Best Of MenuPages Review ShillWatch: Bubba’s Fried Turkey

Last Tuesday and Wednesday, two reviews were posted for Bubba’s Fried Turkey on 87th Street near Stony Island, bringing the grand total of reviews for that restaurant to…two. On further inspection, our two reviews seem to be the only such commentary on the entire internet! You know something’s obscure when LTHForum, Metromix and Yelp all come up empty. And yet, they have an amazing URL (www.bubbasfriedturkey.com) and a relatively well-designed site.

Now when they say “fried turkey,” they mean, battered and deep fried. This is not that new-fangled method from the South where you deep-fry the turkey instead of roasting it and it cooks faster but doesn’t absorb any of the oil for some reason. No, the turkey is covered in yellow batter, like everything else on the South Side. Alas.

Let’s check out the reviews. The first one, by “local resident” (a warning flag), was entitled “Something Different”:


This is the great place to satisfy your taste buds when you are tired of the same ole’ meals. Service is friendly and welcomes you once you come through the door. No attitudes here! Food is filling and resonable. The salmon with the fish and chips is a huge portion with great flavor. The turkey sandwich, fried, was light and tasty. Not the boring rubber sandwich that I usually receive. Be patient, this is not a fast food set up. Fast is not always good! The dinning atmosphere is good but not large. Clean. This restuarant is great change from the normal and the cook really cares about the quality of your meal.


Our immediate reaction is, we hope this guy can fry turkey better than he can construct a sentence! While there isn’t exactly an incriminating clause in the piece, the general sense we get is of the owner relating what he believes to be the unique and winning parts of his restaurant in the voice of a regular customer. But it’s hard to say for sure.

The next review was from “tracey,” optimistically entitled “healthy and good”:


if you want something healthy and good this is the spot! when you go, get the turkey breast sandwich fried!! This is the best sandwich I ever had in my life!!


It goes without saying that there’s nothing healthy about battered and fried. We noticed, as we looked at these two reviews, that they both employ the same double space between sentences. The shiller’s tell-tale signature? Perhaps. Again, we report, you decide.

All that said, we’re intrigued by the fried salmon fish and chips, and we appreciate the menu’s warning that “products may contain peanuts.” And fried turkey is not something we see on too many menus in Chicagoland. Shills or not, Bubba’s is definitely doing something different.

Bubba’s Fried Turkey [MenuPages]
Bubba’s Fried Turkey [Official Site]

[Photo: from their website]

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Best Of MenuPages Review ShillWatch: Bubba’s Fried Turkey