Bojangles (Princeton)
701 Oakvale RoadYou thought we were going to get back to Southwest Michigan restaurants after that string of Northern Michigan blogs, didn’t you?
I was home for about a day and a half then it was back on the road. I had to drive to North Carolina for work. A colleague and I literally drove 14 hours, worked for about 3 hours in Wilmington, NC then turned around and drove 14 hours back to Michigan. We had too much gear and it was too last second to book a flight so the only way we were going to do the job was to drive it. So we did.
We left at a out 7:00 AM on Tuesday morning. We had to stop in Ann Arbor and finish a job my colleague had already started. We completed that then got back on the road around 11:30 to make the rest of the drive.
We did pretty good not stopping very often for bathroom breaks. Last time he and I went on a trip it felt like we stopped every hour. We were every two or three this time.
Around 6:00, we had just gotten out of the mountains in West Virginia and were heading in to Virginia around 6:00. I noticed a billboard for a Bojangles on the side of the road. My colleague asked if I wanted to stop. I’ve never been to a Bojangles so of course the answer was yes.
We stopped at the Bojangles in Princeton, West Virginia. It’s on Oakvale Boulevard right off of WV460/Big Laurel Highway. The fast food chicken shop isn’t too far off I-77 but I still needed to quickly put it in my GPS to find the right turn once I got off the highway.
Bojangles is really pretty similar to any other fast food chicken joint (think Popeyes or KFC). There’s a fast food order counter with the menu above it. The food is pretty much all out in front of you in a buffet style warmer which the cashier then puts together after you place the order.
I wanted to actually try the chicken because I’ve always heard that’s what Bojangles is best known for. I’m sure I could have gotten the idea with the chicken tenders or chicken sandwich, but I was going for straight up fried chicken.
I picked the 2 pc Breast and Wing meal with Bo Fries and Macaroni & Cheese as my sides. It also came with a biscuit and I thought I was adding on a large drink to the order but the price didn’t reflect that. I got the large drink but I only paid a little under $9 for what turned out to be a lot of food.
I know I’m in the south and I know I should get Sweet Tea but I don’t like tea so I just got a pop. They had Pepsi on the fountain so I took advantage and filled my cup up a couple of times.
We ended up eating in because it’s hard to eat chicken in the car. Nothing much of a surprise with the dining room. It looks like any other fast food place. Maybe a little fancier than the fast food plastic furniture they all had when I was a kid.
I grabbed the Bo Fries when I sat down and got settled. The fries are thin and crispy with a delicious salt and pepper seasoning on them. They’re pretty typical fast food style fries but the seasoning makes them just a little better than typical.
Macaroni & Cheese was next. I decided to save the chicken for last. The mac and cheese super creamy and again, tasted like a fast food mac & cheese. That’s not a bad thing. It was delicious. It just was anything out of the ordinary.
I decided to go to the chicken before the biscuits so, I guess I just lied. The chicken wasn’t the total last thing.
The chicken had a really crispy breading and was soft and juicy underneath. There is some spice in the breading which you can see as a little bit of red discoloration on the meat. It’s very similar to Popeye’s, but there is a lot more meat and a lot less breading than the last few times I’ve had Popeye’s. Both pieces were fairly large and both pieces had quite a bit of meat to them.
I finished up with two biscuits. My colleague had gotten chicken strips (which he said were better than most fast food chicken strips) but was stuffed and didn’t want the biscuit. The biscuits are super flaky buttermilk biscuits. Both were a little dry and would have benefited from some honey but I didn’t get up and get any. I still ate both of them. A little butter or a little honey would have went a long way with these.
Is Bojangles worth the hype? I mean, it’s fast food chicken. It’s good. Better than some of their competitors….or maybe it was just my first time and I was still buying in to the hype. Regional chains have a way of doing that.
Either way, I really enjoyed my meal and was shocked at how much food I got for $9. I wouldn’t be mad if a Bojangles somehow made it’s way to Southwest Michigan.
SW Michigan Dining 