The V.V. Vegan Fried Chicken Showdown 🍿, Battle 8:
Gradient vs. Orchard Grocer

With this Battle 8, the semi-finals are officially set! Are you as excited as I am? I feel really great about the state of these brackets, but I don’t look forward having to ultimately eliminate 3 of the 4 semi-finalist fried chicken sandwiches. But let me slow my roll. Battle 8… or did you scroll down to check the results already?

Gradient, Bushwick
Fried Chicken Sandwich

You may recall my throwing in Gradient in the middle of this Showdown? This battle is actually the second part to my randomly pinning them against Hartbreakers, who was set to take on Orchard Grocer on their own. So they kicked butt and now would attempt to earn their second win. As I sat in my car feasting on this friend chicken sandwich outside of Brooklyn Steel on a major self-care Saturday, I was even more blown away by its quality.

You may remember my mentioning the cutlet was a bit thin? The cutlet was not thin at all this time. When my teeth sank in eagerly, I felt a crunch, perfect cragginess and a bit if kick from the breading this time. The soft bun was oiled and heavenly. Drippy sweet honey mustard. A nice layer of thin pickles rounds out this amazing sandwich. And with a large pile of shoestring fries, a great value.

Just look at that breading that my dashboard light illuminates.

Thick and—so succulent.

I’m in awe of this sandwich! It would be difficult to beat.

Orchard Grocer, Lower East Side
Tofu Fried Chik’n Special

Orchard Grocer‘s specials are a shot in the dark. So I had to wait… when I saw that they were featuring their fried tofu sandwich with Thanksgiving-y accompaniments, I headed on the F after school instead getting home to start my Thanksgiving prep. Though a bit non-traditional, it was their tofu fried chicken after all… along with mushroom gravy, cranberry sauce, cranberry aioli and a red cabbage-scallion slaw.

Decadent and beautifully colored, this was certainly a more unique fried chicken offering. However despite the layers of stuff, the tofu cutlets lacked seasoning and drained all the other flavors to almost non-existent. I kept biting in confusion as the visual and the taste was such a mismatch!

There wasn’t even much tartness to the cranberry components. A lesson in seasoning and perhaps a fluke…

…but this was a high stakes visit. And it would mean that Orchard Grocer wouldn’t be moving on.

🍿 Winner-Winner Vegan Chicken Dinner: Gradient! 🎉

Now we’re set for the semi-finals! And perhaps with enough time for me to do a mini New Jersey battle before my mini Los Angeles bracket in February. Reflecting on these four sandwiches, gosh I am a bit worried about how tight this Showdown would be. These are all top-notch options. And I truly love all four of them! Take note: Superiority Burger and Chickpea and Olive are both tofu-based while Gradient and Renegades of Sunset are seitan. I just love that!