Dining | Convenience Store Fried Chicken Showdown

We have been all over the metro and we all have seen these convenience stores everywhere. Almost once a day we stop by to purchase water or some groceries or even ate in them. So here is our rundown on the popular fried chicken combo they offer..

Ministop - San Pedro Branch

They call their fried chicken Uncle John's Fried Chicken and the packaging is second best tested or tasted herein. Costs Php70 + Php19 for water, total Cost Php89.

Food rack is clean, Servers I guess were clean as well. When I ordered, they asked me which part I liked and proceeded to heat them again in the microwave. Took a few minutes only and it was served hot. Fried chicken had a very good sized serving (as I chose it) and was thick with flour. The breading was thick but had flavor in them so I wouldn't complain there. Rice though was very dry and cold. I preferred my rice wet an sticky, not dry. It was difficult for me to finish my rice as it kept my palate dry every time I had a spoonful. They need to improve on the rice.

Lawson - Alabang Town Center

Months prior we had lots of complaints on their branch in Pasig. Herein we visited the one in Alabang Town Center which was the exact opposite. We had lots of praises this time around.

Area was clean, lots of diners eating here so expect a lot of traffic. Expect a lot of trash as well. Filipinos seem to leave their plate after they finish, they feel they are in the restaurant where busboys are available. I hope most of us will clean up our own mess when eating in convenience stores.

In fairness, even with lots of traffic, trash will just pile up a few minutes and their staff cleans up nicely and in a speedy manner. So eating here is a joy.

Now to the food. Their fried chicken costs Php64 (I lost the receipt) + Php18 for water. I wrote down total cost was Php82. This is the lowest priced chicken combo I had for this test. Chicken was juicy, skin was crunchy, and this was the tastiest chicken I had during the showdown.

Now I have to elaborate more on their rice. Surprisingly it was wet and a little bit sticky. yahoo. but it wasn't this quality that I had to emphasize, the thing that made this chicken combo stand out was the fact that their rice was UNLIRICE. Take note I had to capitalize all letters to prove a point. UNLIRICE. Enough said.

All Day - Starmall Alabang

This convenience store I think in my opinion is the latest of chain of stores to open in the metro. I might be mistaken but anyway here goes our review. For this we visited their store in Starmall Alabang.

Don't order chicken here. Price wise its okay, fried chicken costs Php65 + Php 20 for water. Total cost is Php85.

Still don't order chicken here. They serve burnt fried chicken. Although the food rack was outside the counter where you can choose which part you like. All the chicken on the rack was overcooked thus having a burnt taste. Packaging didn't help as well as it was just served on an unmarked cardboard box.

Rice. They served me uncooked dry rice. You can feel that the rice had a hard thing inside them. It was like cooking rice with less water. That being said, I won't be ordering chicken here. I hate recommending people not to eat here but if you are reading this, don't order chicken in All Day Starmall Alabang Branch. Maybe you will have better luck with their other branches. Also I do hope this is an isolated thing and that other cooks in that branch doesn't cook similar to when we visited them.

Service also was poor. I had to clean up someone's left overs so I can take a seat.

7 Eleven - Pavilion Binan Branch

When we visited this branch, we noticed that they have allocated only two tables for dining customers. Very small tables.

Now in this branch, they had no fried chicken. What they have are the baked chicken. For some unknown reason, I missed the fact that they stopped serving friend chicken. Maybe just for this branch but we will confirm later with other branches. Anyway, we still tested the baked chicken they are offering.

The baked chicken costs Php75 + Php15 for water. Total cost Php90. The most expensive in this showdown.

Now the chicken is housed in the best packaging ever. Cleanest if I may add. Vacuum sealed. Server was fast and courteous. She opened it a bit then placed in the microwave. Served piping hot chicken and rice, I expected a lot from this baby. The only let down was the utensils. They only provided for one, yes just one spork (a utensil thats both spoon and fork) and they never apologized for it. I asked them for a regular spoon and fork, they said the spork was it. Oh well...

Finally I opened the neat package and I saw a chicken, good serving of it, with a ample amount of sauce with rosemary in them. First glance, it looked like pork chops. The chicken was flattened so much that it looked like pork chops. There I said pork chops again. LOL.

The rosemary (or thyme) smelled great, the sauce was great tasting as well. Sadly the chicken was dry and a bit leathery. Difficult to finish the chicken. The rice was the worst in the lot. This was the driest rice we ever tasted in this showdown. Maybe the meal was in their chiller a long time and when they microwaved the thing, the rice dried for a bit more.

Your choice if you want to order this when you see it at your 7 Eleven branch.

Family Mart - Glorietta Branch

A welcome treat for a stingy commuter like in a place like Ayala Mall. If you are on a budget, eating in a mall food court is not your thing, then this Family Mart is for you.

Fried chicken combo here costs Php65 + Php20 for water. Total cost Php85. A very budget meal in an expensive place is an oasis in my books.

Service was fast in the counter but in the dining area, it was the opposite. So when you want to eat here, be ready to clean tables.

Not our mess. Had to clean up prior to taking our seat.

Fried chicken had a good serving size. Sadly they had no catsup nor gravy during our visit. I found other diners before me had those, unlucky me they ran out of it when I ordered.. Going back to the chicken, served in a cardboard box (with their branding - nice touch) lots of breading, not much great on taste. Chicken was dry maybe because it stayed in the warmer a bit longer than usual, and it was a bit cold, maybe the warmer wasn't warm enough, I don't know. I'm not an expert on food warmer equipment but we are just calling it as it is.

Rice was cooked nicely and was the saving grace for this meal. It was white and pluffy and tasted nice.