Yelp's Favorite Chicken Restaurant Is Known For Its Nashville Hot Sandwich

If you need a restaurant recommendation based on customer reviews, we all know that Yelp is the best place to look. Of course, you can look up a specific restaurant you have in mind, but Yelp also compiles lists that might be helpful for you — such as a list of the Top 50 fried chicken spots in the U.S. and Canada. The restaurant that nabbed the top spot? It's a restaurant called Howlin' Ray's, which has two locations in Southern California (Chinatown in Los Angeles and Pasadena) and one in Las Vegas. To put it lightly, Howlin' Ray's is a majorly popular spot on Yelp — it has over 8,000 reviews. To put that into perspective, the restaurant in the number two spot has just over 2,000 reviews, so the difference is quite stark.

Howlin' Ray's is known for its Nashville hot sandwich, which they refer to simply as "the sando." The sandwich consists of boneless chicken breast, slaw, pickles, a butter bun, and comeback sauce (which is a sweet-spicy-tangy and creamy sauce made of ingredients like chili sauce, ketchup, and mayonnaise). You can choose from six spice levels to fit your heat preference, ranging from "country" (no heat) to "howlin'" (extremely hot) — although it's known among Howlin' Ray's fans that there are secret menu spice levels, such as "Howlin' plus."

Out of those 8,000-plus reviews, nearly all of them are positive — the average rating is 4.7 stars, which is incredibly high. About the sando, one Yelper wrote, "Love the balance of the chicken with the slaw, sauce, and pickles on the sando, so perfect."

Reviewers say that Howlin' Ray's is completely worth the hype, with many people noting that the food is definitely worth any wait time. One Yelp reviewer called it the best chicken spot in LA. And many of the reviews also call out the exceptional customer service, as well as the delicious food. Customers also love how consistent the quality of the food is, as well as the overall balance between heat and flavor in the chicken.

And of course, the sandwich gets plenty of attention in the reviews. One Yelper declared it the "best chicken sando hands down," which is extremely high praise. And another Yelp reviewer wrote, "The breading on the chicken is delectable, it's so crispy without drying out the chicken." One person also noted that they like how well the toppings balance out the spice of the chicken.

Reviewers also love other menu items such as the crinkle cut fries and the chicken tenders. The restaurant even has a dessert on the menu, banana pudding, which also got plenty of shout-outs in the Yelp reviews. All in all, it seems like you can't go wrong with anything on the Howlin's Ray's menu — but you should definitely make a point of trying the sando. Afterward, you may just be tempted to try your hand at making your own homemade Nashville hot chicken sandwich (along with homemade fries, of course)— you can make it a goal to perfect the sandwich so that it's just as good as the one at Howlin' Ray's.