There are a lot of things in Hollywood that are famous for simply being famous.

There’s Grauman’s Chinese Theater, famous because it’s the Chinese Theater. Then there’s Paris Hilton, one of many celebrities famous just because of her name.

Now there’s Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles in Hollywood, famous because of its brick fa’ccedil;ade’s landmark status located just off Gower Street and Sunset Boulevard.

Roscoe’s was founded by Herb Hudson, a Pennsylvanian businessman who moved to New York in the 1960s. Hudson later decided to bring Southern cooking from his hometown to Harlem and then to Los Angeles.’ ‘

This place has garnered a lot of hype because of the celebrities that frequent this establishment like rapper Snoop Dogg and soccer player David Beckham. However, if diners were to rely on celebrity appearances to gauge a restaurant’s caliber, we would then have to believe that other places, like the Ivy, offered something more than over priced mealy crab cakes and bottled water.

The point I am making is to never trust a place’s ‘famous’ reputation to tell you whether or not its food is good.

The lack of taste in the food for Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles is a sad disappointment that has too many times gone uncriticized.

In addition to star-sightings which may or may not be a plus, many teeny boppers go to popular restaurants like Roscoe’s just to say they’ve eaten there. Probably not knowing what real chicken and waffles (a Southern classic) should taste like, many people think the dry chicken and flavorless limp waffles served at Roscoe’s are something special.

For a small restaurant, this place even has valet parking where men in vests basically swap cars and meter park your vehicles. Neither the d’eacute;cor, nor allure of this Hollywood ‘hot spot,’ make up for the blatant disregard for taste and quality.

Roscoe’s menu features southern dishes like omelettes with potatoes and gravy. Their fried chicken platters come with waffles and range in price from $10-15, depending on how many pieces of chicken you want. There is a large selection of side orders, such as corn bread, grits, and sweet potato for under $5 each.

Southern chicken and waffles are meant to be’ dishes that go together rather than just two separate things plopped onto cafeteria plates. Whether served in the north, south, east, or west this classic dish ties these two unlikely pairings with a slightly savory (meaning not too sweet) syrup. This combination is meant to bring out the flavors in both items so the chicken compliments the waffles.

If you’re looking for the real deal, Roscoe’s is not the place to go. Bring on the hate mail. Whether it was white meat or dark meat, the chicken was dry and the taste seemed to be all the same. There was a lack of seasoning in both the chicken’s coating and the chicken itself. The waffles were thinner than Eggo Waffles, and the already thin pieces of bread Roscoe’s decided to call waffles, become even more limp when you’re given straight out of the bottle syrup to pour on them.

Overall, the restaurant is expensive and exaggerated. However, if you must be part of the ‘in-crowd’ and say you’ve gone, go ahead and visit Roscoe’s. If you like popularity more than taste, you might actually enjoy it.

Roscoe’s in Hollywood even resembles the nearby exclusive Hollywood club scene since there is a bouncer at the entrance who makes you wait awhile outside the restaurant doors even if there’s absolutely no line inside.

So if you just need to feel like you can get in somewhere exclusive, this is the place for you. In Snoop Dogg’s defense, the episode in which he went with Beckham was filmed at Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles at the Los Angeles location on Pico Boulevard, a branch that’s supposed to be substantially better than the one located in Hollywood.

For more information visit www.RoscoesChickenAndWaffles.com

Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles
1514 N. Gower St
Hollywood CA 90038
(323) 466-7453