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| - Union Chicken is newly opened at Sherway Gardens. It's near the south western entrance on The Hudson's Bay side facing Evans Avenue near Shopper's Drug Mart. The restaurant only has an external entrance with no access to the mall.
I was told there'd be about a 20 - 30 minute wait if we wanted a table instead of counter or bar seating. The host took my name and number for their text based notification system. It was going to be a while so we decided to walk the mall for a bit. After about maybe 15 minutes I was notified that our table was ready. It was a two seater high top style table but the chairs had backs so we were able to hang our jackets behind our high chairs. The place has a variety of seating, low tables, high tables, bar seating, counter seating facing the window etc.
The menu seemed really simple. The choices of mains seem to be different cuts of rotisserie chicken, buttermilk fried chicken to two types of chicken sandwiches. The variety of sides to select from are all a la carte. The menu makes it pretty clear that they are offering fresh free range chickens here. Because of this more natural choice of birds, one shouldn't expect what you get at say, Swiss Chalet. The chicken here is not going to mutant sized, hormone fed birds so don't expect what you would normally see for a "regular" quarter, half, full chicken and order accordingly. Also know that these birds are more expensive than your standard mass farmed produced chickens.
I had a few people mention Union to me and because of the photos, links, etc I had saw something that looked like "Nashville Hot" but I didn't see it on the menu. Being unsure I had to ask our server Tamara. Tamara ended up helping me find what I was looking for online and said that the photo we were discussing was actually a secret menu item. It was called "Uncle Ray's Lightning Chicken". I said yes that is what I was looking for not knowing that this item is a secret but it made sense considering it wasn't on the menu. My wife went with a quarter white rotisserie and I also went ahead and ordered some sides to with our meals. I selected the biscuits as well as the three times fried fries and my wife wanted the smashed and fried potatoes. For drinks my wife had asked for a cold brew coffee (bottled) and I had asked for a tall boy of GLB Canuck.
My wife said her chicken tasted good. I didn't get a chance to try the biscuits because when my main came I was rather preoccupied. Tamara described the Uncle Ray's as two thighs, deboned, battered, fried and hot. It was stacked on a slice of bread with a few sweet pickle slices. I was told the dish was hot (spicy hot) as it was cooked with a habanero pepper sauce. I wanted that, I had really wanted something spicy hot for a while. I had just had Nando's for lunch the same day and it just didn't meet that spicy hot need I had it seemed.
Uncle Ray's Lightning was EXACTLY what I was craving. The dark meat was tasty, not dry and the pieces were crispy, evenly coated and cooked just right. This was an amazing stack of spicy hot fried chicken that was tasty and even though it was "habenero hot", it wasn't overpowering. It was enough of a good kick of heat without completely taking over. If you're wary of jalapeno type heat, don't order this dish as it is hotter than that. For those seeking a nice kick of heat on great tasting chicken however this dish is for you.
I really liked the fries and even though some pieces looked overcooked they weren't. The smashed/fried potatoes were about the size of tater tots, covered in some sort of shaved cheese. Each side was generous enough to share between at least two people.
The dessert which was called "crack pie" was a take on a non gooey butter tart it seemed. Momofuku Milk Bar has their own crack pie but this was served with whipped sour cream and smashed frozen raspberries. The crust was flaky and the dessert that we shared was really different.
Uncle Ray's ended up being 18 bucks, my wife's quarter white was 10, our 3 sides ended up being 20 bucks, drinks were 13 and the dessert was 8. The entire meal which was quite filling for the two of us before tax and tip was 67 dollars. Sherway has upped their game as of late so it's understandable that places like the Keg, Joey and Union Chicken would want to be a part of the mall's renaissance.
I was completely satisfied with the service from Tamara, the friendly greetings by the other staff who seemed all polite, friendly and professional. We'll be back.
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