The Chicken Lady Cafe and Catering

This lady is the sweetest woman in L.A. She makes all the food she serves by hand. She is so good she’s been in the celebrity catering business for 20 years and I can attest to the quality of her small but delicious menu.
It’s tough to find parking and you better know which direction you’re good when you leave but the food and service are amazing. Also, it’s only open for lunch.

Of course I just wrote a review today and find out they had closed (I called to verify that they did close as of January 22, 2014) :(You were delicious… hope to eat you again some day!
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Not sure how I haven’t reviewed this place ~ it’s one of my favs for a nice homey meal!
It’s a small restaurant, and the parking lot has free valet parking, and plenty of seating earlier in the week; however, it can get pretty packed on Fridays, especially if the chicken lady has a specialty dish that day such as her lobster pot pie (which was good, but the chicken tenders win the show here). On Thursdays and Fridays, she has specialty dishes such as chicken pot pie & ribs.
You can mix their chicken tender dishes — pick 2 of 1 flavor and 1 of another. It’s hard to say my fav — the original are delicious, as well as the Thai. And the mesquite lime are good when you are trying to be a bit healthier, because it’s grilled chicken instead of fried. I usually go with 2 original, 1 thai. It comes with a salad, a side and cornbread. I usually get the mac and cheese. I always walk away feeling more than satisfied for ~$ 10!
They do deliver, but usually only if it’s a big order (they mostly do catering). As you can see from her décor inside the restaurant, she caters to the celebs. She’s super friendly, and sometimes gives the restaurant free dessert (there is always free dessert on Mondays).

The Chicken Lady Café announced its closing today. RIP Chicken Lady. You were delicious in everything.

My friend and I wandered for a while to find this place, but the search was very well worth it. I was impressed by the quick and friendly service– I felt welcome right away! It’s very cozy and casual, making it a perfect lunch stop.
It’s comfort food done RIGHT. Say goodbye to your diet and come on down. These people know how to make some mean chicken tenders and mac n cheese. The mac n cheese was absolutely DELICIOUS– extremely rich and cheesy. As for the actual chicken tenders, to be honest the inside was a LITTLE dry, but the breaded outside was amazingly flavorful.
And on a side note, whoever you are Chicken Lady I think your sense of humor is awesome (go and see!)

Bottom Line; If you’re in the mood for some down home, awesome chicken — get in here!
A buddy that I work with dragged me in here today for lunch and we liked it a lot. It was almost like going to a BBQ — the oval paper plates, plasticware and teeny napkins.
It was all good when the food came out though. I have the croissant sandwich and the rest of the table went with the tenders combo plates. Mine was good but I need to head back over here to try the combo plate.
It would have been nice to eat off of an actual plate though for a $ 10 plate…

This place was sort of hard to find, but soooo worth it. For parking, try to find street parking around the area (we parked in the neighborhood between Wilshire and San Vicente) because the private lot was packed to the brim with valeted (is that the past tense of valet?) cars.
For $ 9.49 + tip and tax, you get three chicken tenders, a side, a salad and cornbread.
At first, it didn’t look like that to much to me but DAT CHICKEN.
Not only is it breaded and fried to perfection, but the strips are ENORMOUS. These aren’t your Chick Fil-​A or Carl’s Jr five piece chicken tenders, these are real, juicy, chunks of chicken and they’re GREAT.
Everything else was okay. I got the fries for my side, which are nice and seem freshly cut and fried lightly, but they weren’t anything special. Salad was okay, and the cornbread was just average as well. (Disclaimer: I don’t like cornbread) So it would have just been an okay experience if not for DAT CHICKEN.
Doesn’t hurt that fried chicken is probably my favorite food in the world.
Service was also outstanding.
Would definitely come back, if it weren’t for the extremely limited hours this place is open, but this place is a gem for sure.

Seriously underwhelmed. A) no ice (?!?), b) «the lady» has her narcissistic ego on display for all to see. I found it grating. And I actually LOLed when the Thai strips arrived showing The Lady’s «sexy sauce» to be nothing more than a bottle of Mae Ploy.
I won’t be back, Lady.

