I have been generally trying to stay away from fried food as much as possible in recent years for my long-term health, but I still get that craving every once in a while. When my wife Jun and I visited Rhode Island on a recent weekend with another couple, I’ve scouted for restaurants to visit in Providence, which was where we were staying for the night, and discovered Bucktown, which was featured recently in Bon Appetit magazine’s best 50 new restaurants in the U.S. and seems to be unapologetically churning out all the guilty pleasures you can have. Since everyone was on a getaway trip, why not indulge in the Southern decadence in New England? It’s kind of hard to mess up fried food, of course, but nevertheless we had a satisfying lunch.

At this unassuming joint, you will barely see any food on the concise menu that is NOT fried. Sometimes the food was too deeply fried, like the crispy oysters, but once you peel off some layers, it provides plenty of satisfaction, just like the bucket of chicken that was quite aptly prepared. The bucket comes with twelve pieces of different parts of chickens, and Jun and I happily took four pieces each. A plate of fried shrimp was also quite delicious, and it comes with two sides, so complemented the shrimp with waffle fries and slaw. Given that we had already ordered oysters and shrimp, so for the po’boys, I ordered catfish inside instead of the other two options, and it was a pretty solid sandwich too. Sadly, banana pudding (which Jun is a huge fan of) at Bucktown, which sounds like a must-have dish based on the restaurant’s reviews that I have read, was not available during our visit.

The restaurant doesn’t take reservations but you can just walk in anytime and get seated on one of the high tables. Even though I am a wine person than a beer person, I ended up ordered an IPA because the glass of red that was available wasn’t too tasty. Bucktown’s laid back atmosphere will make this a nice place to check out with larger groups of friends for a leisurely Sunday lunch. I will probably need to stay off of fried food for a while, but didn’t regret we checked out this place on our way out from Providence.

KenScale: 8.0/10

• Creativity: 7.5/10
• Execution: 8.0/10
• Ingredients: 7.5/10
• Flavor: 8.0/10
• Texture: 8.0/10
• Value: 8.5/10

Address: 471 West Fountain Street, Providence, RI 02903

Telephone: (401) 343-0441

Website: http://www.bucktownpvd.com/