Reel M Inn

It’s worth the 2 hour wait! Omg best fried chicken hands down! Not sure if it’s battered in crack and fried in the oil of the gods but it may as well be!

Straight up– the chicken here lives up to the hype. It’s piping hot, fresh, juicy and just so great. If you are a fried chicken fan, I would recommend coming here.
If you come here on a weekend or Friday night, the wait will be long. You’ll need to be very patient and you’ll also need to have an affinity for dive bars. Aside from the fried chicken, this is a pretty sweet dive bar. There are no frills or regular thrills here, just cheap beer and a divey ambiance. The crowd here doesn’t quite feel like your typical dive bar crowd, since a bunch of the people there must be there for the fried chicken and not for the draft PBR.
I loved all the chicken I had here– the 3 piece dinner, wings, and the chicken strips, but I would highly recommend the strips. Usually, chicken strips are for those 6 and under, but these are not for kids. These are definitely the best chicken strips I’ve ever had. Take the risk and order them– you will not be disappointed.

Bawk bawk!
The fried chicken here lives up to the hype & will keep me coming back, hopefully for a long time. Hot, tender & juicy with a caddy full of sauces on the side — & cheap! So cheap.
Prepare for an hour to hour-&-a-half wait for chicken on a Friday or Saturday night. The place is increasingly busy, but the food is worth it — just don’t arrive already psycho-​hungry & have a couple drinks in the interim.
Reel is a favorite of mine & my friends, with a lot of good memories over the years. A very special place!

The fried chicken was great so was their standard potato wedges that came with the meal. The skin is addicting and the chicken was huge! The environment is casual. We had to order at the bar and the fried chicken took 45 minutes (bartender warned us). Overall, we came there for the popular fried chicken and it was good! I will be back!

Awesome place super fantastic service and the best fried chicken I’ve ever had! Completely and totally worth the hour wait.

Extra divey dive bar but it just adds to the experience. Make sure you are aware of the wait but it goes by fast when the drinks are so cheap. I would suggest doing the boneless. The jojos are almost better than the chicken. They also bring over about 8 sauces to go with you food. All in all its like being dropped into a fried food heaven.

I’d been putting off trying the chicken here for some time now. The wait had always been daunting and I didn’t know if I would be staying for an hour and a half, even though I always ended up staying much longer. This place is first and foremost a dive bar. Loose drinks, stiff women, and all that. The bartender remembers your name pretty quickly and uses a heavy hand when pouring the liquor. Second this place is a friend chicken mecca. I never knew I enjoyed chicken strips before getting them here. I got the four piece meal and a side of strips and I was just completely blown away by what is usually a food for small children. Juicy, tender, and packed with flavor. Not a huge fan of the JoJos because I like mine smaller and crisper and this place has giant ones. I think 4 jojos equal a potato. I also wish there was blue cheese like at that other friend chicken dive bar.
The crowd here is pretty funny. In the early evening it is filled with an older clientele that is here for some dinner with a few drinks. After that there is a quiet lull for a couple hours before it becomes a raging bar full of much younger people. So choose which crowd you want to be waiting with for your chicken, or just come for drinks and company. Don’t be daunted by the wait, you’re at a bar, what else would you be doing with your time anyway?

Awesome staff, C, and food and vibe. 6 Star. The potatoes, the fried chicken, yeahhhh. This is the most honest food I’ve eaten in Portland, a city of bomb food.

This has to be the best fried chicken joint in Portland. I mean the chicken was crispy on the outside, moist on the inside, seasoned to perfection. The sides were good too. We had onion rings, fried mac n cheese, and cream cheese jalapeño poppers. They even had rc cola! The place looks like a small bar, which it kinda is, but that chicken is super bomb. Even the short haired lady that served us was awesome! If you want some fried chicken, you have found your place!

