This month’s fried chicken dinner involves over an hour long road trip to Ladd, Illinois.

But thanks to these here interwebs, you don’t have to suffer this long trip in the car because…

Here we are in Ladd, Illinois!

We’ll just walk down the street to…

Rip’s Tavern! This is a legendary fried chicken destination that was established in 1936. I know this because the awning says so!

I love the neon sign in the window!

You have to travel through two sets of doors to get inside.

I love the obligatory mirror shot in the first one!

There’s the bar area right beyond the brick archway, let’s go in and begin our eighth month of fried chicken dinner evenings!

The bar area is nice and spacious and decorated nicely for Halloween!

The bartender was a little camera-shy, but Angie, Gia and Ang were on duty and they happily posed for the MBIP Camera! Thanks, ladies, always love to see smiles like those!

They have an ample supply of beers on tap in here!

There’s two golf games off to the side of the room and in the back are some discreetly located gaming machines for all of you gamblers out there who are feeling lucky!

They have hats and t-shirts for sale in here and I love the stained glass window sign.

Okay, time to head in to the dining room to begin this month’s fried chicken dinner!

Here’s a shot from the front and back of the dining room. It’s very nice and comfortable in here!

We’re seated over at this table and we’re back to the original fried chicken crew consisting of myself…

My brother Tom and my cousin, Jeff! The original fried chicken eating crew!

Floyd, who usually joins us couldn’t make this trip, so we hope to see him this month.

There’s a window in the back of the dining room where you can watch them cooking the dinners and frying up the chicken.

We started off with an appetizer order of onion rings and deep-fried mushrooms.

Both were savory and tasty, although I like my onion rings a little more on the lighter side.

Here’s the view from our table.

Here’s the star of tonight’s show, our fried chicken dinners!

Both Tom and Jeff got the mixed half chicken dinner and I got the quarter white meat dinner. All the dinners come with a generous portion of French fries and they were hand-cut and delicious!

There’s Tom and Jeff digging in to their fried chicken dinners!

These were definitely the biggest pieces of fried chicken so far! They were really crispy and juicy!

And of course, Jeff wins the clean plate award again!

No one can eat fried chicken like Jeff can! Always amazing to see his plate of bones at the end of dinner!

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The Fried Chicken Dining Experience

If you come to Rip’s Tavern, be prepared to wait for a table! We lucked out because it wasn’t that crowded on the night we went, but sometimes there’s over an hour wait to get a table in here.

The bar area is really nice and the dining room is nice and comfortable. Everyone is really friendly here and it’s a fun place to have a few drinks and a wonderful fried chicken dinner.

We’ll give them a well-deserved dining rating of thee and a half Colonel Sanders!

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The Fried Chicken

The fried chicken was cooked to perfection. It was crispy on the outside and tender and juicy on the inside. The pieces were the biggest we’ve had on the tour so far!

It was a wonderful fried chicken dinner, but like our dinner at Rookie’s Bar in Brimfield, it could’ve been seasoned a little more to bring out some flavor.

All in all, it was a great fried chicken dinner and we’ll give it a nice rating of three point two Colonel Sanders!