Review: Zankou Chicken - Chicken Tarna Plate

Zankou Chicken is a popular family-owned chain in southern California specializing in Middle Eastern / Meditterean-style food and is quite famous for their chicken and garlic sauce.  Zankou's Chicken Tarna Plate runs for $9.99 and features slices of marinated chicken served with hummus, sesame sauce (tahini), tomatoes, lettuce, pickled turnips, peppers, pita Bread and garlic sauce.

While it's a bit pricey at $9.99, you do get enough food for at least two people.  Unfortunately, you don't get enough pitas for the food.  You get two pitas but I think four (or even six!) would have been better since you can make the pitas into wraps as well as just eat them with hummus or tahini.

All the veggies were very fresh and crisp.  I'm not sure how I feel about pickled turnips; they're okay I guess.  Lightly pickled and fairly crisp.  I love the garlic sauce.  It's a blend of garlic, lemon, and salt and it goes great with pretty much any chicken.  It's especially good with the tarna in a wrap with the veggies.

The chicken tarna had a good amount of spices and flavor but was just a little too salty by itself.  Then again, I don't think it's meant to be eaten just by itself.  The hummus is also pretty good and I can just sit there and eat it with pita... well I could if they gave me more pita anyway.

In sum, Zankou Chicken is great stuff!  Try their Chicken Tarna Plate but pick up some extra pitas as well.  I usually find a reason to stop in when I drive by one.  Unfortunately, their expansion has largely halted due to really serious family infighting, so you won't be seeing any outside of southern California any time soon.

Zankou Chicken Restaurant Locations