Single serving: fried chicken sandwich RT Rotisserie

The fried chicken sandwich parade continues as I make my way to RT Rotisserie, a Hayes Valley spot which is a spin-off of Rich Table. It has been around a bit now and gotten its own fair of kudos since opening. The place has been on my radar to try sometime, which turned into a couple times where I was able to try both variations of their chicken, the rotisserie (which I will cover later) and the fried.

The fried being the fried chicken sandwich above. I worked hard to look past the $10 cost at the time in the interest of "giving it a try," though, a sandwich without sides for that price still rankles. It's called Sally Hurricane's Southern fried chicken sandwich with charred cabbage, pickled onions and chipotle yogurt on a brioche bun. Sounds great right?

Some good things--the bun was toasted and nicely fluffy. The chipotle yogurt had just the right amount of tang and spice without being overwhelming. The breading and skin were quite crispy as it was cooked to order. I want to say I think I also detected just a hint of honey in there somewhere (or something a little sweet) lightly glazed across the chicken. It wasn't the pickled purple onions, which I did kind of like as a contrast to the chipotle.

As for the not so good things--it isn't the biggest of sandwiches to be sure. And if the cabbage was charred, I missed it, but I'm also not sure a char flavor would have helped It just tasted like plain 'ol cabbage. Not just a little cabbage, A WHOLE LOT OF CABBAGE! Definitely gave it crunch, I'm guessing that was not the intention. As a matter of fact, it brings me to my main complaint, the sandwich was more cabbage than fried chicken. While the picture they have on their site (scroll to sandwiches) shows two big pieces of chicken on a bun (definitely one I would like to try!), here is what I got:

**side view of the fried chicken sandwich**

One piece of super thin chicken on a bun (kind of like one of those chicken patties from the frozen food aisle) surrounded by so much cabbage, I could barely taste it. This photo isn't an exaggeration either, this is the side cut they made of the sandwich. It was more akin to a cabbage salad with small crunchy notes of fried chicken. Problem is, I ordered a sandwich, if I had wanted a salad I would have ordered one. Not exactly what I was expecting or actually wanted from a place specializing in chicken. Particularly at that price point. Though, I guess I could say, even with such a small piece, it wasn't all dried out or anything! Okay, so maybe it was a tad dry around the edges, but then that can happen with such thin chicken bits.

Pretty evident I didn't really like their version of a fried chicken sandwich. With so little chicken and so much cabbage, it tasted more like disappointment than something deep fried and crunchy like I really wanted. With so many places offering this kind of sandwich, you'd think they would go a little more all in on the fried chicken part. Or maybe they do more with the rotisserie chicken sandwich since it is in their name, who knows? Yes, running a restaurant is a tough proposition in SF but $7 worth of cabbage, $2 worth of bread and $1 worth of chicken doesn't add up to a fried chicken sandwich I want to try again. With so many better options around town, I'll personally spend my $10 elsewhere.