Kennedy Fried Chicken

First of all, the address is wrong for this place. It’s 472 Broadway, not 172. I fly in to town for business about every 2 weeks and decided to explore a little on my way from the airport to the hotel. I decided to check out Kennedy Fried Chicken since it was on my Unilocal bookmarks list (although I have NO idea how it got there… possibly saw it mentioned in a Unilocal review for a different restaurant) and luckily decided to drive all the way down route 17K from the west. When I saw the sign, I stopped… but if I had gone to the address listed by Unilocal I would have had no idea where the actual restaurant was.
Kind of a ghetto looking place. The middle eastern guy behind the counter was nice but barely spoke or understood English. I heard him struggling to understand what another customer wanted after I had ordered. There are pictures of various meal options all over the walls, which is a bit confusing, as well as a text-​only menu. I made one big mistake by ordering «two piece fish and chips» instead of «two piece whiting fish and fries.» The «fish and chips» was slightly cheaper but the fish was «fish fillets» made from some kind of minced fish. They looked exactly like some kind of frozen fish sticks you would get in the supermarket. The «whiting fish» actually looked like real pieces of fish… after I got my order and started eating it I was initially angry that the fish I was served looked so different from what was pictured on the walls… then I found the picture of «fish and chips» on the wall, and… it looked exactly like the lame preformed fish-​paste product I was eating. Oh well.
I also ordered one chicken thigh to see how that was. The available condiments were ketchup and «hot sauce» which was some kind of artificially-​colored looking red sauce in packets that resembled sweet-​and-​sour sauce from a Chinese restaurant and tasted unlike any hot sauce I’ve ever had. Not in a good way. No malt vinegar (which is what I usually like with fried fish) or tartar sauce to be seen. No condiments, napkins, or plasticware were available in the customer seating area, you had to ask for them and the serving guy would give them to you from behind his plexiglas (or possibly bulletproof glass) wall.
The fried chicken was actually very tasty, and the french fries were great as well. The meal was cheap, so that’s a plus. The cole slaw was horrible — tasted weird, like it had been made with pudding mixed with horseradish or something. The fish sticks were terrible as well… why they would offer cheapo fish sticks instead of the «whiting fish» is beyond me. «More options» I guess. This place reminds me of some of the «Greek» restaurants I grew up near in Chicago which offered everything under the sun, from cheeseburgers to gyros to fried chicken, meatloaf, egg rolls… whatever you wanted. Seems like the same idea here. They even have a «Halal» section of the wall menu.
They also threw in some cheapo «dinner rolls» that were kind of sad.
All in all, I think if you ordered the right thing here you might wind up with a pretty tasty meal of unhealthy fried food. I’m not sure I’m curious enough to come back. If I give Kennedy Chicken another chance I will probably try the Beacon location and hope it’s not quite as ghetto as this one.

There was a time where i could not drive past this place without ordering «a jamaican beef patty with cheese and coco bread». After eating at a few high end restaurants, this is still one of my favorite meals. It is just super fat though.

This was my first time having Kennedy Fried Chicken. There’s one closer to where I live, but it’s in a very sketchy area. The store was very small, a little old looking, but clean and the people were nice and very quick. The chicken was great! Crisp, fresh, juicy, the batter was flavorful and a little bit peppery. It was a very unique taste. Too bad (or maybe just as well) that Newburgh is too far for me to be a regular customer. For those not familiar with Newburgh, it has a rather ghetto apperance, but it’s not the worst part of the city. And on the plus side, it’s only a few doors down from Commodore’s Chocolatier!