39408 Wed Sep 07 14:46:54 -0700 2005 3 1 San Francisco Bay Area 0 187317 I recently tried CR’s take out rotisserie chicken. It was good, one of the better rotisserie chickens I’ve had. The meat was tender and juicy. Even the breast, which is so often dry and tasteless, was tender and juicy. They stuff the bird with lemon and fresh herbs which lends a nice flavor to the meat. They use Hoffman Farms chickens which have an excellent reputation and are used by gourmet restaurants around the bay. It’s a small bird, no good for feeding a family but perfect for one or two people; Mrs. Mousse and I had a nice dinner and I still had breast meat for lunch the next day. The small size of the chicken partially explains the tasty breast meat: with bigger chickens the meat often becomes dry before it is cooked through. Priced at $9.25, it’s a good deal for a high quality, tasty, quick and easy dinner. My only complaint about the chicken is timing. I like my food to be hot out of the oven and the folks at the meat market don’t always know when the chicken will be done. You can reserve a bird for any time of day (suggested, as they sell out), but the bird may have been sitting around for ten or twenty minutes by the time you pick it up. In the future, I think I’ll just arrive early and have a drink at the bar while I wait for it to come out. Roli Roti is still the best take out rotisserie chicken in the Bay Area, but Café Rouge is a close second. I prefer Roli Roti because they use more fresh herbs and lemon and the chicken is served to you hot and fresh. However, I never make it out to any of the farmers market’s Roli Roti sells to, and Café Rouge is open 7 days a week, so I’ll probably be buying from Rouge from now on. Cafe Rouge is in the 4th street yuppie district, in Berkeley. Meat market is open 7 days a week until 6:30. Check the link below for details. Link: http://www.caferouge.net Wed Sep 07 14:46:54 -0700 2005 0 Morton the Mousse 1 187330 The one Roli-Roti I had from the Marin market used dry herbs not fresh ones. Is this an outlier? There is definitely the flavor of dry herbs. It is not my choice of flavorings. I have never had the chicken from Café Rouge but do cook Hoffman chickens on a home rotisserie. Wed Sep 07 15:46:03 -0700 2005 187317 0 wally 2 187334 You're probably right about Roli Roti. I only tried it once, over a year ago, so I'm probably confusing the herbs with a roast chicken I had more recently. If they were dried, they were better quality dried herbs than most bottled supermarket brands. Wed Sep 07 16:03:18 -0700 2005 187330 0 Morton the Mousse 3 187345 How does Roli Roti have chicken hot off the rotisserie without overcooking or undercooking? Wed Sep 07 16:19:20 -0700 2005 187334 0 Robert Lauriston