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Burnin’ Mouth Brings Popular Nashville Hot Chicken To Irvine Spectrum
The Background
Nashville Hot Chicken is a spicy take on fried chicken that seems to get more and more popular with new restuarants opening up every year. 10-15 years ago I can’t really recall seeing too many Nashville Hot Chicken spots in Orange County. These days there seems to be quite a few.
Burnin’ Mouth at the Irvine Spectrum is one of the more recent Nashville Hot Chicken restaurants to open up in the area.
The Experience
Once you enter the restaurant you’re greeted by a few digital menus to order off of. The touch screen itself is easy enough to navigate through and select what you want. There’s no actual human interaction. That’s fine for most people but I could see it being problematic. If people have any questions about the menu there’s only one person manning the front.
Anytime I try a Nashville Hot Chicken spot I have to go with the chicken sandwich. I feel like that’s generally the item on the menu the restuarant is going to be most known for. Burnin’ Mouth calls their chicken sandwich the Coo Coo Sando. I grabbed the combo which comes with fries, and no drink which is kind of weird ($13.90).
There’s five different spice levels to choose from ranging from the lowest (Simple) to the hottest (Insane). I love me some spicy food but places are always different with how they define “spice”. So I played it safe and went with Ugly, which is the second hottest spice level.
The food came out pretty quickly and is a fair amount of food. The sandwich is a pretty decent size. It’s packed with coleslaw, crispy onions, a few pickles, and a large piece of fried chicken coated in spices and seasonings. The entire sandwich is oozing with a thousand island type sauce. It’s a really great presentation.
The piece of chicken had a nice crunch and had some spicy kick to it. Not overbearing heat but definitely a kick that I was a little surprised by. There were parts of the chicken that were a little dry and stringy though, which did take away from the overall enjoyment.
The brioche bun was nice and fluffy, the sauce very tasty, and the different textures with the cripsy onion, coleslaw, and pickles, all adding a diffent type of crunch and flavor with each bite. Overall a pretty delicious sandwich!
The fries were crispy with cajun seasoning sprinkled over the top. Definitely quality fries.
The Verdict
Burnin’ Mouth is a solid Nashville Chicken spot if you’re craving a spicy chicken sandwich. However, I can’t say it’s a place I’d go out of my way to go and get. While it’s pretty tasty, the dry, stringy parts of the chicken stood out to me. But if you find yourself out shopping at the Irvine Spectrum, it’s a solid place to stop by for a bite.
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Why The Oyster Bar In The Palace Station Las Vegas Is Worth The Wait
The Background
Located within The Palace Station in Las Vegas is a litte place called The Oyster Bar. The Cajun style restaurant has been in Palace Station since 1995. This isn’t a normal restaurant with an actual entrance and tables. It’s literally a bar. Seats surround a half-octagon-shaped granite countertop.
Due to this, seating is exremely limited (18-20 seats), which can lead to lengthy waits. I’ve heard of people waiting in line up to 3-4 hours during peak hours. Fortunately, the restaurant is open 24/7 so there’s some off hours to sneak in to avoid the rush.
Offering a number of seafood items on its menu from raw oysters, chowders, gumbos, cioppino,and jambalaya, there’s many fine options to choose from.
They prepare and cook the food right in front of you. Steam kettles, used for many of the dishes, line the bar. You can literally watch your meal come together right in front of you.
Steam Kettling some Pan Roast Why do people flock here and wait in the line? Undoubtedly the main draw is the Pan Roast.
The Experience
I arrived in Vegas around 11 am, and the first place I stopped was The Palace Station. Luckily, the line wasn’t too bad at this time. It took around an hour to grab a seat.
There’s a lot of tempting items on the menu that sound really delicious. But I came here for one thing: the Pan Roast.
The Pan Roast is a very unique dish. It’s basically like a thicker tomato stew with a lot of cajun seasoning and spice with seafood and a side of rice. You can adjust the overall spice level from 1-10. I generally go with the 7, which is just the right amount for me.
I ordered the Palace Pan Roast (shrimp, crab, chicken, and andouille sausage) with the 7 spice level.
The bowl the Pan Roast comes in is massive. They give you a generous amount andouille sausage, chicken, shrimp, and shreds of crab meat throughout the soup and really soak up the soup flavor. The rice on the side so it doesn’t soak up all that wonderful soup, which is nice. Altogether it’s a lot of food!
Above all the ingredients within the Pan Roast, the star that makes the dish stand out is the tomatoesque broth / soup. I can’t quite pin what all the seasonings and spices are. There’s a lot of different ingredients in this. It’s so flavorful with a rich and creamy tomato taste with chili flakes thrown in providing the spice.
Taking a spoonful of rice, dipping it in the soup and grabbing a chunk of chicken, shrimp, or sausage, and savoring the flavor of the sauce is truly a delightful bite. You get a nice warm feeling of contentment throughout your body with each spoonful. You won’t be disappointed with this meal.
The Verdict
The Oyster Bar is an inconic restaurant which has been serving Cajun style dishes and seafood in Las Vegas for nearly 30 years. There’s a ton of great restuarants in Las Vegas to experience and try. None of those places have the Pan Roast though. Wait times may be extreme at times due to limited seating but the uniqueness of the Pan Roast truly makes the wait worth it.
