Angel has chicken biscuits to salivate over, along with quality salads, bowls and sandwiches, and the prices are affordable. Side items include house-made potato chips, mac and cheese and hummus and pita. No item on its vast menu is more than $10, and aside from the sandwich buns, everything is made from scratch.
The biscuits themselves are almost as large as a hamburger bun. The chicken they serve is antibiotic-free and cage-free, and it’s either fried or grilled. The Hill Country, with its goat cheese, jalapeño jam, pickles and lettuce, is pure flavor dynamite and the place’s biggest seller. Other standouts include the Winger with Buffalo honey mustard sauce, and the Sweet Chili with sweet chili ginger sauce.
Tim Soufan created the concept for Angel Chicken Kitchen in 2016 after nearly three decades in the product development world. He went to high school and worked in Paris and for the Pappas restaurant chain in Houston before relocating to North Texas.
“I came across a lot of tasters, focus groups, sensory labs,” Soufan says. “I really came to the conclusion that America loves chicken. That’s what America eats. I was also intrigued by simplicity, so I like restaurants that are simple and like restaurants that are honest.”
Soufan and his partners don’t really have defined titles. General manager Ahmad Barakat runs the day-to-day operations. Soufan created the recipes and the concept. He serves as head chef, but he also runs the social media and scrubs the toilets.
“I’ve opened hundreds of restaurants, but I’ve never opened my own,” Soufan says. “So this was a really great experience for me.”"... America loves chicken. That’s what America eats." — Tim Soufan
tweet this
The goal is to make Angel Chicken Kitchen a small DFW chain. They started out in North Dallas to attract families, with enough seating in the place for small and large families. They hope they can expand down to central Dallas, but that will take time to find the right place. It took a long time to find the right location in North Dallas and to find the right people to hire.
When they opened last year at the busy intersection of Coit and Campbell, they started a little slow, but never found themselves in the red. Soufan is proud of his food, but isn’t condescending or pompous about it.
“We literally started from zero dollar,” he says. “From that zero dollar, people flocked. We are delicious food for the neighborhood. The neighborhood comes to us.”
The place wants to be the best it can be, not take away from its neighbors.
“We like Campisi’s,” Soufan says. “We exchange people all the time. They come here, they crave our food. We crave their pizza.”
The restaurant has a feel-good vibe, which Soufan says is the groundwork for the kind of place he wants to put out there.
“All we have to do is prove ourselves with the food,” Soufan says. “Value and taste, that’s really the key. Value, taste and a smile.”
Angel Chicken Kitchen, 7632 Campbell Road (North Dallas). Open 11 a.m.-9 p.m. daily.