If you've been a long time reader of the food reviewing corner here at West C Street, first off thank you and please keep reading! Secondly, you will also notice that I don't often give too much attention to chain restaurants. There are a few exceptions, such as my review of Toronto pizza chains (really just an excuse to bash Pizza Pizza and in retrospect... why'd I need an excuse?). I've been notably kind to places like Pizza Nova in the past, though through my recent ground level recon it seems they've ditched their phenomenal walk-in special, which drops them several dozens of pegs in the eyes of this reviewer.
Anyhow we (me) is a small scale operation, and while I've been jobless for long enough now that I wouldn't exactly refuse the opportunity to subtly promote a tasty product for financial gain, this I assure you is not that. If I did, I'd want to be fair to you dear reader and as such the secret codeword in that situation is "Picard's Earl Grey". I'll work that in somehow if my biases are under particular influence and so everybody wins! I guess.
Okay! Lets actually talk about actual reality and get into this. I do love a good fried chicken sandwich and hey Toronto has numerous stellar options. PG Clucks... Porchetta & Co is another damn good one... Stockyards (though that was with waffles)... those are just the few I've tried and there are many other great independent spots out there throughout Toronto well worth the extra price if Popeyes is a usual go-to.
Hero Burger is a franchise and as such I'm not here with the intention of promoting them (because pay me for that), rather I'm curious how their chicken sandwich matches up in terms of quality. I do like to measure by scale and so if Burger King's weirdly flat rectangular item is a 1 (because it's just breading, mayo and pepper surrounding a dry chicken-like texture) and PG Cluck's is a 10 (because it's cheap, huge, crunchy, saucy and bloody amazing)... this Hero spicy chicken offering is a 5, though poking towards 6.
You want a certain crunch with a fried chicken sandwich and this does have it, though a soft crunch at that. The chicken isn't really special: it tastes good enough in texture and freshness (lacking that chemical/processed taste of McD's and BK) but also has an odd sour/sweetness that reminds me of generic Chinese food. The spice of the sandwich doesn't come from any seasoning of the chicken unfortunately, but that it's loaded with sliced jalapenos. That does work: the peppers are pickled and really juicy with acidic heat, though combined with sliced pickles the acidity and bitter taste tends to overshadow the spice. The bun is fine also: not soggy but not toasty or really noticeable in any way.
It's certainly an odd sandwich: sweet and acidic, with enough heat to appeal to a mass audience but since that rests primarily on those jalapenos... I can't really say it's a unique kind of spicy. Whatever that sweetness is sauced onto the chicken distracts as well, though I am glad it still tastes like real chicken and not something processed to hell. I probably wouldn't get it again, but it's perfectly decent.
Stay tuned! I'm sure I'll get another chicken sandwich sooner than later, friends.
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