Mary Brown's Famous Chicken & Taters

3/5 for Mary Brown's. Eight years ago I moved to Edmonton, and roughly eight years ago I caught wind of a place called Mary Brown's, a fast food place that I'd never heard of that specializes in fried chicken. Eight years later, I finally got around to trying it.
Make no mistake, I have no allusions about what kind of food this is. It's nothing more than greasy fast food. Period. But sometimes trying a brand new fast food place can be fun too. I was curious about how it compared to KFC, and let's be honest, who doesn't like fried chicken?? Entirely a Canadian chain, Mary Brown's first opened in Newfoundland in 1969. Today they have locations in Alberta, Ontario, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia.

The location is in a place called Millcreek Plaza, which is in Millwoods - not a corner of the city that I often frequent. They have a huge sign, so you'll definitely know that you're in the right place, and upon entering, you find that you're in a very typical-style fast food joint. Except that to the right, there is a little ice cream parlor attached. Super cute! As in all fast food places, you approach the counter to order. The menu is pretty standard and contains exactly what you would expect: chicken piece combos. Some chicken sandwiches. That's about it. We went with the "chicken deal #5" which is the 5 Piece Deal for about $18.00. Included is medium taters or fries, medium salad and two 355mL Pepsi products. Perfect for two people. I also noticed that they had some funny old timey treats on the counter, so I grabbed myself a $0.99 "tea cake." I ate the tea cake at the end of my meal like a dessert and it was essentially the same as Dream Puffs or Viva Puffs cookies. Seemed a little less "processed" though.

So onto the chicken! "We start with fresh, plump Grade A chicken, which we carefully cut by hand and marinate in our special marinade, making it extra tender. Each piece is then generously coated with our Signature seasoned breading and cooked to perfection in our proprietary cooking units, using the highest quality trans-fat free canola oil." I do really like that everything is done by hand and that factory-cut, pre-breaded, frozen chicken isn't a part of their business. They're already sounding better than KFC... But what about taste? It's just good old greasy, crispy, delicious fried chicken. Nothin' wrong with that! The crunch is satisfyingly great and the blend of spices are nothing short of tasty. This is just great fried chicken, cooked well, the way that you would expect it to be. Given the choice between this and KFC, I'd rather choose a Canadian company with their homemade practices any day. The flavour is just as good!

Taters. "Fresh, whole potatoes are washed and then meticulously hand cut into wedges before being tossed in our signature breading and cooked to golden brown perfection in the highest quality trans-fat free canola oil." Golden and crispy. They're breaded in the same stuff as the chicken which is a little redundant, but they're tasty and there's nothing wrong with that.
Coleslaw on the side 'cause that just makes good sense. They also offer potato salad or macaroni salad should you prefer. I liked that it seemed a little bit more 'real' than the neon green, entirely unnatural stuff that KFC sells.

This meal was exactly what it was supposed to be. No bells or whistles, just decent fried chicken, and frankly it seemed a lot less processed to me (as far as fast food goes) which I certainly appreciated.
And then when you're done eating, you get to head over to the little ice cream parlor! There's a tiny corner in there which sells Maritime foods which I was totally intrigued by. As someone who has never been to the east coast, I loved looking at all of the fascinating items that are not sold on grocery shelves here. There is a large Maritime population in Edmonton, and I'm sure that they appreciate a taste of home. And then a scoop of ice cream to cap off the night! (I'm a cup girl, not much for cones.) Creamy and delicious!
The whole thing turned out to be a pretty cute outing. Chicken 'n taters? You know where to find 'em.