Prime Time Chicken

I have only had one thing from here
poutine for under $ 5
Its pretty good but dont make the the mistake of getting the $ 7 one — same amount of cheese, more fries.
Can get to go or eat in

I moved to Gastown a couple months ago so I have been frequenting restaurants around Chinatown a lot lately. And this sketchy looking place that I see every time I walk to Chinatown kept daring me to enter. Being a fried chicken guy (But then again, who isn’t?), I could not resist after awhile.
I am no ‘snob’ just an average guy, but it took me a bit of courage to actually enter its doors. There were a number of ‘interesting’ clienteles lined up for the chicken, and I was last in line. Behind the glass display were a mountain of precooked legs and thighs. Why would they cook so many ahead of time? And the chicken legs were like $ 1 something a piece! That made me both happy and extremely worried at the same time… I took two legs to go (of course) and took a bite at home. ‘Oh boy, here we go’
Well, the overall taste of the chicken was just okay. Meat definitely did not taste fresh at all though, and the batter was saturated, almost wet, with not-​so-​fresh smelling oil. I ate one but could not stomach another one so I put the leg in the fridge and threw it away after couple days of forgetting about its existence.
Well there you go! Now I can say that I tried, and I was too much of a wimp to not being able to stomach it. I mean, the chicken was probably fine. I did not get sick and I don’t think others will either. But sometimes, where the food comes from plays bigger influence on your pallette than what it actually is.
In summation, WE NEED CHURCH’S CHICKEN IN DOWNTOWN CORE.

My friend found an effing dime in his food. Absolutely disgusting. This place should be SHUT DOWN!!!

Cheap hole in the wall fast food place. I will admit that some of my friends and I have eaten here on the way to a show at the Rickshaw, however, questionable as the food. Clearly I am alive and survived. The price is very reasonable for what it is even if the food is hit and miss, therefore, hard for me to give it a low rating as you do pay for what you get, especially since most in the area may not be able to afford the high prices to begin with.

Had a chance to try their ghetto-​chicken. It’s actually pretty good! Don’t let the sketchy-​looking customers fool you. This place really is that good.

Really not very good.
Chicken skin was soggy, fries were thick and soggy.
I may have gotten Fried Chicken from the night before.
I don’t know if I’d try it again, maybe in a few months and if I’m sure it was fried that day.

I was going to give this place 2 stars, but then I thought about how low of a price I really paid for my food. I had 2 pieces of fish and chips for under $ 4.00 and my friend had the 2 items on chow main small for under $ 4.00.
And for the price it wasn’t too bad.
The fries were kinda like Cockney King’s fries out in Burnaby, nothing too special, but fries none the less. And the deep fried fish were not bad either. Considering that something like this would go for usually double the price somewhere else, I can’t complain about it.
What tip’d me over to 3 stars was actually the soft serve. They advertise on the window best soft serve in town and I’m going to agree. Especially the Chocolate (in the swirl!) For a small at $ 1.75, it was mighty big and tasted VERY GOOD!
To be honest I would come for the ice cream regularly. I still gotta try the fried chicken too.

I found a gem of a place hidden amongst the rough and tough crowd of Hastings and Main, where for $ 3.95 (tax incl) you can get a ‘small’ fried rice or chow mein with two whole other items. Ahhhhh dinner is served

Yesterday morning, the water coming out of my faucet randomly turned a light shade of brown, and i didn’t notice until after i had brushed my teeth and drank a mug of tea. I was sick by noon but luckily recovered enough in time to get to the Main and Hastings area for a meeting around 5:30. By this point, i was finally hungry again, so i figured that this was the perfect time to try Prime Time Chicken for the first time since i could compare which one made me feel worse!
I’m not a fan of fried chicken in general, so i went with the good ‘ol cheese burger option. It was only $ 3, which is a steal even on Hastings! As for the burger itself, it was pretty so-​so. The bun was stale, the tomato was unripened and green, and the patty was really juicy but in the way that makes you think most of the liquid is leftover water from when the burger was thawed. Wondering why this is getting 3 stars rather than something lower? I’d still take this cheeseburger over one from McDonald’s or Burger King any day of the week. At least it TASTES like a real burger should, even if the ingredients weren’t the best.
The crowd was a bit crazier (and i mean that in the literally) than the average East Hastings diner, so if you can’t enjoy your meal when a person with scabs on their face is staring at you and mumbling from across the restaurant, then this might not be the place for you. The residents of East Hastings are all in all pretty harmless and spend more time focusing on their inner demons than anything else, so i’d be more worried about what the scary-​looking Chinese food would do to your stomach lining than what any patrons of the restaurant are doing.
And in case you’re wondering, the brown water made me feel WAY worse than the my cheese burger did. The only damage my burger inflicted upon me were a few nasty burps!

I came here to follow up on my neighbors excited exclamations upon dining here. If I was to believe her rumors (and i did) amazing chicken and fries cooked crisp and greasy awaited me on the corner of Main and Hastings. So one day after picking up my passport at the post office I went next door and walked in to a well lit restaurant with a counter at the front and kitchen in the back. They don’t ask if youre dining in.
You should realize that poultry in this neighborhood is incredibly cheap. Like $ 1.50 a pound of chicken legs at the store, or $ 3 packages of thighs from the weird homeless guy with the big jacket, cheap. Because of that this mom and pop shop can stay more than competitive with the large chains, offering more chicken for your dollar than anywhere Ive been. The service is very fast because the chicken is just sitting there, waiting for you. Yet it tastes surprisingly fresh and without excess seasoning.
You could dine in before 8PM, the booths look comfy, but I’ve never sat in them. They also have some greasy Chinese food to try, but you would be the first of us. I am not trying to spread too many rumors…