This was one of the few times I left a 100% tip!
This is cornered in the most awkward areas, so beware of parking. The parking lot is CRAMPED so I’d look for meter parking instead of risking being locked in.
The chicken lady experience was awesome! I ordered the chicken sandwich and mac & cheese. SO GOOD. Everything was delicious and the chicken was super moist! My friend got the chicken salad and asked the chicken to be heated up instead of being served cold.
They were super accommodating and when the «real» chicken lady came out, she apologized for taking so long to reheat the chicken on the salad (we didn’t even notice!) that she gave us free dessert! Awesome! She was super sweet and seemed to really care about the quality of her food.
Everything was delicious, the service was amazing and I feel like it’s one of the few places where it’s not about getting people in & out. They really seemed to care about each customer. Everything is super cheap too!
Definitely would come back!

Oh lawdyy.
Being confined to these four walls of my office space for my lunch hour today made good food a requisite for the happiness of my soul. And so soul food it was.
The Unilocaler of the Chicken Lady Café are loyal and enamored with this small hole in the wall and when they found out they delivered, I placed my order and excitedly awaited for deliciousness to arrive.
Let me say when I spoke to the lady on the phone, I immediately sensed the quality of service. She was pleasant even though it was hard to hear me and recommended I get the cheese pie which is «like a cheesecake but lighter» and thinner with a high crust ratio and almost custardy.
I cleaned my plate, honey. I went for the mesquite lime glaze because it was grilled and as a side, ordered the mac and cheese. It’s as good as they say. One of the best mac and cheeses I’ve tasted and I would not give that award away easily. The tang and smokiness actually worked and they give a free slice of cornbread as well as a small salad. You can mix and match substitutions of chicken tenders or thai sticks for .75 but I said nah, it comes with enough sides as it is.
Besides making money, it seems the Chicken Lady opened up her little business to feed the world honestly good food and you can tell that she appreciates her customers and they in turn love her. It brought the soul out of me and even though the food isn’t gourmet, these are the things that define success in a restaurant.

I wish that I loved this place as much as everyone else, but it really is only ok. The food wasn’t bad, just nothing to write home about.
I had chicken fingers, mac and cheese and fries. I was very disappointed that they didn’t have regular fried chicken legs.
They did have great customer service though.

I know this place has great reviews and maybe it’s because it was so hyped up and I had waited years to try it… but I thought this place was just okay. Shocking i know.
I ordered two fried chicken tenders and one grilled chicken. The fried chicken was definitely better than the grilled one, so I would say just go big and order them all fried. (I still prefer the fried chicken tenders at gulfstream over these.) The mac and cheese was definitely good but not anything I have craved since.
Again, maybe I had such high expectations being that I had to wait until a half day off work where I would make it in before they closed. The chicken lady did seem very nice, although she didn’t come up to my table specifically.
The complimentary dessert I believe was some sort of cake. That might have been my favorite part of the meal.
If you’re looking for a cute restaurant location, this place is not it. It is about the size of a large bedroom and everything is served on plastic plates. You are definitely coming for the food as opposed to the ambience. Despite being slightly underwhelmed, I’m happy to go back and try other things on the menu given all the great reviews. Next up… ribs!

We were lucky enough to have lunch at The Chicken Lady today. What a treat! We took advantage of the free valet parking and were warmly greeted by the Chicken Lady herself. We enjoyed a sample of the Chicken Thai Stick, a meaty chicken tender in a spicy sauce. So delicious. For our lunch we both had the Signature Special Chicken Tenders. Three crispy tenders are served with ranch and BBQ sauce on the side. Tenders were meaty and not greasy at all. Mac and cheese is one of the best served in LA! I could eat tons of it! Cornbread was perfect and green salad was a nice touch. Servers are very friendly and took time to explain the menu. We were also offered free dessert. Be sure to go on a Thursday and Friday for Chicken Pot Pie, Baby Back Ribs, Grilled Salmon, or Roasted Chicken

