the place was going through a ‘massive’ remodeling.

This place used to be a dumpy hole in the wall, and now it’s remodeled into a… nicer hole in the wall. It’s basically a place where you go to get yourself 3 pieces of Fried Chicken for four bucks with fries. It’s not that the chicken is great or bad, it’s simply fried chicken and it’s hard to go wrong. You get a wealth of food and if you throw some tabasco and tartar sauce on the whole thing you get an awesome unhealthy meal.

Here’s a before and after of the facade stolen right from Midtown Lunch

Beautiful.

Anyway, I had no idea that this place was owned by Vietnamese people, and with their remodeling, they also expanded into Vietnamese cuisine. DON’T DO IT.

As an avid lover of bánh mìs, I couldn’t resist trying. I set my expectations pretty low because.. let’s face it: Most of the restaurants in this area suck. My co-worker had the right idea, he just got the usual 3-piece fried chicken deal. His four dollars well spent.

The bánh mì took an excruciatingly long time to make, it may have been their first time getting an order for once since reopening. I got their $5 pork role & pate bánh mì. When we finally got back to eat at the office, I pulled the sandwich out of it’s ’sleeve’ to reveal a whole lotta bread and not a whole lotta pork anything.

In Chinatown you can get a bánh mì that has it all, but here you only get just a taste of what could have been. Chicken House’s vietnamese sandwich was pretty boring and ridiculously dry. Not much love was put in this sandwich! Too much bread. The fact that it didn’t have a variety of pork product was also upsetting. A disappointing affair. Was the remodel worth it??

Stick to fried chicken if you come here!

Chicken House is located at 270 W. 36th St.