Gladstone’s Grilled Chicken

I had been working on this review and forgot to finish… but in that time, Gladstone’s has CLOSED.

This place was a favorite of mine until they offered a BOGO on $ 25 gift cards and then a few days later shut their doors for good. The owners knew they were going to shut down but decided they wanted to screw a few people out of a few bucks during the holidays before locking the doors. I feel for the employees but no sympathy for the owners.

The chicken here is good. It’s moist, seasoned well, and pretty dang delicious. Unfortunately, the pieces of chicken are pretty small. The drumsticks and thighs must have come off a very small bird. That being said, the food is good, I like the sides (baked beans and macaroni is what I always get), and the pita with honey butter is very good. It’s not a bad place to get some good grub, although you may need to supplement your order with something else.

Yes! Finally a place where you can munch on tender grilled chicken while gulping down a $ 1.00 pitcher of beer. Yes, you heard me correctly… a $ 1.00 pitcher of the good stuff. For a couple of pieces of chicken, two sides, and a good sized pitcher, you can get away with spending about $ 9.00. The chicken is always tender but a little on the skimpy side. The side options never disappoint though, and I am an eternal fan of both the macaroni and cheese and grilled potatoes. To top everything off (like the full pitcher of beer was not enough, right?), they give you a fairly large and warm pita with some honey butter concoction.
Overall, always a great experience at this place and will be back many more times.

This place is a hidden gem in Temple Terrace tucked in a corner behind a Publix. There is not a great amount of seating, but they could hold a group of 8. As a USF alum I feel as I missed out on some good chicken from the grill. the best deal is the cheep cheap or second item on the menu (I don’t remember). The mash potatoes were good and the pita with with the honey butter made it a nice complete and filling meal.

I came here bc I read «Good meal for $ 5. Ehhhhh, didn’t feel it. The thing that made me most excited was that pita bread was a side option. Once my hubby and I took a bite of the grilled chicken both his boned chicken and my boneless chicken, were very dry… like did they grill the chicken to death and then do it again and again?
I was excited about the prices and all of the good reviews, but I just didn’t taste and feel it. At least I had my pita bread fix, and the honey butter was good, tasted like the honey butter that you get served at steak restaurants. They also had yellow rice. that was surely a different option, but since we are in tampa it seems like many places have yellow rice. It was plain though. I didn’t lose much from this experience due to the lower price, at least I know and at least I have tried it. I guess I will have to continue meeting my hubby for lunch at boston market which is right next door.

A Tampa mainstay. I used to live in Tampa and eat her regularly. I only get to eat here when I travel to Tampa but got my family hooked on the place and we eat here whenever in Tampa. Well worth trying it!

I’m torn… I love the taste of Gladstones, but the chicken (the star of the place) is hit and miss.
I LOVE the baked beans and mash potatoes and gravy for side options… But more often than not, the chicken leaves something to be desired.
My first visit there, I got their «Cheep-​Cheep» meal. 1 piece of chicken, 1 side.
Food was great, but I was still hungry.
Next time I went got the same meal, but an additional side. Still hungry.
Third time… I got their 2 piece meal (leg and thigh) and 2 sides. I expected to not be able to finish this, but the pieces of chicken were scrawny. The chicken look like it belonged in a kids meal.
That being said, the food always tastes great, the staff is competent and friendly… I will continue to visit on occasion, maybe I just want more chicken because it tastes good… Or I am a fatty that needs to eat less!

Full disclosure: I have never set foot in Gladstone’s. However, I have eaten their food at least six times. I work right across the street from the eatery, so it is a popular place for friends to grab a bite to eat before meeting up with me. Since I have such good friends, they come bearing juicy chicken from Gladstone’s.
The chicken is phenomenal. I’ve tried most of the sides and the mac and cheese, sweet potatoes, baked beans, and mashed potatoes with gravy are all packed full of down-​home flavor that punches your taste buds with YUM.
My only complaint is that the $ 5 meal (chicken, side, and pita bread with honey butter) isn’t consistent. Sometimes the piece of chicken is on the small side and other times it is as plentiful and plump as a kid locked in a cookie factory.

There aren’t many places around where you can get a good meal for $ 5. The «Cheep Cheep» special at Gladstone’s is certainly one of them, and a lifeline to broke college students at my alma mater (USF) for over 20 years now.
A delicious grilled chicken breast, one side (the mac n cheese is always a winner), and a pita served with their highly addictive honey butter for $ 4.79 is quite a savory bargain. There are plenty of other choices, but I’d bet this alone has to be at least half of their business.
Also they started doing $ 1 pitchers of beer to help get some people in the door. Not sure if it’s working, but give them credit for being creative to get some people to taste their delicious chicken.
You can’t really go wrong with the choices you get at Gladstone’s, and it’s far tastier than some boring chain like Boston Market or something similar. Yeah for the USF institutions that are still bringing it after a few decades, they deserve the cheers!

PRO: Awesome Chicken! Like to new digs but need pics on the walls. Prices seem higher than before they remodeled but still less than others. Food is better than YaYa’s and Pollo Tropicale. Really like the sweat potatoes and just tried the chicken burger — very cool!
But I can’t remember tasting chicken anywhere as good as at Gladstone’s. Wish they had a location near my home.
CON: Lousy parking. No drive thru. Only one location.

One of the best flame chicken places around. Better flavor than Yaya’s. Used to be a real hole in the wall which was great, cheap prices, fun rapport with the staff. Recently renovated and now the prices are high, and stuff like hot sauce cost extra. Sorry, not the charmer it used to be. $ 2 – 3 more per meal more than old prices. I want my old Gladstones back, you can keep the awkwardly high mounted LCDs and silly Tea/​Beverage dispenser.