I live in LA. I work in Irvine. Driving to LA and back in an hour for lunch is obviously not possible, so Chicken Lady just sat in my Bookmarks for months.
So when my manager told me I could take a day off last week, guess what was the first thing on my mind? Chicken Lady of course!
My friend and I walked in to the tiny restaurant and were greeted warmly by Eva, who kindly gave us a brief history of the business, informed us of their popular items, and answered my questions about their catering.
Onto the food!
We knew that the Chicken Tenders, Mesquite Lime Cilantro Tenders, and Chicken Thai Sticks were the specialties, so we ordered those. *Side note: Eva told us that for $.75 extra, we could order any combination of two types of chicken mentioned above and one other type of chicken. In order for us to try all three, my friend ordered (2) Tenders and (1) Cilantro Tender, and I got (2) Thai Sticks and (1) Cilantro Tender.
The Tender was my least favorite. Granted it’s not fried, so it’s not greasy at all and it’s healthier for you than fried chicken, but it was just a bit too dry for my liking; I was glad I had BBQ sauce and Ranch to dip it in. Some Unilocalers are describing these as ‘juicy’ and that confuses me.
The Cilantro Tenders were my second favorite. It had a nice amount of acidity from the lime and well, I love cilantro. This chicken wasn’t as dry as the Tender and it was more flavorful.
That means the winner, in my book at least, was the Thai Stick. Sweet and tangy, I enjoyed every bite.
As far as the sides were concerned, the cornbread and salad were both fine, but it was the Mac and Cheese that truly stole the show. Hot diggity… that was some cheesy and creamy Mac and Cheese… just how I like it! I’m pretty sure I can eat a tub of this stuff.
Overall, I hate to say that the chicken didn’t really live up to the hype for me. Not saying it was bad… it just didn’t blow me away. In a perfect world, they would have dark meat options (which is what I always prefer when eating chicken), but for white meat chicken, Chicken Lady is a safe choice.
Anyhow, I’d give the food 3 stars, but the Mac and Cheese made up for any shortcomings with the chicken, and the service was absolutely top-​notch, so I’ll bump them up to a 4.
BTW, Eva told us that they have ribs on Fridays! I’ll have to take another day off to try those, along with the Chicken Pot Pie.

I came here with a friend after doing some shopping at the Beverly Center.
We were greeted warmly by their staff and quickly seated outside at a table.
At the recommendation of the waitress, I went with the classic chicken plate which came with three strips of breaded chicken, cornbread, mac and cheese, a side salad, and sides of ranch and BBQ sauce.
I really enjoyed the whole dish, especially the chicken and mac and cheese. However, I did feel like the cornbread was a little bit lackluster and on the dry side.
Also, I really think that this place could get close to 5 star status if they had their own homemade sauces to go with the chicken rather than using store bought.
Overall, the service was very quick and friendly. In addition, the food came out pretty fast as well and had good flavors. Definitely a good value (you will get more than enough food) and worth checking out if you are in the area.
PS: If you go on Mondays, they give you a free dessert which was actually a very tasty custard pie with orange sherbet when I went.

Bookmarked this place for literally years and finally got to try it! Thank goodness for spring break :) Their hours are very limited, pretty much only lunch time AND only weekdays!
Ordered the chicken strips and added 0.75 to switch one chicken strip for a Thai Chili flavored chicken strip. The Thai flavored one was a little sweet for my liking but damnn the chicken strips were SO good. Meaty, tender and breaded just the right amount!
Mac & cheese was nothing short of cheesy goodness. Scrumptious!
Corn bread was a little dry
Side salad was whatevers.
Also, free dessert on Mondays. We had a slice of French cheese pie & a scoop of strawberry ice cream. It didn’t look too appealing but sure looked better than it tasted.
And the Chicken Lady came out herself to introduce herself after she heard it was our first time. She told me how she caters to companies and celebrities and then opened this café. There were a lot of pictures of celebrities and their autographs for the Chicken Lady on the restaurant’s walls. Pretty cool I must say :)

