Crown Fried Chicken

While the counter service is friendly, it’s slow, the menu is overwhelming, not unlike many of those big city bodega style eateries that throw everything onto the menu that their institutional food suppliers can give them in frozen bags. I have no doubt the owners wanted to have a successful eatery, but everything about this odd, dark place is a lesson in why you should never attempt to open any business without first conducting due diligence, seeking a mentor and knowing at least a little about your surrounding community and demographic.
The chicken is nowhere near American style fried chicken, and I say that as a son of the deep south. Nearly burnt, low quality chicken, having been sitting under heat lamps for a while on our visits. The lights are kept off in the dining area during the day, an obvious effort to save on money. Dingy walls cluttered with bubbling, wrinkled artwork, mostly logos of the chicken chain they’ve bought into. That chain, Crown Fried Chicken which, according to Wikipedia, is often found in dangerous, poor communities, (though I’m not sure why).
I hated to waste the money and we were both starving on our last and final visit, but it was just too bad to eat; greasy, poor quality, gristle like… disgusting. The ambience isn’t lacking, there’s just no ambience, period. Counters are piled several feet into the air with overflow takeout containers which will no doubt go unused, faded plastic plants are tossed here and there with greasy, sometimes stained black tables. Harvest gold/​yellow walls trimmed in lime green, no music, just the sound of your hosts speaking their native tongue to one another from somewhere behind the counter, beyond those stacks of plastic containers and styrofoam boxes.
I could look past the space being sad, weird and having a near dangerous feel to the place if the food were acceptable. It is not. I hope the owner will be open to and eventually receive advice. They’re in a good area and no doubt could attract many, especially students from the near by community college who would likely love having a chicken, hamburger and falafel joint. But you’d got to be clean, open, welcoming, perhaps toss in a little WiFi, play some music and, no matter what you do, provide edible food. This little business misses on all of it and will not exist much longer.

this place is great! really friendly staff, great cheap food. I live around the corner — the hours, price, and general appeal of this food here is just incredible

Never again will I eat here. Not only is this place super confusing because they have about every kind of food you could imagine, but also, it doesn’t taste like anything you would want to repeatedly put into your body.
I split a gyro, fries, and some fried chicken. The fries were flaccid, the chicken was cold and greasy (not greasy in the «good fried chicken» way, greasy in that «I’ve been under the warmer too long» way), and the gyro was also very oily.
An hour or so after consuming this food, let’s just say, my stomach was unhappy.
Crown reminds me of one of those Manhattan to-​go places that you enter at 4am after a hearty session at the bar… But unfortunately, this isn’t Manhattan, and this place isn’t open til 4.

First time going, had very high expectations and went in with high hopes; wanted it to be my new favorite place, turned out to be a staggering disappointment unfortunately. I love fried chicken and I can see this place really taking off if it were run by friendlier staff and had more convenient parking.
Its a big place for a what it looks like from the road. Could seat at least 25, but its always lookin like a ghost town in there, empty, why? Here’s why:
This would be the third time I’ve gone into this building where its been a different restaurant. The two other businesses went out of business and I expect the same for this «CFC» in its chain. Perhaps solely from its location. The overall layout of the design of the restaurant hasnt been altered whatsoever from its old layout and makes me wonder how dedicated any of these new business owers are. I don’t even know if the walls have been repainted from the terrible yellow it is.
1. Price. Too expensive for greasy fast food.
2. Location, location, location. Terribly located. You’ll see.
3. TINY parking lot. Could fit maybe 4 cars, and there being room for about 25 people inside, i have no idea what the designer is thinking.
4. The one employee was an old man who, despite me and my girlfriends glowing smiles (exited to try a new place) sternly grilled down our faces as we ordered and then slowly walking over to make our order as if it were an inconvenience to him.
5. Glass display counter could be utilized for displaying hot foods or at least something better than what it was being used for as a place for pizza pans to be stacked so much so that I couldn’t even see behind the counter to see if my food being dropped into the deep fryer.
6. Overwhelming menu. Maybe this would be a good thing if there were four employees behind the counter cooking all of these things for many people coming in and out but this place is dead most of the day/​week. It’s a shame too because I was reading any another review of somebody who knows of a CFC in a different area that they really enjoy and says is popular.
7. When I got my order of «chicken fingers» & fries with a soda (in about 3 minutes. Good time!) I was ready to grab my can of soda from the fridge directly behind the cashier but he handed me a cup and pointed me towards the fountain drinks machine even though the every picture in the menu is of a can. (Bummer! Was so excited for that can of black cherry ginger ale!) The chicken fingers or more like chicken tender shaped chicken nuggets. When you tore them apart they would have air pockets in them. Kind of like McDonalds chicken nuggets. Speaking of McDonald’s, the French fries are thin and spindly like McDonalds fries which I like and I found the entire meal to be delicious (deep fry anything and it’ll be delicious) but definitely not worth $ 9.18!!!
3.5÷10 Will not go again.

What the heck is this place trying to be? KFC? A kebab shop? Red Lobster? Daily Queen? They have it all, but sometimes when you have ALL the choices, you really have no choices. That seems to be the case with this place. I came in with my brother — who really wanted fried chicken — and I was really curious about the kebab. Although the menu is so expansive that the kebab section is actually partially obscured by the counter. If they stopped adding items this probably wouldn’t have ended up being a problem.
I ended up settling for a gyro, because the purchase of a kebab seemed to require getting an entire meal combo. I just wanted something small. It was OK by Portland gyro standards. My brother claimed that the fried chicken was pretty good.
This place probably isn’t worth visiting, unless you’re entertaining a handful of relatives with a variety of food likes/​dislikes and who have a penchant for mediocre fast food. My ‘white whale’ search for a good kebab shop in Southern Maine continues.

