WHERE WE EAT!
Chicken and more for a fast, healthy lunch.
The Intelligent Chicken
32431 Northwestern Highway
Farmington Hills
Phone:(248) 855- 4455
Fax: (248) 855-2468
Hours: Monday-Friday, 11 a.m.-7:30
p.m.
Cuisine type: Casual chicken
Highlights: Spinach salad with chicken,
grilled chicken sandwich, chicken breast
platter with red-skinned mashed potatoes
and carrots
Vegetarian: If you go with a chicken-lov-
ing friend, you'll do okay. Entree salads
can be ordered without meat, and there
is tuna and salmon on the menu.
Service: Very friendly storefront ordering
Price range: Inexpensive. Lunch will cost
about $7, and there is no one to tip!
Who eats there: Mostly people who
work in nearby business and doctors'
offices
ILLANA GREENBERG
Food Contributor
I
've been traveling up and down
Northwestern Highway between
Middlebelt and 14 Mile for as
long as I could drive. It's an odd
stretch of real estate that, up until recent-
ly, didn't have many tenants that I readily
patronized (have you ever stopped at
M&M Septic?).
I had noticed the
Intelligent Chicken
from time to time, but
the name always made
me cringe a little. I
mean, who wants to eat
an intelligent chicken (I
prefer not to think that my
food was ever alive, let alone
smart)! But a friend mentioned
that they liked to pick up lunch
there, so somewhat intrigued, I
stopped by.
The restaurant started as carryout-
only with a tiny location in West
Bloomfield's Crosswinds Mall. The
owner, Todd Rones, closed in 1996 and
took a three-year hiatus before he opened
the Northwestern location in 1999.
Along with four other restaurants in
the strip mall, the Intelligent Chicken
survived 2 1 /, years of construction on
Northwestern Highway. It was a hassle,
but didn't stop Todd's regular customers
who dine and carry out lunch as often as
2-3 times a week.
Tom Purther, an Intelligent Chicken
regular, described the offerings as "good
food fast! not fast food." And that
seemed to be the mantra from everyone.
Another regular, Andrea Nakisher, an
orthodontist pregnant with her third
child, said she "comes here all the time.
The food is great, healthy and they have
a friendly owner and atmosphere."
The owner, Todd Rones, was delight-
ful. Born and raised
Orthodox on the upper
west side of New York
City, Todd attended
restaurant school at
Michigan State
University. "I always
wanted to be the guy at
the front of the house,"
he said.
Above: Owner Todd Rones takes customer orders
out front.
Right: The chicken breast platter makes a healthy
fast lunch.
7/25
2003
64
The spinach salad with chicken, feta cheese, dried cranberries,
toasted pine nuts and mushrooms
And that's
where he always is, greeting his cus-
tomers, showing pictures of his son
Zack, and serving up healthy food fast.
Just about everything at Intelligent
Chicken is made from scratch. The
chicken (most people order the skinless,
boneless breast) is marinated in a Dijon
sauce and served with a tangy honey
mustard sauce on the side.
Rotisserie chicken is also served, but
why eat the added fat when the breasts
are so moist and tasty? And Todd serves
them every way you can imagine: on
buns, in salads, stir-frys, tor-
tilla wraps and just plain.
Salad choices include a
low-fat chicken salad; a tri-
colored rotini pasta salad; a
Chinese salad with mandarin
oranges, almonds and chow
mien noodles; Greek salad;
Caesar salad; and even a
Waldorf salad with diced
apples, celery, walnuts and
raisins. Tuna salad is also
available, and many of the salads can be
prepared without chicken.
Most of the sides are homemade, too.
The mashed redskin potatoes are garlicky
and chunky, the carrots are honey glazed,
and the broccoli is bright green and
cooked perfectly. Platters are served with
Dakota Bread's delicious Grains Galore
that Todd brings in fresh each day.
I was disappointed with Mom's chick-
en noodle soup. Although the flavor was
okay, the thick noodles made the soup
taste starchy. I also think that eating
chicken soup out of a styrofoam contain-
er with a plastic spoon can never really
taste like mom's.
Bottom Line:
A great lunch spot, particularly for
carryout back to your office. The food is
fresh, healthy and well-priced. (That's
why it's intelligent!) They also do a large
catering business for casual events and
office lunches. The Intelligent Chicken
would be a good choice for catering a
graduation party.