OMG OMG OMG!!! I can see why they average 4.5 stars with almost 200 reviews… this place is phenomenal. Unfortunately, their hours are limited which is too bad for those that don’t live or work in the area. Their café is only open on Mon-​Fri from 11 – 2:30pm. The rest of the time they cater, I was told they cater quite a bit to tv/​movie studios. Their walls are filled with autographed pictures of celebrities ranging from Courtney Cox to the cast of Two and a Half Men.
The café itself is VERY small so taking the order to-​go would be a good idea but I’d love to go back and have a sit down lunch because the workers are so friendly and I was even greeted by the Chicken Lady herself. She came out from the kitchen as I was waiting for my to-​go order and greeted me with so much love. She asked how I heard about them, I told her I found them on Unilocal,she said «you kids with the computers!» She really appreciates all the great reviews the Unilocalers have written about her restaurant and she told me to go back to try their chicken pot pie which she offers only on Thursdays and baby back ribs on Fridays.
I had:
–Thai Chicken Stick — TO DIE FOR!!! It’s pretty much regular chicken tenders covered in thai chili sauce. This is a must try dish.
–Chicken Tenders — very good too! It comes with ranch and bbq sauce.
–Mac & Cheese — tasty and not too salty.
–Cornbread — loved it!
–Cheese Pie — WOWsers! It was the perfect way to end the meal.
Monday’s they offer free dessert with every order. It pulls up as a Unilocal check in deal but they give it to everybody whether you check in on Unilocal or not. Oh, and everything was under $ 10!
I can go on for hours but I’ll end my rave review here. If you have a chance, this place is worth the drive and effort to check out.

I struggled big time over this review. I recently went to the Chicken Lady upon recommendations of my coworker, the brown man. He told us that she makes the best chicken ever. After seeing all the five star reviews, I expected no less. First of all, if I could, I would give the Chicken Lady 10 stars. The Chicken Lady herself is a sweetheart. I wish all restaurant owners learned from her when it comes to hospitality. She came out to greet us and made sure that we were welcome into her restaurant. We told her that it was our first time there. She was so happy that it was our first time that she gave us a sample of her famous cheesecake after our meal. She was a genuine sweetheart. Because of her hospitality alone, I could not give her a rating of less than 3 stars.
With the recommendation of my coworker and all the five star reviews, I expected that her chicken would knock my socks off. I ordered the Thai Chicken Sticks. I feel ashamed saying this, but, I did not care for it. The chicken sticks are basically a huge Chicken McNugget on a stick, smothered with Thai Chili sauce. Okay, it is a lot better than a McNugget. I ate it, but, didn’t care for it.
I told the Chicken Lady that the daughter loves Mac n Cheese, and asked if I could get the mac n cheese on the side. She told me that I needed to try her mac n cheese (even though I don’t like it), and she also brought me a small container of her mac n cheese to take home for the daughter. Hours later when I got home, I gave it to the daughter. Unfortunately, she didn’t like it. If it ain’t Kraft Mac N Cheese, it ain’t mac n cheese to my daughter.
I am so sorry Chicken Lady! I love you and your hospitality. I would come back just for your hospitality. But, I am not going to order your Thai Chicken sticks again. Perhaps your cilantro lime tenders are better.

***Catering Review***
The Chicken Lady & her catering team know best! I ordered lunch catering for about 70 people and there was more than enough food (and leftovers!)
Mesquite Roasted Chicken (⁵⁄₅)
— Pieces were moist and well flavored
— Good mix of all cuts of chicken
Vegetarian Tortilla Wraps (⁴⁄₅)
— Popular even by non-​vegetarians!
— I had this one the day after and it tasted amazing heated up!
Mac & Cheese (3.5÷5)
— I loved the giant pieces of curly pasta, but on the healthier and blander side
Cold Vegetarian Pasta (⁴⁄₅)
— Penne pasta was dressed well
Mixed Green Salad (⁴⁄₅)
— Good mix of dark green lettuce (not the cheap iceberg stuff)
— Came with cucumbers and tomatoes, nothing special but did the trick
Corn Bread (³⁄₅)
— A little too dry for my taste, but definitely on the healthy side!
Pros:
— Free delivery for catering! My office is about 3 miles away and they were on time!
— Generous portions (like I said we had leftovers!)
— Huge variety for different entrees for catering!
— Accept orders with just a few days’ notice (we gave about 3)
— Friendly and professional in every way possible (ordering, delivery and itemized receipt!)
— Affordable (fed 70 people for just over $ 600)
Cons:
— None!
Whether you choose The Chicken Lady for catering or just to dine for lunch, you won’t be disappointed by their food! I still have yet to try their famous chicken pot pie! =P
P. S. My coworkers are still raving about my great find for the lunch catering!

