I’m not exaggerating when I say this is the best fried chicken I have ever had. If you are in New Orleans, or anywhere in the country for that matter, you need to run, not walk over to Willie Mae’s Scotch House and get yourself some fried chicken. Lord have mercy it is that good.
However, prepare to wait in line. On weekends the line is usually wrapped around the building and down the block. Trust me, it is worth the wait. They are open every day, except Sunday. Now our waitress gave us a little secret, and I’m about to share it with y’all: the best day to visit is Tuesdays. In fact, when we went there it was a Tuesday afternoon and there was no line. She said people wait up to 2 hours in line for Willie Mae’s fried chicken.
Willie Mae’s opened their doors in 1957 and have been serving their fried chicken and southern goodness ever since. I was so happy to finally get a chance to try this famous fried chicken.
Now, it is just this little hole in the wall place. The restaurant is in a house, and has no more than 20 tables. If you are visiting Willie Mae’s, it is not in the greatest of neighborhoods, and there isn’t much to do around the area. Willie Mae’s is about 15 minutes away from the French Quarter. I would plan to take a trip there solely for lunch and then continue your other activities.
Now onto the good stuff- what we ordered. There were 4 of us at the table, so we decided to get 3 orders of fried chicken. Each order comes with 3 pieces and you can order dark or white. Each order also comes with a side. Another piece of advice, they will charge an extra $4 to share, but our waitress said if you just order another side, so there is an order for every person sitting at the table, it will cancel that out. So that is exactly what we did. We ordered:
- 2 white meat
- 1 dark meat
- Sweet potato fries
- Mashed potatoes
- Mac and cheese
- Lima beans
- 4 corn muffins
When our food came out, we all immediately started to drool.
First I will start with the main dish, that fried chicken was so stinking good – I still can’t get over it! I am a white meat, chicken boob kind of girl, and like I said earlier it was the best piece of fried chicken I have ever had. The skin was crispy, the meat was so flavorful and moist, and it was just all around amazing.
But what was a real surprise was how good the corn bread muffins were. We bit into them, and we all at one time went, “woooooow”. They were just so good. The corn bread muffins are way worth the extra $1.75. I wanted to order 3 to go, but I was so full I couldn’t move.
Now, Mitchell was a little sneaky and he started eating the mashed potatoes and not telling everyone how good they were, so he could have them to himself. I eventually caught on and got a few bites, and no surprise, so good. It was like eating a little bite of garlic mashed potato heaven. The sweet potato fries were just as good, and had a little brown sugar on them to make them sweet.
I did not try the Mac and cheese or the lima beans. However, they reported back to me and said they were both yummy. We were stuck on deciding our last side, so we asked our waitress and she recommended the lima beans. Everyone around us had an order so we decided to fit in and add that as our last side.
I have a feeling this will be a regular place for Mitch and I during our time in New Orleans. The food was amazing, the people were nice, and the place has such history and culture. If you are visiting New Orleans, you need to, no “ands”, “ifs”, or “buts” make a stop at Willie Mae’s Scotch House.
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