In Time Out‘s recent* Eat Out Awards issue there was a photo callout of a delicious-looking plate of fried chicken for the “Best Use of a Family Recipe” award for West Town Tavern’s fried chicken and biscuits. There was a heart-warming story about how Susan Goss learned the recipe from her great-grandmother and the note that they only served fried chicken on Mondays.

Now, I was talking about expectations recently, and I have to say that I had some assumptions about the West Town Tavern, based solely on the name and the fact that they had a “Fried Chicken Monday”. I was picturing a dark little bar, with a tiny kitchen in the back. And that the fried chicken might be $6 or $7 a plate.

The West Town Tavern (1329 W Chicago) is a rather fancy, bright and cheerful restaurant with a nice wine selection and $25 entrees. The fried chicken is a steal, for the place, at $17 a plate. That’s a little steep for us for a Monday night and we probably would have headed out if we weren’t really hungry and hadn’t made plans to meet neighborhood friends at the Tavern for drinks after dinner — a double whammy. So we stayed.

The fried chicken was great — a great crispy skin and really flavorful all the way through. And the sides were fine, especially the greens. But I’m not sure any fried chicken is worth $17.

* I dunno how many weeks ago it was** — they’re all in a big stack in the bathroom. I’m constantly reading about some awesome show I want to go see, only to realize I’m looking at a 3-month-old issue.

** I found it — it’s the March 29, 2007 issue.