Wafels & Dinges just announced it two days ago, to much fanfare, and yesterday we were able to hit Kastaar for lunch to try the new Chicken & Waffles Slider, and to be precise: Chicken, Wafels & Cream Gravy Slider.
As we mentioned previously, this new menu item is only available at the two Wafels & Dinges trucks & their East Village cafe. The W&D carts are not equipped to serve this dish.
The new Chicken & Waffles Slider, with a side salad costs $10.
For the creation of this dish, W&D created a new wafel, an herbed wafel.
The herbed wafel looked like a Liege wafel, with a similar thick density, but it’s not sweet like a Liege wafel. This wafel was doughy and a little herby by itself, but the herbs were kind of buried under the chicken, mushrooms and gravy.
The W&D version of Chicken & Waffles Slider differs from the classic chicken & waffles dish served by places like Roscoe’s in a few ways.
The most obvious is the use of shredded chicken instead of whole pieces of fried chicken. We’ve never had Chicken & Waffles Sliders that did not use whole pieces of fried chicken.
They also make this a sandwich or slider, meaning there are 2 wafels, one on top and one on the bottom. But it’s impossible to pick it up and eat. The classic Chicken & Waffles Slider dish is open-faced.
We’re not sure why there’s a 2nd wafel on top, other than it improves the dish a lot aesthetically. An open-faced wafel with shredded chicken and mushroom cream gravy is not very photogenic.
The chicken was tender, and there was no funky stuff in there. We would expect nothing less from W&D, who are sticklers about the quality of their ingredients.
As for the cream gravy, it’s good, but it’s not the traditional Southern gravy we’ve had on chicken fried steak, biscuits & gravy, and chicken & waffles. That stuff will stop a train (or the blood from pumping to your heart).
This was more like a mushroom cream gravy, not quite as thick and glutinous as Southern gravy, and without the little bits of char, sausage and whatever else they can find that gives Southern gravy it’s character.
This gravy was quite peppery like Southern gravy, but it was more like a creamy, peppery champignon sauce (without the wine) than Southern gravy.
We’re not Southern, but we have spent a lot of time in Atlanta, and a bit of time in North Carolina, Austin, and rural Pennsylvania, too. We’ve had enough experiences with cream gravy to know what it is and is not.
That doesn’t mean you can’t still enjoy the Chicken & Waffles Slider from W&D. We certainly did. It was delicious. Just don’t go in expecting traditional Southern chicken & waffles and you’ll be fine. This is more of a Belgian or European version of chicken & waffles.
You can find the Wafels & Dinges trucks on twitter here, or on our Mobile Munchies twitter feed. If you prefer, stop by their cafe in the East Village.
