One of the most highly anticipated South Jersey restaurant openings of 2023, the Chicken Or The Egg has opened in Marlton NJ.
I stopped in Sunday for lunch, a beer and to check the place out. And of course I’m sharing the experience with readers!
Chicken or The Egg is a huge restaurant “complex” which is really several dining and beveraging experiences in one.
They feature several large dedicated dining areas, an almost equally large space allocated to the square indoor bar… and then they’ve taken things to another level by having two adjacent outdoors areas featuring a covered bar and a casual hangout area.
CHEGG (as many call it) is located on Route 70 in Evesham (Marlton), but on the East side of the Route 73 interchange.
It is part of a larger redevelopment project called Renaissance Square, which at one time used to be a K-mart property. This complex was a full “tear down K-Mart and start over again” project.
The restaurant is positioned in front of the new (and large) Inwood apartment complex, which should provide a huge amount of built-in customers for the new restaurant.
But I think this new eatery is going to be popular to folks throughout South Jersey… from early morning opening until close.
Chicken Or The Egg – Marlton
Admittedly it’s a unique name for the restaurant/bar and it may make more sense to know that it started with the original location in the beach town of Beach Haven (Long Beach Island).
The core concept from LBI carries through to Marlton, with a similar menu which starts with breakfast at 7:00 AM and continues throughout the day with a variety of sandwiches, appetizers, wings and platters.
The new Marlton CHEGG includes both a large indoor bar and another bar outdoors with an extended outdoor patio area.
If you factor in the two outdoor areas, there are literally six different areas of the Chicken Or The Egg!
Inside, the décor of the Marlton location is open and bright but smartly divided into distinct sections by interior divider walls.
The main dining areas feature custom comic book-esque wall graphics which give the dining areas a “pop-culture” fun theme for family dining.
Well, the signature Chicken statue outside the front entrance is a clue to the fun experience inside!
This is 100% said as a compliment, but I recently visiting Disney World in Orlando and the design and style of The Chicken Or The Egg feels like it would be very much at home in the Disney Springs complex of restaurants and stores.
CHEGG is the perfect balance of a family oriented restaurant that the kids are going to love, but at the same time a really awesome bar area and outdoor space squarely targeted at adult “beveraging” and fun.
At CHEGG you enter into the building at the bar area, which features the large square bar, surrounded tables and booths along the outside perimeter of the space.
To the far right of the building are the two large dining areas, perfect for a family breakfast or delicious evening dinner.
Back over to the far left of the bar area is a separate more adult styled dining area which features really cool overhead lamps which slowly rotate through colors. Those diners get a view of the outdoor bar and patio area, as almost the entire left wall of the building is glass.
Considering its February, the outside spaces are not 100% set up yet but construction appears fully complete. Seating is placed in the space, but waiting for warmer weather to be fully set-up.
Well, I imagine the CHEGG team was more focused on the building interior, kitchen and bar!
Outside in the area closest to that windowed wall, there is a square outdoor bar positioned to the back end of the space. Just past the bar along the back is a large full wall waterfall feature.
As if that wasn’t enough… moving furtherpast the outdoor bar area is an open-air hang out space developed with a variety of seating options around an artificial turf ground surface.
I would imagine in warmer weather we may see some fun fames setup such as cornhole?
Chicken Or The Egg – LaScala
Chicken Or The Egg is a member of the LaScala family of restaurants who operate seven “La Scala” branded restaurants in the Philadelphia region including one in Glassboro’s Rowan Boulevard and another at Cooper River.
Michael Klein of the Philadelphia Inquirer explains that Chicken Or The Egg was started in Beach Haven on Long Beach Island.
The original beach town location was a small quaint luncheonette. And while they expand that location.. I don’t think the original founders had any idea of where the Marlton location would take the theme to, 31 years later!
In 2017 the two brothers who founded the eatery sold the business to Rob LaScala.
In the Inquirer article, Mike Klein explains it was never really LaScala’s plan to take CHEGG to where.. and what.. it is today.
But with an opportunity to open another restaurant in the Marlton area and already having a LaScala at the Promenade Shoppes, Rob decided to bring Chicken Or The Egg into Burlington County.
With a much bigger concept than those quaint early ’90 shore days!
Chicken Or The Egg- Menu
The printed menu of CHEGG is as bright and bold as the graphics on many of the walls.. and while the food options are in classic categories, they have put thought into bringing something special to them
CHEGG features breakfast, lunch and dinner… and basically everything is available at anytime. Well you can get breakfast from open to close.
The breakfast menu features all of our breakfast spot favorites including omelets with several house designed variations including a Buffalo chicken omelet.
Egg platters start with “The Standard” and evolve into Hungry Man, Country Man and if you’re gonna go big… Steak and Eggs.
French toast and waffles, egg sandwiches, and pancakes are also featured on the breakfast menu.
Lunch leads us into the featured wings and things, including veggie wings.
Several award-winning soups and salads are available. In my next visit I will definitely be trying the French onion soup, as I am always a interested in trying all of the area’s French Onion soup variations.
Appetizers include Super Macho Chicken Nachos, chicken quesadillas, mozzarella sticks and more.
The offer a variety of French fries including sweet potato fries, disco fries, and more.
A big portion of the menu is allocated to “Handwashes”, which include a variety of chicken sandwiches, delicious burgers, Philly cheese steaks, several wraps, and a selection of classic sandwiches including French dip, crab cake, Ruben and BLT.
Lastly they have about a dozen platters which introduced chicken pot pie, Thanksgiving feast, Prime Rib, New York strip, Jumbo lump crab cakes, and even Salmon.
Since I visited during lunch on Sunday, I sat at the bar and had a beer along with a Buffalo Chickwich.
My sandwich was cooked perfectly and featured a deep fried chicken breast. I chose a mild Buffalo wing sauce.
They offer eighteen different sauces for their wings and sandwich, and I stuck with very traditional… even adding in blue cheese.
I felt the sandwich was cooked perfectly and with my intentionally choosing a milder variety of Buffalo wing sauce I got all the flavor I needed without any uncomfortable heat.
Links and Location
Chicken Or The Egg Marlton
Renaissance Square
121 Route 70 East
Marlton, NJ 08053
856-702-4344
