#TBT I wrote this post on February 10, 2013. My review here may not be accurate today, but I think it’s funny to publish my old stuff every now and then.
There are always at least twenty people waiting outside of Brenda’s at any given time of the day on Saturday or Sunday.
I ain’t gonna lie: I came here for fried chicken.
As good as they were, I bet all of those people did too.
It’s the sort of place you go to for real Southern dining. The staff is casual, at times frazzled but never, ever flippant or rude. It’s like if your aunt opened a restaurant and she hired your cousins to work the floor.
Brenda’s BFC, featuring the basic Southern food groups: fried chicken, biscuit and collard greens.
Oh, and a fourth one: FRIED DESSERT COVERED WITH SUGAR.
But first, the crawfish beignet (the red one in the photo above). It was a little difficult to taste the crawfish in all of that paprika and cheese and the little bits of raw dough were a little disconcerting.
I looked forward to the dessert beignets.
Fried chicken was amazing. So moist on the inside, crispy on the outside and served to us hot. The combination of chicken juices with salt and spices is the real chicken soup for the soul, y’all.
Biscuits tended to be on the dry side here and could’ve benefitted from a little more butter (but doesn’t everything?, and it wasn’t super-fluffy either. But it was light enough to be very enjoyable.
Dessert beignets: Granny Smith Apple with cinnamon-honey butter, Chocolate and Plain.
Again, the underdone-ness of the dough on the inside threw me off a little (avoid the dough on the top, which tends to be less cooked and thicker than the dough on the bottom), but the apple filling was rich, sweet and thick. Could’ve used more apple – the filling-to-dough ratio favored the latter.
It’s molten Ghiradelli dark chocolate.
To nobody’s surprised, it was THE BEST BEIGNET OF THE NIGHT.
And then the baseline, a plain beignet. Brenda’s beignets were crispy on the outside due to the layer of sugar and soft – think freshly-baked French loaf – on the inside (with the exception of the undercooked bits, which can be easily dug out with a fork).
THE VERDICT:
The fried chicken is a must-have, as are the chocolate beignets. Warm, cozy, casual atmosphere with great hospitality and good selection of bottled beers. Brenda’s French Soul Food is definitely worth another visit!
Words by Jenna 