Keith’s Chicken N Waffles Slings Some of the Bay’s Crunchiest Fried Chicken

The Midnight Diners is a regular collaboration between KQED food editor Luke Tsai and graphic novelist Thien Pham. Follow them each week as they explore the hot pot restaurants, taco carts and 24-hour casino buffets that make up the Bay Area’s after-hours dining scene.

In a sparse, vaguely industrial stretch of Daly City, tucked among a cluster of auto body shops, a tiny storefront sells some of the best fried chicken in the Bay Area — dollar for dollar, almost certainly the best you can get your hands on at 10 o’clock on a Wednesday night, which is when we were inducted into the cult of Keith’s Chicken N Waffles.

Keith’s came onto our radar a few months ago, when it extended its hours to midnight four nights a week. But for the longest time afterward, we couldn’t find any online evidence of anyone ever actually eating there late at night: No one picked up the phone the dozen or so times I called, and the one time we showed up, hungry, on a Friday night, the place was closed. No sign on the door or anything.

So we were thrilled to confirm firsthand that you can score a plate of top-notch chicken and waffles in Daly City until midnight — or at least 11:30 p.m., when the shop puts in its last call for orders. (The hours are a little wonky, though, so if you’re trekking from the other side of the Bay, you should double-check the restaurant website to make sure they are in fact open and accepting orders before heading out.)

The shop itself looks like your standard corner soul food joint — a bit cramped and well-worn, with black and white checkerboard-tile flooring and a jaunty, muscle-bound cartoon rooster painted on the facade. A few framed paintings of Bob Marley and Tupac hang on the walls, and a hand-written sign next to the counter reads: “Don’t stare. After you order please sit your ass down.”

You will have to wait a little while, at least. One of the restaurant’s hallmarks is that the cooks fry every batch of chicken to order; there are no heat lamps to speak of. The chicken comes out burn-your-tongue hot, with a thin, well-bronzed, shatteringly crisp sheath. This was the crunchiest fried chicken I’ve eaten in recent memory, and some of the most flavorful too. I don’t know what they put in their seasoning mix, but every piece is seasoned extraordinarily well down to the last nook, cranny and crevice.

One of the shop’s quirks is that the chicken pieces come in a range of sizes — we received a big, ample thigh, a slightly smaller one, and a rather diminutive drumstick. It didn’t bother us. If anything, the nonuniformity underscored Keith’s Chicken N Waffles’ status as a homegrown, made-from-scratch operation, not some cookie-cutter McNugget factory.

If you happen to be more of a chicken tender connoisseur, Keith’s still has you covered. The tenders here are plump, moist and uncommonly large — and, again, seasoned so aggressively well that you can enjoy them straight-up. (Though I did like the orange-gold, Carolina-style, honey-based barbecue sauce that the shop provided.)

One remarkable thing about Keith’s is how reasonable the prices are. Combo meals — all named after rappers (the DMX, the Rick Ross and so on) — start at around $12 and come with waffles, sides, soda, the whole nine yards, and there’s always a bargain-priced daily special too (say, three wings and a waffle for $10). The upshot is you wind up paying cheaper-than-fast-food prices — I’m looking at you, Popeyes and Raising Cane’s — for fresher, more generous portions of chicken.

Meanwhile, the soul food side dishes (soupy, well-spiced collard greens, proper Southern-style mac and cheese, and more) were all better than solid, and we decided to save the saucy party wings and promising-looking fried chicken sandwich for our next visit.

Of course at Keith’s Chicken N Waffles, the chicken is only half the story. In much of the Bay Area, fried chicken and waffles is strictly a brunch-time treat, so it’s a rare pleasure to be able to score a good waffle late at night. And the waffles at Keith’s are very good, and available in a variety of flavors and sizes. We liked the standard Belgian waffle best: light, yeasty and super-buttery, with crisp edges, topped with a huge dollop of even more soft butter. It’s tasty enough that you don’t even really need to add syrup — though it’s hard to resist when the restaurant offers serve-yourself syrup, dispensed out of a gigantic coffee urn.

Anyone with a sweet tooth should also try the mini waffle trio, which comes with a pint-sized version of the standard waffle, plus a richly chocolatey (and surprisingly not-too-sweet) red velvet waffle and a waffle topped with candied yams.

And the union of the chicken and the waffles — of savory and sweet — is, of course, what has long made breakfast for dinner (or breakfast for a midnight snack) one of life’s most deeply pleasurable indulgences.

That alone makes Keith’s well worth a visit. It might not be the most vibey or bustling of the late-night food destinations we’ve frequented — when we visited, it seemed to be doing all takeout business past 9 p.m., as hungry teens and twentysomethings pulled up to pick up buckets of chicken and waffles before heading out into the night. But who needs vibe when the cooking is this good? The air hung thick with the smell of sweet syrup and hot fryer oil. A match, honestly, made in heaven.

Keith’s Chicken N Waffles is open Wednesday through Saturday 11 a.m.–midnight, Sunday 11 a.m.–6 p.m. and Mondays and Tuesdays 11 a.m.–8 p.m. at 270 San Pedro Rd. in Daly City. It’s within walking distance of the Colma BART station.