We ate lunch at the Reel em Inn on a weekday and the fried chicken and jo jos really are excellent. The attentive bartender estimated about 40 minutes to get our order. He fries each order fresh, one at a time in a very small space. They use Draper Farms chicken, which seems better than factory chicken like Tyson (if you care about how your food lived before you got your hands on it). They have a nice pool table, had Deschutes Fresh Squeezed IPA on tap and we got our order in about 40 minutes. Pass on the tots, which were perfect, and opt for the jo jos which are incredibly tender and flavorful. We will definitely make this our go to chicken spot.

This is an exceptionally divey dive bar. It is not pretty inside and it is a little uncomfortable. But. And this is a huge but — they serve AMAAAAZINNGG fried chicken. I’m not sure it really gets any better than this. Anything «better» would like be in the land of pure subjectivity. It is also cheap and simple and you get exactly what you want. They don’t bother with stupid meals with crappy side orders no one really cares about. Just a menu full of items and you plan your own plate.
This place is definitely one of Portland’s hidden-​ish gems. «Ish» because it seems like many locals know about this place.

Beer and Jäger while you wait for the best fried chicken in Portland (just be prepared to drink a lot because the chicken wait is usually over an hour because people know Reel M Inn has the best cluck for your buck)
Dive bar goodness with sassy bartenders, salty customers, pool table, 70s classic rock, and old ladies playing video poker.
Best part is the lady at the bar is screaming «someone take me home and get me stoned.»

My god I don’t think I’ve ever been so full before. I had tried to get into this place a couple times before because fried chicken and jojos are one of my favorite food combos, and these guys apparently do it at a different level. But they were just too damn crowded most of the time.
But I can see why. Finally got in here late on my birthday and got a 3-​piece combo. It was absolutely gigantic and I don’t know how I ate it all, but it was one of the most delicious baskets I’ve food I’ve had in my life. The wait was a little long — though perfectly excusable with one bartender and one cook, it happens — but it was totally worth it. The chicken was hot, crispy and incredibly flavorful and the jojos were seasoned to perfection. Plus all the ranch dressing you want too. Because of course.
I really want to go here more but they’re so packed out the door most of the time that it can be pretty difficult, but I can hit it up during quieter hours if I want my fix. These guys are for real. Amazing.

I’ve heard about them for years… and they live up to the buzz. This is some of the best fried chicken on the west coast. The bird is moist, flavorful and inexpensive. The bar itself is as unpretentious as it gets; the food is fresh, simple, and delicious. The fried chicken… really is the best in town. It’s moist, tender, and perfectly seasoned. Their condiments are the perfect complement, whether smoky bbq, tangy honey mustard, or zesty ranch. All of the sauces appear to be made in-​house, and the staff us awesome, personable, and lightning quick. Long story short, they are one of the best bars in the city; the décor and the service are a throwback to the best parts of the 1970’s, just like the food. Highly recommended.

Given it just got called the 2^nd best dive bar in America, I thought I might feel rushed, crowded, or uncomfortable, but that was absolutely not the case.
We took a seat at the bar, got a couple of beers, and instantly felt comfortable. The ambiance is ultimate casual with no pretentiousness. The bartender (singular) was incredibly attentive considering how busy it was — not to mention she was also frying the chicken.
The chicken.
I’ve had a lot of fried chicken. In fact, it’s one of my favorite dishes of all time. But boy, does Reel M Inn’s stand out. It is tender, juicy, crispy, spicy, salty, and crunchy, all fried into heaping portions of delicious mouth-​watering chicken. I’m a firm believe in the adage that everything’s better with hot sauce. So, when you get the six-​pack-​of-​beer-​turned-​hot-​sauce-​bottle-​holder, I recommend you try a few. That is of course *after* you’ve gotten familiar with the chicken unadulterated, straight out of the fryer — which is of course insanely good on its own. Oh! And the jojo’s!
I usually don’t like jojo’s; I’m a shoe-​string fry purist. However, I’ve now got an exception. The jojo’s here packed more flavor than I’ve ever had, and were incredibly crunchy. I find most most to be super soggy and kind of gross — not these. They were amazing.
The wait: Yes you’ll have to wait. Yes it’s worth it. Chillax, have a beer or two.

