It is always a difficulty when trying to find a breakfast place because I’m not a big breakfast person. However, after much consultation with friends, I decided on Chicken Coop mainly because it sounded like a place with a lot of character.
We arrive at this dive bar/restaurant and the first thing that hit me was the smell of bacon. I noticed the old school structure the restaurant is situated in and had a good feeling about it.
The restaurant was virtually empty except for a few people seated at the bar — wasn’t sure if they were drinking or eating — and I found a spot with the most lighting to sit at.
The menu has breakfast, lunch and dinner items but lunch wasn’t served until 11am so I only had breakfast options to choose from. That’s agreeable to my friend, but I was hoping to have something else fill my stomach other than breakfast items.
I went with the Turkey Sausage and Eggs, which comes with a choice of country potatoes or hash browns and biscuits and gravy or toast ($7.95). They were definitely not stingy with the food — three “poached” eggs arrived with four turkey patties, a nice mound of hash browns and butter-slathered toast.
My poached eggs didn’t look like traditional poached eggs but at least they weren’t completely hard.
The yolks were still a little runny, but definitely cooked a bit too much to my liking. The turkey sausage patties were nicely flavored, not too salty and lean.
I had asked for extra crispy hash browns, but the mound in the middle was too thick so I ended up with a lot of soft potatoes anyway. I just picked off the crispy bits and ate those.
My friend had the Chicken Coop Combo ($4.95) which was a great deal, with pancakes, bacon (which my friend swapped out for sausage) and eggs.
It was terribly sad that my pancake-loving friend found the pancakes to be undercooked with the center gummy and pasty.
It is with a heavy heart when I say, they were quite disgusting. My friend was so disappointed I could see the sadness loom over the uneaten pancakes on the plate. I was told the scrambled eggs were good (I’m not a scrambled eggs fan) so at least there was some salvation at the end of the day.
Service was lukewarm. No smiles, and no checking back to see how things were. This is definitely not a place to come for service. However, if you’re looking for a bargain of a breakfast with half-way decent food, Chicken Coop is a good place to stop by to get that. It is cash-only and if you forget, they have an ATM located inside for your convenience. My word of advice is — don’t come here on a first date! Just don’t do it!
Zubies Chicken Coop
414 Old Newport Blvd
Newport Beach, CA 92663
Tel: 949-645-6086
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