Roost Gets the Main Event Right. Stop Before Dessert.

Roost started as a food truck in 2012 — reportedly Chicago's first dedicated fried chicken truck — founded by Joe Scroggs, a Chapel Hill native who wanted to bring Carolina cooking to a city that had plenty of barbecue and not much else in that lane. The truck became a restaurant. The restaurant became two. The fried chicken stayed the point.

The sandwich on a biscuit is where to start, specifically on the biscuit. The bun version exists and it is fine. The biscuit version is why you came. Rich, slightly messy, heavy in the best possible way — the biscuit adds a layer that makes the whole thing more distinctive and more Roost-specific than a standard fried chicken sandwich. The chicken itself has real crunch and real flavor underneath it. The slaw on top is good. The pickles are very good, the kind that make you realize how much a bad pickle costs a sandwich and how much a great one gives back.

Medium heat for reference: noticeable warmth that builds and sits without overwhelming. For anyone with a baseline tolerance for spice, medium is the right starting point. The tenders are worth ordering alongside if you are at the table with people — expertly fried, same quality as the sandwich chicken, easy to share. The fries are well done and well seasoned. This is a place that can deep fry, and everything it deep fries confirms it.

Now the honest part. The menu beyond the core is where things go sideways. The mac and cheese is a skip — described as creamy on the menu, which it is not, and underseasoned enough that it reads as filler rather than a side worth ordering. Save the stomach space.

The desserts are the same story. The chocolate chip bread pudding is slightly better than the peach cobbler, but neither clears a meaningful bar. The cobbler is the more confusing of the two — it uses the same cake batter base as the bread pudding, which means no crunch, no texture contrast, and not enough peach to justify the name. Both can be passed without regret.

The move here is simple: get the biscuit sandwich, get the tenders, get the fries, skip everything else. The sandwich is large enough to share if you are not deeply hungry. Add the fries and you will not leave wanting. You may leave needing a nap, which is entirely appropriate.