The go-​to place for fried chicken in Portland. Third visit and I like it more each time. Great atmosphere especially for a guy who grew up in nj. On tv now is a special on tigers, not the Red Sox game. Great fries, too

Fried chicken was not bad at all. This place had a strong fan base due to the halal factor. We had the fries that were very much like McDonald’s fries with some seasoned salt. It was satisfying and two people ate with some left over for about 12 bucks. I would eat it again. The pizza looked pretty decent too.

I feel sick as I type this because I picked up dinner here on my way home last night.
Now, granted, that is my fault, because I sort of knew what I was getting into when my only path toward choosing this place was «they’re the only place open right now.»
The menu basically wraps around the whole perimeter of the building, listing items like pizza, kabaabs, fried chicken, fries, potato salad, macaroni salad, buffalo wings, steak bombs, garden salads… everything under the sun. It’s essentially all fried, all in the same vat of oil I might add.
Now, I’m not just a snob. I love me a good mcdonalds Ice coffee, fried food from a shack, even a pizza cone from a food truck. I’ll try anything, and nice establishment doesn’t always mean nice food. But this spot has neither. The staff are awkward and can barely communicate the menu to you, they food is all the same color, and I felt like I was instantly going to throw up three french fries in.

The place for late night fried chicken at a reasonable price. Mediocre quality but fits the bill for Portland’s cheap fried chicken fix.

I never thought I would see a CFC in Maine. I am so thrilled!
CFC is the type of joint you would find in a large city on a street corner. They have everything… and more importantly they everything is delicious.
Favorites of mine, both at this location and at the many other locations that I have tried include: fried chicken, pizza, buffalo wings (I skip the buffalo sauce and go straight for the hot sauce, which is served on every table with their fried chicken), cheese steak and Jamican Beef Pasties.
The staff is very friendly and clearly passionate about what they do. I really, really am impressed with the quality of the food and the dedication of the staff.
Thank you so much for bringing some Big City to Portland. The local pizza and wings was driving me freaking bonkers.

This place suffers from what I like to call Great-​Lost-​Bear-​Syndrome: they have a huge variety of food, but can’t specialize in one thing.
Crown fried chicken has fried chicken (no way!), but they also serve, philly cheesesteak subs, mac and cheese, fried seafood, pizza (by the slice or whole), kebabs, ice cream, burgers, desserts, fried appetizers, and that’s only about half the menu. The menu is HUGE! But sadly, nothing really wow’ed me here. I had the chicken and a kebab plate. The kebab plate was pretty legit. Its one of the more pricier items here at $ 7.99, but pretty dang good. I prefer Babylon’s more, but you’ll save some dough here. The chicken was alright. Good, but not what I expect from a place with «fried chicken» in their name. It’s like slightly glorified grocery store fried chicken. It was about $ 1-​$ 1.50 per piece. You’ll save more if you buy more. And if you get the massive 40 piece bucket, you’ll be getting a ton of food for a fantastic price.
I will say this place is very fairly priced. Nothing was too expensive. In fact, most items were a pretty good deal. And the late hours are a nice touch in a state that likes to shut down after 9PM.
Would I come back? Yes, but only if I needed to go somewhere late or if I was looking to save some cash. Otherwise, this place is nothing to write home about (even though I just wrote about it above)

Chicken tasted okay. Sign said «2 piece chicken box w/​Cole slaw, mash potato and roll $ 5.99.» The roll was a joke, tiny and tasteless, no coleslaw and mashed potatoes were room temp at best. They charged me $ 6.99, the price of a «3 piece chicken box.» I didn’t complain. Guy behind the counter seemed miserable enough. A few tables were really dirty. My table was clean but very wobbly. I don’t think this place is worth it. Too many great options in it’s immediate proximity.

Went to Crown for the first time with my husband and a couple of friends. Food was good all around and definitely a great option to have in the neighborhood. Very extensive menu, but we all had some variation of chicken. My husband loved the breaded hot wings, and I enjoyed the chicken breast. Fries have a good seasoning that we all liked. Friends loved the milkshakes they got, and their only feedback was that the fried dough was a little hard. Definitely great value for your money and better than typical «fast» food.

This is really decent, affordable fried chicken. When Crown opened, I felt like our little city of Portland had finally arrived — we had a new, chain, chicken place. I finally got around to trying it, take out on our way home from a couple of days out of town.
5 pieces of chicken — our choice of pieces, and an order of fries for less than $ 10.
The fries weren’t great — much like McDonalds but a little more dense. And I really enjoyed the chicken. Crispy outside, juicy and flavorful inside.
This isn’t my favorite fried chicken in Portland — that’s actually at Rosie’s in Commercial Street, but I’ll definitely come back again.
Besides, they’re open until 2am, and they also have ice cream. This could be convenient so close to campus!

I was thrilled, positively thrilled, to see a new Fried Chicken spot in town. I mean, since Kentucky Fried Chicken totally screwed up their biscuit recipe (have you tried them lately? Sawdust.) I have been in search of another fried chicken restaurant to scratch my occasional takeout itch.
The fried chicken lacked flavor. It was fine. Just fine. The onion rings were horrible. Like cardboard covered in powdered cardboard batter and then deep-​fried in cardboard oil. The fries were slightly better — but since they’re right from the freezer (tasted like it at least) you can do better at home I bet.
Don’t knock yourself out trying this new joint. Leave it for the poor and desperate students. (But seriously students, you can do SO MUCH BETTER.)