Taste Test: Daily Provisions' sleeper hit roast chicken dinner

Driving the news: NYC restaurateur Danny Meyer (Union Square Cafe, Shake Shack) just opened his first Daily Provisions in D.C., with more all-day cafés coming.

• Zach Koff, who spearheaded Shake Shack's expansion and is growing Daily Provisions, tells me their roast chicken dinner is a sleeper hit: "If you know, you know."

The deal: A whole roast Amish chicken with a choice of three sides for $45. Designed for 2-3, dine-in or to-go.

• Half-chicken with sides ($22) and a la carte are also available.

The chicken: Very satisfying. Moist meat thanks to a 24-hour buttermilk marinade. And a nicely peppered, caramel-brown skin.

• It's the kind of lovely weeknight chicken I'd roast at home — if I had time to roast a chicken. Plus, it's less salty than grocery birds.

Sides: Flavorful, but small. Two of us fought over the last green-and-white-bean salad with marinated tomatoes, chili-honey Brussels, and potato salad with tangy dill-dijonaise and crispy shallots.

• Not so much quinoa-snap pea-feta salad. (Needs zing!)

Pro tip: Add a $9 bottle of Continental Sauce (like Peruvian-style aji verde). The creamy, cilantro-garlic-jalapeño dressing = perfect for next-day chicken salad, and everything else.

Bottom line: Daily Provisions nails the middle ground between grocery rotisserie and pricey restaurant takeout. Good to go — and now you know.