Restaurant Review - Chicken Shak

So There is a nice little location in Reisterstown that has been home to several small restaurants over the past few years. I couldn't tell you why so many don't last other than the fact that most restaurants in general fail. However, I have high hopes for the latest tenant in the space, Chicken Shak, a mix of Peruvian style charcoal chicken, and local style "pit" meat sandwiches. My wife and I went in recently to check it out.

First of all Chicken Shak is not to be confused with a small Michigan based chain called Chicken Shack. This is a brand new idea that mixes one of the new hot sensations at least in this area, of Peruvian charbroiled chicken and a Maryland staple of pit beef, turkey, and pulled chicken. The menu is a little bit large and includes Whole, Quarter, and Half chickens, chicken tacos, salads, salmon, and the aforementioned pit beef and turkey. Then there are the sides which are pretty numerous with cole slaw, mashed potatoes, brussels sprouts, broccoli, and different kinds of rice.

For our meal My wife and I split a chicken which is cooked nicely, it has great charcoal and smoke flavor through the meat and the white meat is moist which can be tricky with chicken. My wife was especially impressed with the seasoning blend on the skin of the chicken. My chicken had some extra sauce on it which I dipped my chicken in and it was good and enhanced the flavor. It tastes like the seasoning blend from the chicken in a liquid form. I like the broccoli as well which wasn't mushy and did have some flavor to it. The cole slaw wasn't my wife's favorite, it was a bit tart for her.

For the kids they had BBQ pulled chicken sandwiches. The chicken was the same as the charbroil chicken that I had but pulled apart and put together like a traditional pulled chicken sandwich. The sauce is sweet and reminds of something like Sweet Baby Ray's. But mixed with the good flavor of the chicken it works really well. it is served with home made kettle style chips. They are thick cut and a little on the burnt side, which I like, but they weren't even mine and I might have eaten too many. They could cut back on how many they give, and maybe cook a little lighter, but it wasn't bad.

Chicken Shak is a nice new restaurant with a good product. I will be going back to give the pit sandwiches a try and to see what they do with the Salmon. They are just getting started so there are some service kinks, however when they get over that hump things should be good for them. The food I tasted was good and unique and a worthy competitor to the places already in the market. The restaurant has a nice clean design and incorporates a lot of the modern design that is going on in the market place.


Rating: 4/5