Roscoe’s House of Chicken ‘N Waffles (Pasadena)
830 N. Lake AvenueYou see me write a lot about the long days and lack of meal breaks when I travel for work. This trip was pretty much that way too.
We left our hotel around 9 AM and we were pretty lucky if we got a meal break before 8:00 PM.
Our fourth day in Los Angeles we actually got a somewhat proper dinner break. We had a gap between about 3:30 and 6:30 where we didn’t have much going on. We were in Carson for an assignment then we had to be back in Pasadena around 6:30. I suggested we head back to Pasadena and find something to eat.
I was posting pictures from my trip on Facebook and one of my friends who lived in LA for a while jumped in and said there was a restaurant we had to try. There was a location in Pasadena which worked out even better for us.
Roscoe’s House of Chicken ‘N Waffles is a Los Angeles soul food institution. The original location is in Long Beach and the most famous location is in Hollywood, but there are seven locations in the metro area. The chain of restaurants got it’s start in the 1970’s
The location we chose was the Pasadena store on North Lake Avenue just north of Boylston Street in the Bungalow Heaven Neighborhood. The building gives me old school Pizza Hut vibes but this place has been a Roscoe’s for well over a decade. The funny thing about this spot to me is that Roscoe’s sits right next to a KFC so you have to make a choice if you want really good chicken or KFC.
The restaurant layout is a pretty simple diner layout. The white brick walls are covered with pictures of celebrities that have eaten at the chain over the years. The tables are sectioned off with half wall dividers so the space feels somewhat cramped. A waitress saw us walk in the door and took us to a table near the windows looking out in to the parking lot.
Roscoe’s is famous for their chicken and their waffles but they do have a pretty large menu of other diner staples.
We didn’t even look at the other things on the menu. We were there for the chicken. And the waffles.
We both ordered Scoe’s #1. This plate is a 1/4 chicken (we both got white meat) and two southern style waffles.
I started with the waffles. They’re much thinner than typical waffles and a little more crispy but they are so damn tasty. There was a big scoop of butter on top which easily melted on to the warm waffles. There was also two cups of syrup which was much more than I needed. I always think of big fluffy waffles when I think of waffles and these are not that, but that almost made them better than a typical diner waffle. There was a firmness in each bite that held up to be soaked in butter and maple syrup.
You can essentially pick which pieces of chicken you want for the meal. I picked white meat because I’m apparently a weirdo that likes white meat better than the dark meat.
The two pieces that came with my meal were a wing and a breast. I tore open the wing first. The chicken was so juicy and tender. The breading was super crispy and had a slight saltiness to it that just blew me away. My co-worker thought his chicken was a little dry but I didn’t have the same feeling. I may have been distracted by the breading though. I could have just eaten a whole plate of that.
The chicken didn’t need anything to put on it but there was a bottle of Roscoe’s Reaper hot sauce on the table…so I had to try it…and it was good. There was a amazing pepperiness at the beginning followed by a lot of heat at the end. I only used a little bit on just a small piece of chicken just to try it. If the chicken wasn’t so good on it’s own, I may have used a lot more. It was good but not for someone who doesn’t like a little burning sensation that tends to linger.
My co-worker also got a plate of French Fries on the side. They were nothing more than frozen restaurant fries. There was a lot on the plate and we both had a lot of food from our main meal so he ate about half then offered the rest up to me.
The restaurant doesn’t split check so both our meals were on one. The cost was about $65 before tip.
As we were walking out of the restaurant, my co-worker made the comment that he’s “never had a bad meal” with me. We both were super satisfied with this dinner as we got back in the car to finish our workday.
I had heard of Roscoe’s House of Chicken ‘N Waffles before but it wasn’t on my radar when we headed out to California. I’m super grateful an old friend whom I haven’t seen in 15 years saw my random Facebook post and told us we had to make time to stop.
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