I really love this place, I do. As a dive bar, it fits the bill. Lots of regulars and lots of people looking for great fried chicken. I’m gonna have to take a star off though. When I went there last, it was a week day. We sat at the bar and ordered their most delicious fried chicken and my heart skipped a beat. The bartendress, fried chicken cooker informed me there is a one hour wait. Ok, that’s not gonna kill me right? It ended up being about 1 ½hrs. I understand that they have only two fryers, really I do. But the chicken was overdone. Not bad mind you, just not as good as it was before. The crispy, juiciness was replaced with over fried, bit dry and small dash of disappointment.
I’m still a great fan. I love the vibe, the people and the chicken. I will just need to tone done my expectations.

Promised a 4 piece chicken and jojo’s in 55 minutes. A long wait but I live close. Walked back home. Came back in 70 minutes — was told another 20 more minutes.
I think accepting 55 minutes as an answer is being fair. Being told a total of 90 minutes is crap. Skip this place.

Loved this place. The Chicken was amazing — I would order a-​la-​carte since the breast is gigantic (we all love a big breast). Those potato wedges are gigantic! Just the flavor of the chicken — yum! Go here and eat chicken.
Overall the place is a classic dive bar and reminds you that Portland was once a blue collar town even if this bar is now surrounded by $ 500,000+ homes that were built by factory workers in 1940. The mix of people here is also quite nice and reminds me of a typical corner bar. We went here early for dinner and the place was low key, friendly, and laid back.
We noticed that after 10 a younger crowd came in and was less than friendly to the old timers who were there from 6 – 10 pm. My suggestion is that if you are coming here for the first time dressed like an «urban cowboy» or a «off the rack hipster» just be nice to the older fellas at the bar — and don’t say «ewww» or «like» every 5 seconds. The old man that talks to you is probably just being friendly. We had a laugh at the young «cool» kids who seem unable to socialize with a mixed group. Despite this humorous exchange I still say this place is worth a visit whether you are a 50 year resident of SE, or a 5 week resident.
Ah Portland — well, the Reel M Inn is keeping it Real!

Divey and dark. Dig it. Jamieson and coke and two beers under $ 10? Love it. Fried chicken and jo-​jos? I may just move in here.
There isn’t much to Reel M Inn but just a solid bar without the dumb hype. I’ll definitely be back.

I have never been so deflated. This has been on our must-​try list for a long time now & we finally bit the bullet tonight. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be.
As you can see by my check-​in, we arrived at 6:45pm. It was very busy when we arrived, but we managed to find a table, ordered a couple beers at the bar, & began our wait. I saw all the reviews saying, «Be prepared to wait,» so we anticipated a substantial wait & tried our best to be as patient as humanly possible while being forced to inhale the smell of delicious fried chicken the entire time. So we waited… and waited.
We waited long enough that we began to feel foolish & half-​jokingly wondered if this was a social experiment seeing how long assholes would wait for the promise of artery-​clogging fried poultry. That was about 2 hours in.
When the party of 3 that arrived right before us & placed their order minutes prior finally got their food, we felt like our patience would soon be rewarded. We probably would have left around that time if we weren’t encouraged by the hope that we would soon be tasting sweet victory. And besides it would have made waiting all that time a complete waste.
So we waited some more. By 2.5 hours, we were starting to feel despondent & hopeless. Pushing 3 hours, the next batch of chicken was being distributed. We waited anxiously, fearing what we would soon find out to be true. The gravity of it hit us like a ton of bricks; none of that chicken was for us.
My husband went to the bar to inquire as I probably would have started crying if I had gone up there. The bartender regretted to inform him that she never put in our order. In her defense, she apologized as diplomatically as possible, covered our bar tab, & offered to drop more chicken for us on the house if we could wait another 30 minutes, but there was no way either of us could have stomached another second of waiting. The damage was done & there was no redeeming it unless she could somehow give us back those 3 hours. Guess we’ll never know how good the chicken is.