I’ve been here twice and both were wonderful experiences. The first visit I came with a coworker and dined in. They honestly have the absolute BEST service here! The workers are super friendly and love to chit chat with you. It really seems like they love their job here. So service was an A+ and so was the food! I split my meal for an extra 75cents between the Thai chicken & lime/​cilantro flavored chicken. Both were good but I definitely like the Thai chicken better. The flavor is sweet & tangy at the same time and it complements the delicious mac & cheese.
For my second visit, I called in ahead of time to pick up an order. I was able to meet the Chicken Lady herself that day and she was a sweetheart. When I was about to leave with my food, she stopped me by my name and offered samples of her cheesecake dessert and reminded me that Mondays are dessert days. Don’t you worry, I will be back ;)
Some coworkers I talked to said this place is a bit too hyped up, but I LOVE this place. The food is delicious and so far the chicken has never been dry. I will be back! :)

Drawn here by youse guys, my dear Unilocalers, we walked into this place early on a Friday, say 11:30, anticipating a ridiculous wait. It was amazingly empty. I introduced myself as a Chicken Lady Virgin (its true), got the obligatory chuckle, Chicken Lady herself popped out of the kitchen, made us feel like the most important people she had ever met, and that, my friends, was the beginning of what will be a long happy relationship.
Everything is first rate about this place. Well, if you can get over the fact you eat out of to go containers for the pot pie, and the plastic cups and silverware. So just get over it. Me, I’d eat her stuff with my fingers if I had to. It’s that good.
So, starting small, we ended up with two chicken pot pies (OMG), 3 side salads with balsamic dressing (OMGx2), mac and cheese (OMGx3), baby back ribs (OMGx4), and of course a lobster pot pie (OMGx5). You ask, «What were you thinking???» Of course, we were thinking of our long infrequent trips to LA. Drawn into her spell, we were thinking we needed a little of everything (in case of emergency, ya know). We are such pigs with little to no restraint when it comes to great food.
And their customer service. I can feel the love! She kept checking on us, and bringing out samples of her goodies from her kitchen. She even threw in a couple of cobbler desserts to go, and brought a slice of the most amazing chess pie and ice cream to our table. Wow, never had better.
All I can say is, she should do a training video for other restauranteurs…“HOW TO MAKE YOUR CUSTOMER FEEL LIKE THEY ARE GETTING MORE THAN THEY PAID FOR”. Hmmmm…(hint)…not a bad idea considering she caters to the many movie studios in the area .
I’ve decided Chicken Lady and her staff, who are actually a bunch of her well trained clones, are actually a band of guardian angels here to make our LA experience much less stressful. Love this place! Love that food. Love you Chicken Lady!

The chicken lady is prime example of a five star establishment in my book!
First off, you must know there are specific hours, lunch only: 11:00am to 2:30pm! The rest of the time, they do catering for the stars!
Upon walking through the doors we were greeted so very kindly and were seated right away. The service is wonderful here, very warm and inviting, it’s hard to describe but it’s different. It’s like being welcomed to a home and not a restaurant, so hard to find now a days!
I ordered the chicken tender plate which comes with 3 pieces of chicken, a side (mac ‘n cheese), cornbread and salad. I loved everything on the plate! The chicken tenders were oh so tender and perfectly cooked:
The mac ‘n cheese was cheesy and delish!
The cornbread and salad … also wonderful:
Overall…my meal was satisfying… I ate everything on the plate!
Oh and at the end the chicken lady brought us out some free dessert:
Perfect ending to a perfect meal!