Fried Chicken @ Merle's BBQ - Evanston

LTH:

In the interest of making The Evanston Fried Chicken Taste-Off more complete, I ventured to Merle's this evening to sample their fried chicken for possible inclusion in the taste-off.

I have eaten at Merle's many times over the years, due to the fact that I used to work near there, and it is located right next door to my health club. I have always considered their food to be OK. Just OK. The BBQ is edible, but not exceptional. Not even very good, really, but OK. Their salads with pulled chicken are pretty good, actually. I wasn't even aware that they served fried chicken until I heard about it in the context of the taste-off. Turns out that in this case, ignorance is bliss.

It occurred to me that maybe there was some kind of weird "Half-assed BBQ = good fried chicken" thing going on in Evanston, which is clearly the case at Cajun Charlie's and Hecky's, but Merle's proved that theorem to be wildly incorrect.

Simply put, this was some of the worst, if not THE worst, fried chicken that I have ever had the misfortune to put in my mouth. The coating was extremely bland, and the chicken was so over cooked that even the dark meat was bone dry. To add insult to injury, the pieces were extremely small. I even momentarily considered the possibility that a dead pigeon had fallen down the ventilation shaft, been chopped up by the exhaust fan, and somehow fell into the deep fryer. Except that THAT would probably have tasted better than this chicken. In case I am not making myself clear, this was NOT good chicken.

In fact, it was so NOT good that KFC & Popeyes, on their worst days, are still light years ahead of Merle's fried chicken. In a side by side taste-off, even the pathetic, shriveled, barely chicken-esque crud that's been sitting under a heat lamp for eons at Old People Buffet would easily defeat Merle's. It was THAT bad.

I think we can safely exclude Merle's from the Evanston Fried Chicken Taste-Off. They wouldn't stand a chance.

ChiNOLA wrote:Simply put, this was some of the worst, if not THE worst, fried chicken that I have ever had the misfortune to put in my mouth.

But how were the portions?

(credit to JeffB )

How very odd. I trust my friend, who isn't much for online communities, but who knows food better than I ever could (and has made some fine fried chicken herself), and in fact works part-time for a CSA and a Green City Market vendor. But I don't think the issue is your taste against hers -- it's that Merle's is plainly wildly inconsistent, and while it may on occasion reach some reasonable highs, its inability to achieve that consistently rules it out.

Sorry to have, if indirectly, put you through that, but thanks for taking one for the team.

Bob S. wrote:How very odd. I trust my friend, who isn't much for online communities, but who knows food better than I ever could (and has made some fine fried chicken herself), and in fact works part-time for a CSA and a Green City Market vendor. But I don't think the issue is your taste against hers -- it's that Merle's is plainly wildly inconsistent, and while it may on occasion reach some reasonable highs, its inability to achieve that consistently rules it out.

I'm sure you're right on the inconsistency issue. I must have gotten an exceptionally bad batch. There's no way they could consistently serve chicken that bad and still stay in business.

Bob S. wrote:Sorry to have, if indirectly, put you through that, but thanks for taking one for the team.

No problem. I was actually taken by surprise that it was as bad as it was. As I said, Merle's is usually OK and I've eaten there many times before. So, while I wasn't expecting great fried chicken going in, I certainly wasn't expecting the disaster that arrived on my plate, either.

This experience just makes me all the more excited for the taste-off.

ChiNOLA,

I've eaten at Merle's quite a few times. I'd agree with your general assessment of "just OK", although maybe I'd put it a notch above that. Mostly, I enjoy their dry rub and I've had a couple good plates of beef ribs there.

One of the things that I have noticed about Merle's is some pretty severe quality inconsistencies in the kitchen. I'm not sure if this can be attributed to high turnover or certain members of the staff not being well-versed on certain items, but it has been noticable. I've had mostly "OK" meals there, a few really good ones, and a couple really bad ones (on the level of your chicken experience).

I'm not defending Merle's chicken in any way, but based on my experience It's entirely possible, and somewhat likely, that this was a bad day/cook/bird.

Either way, I'm not rushing out to get a plate of their fried chicken.

Best,
Michael / EC

I will be hitting up Merle's for a review on a website shortly. Let me just say that ChiNOLA's review was hilarious! I am anxious to see what kind of quality I will find on this visit. The other Clean Place Club places (Davis Street Fish Market and Pete Miller's) seem to be pretty decent places, but nothing exceptional.

I'll be sure to post my findings here on Friday.

For the record, I like Merle's. It's never been stellar, but it's always been reliable, and a great destination before/after the nearby movie theater.

Of course, just up the street from Merle's is The Stained Glass, which is in a diiferent category completely, but way under-rated.

Well, the food was all pretty much so-so. Nothing very exciting. The ribs, while decent, were a far cry from the best I've ever had. Here's the rest of the breakdown:

Not good at all / / / / / /

mac n cheese: creamy, but with absolutely no flavor.
texas toast: looks like it was buttered, but had no flavor. The texture was too soft.
pecan pie: I only ate two bites before I stopped. Almost no sweetness at all. Too dense, and tasted reheated.

Decent food / / / / / /

St. Louis style ribs: I wouldn't go back for these, but they were okay.
Spinach and mushroom quesadillas: Nice gooey cheese, but I couldn't taste the mushrooms at all.

Good stuff / / / / / /

Smoked wings with hot sauce: YUM! Nice and meaty, with not too much sauce and a nice smoky kick. Plenty of heat too!
Fries that were served with the wings: Crispy and potatoey. Piping hot and delicious!

The service was decent. When the waitress saw that I barely touched the pie she asked me if everything was okay. I told her I didn't like the pie and why I didn't like it. She told me she'd take it off the bill and apologied. That was very gracious of her. Better yet, they shouldn't serve such sub-standard pie anymore.

Overall, there are dozens of other places I'd hit up before coming back to Merle's. Just not that impressive.