Vons Chicken

I've been very keen to relieve my memories of Korean fried chicken (+/- optional Korean beer - the only kind of beer I can actually drink without instant regret) since our Korean trip 3 months prior. I wanted to come here with my friends for a friend's birthday but that plan went down the drain. Funnily enough my brother suggested that we should try this place on the same day I would've gone to it had I had my way hahahaha. We were going to opt for street parking but we couldn't be bothered paying the 10 minutes to cover us till the parking time limit expires or risk a fine. We parked at the Centro shopping centre and walked over to the restaurant.

When we looked at the menu, 2 items stood out: the golden fried chicken and the hot barbeque chicken. The person that took our order told us that it'll be around 20-25 minutes for the barbeque chicken and the fried ones should be ready in around 10 minutes. We were okay with that as we thought that they were reasonable waiting times.

I feel like I'm about to perform a surgery

At the till they provide a box of plastic gloves, a tub wet wipes and serviettes. I was looking forward to getting messy! Each table also has a bucket for handy chicken bones disposal.

*Doing an excited chicken dance*

 It wasn't too long after we placed our order that they brought out a spoon and fork each, followed with the rice and the fried chicken. We were about to start on the fried ones when they brought out the roasted ones too. Now that's good timing!

To be honest, the fried chicken was disappointing. I expected this crunchy KFC-like batter slathered with a sweet and spicy sauce like the ones we had in Seoul. To me the fried chicken just tasted salty with a hint of the sweet soy sauce at the end. It was crispy but not crunchy. I quite liked the roasted chicken though. The sauce was nice and spicy but it kind of reminded me of Tony Roma's ribs sauce (in a good way). Both chicken were cooked well and were moist inside. I started putting some of the hot sauce onto the fried chicken and it worked really well! My brother and I agreed that they should make that a new menu item.

WICB? Probably not. They were nice chicken but nothing to write home about. Maybe I'm a bit biased with comparing it to the ones we had in Seoul but I had higher expectations. I'll probably try this recipe by Maangchi though the next time I crave some Korean fried chicken - my sister said that it's fairly easy and the results were definitely drool worthy! *wipes drool away*